I shot my bear this spring cold front rain....it dont bother them unless there is strong wind. If not you are good to go
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I shot my bear this spring cold front rain....it dont bother them unless there is strong wind. If not you are good to go
Coincidence maybe, but they are all American. There is a combination of things. Guys that are used to shooting deer (refusing to accept that a bears anatomy is different), unprepared, out of practice. They also put way to much pressure on themselves to get the bear. They paid the money, traveled a day or two to get to camp and they want their bear. None of them have seen a bear let alone hunted them but they are all experts based on the internet. Shots into shoulders, gut shot bears, grazing the stomach or just clipping the top of the back. Their bad shots are all over and never consistent. I'd say a big thing is they take a low light (still legal) shot they shouldn't. Example - I helped track one night and the guy wasn't quite sure where he hit the animal, but claimed the bear was facing east and was perfect broadside. There was a lot of blood so we pushed on. Bear piled up 30 yards away it was a good heart shot. Here is the kicker. The bear was actually facing west broadside. So had the bear of actually been facing the direction he thought it was it would have been another strait gut shot no vitals. Too dark, shouldn't have shot.
I'd say the outfitter has a big roll in that recovery percentage too. This topic got me curious so I reached out to a large Canadian outfitter that caters strictly to archery(vertical). His numbers were the inverse of what you've mentioned. 80-90% recovery. We chatted about shot placement and some of the bad advise that's floating around out there. I didn't ask if they utilize dogs for tracking. That would boost recovery numbers quite a bit i'd imagine.
I don't think I claimed they were normal. I quite frankly think its insanely terrible.
Keep in mind I am there for one week out of the 6-7 weeks they operate in the fall. The remainder of the season hopefully unfolds differently. I generally don't keep tabs on it once I have left.
I am back from Bear hunting .... the bugs eat me alive ....
I never going to go this late Bear hunting again ....