Black Bear Hunting Trip Report

[teddy12b]

So there I was……

First night in the stand in Ontario and about 8pm I see a bear come out of the bush that any bear hunter would be proud to have.  His head was about the size of a basketball and I know I couldn’t have gotten my arms around his body.  He was huge to say the least.  From comparing what I’ve seen to pictures of other bears taken he was probably about 400 pounds give or take a little. 

He comes out and I freeze.  I wasn’t moving before, but I’m especially still at this point except my hearts about to jump out of my chest.  He comes up to the bucket and then quickly walks about 15’ feet away.  I start praying that he’ll come back into my sight and present me a shot and he does.  When he finally gets his head inside the bucket I have a chance to move and grab my weapon (Marlin 336W 30-30 with Federal 170gr soft points).  As I am looking at him straight ahead the bucket is on the left and he is perpendicular to me eating from the bucket.  Basically I am looking at his left side.  He reaches his left arm up and I aim just below his arm about 4 to 5 inches inside his body from where his fur is.  I actually had the rifle setting on the "safety bar" of the tree stand at this point with as steady of a rest as a guy could ever hope to have while hunting and I fired one round out of a rifle that I am extremely confident with when it comes to accuracy.  I had the scope on 3x and the shot looked perfect. 

The bear goes down looking like he’d bee hit and stumbles, kicks and a second later is back on his feet and quickly moving away.  When I saw him get back on his feet I worked the lever and fired another shot at what I could see of him thinking that this would help supplement the first one and finish the job.

I never heard the death growl and after some time I hop out of the stand as jittery as I have ever been and I looked for blood.  I didn't go very far at all and didn't try to puch my luck tracking it by myself.  I didn’t see any blood and when it was time, I picked up my two hunting partners and we went back to the lodge to tell the guide what had happened. 

The guide and his two tracking buddies along with me and my two hunting partners went back out to the scene and started tracking.  There was no blood where the first shot had been taken, but there was where the second had hit him.  Myself and the three guides tracked blood for over an hour and we traveled about ½ a mile until the blood trail ran out.  The entire time we were tracking I kept hoping that we would find it shortly and that it had not suffered too much.  I kept feeling worse and worse about wounding the animal thef farther we tracked it.  The guides having seen the size of the tracks agreed that the bear was probably right around 400 pounds give or take a little.

To make a long story short I fired my first shot through his thick hair doing nothing other than startling him and maybe even tickling him a little.  The second shot was high and just a flesh wound.  The guides said that bear would heal and be fine. 

It was a bear of lifetime and I shot right through his hair at 20 yards.  I didn’t rush the shot and I know exactly where it went.  I just aimed in the wrong stinking place.  I had no idea the the hair on a bear was that long.  Needless to say that was the last bear I saw while hunting that week and I blew my chance.  I feel awful about wounding the animal and that shot will haunt me for the rest of my days.  Besides missing the chance at a bear of lifetime, the hunting trip was good.  I didn't come home with a bear and I'm fine with that, but at least I got to go to a place few people ever have and see a bear of a lifetime!

[Redhawk1]

Sorry to see you did not recover your bear. But it goes to show there are some big boys up there in Ontario.

I spoke to my guide the other day and he said he was at 100% on his bears. He had 6 guys the first week, 8 the next week and I don't remember how many he had last week, but he said all hunters got a bear except one guy that missed 3 bear and wounded 1. But he had 4 opportunities. Never the less the guide was not happy with this guy. He was the guy the took a head on shot with a bow. When I was talking to the guide he said they brought in a 350 pounder that night.

[teddy12b]

The place I went to they were 7 out of 8 for the first week and 1 out of 3 for the second week.  But everyone had an opportunity for a shot.  It was a good trip all things considered.

[Buckskin]

Sorry about your wounding.  That's a tough thing to deal with.  But it sounds like it was high enough not to damage him too bad.  He will have a nice long winter to heal up.  A Buddy of mine had a something like that happen to him.  We were hunting in Northern Wisconsin and had a outfitter set us up with some baits. One of the baits was right behind my Buddy's cabin. And a BIG bear was hitting it.  We convinced my friend to use a bow instead of gun.  That is one of my biggest regrets of my life regarding hunting anyway.  Well this bear came lumbering through the brush and my Buddy said it looked like a Volkswagen Bug! It was very cautious at the bait.  Basically standing behind a tree, pawing the bait to him.  Finally gave him a reasonable shot and he hit high.  We tracked that bear for about 1/2 mile through the most Hellish terrain I've seen and lost him.  The outfitter had been seeing a huge bear for about 7 years behind his house, he didn't allow hunting that bait.  The bear was even on the cover of Field & Stream.  He figured it to be about 600+.  Well the next spring it came back with a wound on it's left shoulder.  Seem to be fine.  He said you would be amazed at how much stuff you find in an old boar.  Pellets, 22 bullets, arrows, slugs, ect.  They are very resilient.

[ms]

I never bear hunted before but didn't think a black bear was that hard to kill. I have a 30/30 if I ever get the chance to I will load my rifle with Nosler partition 30/30 made by Federal. I glad you shared your story I have learned so much here today also sorry about your bear.

[dukkillr]

No question about it, the ones that get away, especially if wounded, stick with you.  I think more about animals I've screwed up than I do about the ones on the wall.  All you can do is learn what there is to learn, and know that the occasional miss or poor shot is going to happen no matter what you do.  The only way to guarantee it doesn't happen is to stay on the couch (or the internet) and talk about hunting.

That being said, I can fill that sick feeling in my stomach right now just thinking about your story.  Better luck next time.

[bearfat]

I sat behind my brother-in-law one time and watched him miss a bear 9 yards away. All we could see clearly was the bears head but we could make out the outline of the body perfectly broadside in the brush. He made a second shot too as the bear ran right out into the open towards the bait and away from us.

Running shots are hard to make, you did good teddy12b.

I was the first one down to the 1st shot location and noted what appeared to be a fresh hole in the ground but saw no blood.

After 10 mins it was getting dark and still no blood. I walked back to the mystery hole and literally stuck my mag light into it and it pointed up exactly where my brother-in-laws stand was.

"Tell me exactly where you placed that bullet." I asked.

He explained how I told him to follow the nose of the bear back into the body behind the shoulder for a lung shot.



"Yes, but didn't you notice the bear had his head down smelling the ground?" Haaaa...he shot thin air under the belly.


I'm sure you read my story two weeks ago teddy12b; 1500 miles of driving, $500.00 and 40 hours of time, and I got close but no cigar.

The giant black rats with stubby tails have won this year but I'll be back next year as will you. Deer hunting just around the corner now. We'll just concentrate on venison and regroup for next falls bear hunt ehhh?

[teddy12b]

I have shifted my focus to deer hunting now.  I can stop thinking about missing the bear of a lifetime and getting that sick feeling in my gut.  He wasn't at a full out run when I took my second shot he was moving slowly and if I'd had know I cleanly missed with the first shot I wouldn't have taken the second.  It's heart breaking, but hopefully I'll get another chance to go back and finish what I started.  I'm thinking that would be sweet.  Just gives me an excuse to tell my wife I need a bigger gun!

[jk3006]

Baits are still slow.  Like you guys, I'm shifting to deer hunting, but I'll still be checking the bait now and then.  Gotta get me some venison burger.  I ran out two weeks. ago.