Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting expandables on black bear?

i've been deer hunting with the crossbow for years and my NAP expandables have been great.....has anybody here used them on black bear?......thanks in advance....bearit.....

My advise is COC only for bear

The entertainment value of recreational sport hunting takes on a whole new feel when you're looking for something that can ruin your day.

Black bears are not deer, don't react like deer, don't become passive and give up like deer, and have quite an impressive tool kit to create trauma.

I would not risk anything with folding bits, rubber bands, and springs or latches on an animal that has the potential to cause me harm.

Having seen 3 different brands of mechanicals fail over the years, I'll be blunt, hunting with mechanicals is one of the stupidest things you can do. Even if its "only" deer.

X2
I have shot a few deer over the years that had been previuosly shot with expandable heads. Found pieces of broadheads while butchering deer.

Would go with a proven head like, snuffer, magnus, slick trick, muzzy

Idaho has outlawed expandables entirely. No big loss.

Two words for you....RAZOR TRICK. The only thing that needs to expand on any hunt is your head after you recover your trophy. Leave Murphy at home. JMHO

+100 and my choice would be RazorTricks.

A tough, sharp COC head will serve you well. There are a lot of them out there now days.

Oregon has too. Except I keep cracking up evey time I walk into Dicks sporting good store they keep them on the rack evidently the buyers are from the east coast and can't read the Oregon regs. I even told the store manager they are still there and I notice they are selling them.

I noticed that too, but as I read the regs they are legal for small game and turkey as well. Although that may be different this year. I read the regs about them a while back maybe even two years ago now.

JJHACK your not from the East. According to ehunter just us East Coast guys can't read.

Nope not an eastern guy, but I am From the western USA (wa.) and South Africa.

my son took a black bear a few years back with a blood trailer expandable. the arrow passed through and the bear did not go 100 feet.

i have used them also, and have taken a few deer with no prob.

but i have switched to the 100 gr slick tricks now.

-ken

The thing with expandables is they work 60% of the time. It is the 40% that makes me say no thank you. Some think 60% is good enough others want a higher percentage. I can tell you one thing your opinion of them will totally change when that 40% bites you. Specially if it happens on a high dollar hunt.

Or when you shoot at last light with a bear that you have to go search for in the dark with a flashlight. Your mind will be playing games in your head with all the "what if's and Oh No's"

The opinion of most sport hunters changes when that bear is missing and it's pitch dark with thick bush! Wait til tomorrow? go back in the light? Hmm I've seen way to many bear hides spoil over night, or get chewed to bits by other bears. Such an easily avoided waste of a bear.

That is the truth. I hunt some pretty think cover and always go after them. The dark can play with your head when its an animal that can and will defend itself.

There are so many schitty shots out there, that not sure how you can ever conclude if it was the expandables fault, when something limps off. Seems like the newest trend in archery is to take 70+ yd shots, and hope.

I agree with you that with expandables guys think they can just instantly increase their shot yardage.

However I hunt with a few guys that I know they know what they are doing. I know and am friends with a few more that I don't hunt with per say but they damn sure know what they are doing. Most if not all of them have tried expandables at one time or another. A couple were on the books with companies that made expandables. None of them have anything good to say about them.

I have shot a few animals with expandables and I don't care how you dress it up I don't like them. Have only had one head actually completely fail. Have had a few get torn up so bad that I think the animal hurt the head more then the head hurt the animal. To me a rib shouldn't be a game stopper. I appluad the states that have made them outlawed on big game or hunting all together.

Anything over a 50 yard archery shot has a lot of room for many variables that I am not comfortable taking. Personally my opinion is that archery is supposed to be a close range game. So unless I am hunting wide open land out west anything over 40 yards isn't going to happen. I shoot out to 90 meters at targets. I have all the confidance in my ablitity to make the shot. I don't have the control of keeping the animal still for the lenght of time it would take my arrow to reach it @ 90m. To me it doesn't make much sense, but there are many that could do it and probably some that have. The only saving point @ 90m is that the animal won't hear the bow shot noise at that distance to make it really decide to hit the highroad.

I should add aim small miss small and if your going to take a long range archery shot shoot low.