Black Bear Hunting Series
Re-Published with permission from
Virginia Chapter of American Bear Foundation
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https://www.facebook.com/VABearFoundation
https://www.americanbearfoundation.org/
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The Missouri Black Bear is a hunting/conservation group designed to build a real resource for the serious hunters of Missouri. The Missouri Black Bear is the icon species for conservation.
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This may not all apply to Missouri Black Bear hunting, so use your common sense for each series.
Black Bear Hunting Series
Re-Published with permission from
Virginia Chapter of American Bear Foundation
Follow them on facebook
https://www.facebook.com/VABearFoundation
https://www.americanbearfoundation.org/
These are a series originally done by Unbranded Outdoors and shared by Old Dominion Black Bears. It lays the basics for what the black bear is. The other parts of this series and the ones to follow are designed to help make you a better bear hunter by knowing the incredible animal we chase.
Part 6 of Series - Hunting Season - Opporunity meets Preparation - Good Luck
All the study, the prep, the scouting, and the hours spent thinking and rethinking every step in the process, the “what if” scenarios; they all come down to hunting season. With so much invested, emotionally, financially, and in time – not to mention the duty we owe to the animals we hunt and to the other hunters before us, now, and in the future – it is our responsibility to do everything we can for a quick, clean, humane, and ethical kill.
We’re not going to debate equipment. What we will do is say that it is your responsibility to know your equipment, to be competent with it, and to have it in proper working order. Black bears are taken with archery equipment, muzzleloaders, and modern firearms every season. Most are taken with equipment that is primarily focused on deer, and that works. Consider it a baseline, and adequate, but it would not hurt to move up a notch or two. Keep in mind that bear are densely muscled animals, and that their bones are heavier than that of deer. A marginal shot on a deer with an arrow or lesser cartridge that might break bone and result in an adequate recovery is not going to work as well on a bear. Hedge your bets by using better shot discretion and equipment choices. As an old friend and long-time bear hunter once said, “Bears ain’t hard to kill, but convincing them to be dead ain’t always easy.” A good bullet or a razor-sharp broadhead in the right spot will do the job, but what happens between shot and recovery depends on what you used and how you used it.
Discussing shot placement on bears is about like discussing favorite brand of truck; everyone has a favorite and it’ll get heated quickly. We’ll touch on shot placement when using hounds briefly. Any shot taken on a bear when using hounds has to take into consideration where the dogs are, if the bear is in a tree then where that bullet might go if the shooter misses or the bullet passes through, and what reaction a bear might have to the impact of the shot. Consider that any shot on a bear when hounds are involved could easily end up starting a fight between the bear and the dogs or make a fight already going on a lot worse – unless that shot ends the entire chase immediately. For that reason, a lot of houndsmen use rifles or large caliber handguns only and take only head or central nervous system (i.e. neck, or “high shoulder” into the spinal area) shots. Those shots are fatal instantly or near instantly. These shots have become the norm for many houndsmen by hard-earned experience over the course of generations of bear hunting.
Outside of hound-hunting, the head or central nervous system shot is not recommended, for several reasons. The target area is very small in comparison to other vital zones. The brain isn’t large, about the size of a softball or a touch larger and is in a head that is often moving. The skull is very hard, dense, and shaped so that a glancing shot might not penetrate. The spine is a very small target, in a very large animal that is hard to judge due to fur and the overall composition of the animal. It is highly encouraged that – outside of hunting with hounds or the unlikely event of a charge or similar violent encounter – a hunter not take a head or central nervous system shot.
For hunters not using hounds, the preferred and recommended shot location is into the chest area targeting the heart and the lungs. A pulmonary and respiratory area hit is entirely lethal, and very quick. It leads to a rapid, humane death and a very high recovery rate. On a black bear, the lungs are generally smaller in size as compared to overall body than they are on a deer, and the heart larger. This makes for a different size but similarly located kill zone. The heart-lung region on a black bear is located just behind the front leg, in the center of the body top to bottom, and ahead of the liver and gut region. The diagrams attached show this placement well. While similar to a deer, it is proportionally smaller, and proportionally not extending as far back into the body cavity.
