Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game So, are black bears hard to kill are not?

As has ben mentioned here I was a damage control manager for a 360,000 acre tree farm in Wa. State. Because of the situation I was permitted to kill bears with any means needed with the exception of poison. No season, no limit for the first few years not even record keeping was required!

During this period I ran hounds in the areas that had road access, and I ran baits in the remote roadless fringe areas, or near highways where I did not want the dogs running out of sight. In some places I used culvert traps and some places Kleflock spring loaded cable snares

I think the " low heart rate" issue was addressed properly. It's a mistake to connect a hibernating heart rate with the active heart rate. A bear does not actually hibernate, they simply go into a dormant state and sleep. A hibernating animal is in a type of self induced coma. They cannot be aroused and active when hibernating. Funny the most common animal attributed to hibernation is the one that does not actually hibernate! A bear is quite easily woken up when you find them in the middle of winter! We did this frequently with radio tracking gear to tag the cubs, and change the collar of the female. ( once darted, They were fully awake and not pleased to be interupted)

I think one of the most common situations with bears seeming to be difficult to kill has little to do with the statement. It has to do with the difficulty to find them and the amount of bears that are lost after being shot. Many folks shooting a hoofed animal casually follow up the track and comfortably trail it,... and go find it, or at least look for it. Many don't even have the gun with them, just use a flashlight.

There is a point when following up a bear that has not bled much, a common situation with the heavy layer of fat and the thick underfur which absorbs quite a bit of blood. At some point as the blood is getting complicated to follow, the big soft feet not leaving any visible tracks, and the thick bush a bear will seek out.

This changes the outlook on recreational sport hunting for a lot of folks. It is no longer fun, it's no longer just a blood tracking challenge. It becomes a potential life threatening problem. This is especially true for the person alone in fading light or no light. Had one fella tracking his bear with his Cell phone "flashlight". Tracked is so slowly the battery died and then left him with no ability to call for help, and no more light!

The bear that has been shot might have only gone 100 yards, however that hundred yard radius is a lot of ground to cover when you're paranoia is creeping into your comfort level to do this. I believe this is one of the things that reflect on why some folks say they are so hard to kill. I think the statement would be more accurate, they are so difficult to find (possibly so intimidating to find as well)

I have heard grown men express that the bear must have only had a superficial wound because the blood ran out and he tracked is over 100 yards. I contend that the animal was probably killed and just ran without any blood to track and rolled under the brush out of sight. However the fella will go use the tag on another one now.

I have tracked a whole lot of big game in my career. Without exaggeration several thousand animals. Bears are without question one of the most difficult because the fur and fat have an incredible ability to stop the blood flow. In the thick forest habitat they inhabit, the forest floor is not usually good tracking with their big soft feet. They do not leave sharply dug in hoof tracks.

I have been knocked down and chewed and clawed by a bear, Their threat level is real. It may only be 1 in a 100 that will decide he's had enough of you and wants to call your bluff. When that decision is made there is a big problem to solve that will not allow much time to react to your course of action. These stories begin to haunt the recreational sportsman looking for a bear he has just shot. Just a couple years ago I was asked to track a bear that was shot the previous evening. That bear was quite difficult to track in the 6' tall thick blackberries. On hands and knees seeing just spots of blood over the course of 1/2 mile I found myself 20 feet from this bear when he decided to stop walking and call my bluff. I shot him quite hurriedly two times at near point blank under this canopy of blackberries. He died within touching distance of me.

This bear was originally shot with quite a powerful rifle, but the shot was not well placed. To far back. Cartridge power does not make up for proper placement. This past September I killed my 25th black bear with my Bow. I've never had a bear go further then 100-125 yards with an arrow. Many have died within 40-50 yards. I've seen them go further with a big powerful rifle and a great shot. The real beauty of the arrow on bears is the ease of following the blood trail. Broadheads really slice them open and the blood flows with enthusiasm! I've seen well over several hundred killed with my 44 mag revolver, many in snares, treed, or just while hunting or in other situations on the tree farm. They will run anywhere from DRT to 100 plus yards. That big .430 diameter bullet lets the blood flow very nicely as well.

Where the blood flow begins to seriously struggle is on bears shot above centerline of the body and with bullets smaller then .308 diameter. There is plenty of resolution on this to justify my strong opinion. Sub .308 bullets just do not provide the same blood flow that bullets .308 and larger do constantly. Exceptions apply to every opinion. Mine is no different. I have seen blood spraying out the entry hole when a bear was shot with a 25/06, and a 357 mag revolver. However for every one experience like that there are dozens or more that provide nothing to follow after the first 40-50 yards you have nothing.

One last experience with this. Lots of bears are shot by people in the high country across canyons or clearcuts. When the range gets to be 250-300-400 plus lots of problems are possible. Even when everything goes right with a perfect shot the bear is still lost. This can even happen with a DRT bear!

When you shoot that far and have to drop down into a low canyon and climb the opposite ridge and arrive at the location you think you were shooting at. Nothing looks the same. Looking back at where you think you shot from nothing looks familiar because you did not see it from that direction when you shot. Now you could be 50-80 yards above or below the elevation, maybe 50-75 yards right or left. Now you have a big area to search. All that while that paranoia is creeping in because it's not a deer you are looking for. It's a meat eater with canine teeth and ten powerful claws that you just perforated. This guy did not wake up happy that morning and now you went and poked a hole through him.

As this plays on your mind, the determination to continue fades and the comments about " Black bears are so tough to kill" plays on your mind. " well no blood guess I missed" yeah but it is laying 50 yards below you dead, you just never found it.

It's easy to solve this with a range finder and a couple feet of surveyors tape. Mark the tree you shot from. Range the spot you shot at with your LRF. Then when you cross the gap and range back to the tape you will be at the exact distance although it could still be to the right or left, at least you're in the ball park.

Well that's my take on this topic, it's worth what you paid for it!