If that were me I would be calling in sick to work. If you hit the bear behind the shoulder. and had a pass through. That bear should be down. I have heard the death moan a few times before, that is something that you will never forget after you have heard it once. Bears won't bleed that much. Patience in tracking when hunting bears is crucial. I looked for mine for quite a while this spring. I had actually walked past the bear several times when looking for more sign. It had died and slid under a log. It made it about 80 yards, and I never did find buta drop of blood or the arrow that I saw blow through it. Darkness was falling fast and I ended up back at the truck well after dark. I had a 2 hour drive back to the house. After skinning and icing it down, that only left me with 2 hours to sleep before returning to work. You may find your bear next weekend, but I doubt either the hide or the meat will be any good. Looking for scuffs and disturbed ground may help in finding a hit bear. Look for characteristics in the animals tracks that my tip you off, that will indicate that you are always tracking the same animal. I was hunting elk with a newbie that took a poor shot against my advice to let the bow down. This gentleman proceeded to shoot the bull in the right hind quater. We tracked the bull for a day and a half. The last mile the bull was tracked by the hoof drag marks that it was leaving on the logs that crossed the trail. This was caused by the right leg becoming weak and dragging over the logs. By this time there was no blood. Just the drag marks. Good luck on future bear hunting and remember that the smallest of sign while tracking, could yield the most information.



This bear was found by searching for drag marks where it pulled itself over the windfall timber. It was also found from the scuffed ground before and after the downed trees. These were small signs, but enough for a successful recovery.