Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire A Bear story, or "The proper way to pack out a big (DEAD)black bear!" PIC HEAVY,

Good show Mark! Thanks for sharing your fun with us. That bear should have been fat and good eating.

Tells me all I need to know about your ethics and character as a "hunter", Mark. Misplaced shots certainly happen, but not many people have the nerve to celebrate them with "hero" pics and delusions of grandeur. Don't let me spoil the fun, though. Keep pretending that you've really done something noble here while ignoring the agony that bear suffered for hours and hours at the hands of your inability to accurately shoot a .340 Assissoreus. Bravo.

He WAS! A good 4 inches of fat along his backstrap area, and so far the eating part has been quite good.

Even the best hunter misses sometimes, and sometimes due to circumstances beyond our control the wounded animal can't be recovered until the next morning. Sometimes the animal is dead when found, sometimes it's alive and suffering.

I've helped friends search in the dark for wounded deer on several occasions. In one case I found the buck about 2 hours after sunset on a black-as-coal night, nearly fell over him in the thick stuff. He'd been spined, but he still tried to hook me with his antlers and nearly got me.

Poking around in dense bush on a steep hillside in the dark looking for a possibly wounded deer is one thing. Doing the same when it's a 500+ pound bear is another thing altogether, a potential recipe for disaster. Black bears, especially big ones, are capable of terrific ferocity. Waiting for first light to find him was IMHO the smart thing to do, and certainly not "unethical". Putting your life unnecessarily at risk is not "ethical".

I'm sure Mark regrets the animal's suffering, he's not an azzhat. And just because he didn't get a clean kill on this bear doesn't mean he isn't entitled to rejoice in the success of his hunt.

Thanks for the story and pics, Mark, I really enjoyed your post!

As noted above, it's very sad that the bear had to suffer through the night, but these things happen. I'm glad Jim found & finished him in short order once it was safe to do so.

I can't help but notice how long this bear's muzzle is... very unusual, but his ears and dish-face are clearly blackie.

I think your neighbor's "recovery vehicle" is a damn smart idea. Even if you'd not had your health issues, getting that bear up and out of there in such warm temps would've been dicey.

Don't forget to include me when you're passing around your non compliments.

That wasn't a successful hunt in my book, it was the end to a chitshow.

I guarantee there's lots of folks sitting on their hands when they read about this on all three forums. Sorry, I'm not one of them.

This isn't about a misplaced shot and the choice not to attempt recovery at night. We all know those things happen and are very unfortunate. How and why they happen is another story, though.

SNAKE, I agree with you that how and why bad stuff happens important. But I don't think there's enough information in Mark's story for me to judge the how and why in this case, and that's why I don't believe it's fair to cast aspersions on his ethics and character. I could make assumptions, but I didn't and won't.

Sorry RL, I don't care to pizz in your cornflakes this morning.

So, is it legal for JJ to administer the coup de gr�ce?

It was the right thing to do.

Right and legal is not always in the same sentence....

Read about it in the rifle forum if you care to fill in the blanks.

Correct. My post in this forum came after reading the other threads about this "success" and Mark's attitude toward rifle cartridges, shot selection and what "real" hunting is all about. The dots connected themselves rather easily.

Let me go grab some popcorn here real quick

JIm had to put a finisher in the bear

So, is it legal for JJ to administer the coup de gr�ce?

This will cause JIM some headaches in a lot of states.

And you keep amazing.

I'd like to schidt in a nailbox and put it in the floorboard of his truck.

I'm acutely aware of that. The point being, if JJ did the right thing and risked getting cited for it, why point that out on a public forum? He's not the one who ass-shot the bear.

I appreciate the heads-up, 8SNAKE, I'll go check it out when I get some time later. I didn't realize there was more to the story than what's in the OP of this thread.

It appears I owe you an apology for casting aspersions on your character, now.