Going on my first spot and stalk archery bear hunt in a couple weeks and was wondering if anybody has any recommendations on broad heads for bears. I know I need to get something with smaller cutting diameter than my whitetail broad heads, but I don't want something that is so small that it is just going to piss him off and not take him down since I will be on ground level and pretty close to him. I am at 70#'s and 28.5 draw. Chronograph averages around 293 FPS with a 410 grain arrow. For mechanical broad heads I am only interested in ones with forward opening blades (like the nap spitfire or grim reaper BH's have) and which don't use rubber bands or little plastic breakaway rings to keep them closed (or fail to keep them closed). As far as fixed blades go I am pretty much open to any suggestions. I have never used them before simply because every single deer and coyote (plus a couple possum and one really annoying squirrel) I've ever hit with a mechanical broadhead has ended up completely dead so I've never really had reason to switch, but a deer's ribs, skin, and bones are a lot less substantial than a bear's so I could see how a mechanical would be more likely to break or get stuck in a bone when shooting a bear. There is also the fact that a wounded deer is a lot less likely than a bear to try and run me down and eat me if my mechanical broadheads were to fail for some reason.
I currently use the grim reaper 100gr whitetail special 2” cutting diameter for deer and have nothing but good things to say about them, but I’m assuming that is too wide of a blade to reliably get enough penetration on a bear, but I could be wrong. I was thinking I need to go with one of their smaller versions and in 125gr to get a little more weight on there. I’ve got plenty of spine to handle the extra 25gr. I just don’t know how big of a broadhead to use since every other bear I’ve killed was taken with a .308 marlin express. It is just a black bear and they’re pretty gentle natured so probably not a big deal either way, but the faster he expires the less likely it is that he’ll get holed up inside of a den or a thicket. I prefer not to have to crawl head first into a thicket that contains a bear, which may or may not still be alive and very pissed off, if at all possible, even if it is just a black bear.
I've shot 35+ bears with plain old 100 grain muzzys. They have never failed me. My X has shot about 12_14 with the same head shooting 45#s. Bear die very easy if lung/heartshot. An exit is very beneficial for bloodtrailing.
Black bear are really no more substantial than a mature buck, and like bucksnbears said they die pretty easily. A deer has way more stamina and will to live than a bear in my experience. A lot of people that haven't hunted black bear view them as thick hided, thick muscled tanks that are hard to get penetration on. They're not and a good bear set up is your mature whitetail buck set up. I have zero experience with mechanicals, they are illegal in Idaho. I've used plain old original Muzzy fixed blades for over 25 years and have never had a failure from one. I've lost two elk in that time, both were poor shot placement on my part. No fault of the BH. So my experience being what it is, I'd recommend putting a fixed blade on your current arrows and hunt with confidence. A pass through is nice on a bear. Their long hair soaks up blood well before saturating to the point of hitting the ground, and their feet don't score the ground like the hooves of a deer do. It is nice to have two holes leaking with them.
Probably too late to switch to fixed as I am going this weekend and not going to have time to get them and get my bow resighted and tuned for them. I ended up going with bucksnbears suggestion and got some smaller grim reaper heads. Grim reaper 125gr Fatal steel 1-1/4” cut three bladed mechanical. I’ve actually killed several bears in the past, but all of them have been with a 308 marlin express lever action. 308 marlin express is essentially the same as a regular ballistic tipped 308 Winchester that’s designed for safe use in tubular magazines and shooting something with that doesn’t really shed much light on what to expect when you arrow it since pretty much anything dies easily when a 30 caliber bullet blows a hole through its lungs.
I am so pumped to go, I’ve never tried getting one on foot. Always with dogs or from a stand. The one I got last year was with dogs and I wasn’t really a fan of that style of hunt since they weren’t my dogs and that kind of hunt is really more about running the dogs than the actual hunting part of it. I am sure I would feel different if I had my own pack of bear dogs to train and run, but when someone else is running the dogs and you are doing is shooting then it basically becomes a glorified version of shooting a treed squirrel from 15 yds.
Another reason why I shoot the heads I do. I will chase deer, bear, elk, moose, antelope, mule deer and terrorists all without having to change a dang thing or think I may want to consider changing it. FTR that is a Grizzlystik 200gr Samurai (604 total grain arrow build)
@opossumhunterNC also, I probably missed, but if you were hunting NC, were you hunting coastal or mountain... If you don't want to offer too much info here, feel free to pm...
I agree 100%. I use the same NAP Killzone broadheads for bear that I use on deer. Bear die WAY easier than deer!
