Tradhunter - Traditional Archery Bow Hunting Forums

Dale,
The Bear mounted on the wall of cabin was the one that terrorized the camp years ago and even dragged off a young fishermen they figure,he was never found !!! Looks like the ugly ones Don "Bowdoc" Ward like to harvest !!!!!

Good to see you here Tom.
Bowdoc did seem to like the small bears. I don't know about the ugly ones.

The rest of the story.
I just figured I should tell the rest of the story about the recovery.
It was about 6:50pm when this bear decided to come into the bait after staying off in the distance for a few hours. He came right up to the barrel and grabbed a bight of the donut stuff and laid down on his stomach directly broadside to me.
I watched him for about a minute before I decided to take this bear, I reached for my shooting glove, put it on. The bear didn’t move. I picked up my bow, got lined up with the window in my blind, decided to take the shot.
I drew back while staring at a single hare just behind his right shoulder, and just as I released, he lunged forward to get another bite of food and I watched the arrow hit just about at the last rib.
It was a complete pass through and the bear jumped up, ran about twenty feet and stopped to look back. It stood there for a few seconds and then bolted straight away pulling the tracking string with it.
After a few seconds the string stopped, moved a foot or two, then another foot or two. This went on for a few minutes and then no more movement. It was then that I checked the time so I could sit quietly for at least a half hour.
After a little over a half hour I hung my bow in the blind so the string could pay out if need be and I quietly made my way the 130 yards to the road and got in my truck and back to camp.
I kept seeing the arrow hitting further back than I would have liked it and told Tom what had happened.
Now dinner in the evening is usually around 10:00pm because the hunters don’t usually get back until then because of how late the sun stays up.
I’m talking with a couple of other guys about the hit and the one guy Jay told me I would very likely find it dead especially seeing the string stopped. But I said “the string could have broken and that would have had the same effect.
So all through dinner I’m worrying about that bear. Usually they go out the next morning for a recovery but I must have been clearly upset about it because Larry ( LD ) offered to go with me after dinner to see if we could find it. So off we go and drive the eleven miles and we walked back the trail to the blind and the string was still there.
LD told me to grab my bow and the arrows in case we needed to shoot it again. Now I only carry three arrows when I bow hunt because I figure I won’t need any more than that. My thinking is, I can lose one on the ground, have another shot that could miss and still have another shot left. And at that point I don’t figure I would get another shot opportunity.
So off we go following the tracking string. Over downed trees, under them and we are going downhill all the time. And then LD stopped and said “There it is deader than four o’clock”.
I turned my flashlight and sure enough, there it was.
Then I noticed that the one eye seemed to be looking right at me.
And then it picked up its head.
I told LD what happened and he said no, it’s not. And then he saw it turn its head and he said “SHOOT IT”
I said “Hold my flashlight”.
He took my flashlight and I nocked an arrow and put it right behind the shoulder, or so I thought.
It was lying on its side and I had put an arrow between its shoulder blades and it came out just below its neck.
LD said “that is going to do it, I’ll go back and get the sled”.
So I stood there and watched the bear pull that arrow forward to the fletching and then push it back up again. Then it stood up and turned and walked a few yards and laid against the opposite bank of the deep spot it was in. And now LD was back and I told him I needed to shoot again so he held my flashlight again and I could see clearly to put the arrow through both lungs.
At that point LD and I actually watched and heard the death moan. I have read that it is an unforgettable sound but I had no idea.
Its chest would expand and then a loud moan, repeating several times……………..
And guess what, I didn’t beat my chest and hyperventilate while jumping up and down.
I sincerely felt as though I owed that bear an apology for not doing my part properly.
The next half hour or so, LD tried to pull that bear in the sled uphill and he just ran out of steam.
I was feeling just terrible about what I put that bear through and the fact that with my bad leg and bad back I couldn’t even help with the pulling.
So we left it in the sled and went back to camp for a couple of younger and healthier gents to come back in the morning to pull it out for me.

Moving story, Graps. Thanks for sharing that. Many wouldn't have.

Some of the reality of hunting, things don’t always go according to the textbook, but it worked!

Great story thanks for sharing.

Thanks Graps. Those are the stories we will always remember. They touch our hearts and keep us all the more alive.

Graps, listen brother.... I had a similar experience once with a doe deer minus the moan. I felt much like you did. Normally we shoot, the animal runs off and a while later we find it expired already. In both our cases the animal needed back up shots. Watching up close as an animal expires from a broadhead tipped arrow is NOTHING like I'd ever imagined it was. Like you, that day and experience changed me forever. I went through the same emotions and regrets of my misplaced hit. I seen over and again the scene I witnessed after I did strike true with my second arrow at a few yards as she laid there. To tell the truth I didn't want to hunt for a little while afterwards. Later, I realized that even though I then knew from being up close, exactly what takes place with a good lung hit, it still is a very fast death compared to them dying of disease, laying for hours and hours along a roadside ditch from a car hit, or predators ripping them apart. I did everything in my power to make a clean shot just like you did....but sometimes we imperfect humans make errors. We both followed up as soon as we could in order to make it right. It's not ideal, but the best we could do at the time. I know I'll make mistakes again some point in time and I'll regret it again...because we feel. Anything in nature that hunts has those mishaps and it doesn't go as planned....us included. Though regrets are imminent in these situations We cannot allow it to cripple us to the point of thinking we should not continue. We are allowed some errors as we are reaching for perfection, and we can do the best we can to make it right if error does come knocking. Chin up. You're a big man to share that with us. It's amazing how often we as humans experience those things that "such as are common to man"...

Graps, Thank You for giving me an all access pass to your hunt, and to your internal raw emotions within the story. Thanks for your passion, honestly, and humility. It speaks to you as a traditional hunter, and your manhood, which are firmly intact my friend. God Bless !

Thanks for the encouraging comments.