I kindof messed up.....
I went out last night w/ my bow and climber and sat over a blueberry patch that I had seen bear in recently. I got there at 4pm... At 5pm i looked to my left and saw what looked like a nice bear coming through... I tried to stand up and the seat of my climber rubbed against the tree and the bear ran back about 30 yards. I continued to stand because the bear was behind some trees. I stood up and hooked my release on my bow and waited. The bear came back in very cautiously and stopped every step and sniffed. It was acting really spooky. It laid down and ate the bottom of a bush and then got up and presented me a 15 yard broadside shot. As I drew, my fletching hit my face mask and it looked right at me. It was too late. I put the pin behind it's shoulder and touched the trigger. I hit that bear so hard I couldn't believe it. It only went 25 yards and piled up.... then came that awful death moan.
I knew the bear was not very big, but I could only hunt a very limited time this season for bears... And I judged the bear to be around 125lb... nothing big, but I had never taken a bear with the bow.
Well, talk about ground shrinkage!!! I got caught up in the excitement of having a bear 15 yards from me and being only 12 feet in the tree.
Well, to make a long story short... it turned out to be a very pretty little sow that only tipped the scales at 100lb! I feel bad that I harvested such a small bear, especially a sow, but at the same time I am very excited and proud since it was my first bear w/ the bow... My other 2 300+lbers were with the rifle...
So, I'm kindof on an emotional roller coaster on this one.

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