They always say the real work begins after you pull the trigger, or in my case, release the arrow.
Last hour of daylight. Quartering towards me at about 22 yards. I'm on the ground. He's on the ground. I've got a bow. He's got claws and fangs and he's considerably larger than me. Tucked the arrow right behind his shoulder so I know I got at least one lung. Shot looked low, so maybe no liver. He took off running back into the thicket he just came out of. As dry as the leaves are, I could hear him for a LONG time. Kept waiting on him to roll, but he just kept going, deeper and deeper into the crud.
Knowing that I had a wounded bear and I would be heading into a nasty laurel thicket, I called for backup. I had watched where he ran so I went straight to where he entered the thicket and picked up his blood trail. It was good blood by this point and I figured he would be dead in a bed somewhere. Turns out, I bumped him out of about 5 different beds, but each one was so close to the last, I knew he was hurt bad and wouldn't go far. We tracked him for over 400 yards, never leaving the laurel thicket, and I mean it was thick. I was on hands and knees for almost the whole time, and on my belly several times.
Laying on your belly, tangled in laurels, with nothing but a headlamp and a pistol with a wounded bear somewhere so close you can smell him, that's living!
We finally caught up to him in his last bed. I gave him the coup de grâce and then evaluated where I thought we were. Fortunately, the drag was almost completely downhill. Unfortunately, 3/4 of the drag was a steep, rocky laurel thicket. It took constant attention from both draggers. One to keep him moving forward, and one to help guide him and pull him off of every snag he tried to hang up on.
Finally got to the truck and used muscles I haven't had to use in a while to drag him up into the bed.
We figure he was somewhere just north of 300 lbs. Neither of us are little lads, and he was considerably larger than either one of us. Stomach was full of acorns and yellow jackets.
I'm pretty stiff and sore this morning, but thoughts of bear steak, canned roasts, and some rendered grease soothe the pain.
Last hour of daylight. Quartering towards me at about 22 yards. I'm on the ground. He's on the ground. I've got a bow. He's got claws and fangs and he's considerably larger than me. Tucked the arrow right behind his shoulder so I know I got at least one lung. Shot looked low, so maybe no liver. He took off running back into the thicket he just came out of. As dry as the leaves are, I could hear him for a LONG time. Kept waiting on him to roll, but he just kept going, deeper and deeper into the crud.
Knowing that I had a wounded bear and I would be heading into a nasty laurel thicket, I called for backup. I had watched where he ran so I went straight to where he entered the thicket and picked up his blood trail. It was good blood by this point and I figured he would be dead in a bed somewhere. Turns out, I bumped him out of about 5 different beds, but each one was so close to the last, I knew he was hurt bad and wouldn't go far. We tracked him for over 400 yards, never leaving the laurel thicket, and I mean it was thick. I was on hands and knees for almost the whole time, and on my belly several times.
Laying on your belly, tangled in laurels, with nothing but a headlamp and a pistol with a wounded bear somewhere so close you can smell him, that's living!
We finally caught up to him in his last bed. I gave him the coup de grâce and then evaluated where I thought we were. Fortunately, the drag was almost completely downhill. Unfortunately, 3/4 of the drag was a steep, rocky laurel thicket. It took constant attention from both draggers. One to keep him moving forward, and one to help guide him and pull him off of every snag he tried to hang up on.
Finally got to the truck and used muscles I haven't had to use in a while to drag him up into the bed.
We figure he was somewhere just north of 300 lbs. Neither of us are little lads, and he was considerably larger than either one of us. Stomach was full of acorns and yellow jackets.
I'm pretty stiff and sore this morning, but thoughts of bear steak, canned roasts, and some rendered grease soothe the pain.
