Shot bear .... cant find ... what happened???

[bigbuckfever]

I don't understand what could have happened. I shot a black bear yesterday from a tree stand 15 ft high the bear was 50 yards away and broadside I hit him just behind the right shoulder. he spun and ran in the direction he came from. the bullet (federal premium 165 grain BTSP .308) passed through. we found blood about 30 yards from point of impact bled from both sides... followed trail about 1/2 to 3/4 mile the bear never laid up blood tail ended we made circles and weaved through the woods for 8 hrs and no bear. the blood was not oxygenated could i have hit a void maybe above the lungs

[rookie_j]

that stinks.... hope you find it..


165 grain? would'nt that be a bit light?



similar reason why i quit shooting deer with a bow. last deer i shot, i trailed it down a trail that looked like someone had taken 5 gallons of red paint and poured it on the ground for about 40 yards. we tried to find that deer for 2 days, no luck..

[talon]

We've spoken about shot placement a lot of times: some recommend a shoulder shot for bears, while I recommended a target zone just behind the front leg(1 oe 2 inches) about 1/2 way between the top and bottom of the body when the Black bear is standing broadside to you. This is where the lungs are, and a lung shot bear dies within 100 yards. Always. Nothing wrong with a 30 cal 165gr slug. You may have shot high. A branch may have deflected your shot. There's a lot of hair on a bear, and what you thought was the shoulder could have been 5" of hair, and therefore you may have just grazed the top of the back. Unlike most game, you have to find and then concentrate on the vital zone of a bear once you get your 'scope on it. If they are humped over on a bait pile they look like a ball, and that ball of fur gets real confusing. Sometimes you can't tell if they are facing towards or away from you. Don't ever shoot until you are absolutely sure how the bear is aligned. After it's hit, if you didn't find a spot where the bear rolled or laid up for a few minutes, or a continuous blood/fat trail, it wasn't hit hard at all. Generally, when hard hit, a bear ether drops in the cookies, rolls at least once, or quivers and runs in whatever direction it was facing when hit. Any of these results happen in the blink of an eye. If the bear is in sight after the first shot, shoot it again if you can. Beats tracking. Taxidermist thread is real cheap. You and your buddies are to be commended in putting the effort you did in trying to find the bear. That's sportsmanship. From all indications it's highly probable that Mr Bear is doing fine and a bit wiser. And you know you did your best in trying to find it.

[MichiganWolverines]

Well if you hit the bear with a 308 and as you say it went right through the bear behind the front shoulder, he is a dead bear...I would go out today and look again..If you know someone who has a dog that might not be a bad idea either. Even a bird dog would find him

[running&gunning]

I helped track this bear.  I put my dogs in the area(beagles)  They don't run off game but I know they would have went nuts if they bumped into a dead bear.  They were all over the area . They went nuts when they saw my dead bear on the truck.  This bear was dropping nickle size blood drops every eight yards for about 1000 yards then the trail went to nothing.  I searched that area on my hands and knees I have no skin on my knuckles to prove it.  I think it was hit really low and barely hit.  The bear did not leave alot of sign that it was having trouble moving.  I believe he is alive .

[HipShot]

It could very well be that your bear was claimed by someone else. That's happening with more frequency with all large game. That may have a lot to do with the "Ultra Mega Super Magnum Howitzer" crowd. Longer shots equal longer time to recovery.  
 
Since yours was a close shot, that's a stretch. It's probably something else.
 
If you're using a scope, you may want to see if something shifted from a shock impact. Crosshairs have been known to move. Variables are famous for "tilting" due to the thread machining and the necessary looseness of the optics.
 
That's all I can think of, other than the obvious "stupid" things. I've known people that thought bore sighting was good enough; people that don't zero; and people that take a rifle hunting that's never been fired by them AT ALL.

[crazyjjk]

I'm no expert as I have only shot two bear. One with a rifle and one with a longbow. My only thought is your shot may have been too far forward, or you hit the meat in the front leg. A bear's lungs sit farther back than  a deer's. I like to keep the shot a couple of inches behind the front shoulder. Also all the fur it  has makes it difficult to determine where the actual body of the bear is. Just my 2 cents.>John

[Cabin4]

I suspect that you simply did not get a vital shot on the bear. The fact that you had blood on 2 sides of the trail shows you had a pass thru shot. You simply may have hit him above or below the vitals.

Bear are tuff animals if you don't get a vital shot. If you hit lungs or heart, that bear is dead. If not, your likly in for a long wait before he expires.

I tracked a bear recently that was gut-shot with a 180 grain from a 308win. We found interanls organs of all kinds including his entire intestinal track laid out like a striaght rope along his trail. Not much blood at all, we mostly tracked pieces of internal organs and trail signs such as over turned leaves.. That 308 gut shot opened him up like a can opener and his insides were coming out in pieces.

We tracked this bear for at least 6 hours that night till 1:00am. The next morning we resumed the tracking with 8 guys and finally found him dead in a creek nearly 2 1/2 miles from were he was shot.

The tracking process was like connecting the dots. A piece of organ , then a over turned leaf, then a spot of blood, some distrubed dirt, a piece of organ , ect, ect.


If there is a vital shot and a pass thru, a good blood trail will develop very quickly if not at the point of the original hit. If this did not happen, you simply did not hit vital and I don't care what gun your shooting, tha bear is gonna be tuff to find.

WHat gun were you using ?