Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Pucker Factor!

Hard to tell with angles from camera vs angles from archer.

I'd do it in a heartbeat and hope my guide was as calm as this one.

It wouldn't be for everyone though. That's for sure.

I also think that if they were not having to film that the bear may never have seen them...

Of course we'll never know since we were not there.

Brown with a bow and cape buffalo with a bow would be on my bucket list but I'll never be able to draw a bow heavy enough to take them on again.

I did seem like the shot was a bit far back, glad they were able to get things sorted out before it got gruesome. Thanks for the link.

Or did he just get downwind?

There was another bear in the background too. That would make it even more interesting, to say the least...

VERY possible... I didn't even consider that.

nice observation


hunting bears ime wind is a huge factor, they started off downwind of the bear or I don't believe they'd have ever gotten close enough to arrow him

after being struck by the second arrow, the bear was ambling off as twas evident he didn't feel good

from the video and observation of the bear it seems to me that's pretty much the way it went down.

hurt and pizzed off, and weighing 1400 lbs. once he got a nose full of those vile humans it was go time


thankfully one of those vile smelling humans had a rifle


kinda gives perspective on Native Americans respect for bears in the days before firearms.

Of course I'd much prefer to slip in a quiet lethal arrow and then slip off the other way for a long wait.... in an ideal world.

Of course wind changes when you least need it to, but I"d have thought he made about 90degree change of direction, IIRC, adn if that put him downwind of them, they didn't have the wind in their favor well enough to start with.

Exactly... I think they had too many people, too close and moved around WAY too much trying to keep the bear in the video. I suspect he heard them more than smelled them.

You can see from the brush and grass there was virtually no wind. Because there was no wind you can assume the warmer land is generating a small thermal effect (no breath seen in the video so the land is warmer than the water) creating at least some onshore "breeze."

I don't bet much, but I generally bet that unless there are other obvious conditions, wind will blow from the ocean to the land generally...

Not in winter... If the land is covered with snow and ice it will generally be offshore.

Wet air is lighter than dry air and the cooler air coming from the land will pick up water and warmth, causing it to rise and creating negative pressure.

The grass suggest two things in that vid. First, it is inclined (bent) toward the water which suggest prevailing air movement in that direction. Second, if you look at the first frames you can see it bouncing in the direction of the sea. The bear is about 45-60� from them at the first shot so he wouldn't scent them. However, after he is hit, and around the moment of the second shot, he appears to be downwind almost directly.
Bears' olfactory senses are dominant and are probably what triggered his 'locator beacon'

After looking at it carefully (finally) I have to agree with you there is a wind and the bear is moving downwind, mostly. And then it probably does cut their wind when coming up off the beach.

I also noticed the other bear suddenly alerted and took off at the shot. I think the cameraman was moving more than he shoulda been...

We don't freeze, so I have no clue when its cold what changes, but here, our predominant wind is from the water to the land, at least with our weatehr.

Didn't see frozen anything on that video.

But I will admit I have only watched it twice and neither one did I have it full screen etc.....

I would question why anyone would get htat close to a bear without solid winds in their favor. And why they would not back out if it started to change.... but again not my call. Stupidity can abound at times. And we may well not ever know the complete story.

But the filming and how many folks and movement of the hunting party, well for the sake of film I do think it was dangerous and dumb.

Though I would have certainly kept my muzzle following the bear at all times...

The thing many may not realize is how far away really close stuff looks on a GoPro... That bear was CLOSE!!!

Absent other forces, air is going to move toward the warmer surface because it will get lighter and rise creating a relative vacuum behind it.

Close is an understatement! WOW.

I did notice that it would've been pretty hard to shoot that bear under the chin...

A couple of thoughts�while onshore breezes are very common, especially as the sun hits land during the day, both mornings, and especially evenings perhaps, tend to be times when the air can shift 180� in just moments. In fact, it's not uncommon at all for very cold air shifts in the evenings right around sunset (out on the west coast). And these breezes might last for 5-10 minutes and then die. I'm thinking they probably wanted to get as close as they could with the bow, but wind is simply something that you can't predict for certain around that kind of terrain. I don't think freezing temps have anything to do with it as much as the sudden 20� temperature shifts you can get near big water.

A couple of thoughts relating to animals' senses�I recall one time when a dog I had who was very loyal to me heard my wife and I coming up the road in the twilight. He had alerted on us because he could see us coming but couldn't see us well enough to recognize us. Trying to get him to quiet down, I spoke to him but he wouldn't quiet down even though I'm sure he recognized my voice and his name. But once we got upwind, he shut right down and and postured a guilty pose.

And quite a few years ago, I was working the "s" part of a SAR for a party that had been missing for three weeks. I was searching a rocky coast line for remains or incidentals. At one point I was in a small cove (in bright sunlight) and came upon a good-sized bear trundling along on a sandy beach picking up bits of stuff with the tops of its claws and raising them to his lips. He was facing me between 50-75 feet away. I was idling along in my skiff with a 90 hp 2-stroke putting in gear. That animal could not have missed seeing or hearing me but it seemed to make no difference, �..until I felt the breeze hit the back of my neck. I was glad I was not closer because that animal became a virtual shiπ-rocket in its departure. The nose is to a bear what eyes are to humans, except that their nose works many times better than our eyes do.

Both arrows appeared to me to be gut-shots. I suspect this bear would have taken a long time to die had the guide not jumped in.

You only have issues visualizing an under-chin shot because you aren't a SMURF!

Now got a couple full screen looks.

Wind did not appear to be anywhere close to what I"d risk holding a bow.... thats part of bow... you accept your limitations. I know folks bowhunting for grizz living in AK for 20 years that have yet to shoot, because the situation is not right... Could be something to do with stitches he had finishing off a friends wounded bear once.... might make you a lot more particular...

First shot appears to be back and low. Pretty clear on that. A step at the wrong time can do that or he simply did not aim, canted bow, or made a bad shot. I was hoping for his sake it was an angling shot. It simply appears the shot was muffed. I didn't watch it close enough to see if we could diagnose, but the bow did appear to have a slight cant, and there is the ever possible at the shto he dropped his arm to try to see the hit... which you NEVER do if you have any sense... it would get you what he got given the angle of the bear and such.

2nd shot, very hard for me to tell but the archer was hard left, bear hard right, and would think that one would have to enter to the back, to angle to the front someowhat. Regardless it sure seemed like it encountered way too much resistance for a gut shot.

And yes, even with all the stuff they got away with that was stupid, filming and such.... it was probably not the movement but very much so the bears nose that gave it the outcome it did.

I was impressed that the guide hollered, or someone did anyway, but at that point, shoot.... he's wounded and who cares at this point. I'd rather him have 2 bullets in him than a warning and one.

Unwounded bear different story by a bit to me.