Did I blow out the bear?

[EWpres]

My question is, did I blow this bear out of the area by getting my scent all over the mountainside? If so, will the bear come back to that spot after a few days without disturbance? He'd have to go a mile or two to get to a comparable hillside that has green grass and seclusion. Now, here's the context:

In Wyoming this past Sunday, I took a shot at a black bear with just a few moments of legal light left. It was a cross-canyon shot, well within my abilities, but I could not tell if I hit the bear or not. It simply disappeared into a clump of trees before I could find it again in the scope. Being by myself, and the bear being on a nasty, slippery, scree-covered mountain, I opted to not pursue a potentially wounded bear in the dark. You may disagree with that decision, but that's not what this is about. However, I was on the hillside at the ass crack of dawn, where I spent 3 hours grid searching for blood or hopefully, a dead bear. I found nothing, and I'm quite confident it was a clean miss. I checked my zero after, and my cold bore shot out of my 300 Win Mag was off substantially from my follow-up shots, which further confirmed to me that it was a miss (thanks, Christensen Arms - new gun).

I'm relatively new to bear hunting. This was my first actual shot at one, so I'm still very much learning their behavior. I've blown elk out of a drainage before, only to find that they came back a few days later.

I'm heading back out tomorrow to the same spot, with either my trusted Browning A-Bolt II 7mm Rem Mag or after re-sighting the 300. If nothing else, I want to see if there are buzzards circling or any indication that I might have hit the bear but didn't find it. In which case, I will punch my tag and be done. But assuming he's alive and well, I'd like to know if I'm wasting my time spending the rest of the week in that one spot, or if I should move on to greener pastures...literally.

I appreciate the advice.

 

[brymoore]

When one of my sons was a younger teenager, he missed the same bear on two different occasions. One episode was in the morning, the bear was back for another miss in the evening at the same spot. Both were clear misses.

In another bout of bad shooting, a buddy gut shot a bear. Three of us watched the shot and it was videoed. He hit back on the bear. We had some hope the shot angle might have caught a piece of lung.

Four of us spent hours searching for sign or the bear. Zero evidence a medium sized bear had been on the hill. No tracks, no blood, no hair was found. Shot location was short grass. We spent hours grid searching for the bear. Had I not seen the shot, I would not have believed the hit had happened.

I have seen lung shot bears leaving a good blood trail.

 

[EWpres]

Damn. That's heartbreaking to lose a bear you know you shot. I certainly hope that's not what happened in my case. I have a digiscope that I intended to set up to verify my shots after the fact, but I literally had no time. He didn't show up until the last few minutes of legal light.

I'm not so worried about the shots scaring him off. But leaving our scent all over the hill and making a bunch of noise with rocks fallings seems like it might. Going back out tonight, so we shall see.

 

[thusby]

Never commit to one spot for bears. Their ranges are huge.

 

[Bill Zent]

If an animal dies where it cannot be seen from above, buzzards won't see it. They find dead animals by sight.

How far was the shot with the 300 Win?

 

[EWpres]

It was 550 yards. And the slope, though it had patches of timber, was quite open once you got over there. It was very easy to see.

 

[brymoore]

I’ve walked all over bear feeding areas and had the bears return afterwards.

 

[cahunter805]

The bear will probably be back in the area soon.

I’m curious about your comments regarding the cold bore shot. How far off was it? How did you zero the rifle initially? The cold bore shot is what I personally would recommend zeroing off.

 

[caddiscrazy]

In my past experiences with bears they can leave a very very sparse blood trail. I don’t know if their hair soaks it up or what. The bear I killed last year with my bow on the other hand looked like someone walked with an open milk jug pouring it out.
As far as spooking them by scent, I don’t think you hurt yourself at all. They don’t seem to care as much about human scent as other critters in my opinion. They do have a huge range that they can work, so if you don’t see him it could just mean he naturally changed drainages

 

[EWpres]

The bear will probably be back in the area soon.

I’m curious about your comments regarding the cold bore shot. How far off was it? How did you zero the rifle initially? The cold bore shot is what I personally would recommend zeroing off.

Before my hunt this evening, I went to some BLM with a proper paper target so I could see what was going on. I think the issue wasn't the cold bore, but somehow, it was shooting 5" to the right at 200 yards. I adjusted the scope and let it cool for about 10 minutes, and checked my other rifle while I waited. When I shot again, it was now just about dead on.

All that to say, I don't think it was a cold bore issue. The scope was just off. Elevation was perfect with both shots. But at 550 yards, being off by 2 1/4 moa could be a clean miss altogether. It's a carbon barrel, and they're supposed to handle heat pretty well, but again, it's a new-ish gun that I'm figuring out.

I use Leupold scopes on all my guns, which are very good quality. But I have 4 hunting rifles that all tend to migrate left or right a little from time to time. It's common after flying with your weapon to double-check the zero before you hunt, but when we're driving a few hours, it's easy to just assume that the gun is still dead on. Lesson learned.

 

[EWpres]

In my past experiences with bears they can leave a very very sparse blood trail. I don’t know if their hair soaks it up or what. The bear I killed last year with my bow on the other hand looked like someone walked with an open milk jug pouring it out.
As far as spooking them by scent, I don’t think you hurt yourself at all. They don’t seem to care as much about human scent as other critters in my opinion. They do have a huge range that they can work, so if you don’t see him it could just mean he naturally changed drainages

That's good to know. I've heard that they can be hard to track unless it's a really good hit. I was back in my spot, glassing this evening. Didn't see him. I'll give it one more day and then look elsewhere. Things are starting to get green for sure, even more so than just two days ago. I'm seeing moose and elk all around, so there's obviously stuff to eat.

 

[EWpres]

I’ve walked all over bear feeding areas and had the bears return afterwards.

That's good to know. Seems to be the consensus that they don't spook too far.

 

[cahunter805]

Before my hunt this evening, I went to some BLM with a proper paper target so I could see what was going on. I think the issue wasn't the cold bore, but somehow, it was shooting 5" to the right at 200 yards. I adjusted the scope and let it cool for about 10 minutes, and checked my other rifle while I waited. When I shot again, it was now just about dead on.

All that to say, I don't think it was a cold bore issue. The scope was just off. Elevation was perfect with both shots. But at 550 yards, being off by 2 1/4 moa could be a clean miss altogether. It's a carbon barrel, and they're supposed to handle heat pretty well, but again, it's a new-ish gun that I'm figuring out.

I use Leupold scopes on all my guns, which are very good quality. But I have 4 hunting rifles that all tend to migrate left or right a little from time to time. It's common after flying with your weapon to double-check the zero before you hunt, but when we're driving a few hours, it's easy to just assume that the gun is still dead on. Lesson learned.

Sounds like a scope or scope mount issue. Once you zero a rifle it shouldn’t just shift point of impact from driving a few hours in a vehicle or even from a fall.

 

[EWpres]

Sounds like a scope or scope mount issue. Once you zero a rifle it shouldn’t just shift point of impact from driving a few hours in a vehicle or even from a fall.

I agree. It seems unlikely. But everything was torqued properly, and I have good rings on.

 

[cahunter805]

I agree. It seems unlikely. But everything was torqued properly, and I have good rings on.

What rings/bases? What leupold scope?