Finding that kill zone on a bear is not as easy as it is for a deer. A bear is covered by two to four inches of thick, black fur that is often standing erect or mostly erect. This makes the entire animal look larger than it is, in height, length, and girth. This can easily throw off a shot by not accounting for the fur and adjusting for organ placement inside of that overall image. The fur and overall body conformation also give very little to concentrate on. A bear in the woods will look like a big, black mass with no defined lines, creases, or other “spots” to pick out. Even a bear that looks like it is perfectly broadside can easily be curled toward or away from the hunter or standing at a slight angle with little visual clues to see this difference. A bear angling toward or away is even more problematic, with away angles having the fur and the large rear quarter to deal with and toward having the fur and heavy musculature and bone structures to factor in. Perhaps the best “marker” for a shot is to find the offside front leg and use it as a aiming spot for an exit; angling just behind that leg for a more broadside shot or quartering toward shot (not recommended with a bow at all) or just in front of it for a quartering away shot.
There have been recommendations made to shoot “middle-of-middle”; i.e., dead center mass of body length and height for a bear. We disagree. That shot might well get the back of the lungs, which is great, but it will most often land a shot into the liver of a bear, which is absolutely fatal though not as rapidly. We prefer the middle of the body height, about 1/3 of the way back from the front edge of the bear, and aiming for that off-side leg, adjusting for angle. That will put the bullet or arrow just behind and just below the shoulder blade, through the lungs and perhaps the heart (and maybe the liver as well on a quartering away shot). With a bow, err on the lower side if you have to in order to slip under that shoulder blade bur remember your angle of the shot (especially from above) and that fur making the chest area look larger than it is.
For firearm and muzzleloader hunters using a stoutly constructed bullet, a bit less precision is required. These hunters can hit slightly higher and further forward – or intentionally come right up the front leg to the shoulder – and break the shoulders with a shot. That will drop a bear instantly, allowing for a follow-up shot if necessary (though often the damage will also take out the lungs as well as the shoulders). We’ve attached some diagrams and images. There are tons more available by searching. Study them, learn the organ placement, and that will help you make a clean, ethical shot. A conversation with your local bear biologist is also a very good idea to help.
At the shot, unless the bear drops instantly or in sight, an entirely different hunt begins; recovery. For archers especially, but also for firearms hunters, a pass through that creates an exit wound will often increase the chances of recovery enormously. The dense musculature of a bear can seal off a wound and limit bleeding. The copious fat layers of a bear will plug entrance or exit holes and reduce external bleeding. Bear fur is long, thick, and it soaks up and holds blood very well. Those factors can, and almost always will, limit a bear blood trail. The paws of a bear are large and padded, causing far less disturbance to the leaf litter on the forest floor than a deer, and they run differently which also causes less disturbance. Some bear will produce a “death moan” (last air escaping their lungs on exhale) when they expire, but many will not. It can often seem like the forest just swallowed the bear up and it vanished without a trace after the shot, or make a hit seem like a miss due to lack of reaction or blood sign, but it is your obligation as a hunter to do everything you can to find that bear. Assume that you hit the bear until you exhaust every opportunity to prove otherwise, and if you have sign of a hit assume that the hit is fatal until you prove otherwise or exhaust every chance to find it.
There may not be any blood sign at the shot site. Look for cut hair, but black hair disappears into the leaf material easily. If an arrow is used, it is crucial to find that arrow and examine it for blood sign. There will almost always be fat on it as well, but the coloration of the blood, significant bubbles from a lung hit, or any odor to the blood will give great clues as to the location and severity of the hit. Mark the impact area and the last spot the bear was seen. That line of travel is extremely important. Often, perhaps far more often than not, a mortally hit bear will travel on an almost dead straight bearing from the hit site toward an area of security cover (likely a bedding area) for that bear. Being able to lay out that bearing on a GPS, a digital map on your phone, or a paper map with a compass can make the difference between recovery and loss. If all else fails, start a methodical and very focused search out that line of projected travel for up to one mile (use that GPS or phone to track your position). If that line of travel heads toward a thick area or an area that is hard to access, you can just about bet that is where the bear headed. Work your way toward that area, but don’t rush. Your job now is to find that bear.
Scrutinize everything. When checking for blood sign, remember that the fur is likely soaking up the blood. Check trees, the leaves on shrubs, sticks and stalks, and other vegetation at the height of the bears body that it might have brushed against on the run. Look closely at the leaves and ground for smeared blood that could have run down a leg and been pressed onto the ground by a paw. A bear blood trail often will not look like a deer blood trail, so you have to look for things differently. A blood-tracking light, a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and especially a trailing dog with experience finding bear (not deer) can be great aids in recovery.
Move slowly and cautiously, with purpose and an eye to finding sign, but also remember that you are trailing an animal with considerable strength, teeth, claws, and the ability to seriously injure or kill you. A hunting partner, one that you can trust and that will not diminish the tracking by moving unwisely and perhaps destroying limited sign, can be a very comforting asset to have - and a great thing when it comes to getting that bear out of the woods.
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