rigderunner
Senior Member
Is it common to shoot a bear and find little to no blood trail?
The long, course hairs making up a bear's coat do a remarkable job of absorbing blood. Having little blood to go on is not at all uncommon.
However, the greatest blood trail I ever followed came from a bear. I didn't have to follow it, I saw the bear crash, but I shot it straight facing me down his throat and cut his jugular. It looked like a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie.
Wasn't that the 400 lb bear you killed a few years back? I think I remember that being on here. You had to call up the homies to get him out if I remember correctly.
Yes, a Muzzy Phantom penetrated him from stem to stern.
I have never seen a well hit bear not bleed buckets of blood. I have seen bears not hit well (hit high) with little to no bleed. The hair and fat tale that keeps getting passed along isn't true. You can hit a bald bear high and you'll have poor blood and you can shoot the hairiest bear in the wood low to center and it won't go 50 yards with blood everywhere.
I have shot quite a few different animals over the years and making a heart shot always results in either an immediate downed animal or one that doesn't travel more than 20 yards after the shot. Study the animals vitals locations before hnting them, make sure your gun and ammo shoots 1 inch groups and shoot a gun with sufficient power for the animal you are after and a gun you do not flinch from the recoil or muzzle blast. I like the 300 Win Mag, it does a great job.
That's fine Corn. I'll keep my mouth shut going forward, keep killing bears and help the other guys in camp bring their bears in from the woods like I've been doing for 30 years. It's cool.