Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Tough black bear

I was just thinking of a experience I had last year bear hunting in Minnesota and I'm posting it to see if anyone else had any similiar experiences. I have shot around 20 black bears and have never had a problem killing them except this one time.
We were driving down the road to go check some baits when we noticed a guy in camo and holding a rifle at the side of the road. We stopped to talk to him and he told us he shot a bear about an hour ago and wanted help tracking it. We could tell he was scared chitless.We found hair and blood where the bear was shot and followed specks of blood about 200 yards and I fully expected to find a dead bear soon. We went about another 50 yards when we heard breaking branches. At this point the blood had slowed down and we were spread out a lil bit trying to find more blood. It was My buddy, me and the guy who shot it. My buddy yelled here he comes and I see a black blur coming to us. He gets about 10 yards out and he is coming fast. Both me and my buddy both shoot I hit the right shoulder and my buddy hits dead center chest. The bears heart and lungs are now about gone. The liver has a hole in it from the first shot the other guy took.We then calm down a little bit and track him now and he is bleeding alot and we find him about another 100 yards still breathing and the guy put another bullet in his head. He just wanted it dead at that point he said.I was shooting my 06 with factory core-lokts 220's as was my buddy. The other guy was shooting a 7mm-08 and I don't know what bullet. Every round fired at the bear exited.This bear wasn't a normal bear though he was shot in the middle of the day which is very strange for a nice sized boar.Anybody else seen a bear take so much punishment and keep going. I think he was just mean spirited and wanted to kick ass before he died.lol

All the black bears I have killed with arrow or firearm over thirty some years in three states out west seemed to expire faster than many deer or javelina I've killed.
We talked somewhat about this a day or so ago on the 'bang flop' thread where experience shows some animals even in the same species seem to have a greater tenacity for life than others..

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...owflat/Number/1583184/page/2#Post1583184

Humorously, for a bear used to eating bait?
Maybe he was on a cheap processed sugar high from the 4 day old doughnuts??:) Jim

as a quick postscript:
Sounds like you charted the bullet placement during the butchering.
Curious if it was a boar or sow?If a sow, might she have had some cubs hiding nearby from the springtime birthing?

Bears are strong and a whole lot more durable concerning endurance than cats..and there's no accounting for some of the endurance for life we have experienced..Jim

There was a bige black bear killed along the Greenbrier River in West Virginia that gave a bunch of folks a scare. He weighed in at over 400 pounds and, believe it or not, ran over 20 miles before he was treed. A large bear who also runs this distance and then trees is doubly rare. Usually if they are this size and run over a few miles they will just walk and fight until the dogs are frazzled, beaten up, and then just quit.

A buddy of mine was hunting with them. The first bunch of guys went in to the tree to get him. As soon as the bear saw them he jumped out of the tree and came after them. The guy in front had time to shoot it 4 times before it knocked him down. The guy second in line shot it off the first hunter and killed it.

I had never heard of a black bear behaving this way. But I guess you never really know for sure how a bear will react. Not to a 100% certainty anyway.

Will

Just a question and note of precaution.

How is this bear's hair?

Is it falling out or pull out easy?

If so you may want to check it out for rabies especially if you have any cuts on your hands while gutting and skinning.

We had a bear do this very same thing to my family on the Fort Apache some time back. It had rabies and two of my family members had to take the shots.

The bear looked very healthy. I would guess its weight around the 400 pound mark a very nice boar.

wis30-06 shooter..
I can just imagine that old boars last thots:

"I WILL NOT go quietly into the night...there's more fermenting fruit and doughnuts yet to be eaten.."...:) Jim

SU35, I wasn't aware that black bears normally were very succeptible to rabies..but suppose any critter could get it from a bite or scratch from another critter like a coon or skunk or badger that had it..
God info tho..I always do my best to assess the general health of animals I am going to kill and eat before and after the killing if I can...Jim

I just heard a story last weekend where a bowhunter shot a bear and the bear came up the tree after him clawing his legs pretty bad.
The farmer asked me if I was going to throw sticks at the bear too?
I showed him the 35 Whelen. He said that ought to do the job.

Many animals and even humans at times have moments they appear bullet proof. I'm unsure if it is adrenalin, but I've noticed a few deer that were being pursued by dogs that went incredible distances after taking a fatal hit. I had a training film taken from a bank camera showing a detective struggling w/ the bad guy over a gun after the bad guy took a fatal round that took out his heart. There is a clock on the film and it is amazing how long and how hard this guy fights while he's dead on his feet. Some possums on occasion can just ignore death.

As to a bear, they have a good amount of strength and speed available to expend during the time it takes to use up their last bit of oxygen. I shot a bear that was working his way up a steep draw. I shot him from about 45yards while I was further up the draw. My bullet broke the ball socket of his upper right foreleg driving bone and bullet through the lung and heart. The bear went down hard w/ the gravity of the incline rolling him over. The bear recovered to his feet and closed the 45yards to me before I could take a second shot. He went by me up the draw so fast I could feel the air off him. I stood w/ my jaw hanging as I watched him go straight up the steep draw another 65yards where he dead ended into a clump of blowdowns. Even then he kicked the snot out of the trees and limbs for about 15seconds before he expired. I think I'd been in trouble had he gone after me. Now I'm much better at getting off a fast and well aimed subsequent shot.

GVA

wsi,

I experienced it one time and would have never believed it if I had not been there. A friend wounded about a 400lb black bear with his '06 and it came for us from about 100yds away. All I had was a 7-08 with 140BTs. Luckily the bear turned at 15yds after taking 3 more hits, he then tore up the nearby brush like the tanzmanion devil cartoon character. All in all the bear took about 5-6 hits, at least 2 were thru the vitals that I could tell. And it was my friend's first bear!

MtnHtr

I good friend of mine hunted brown bear 4-5 years ago. He and his guide placed 6 shots in the chest cavity using a 375 HH and 375 Ultra mag. I don't know the bullet path of all the shots but you could track 5 shots by the exit holes. It appears that all of the 5 were well placed shots.

A number of years ago a friend of mine was sitting on a deer watch when he heard their dogs running. After a bit he spotted a medium size black bear crossing a beaver dam below him. When it got close he got concerned since the trail the bear was on ended at his watch!
He started to fire with his .280 Rem. All told he hit it either 11 or 12 times. All hits were into the top of the shoulders, well placed. ( I saw the hide after it was skinned and it was perforated!)
He never did figure out why the bear was so tenacious but he did say he hoped to never run into one like it again.

The Indians in Armstrong used to shoot them with a .22LR. Not what I would recommend as a bear gun, but they ate lots of bear meat. I've killed scores of bear while I was policing the northern part of the province, and all of them died FAST! SSG Special from a 12 bore seemed to word pretty nicely -- mostly head shots at close range. I've only shot two bear as a hunter, one with a 7 Mag and the other with a 30-06. The 7Mag one was shot through the shoulders at about 75 yards. Bang-flop. The one with the '06 was shot through the shoulders at about the same, maybe a little further, and same results -- never even took a step. (Which is proof positive that the 30-06 is a better long range bear killer than the 7 Mag. )