I was fortunate enough to shoot my first bear last night. But even more fortunate to find him this morning. This is my 4th year baiting bear and I had never had a bear come in a bait site while I was hunting it. Last night at about 635 that all changed as a bear made his way to my bait. He gave me a perfect broadside shot at 20 yards. I took the shot and drilled him right in the shoulder. I watched in horror as he spun and ran with my lumenok hanging out of his shoulder, with very little penetration. My arrow flung out of his shoulder and he took off. I went and checked the arrow and saw that about 3 inches was missing. I was in shock, and terribly disappointed with myself. I decided against doing any tracking last night and drove the hour to my folks house. I looked over my arrow there and realized there was a little blood on the shaft, I thought there was none at first. I measured against another arrow and realized i had possibly got 6 inches of penetration. I was still very pessimistic about a recovery. I pm'd Schultzy last night (he knows more about bears than anyone I could think of) to ask for some advice and trying to get some reassurance that i would find the bear, but I had little hope. He said there was a chance if the shot was low enough I could get a lung.I texted my sister to see if my bil was busy the next morning, or could he help me track. He was able to come thankfully as I am color blind. We tracked for about 1 1/2 hours before he was able to find him. We had actually lost blood when he found him about another 50 yards away. In total he went about 150-200 yards. Schultzy was 100% right, I mangled one lung and that was all it took. I was shooting my Hoyt alpha max with fmj's and g5 stryker broad heads. Here is a couple of pictures. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Congrats. I have about 4 I would love to run an arrow through. I have a big one on camera during daylight.
great looking bear. if you posted I missed it, could you tell me about how much he weighed? I saw my first bear while hunting deer last year but didn't get a shot. great to see one bagged. thanks
Congrats !! While the shot may not have been perfect... you did everything right after that. Great job on the recovery !! Tim
