Requesting assistance.
 

So, I was going through my photos, just for memories, and I think I discovered something about my 2020 black bear I took.

Heres the whole story of my 2020 black bear.

I went into the mountains to my bait barrel. I filled the barrel. About 10 minutes later, a black bear showed up at the barrel. I waited a few minutes for a clear shot. After I got an almost clear view, I fired, and missed. I tried again, and missed again. The bear ran off.

Then, a black bear ran towards me. I assumed it was charging at me, and I shot it and dropped it in one hit. I got my bear.

To this day, I thought the bear at the barrel and the bear I shot were the same bear. After reviewing the photos of the bear on the trail camera and the bear I shot, I am beginning to think they were actually two different bears.

I am attaching the pictures I am referring to.

Heres where I need help. Judging from the pictures and the story, are these two different bears?

If they are, it’s a lesson learned.

Jared

That’s odd, photos didn’t work. Hang on.

Go to my thread in the technical section on posting photos and follow the directions. Quick and easy.

-Jake

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tec...your-post.html

Here's a link to that thread so that you can find it easily.

-Jake

Here are the pictures of the trail camera and the bear I took.

If I am wrong, and they are the same bear, I am confused. Why would a bear run BACK to where the shots were when it was just shot at?

If I am right, and they are two different bears, I need to pay more attention to shot placement so I do not miss in the future, AND I need to pay attention to surroundings so I know how many bears are near the barrel.

Jared

its my first question for you in this deal would eb, was teh FIRST bear you shot at BLACK or the color of the bear you GOT??

as color wise, MOST black bears are BLACK< so, ??
what color was the first bear you shot at??

NEXT IMO< its just not possible to see any difference in pics of the bears as the one trail cam pic just doesn't have enough light to see color or size or?/
as for the bear CHARGING you, I highly doubt that was what happened, but if you really THINK the bear was charging you, and that happened after you shot at it, it would sort of explain why a bear would run at the sound of the gun, rather than away from it A more likely event IMO< would be like this

there very well could have bare more than one bear hitting your bait, and its NOT that uncommon for several to be at a bait site at once, , or NOT far behind other bears coming into it!

and IMO< the bear you shot was a younger bear most likely first yr on its own, and very well could have had a sibling with it you didnl;t see or was again just coming into things when the shooting started and just plain RAN scared when the shot happened!
and well just happens to run into you in the process!

and YES< I think you should very much try and pick your shot better and get maybe more practice with shooting as well

as in all honestly, and I mean NO bash here just being honest

if you MISS with your first shot at a more stationary target one you get to PICK your shot on!
and then MISS the second NOW moving target
and HIT on your third shot, odds are your third shot was maybe just a LOT of LUCK! and not skill!
as most folks don;'t do very well at hitting moving targets, never mind all excited at the time of shooting too!
taking poor shots at a bears is also NOT the best idea in the world either, all the more so when your in all honestly again, using a rather light caliber gun too boot here!

as when you use smaller calibers, your supposed to be more picky on when and where you shoot if at all?
as tracking a wounded bear is NOT a fun adventure most want to do!

one of the MAIN reasons they allow baiting is so folks have more time to judge bears(size and sex) and then take more precise shots due to bears tend to hang about longer to allow all this too happen!

we all get excited and all, so again NO bash here
just saying in the future, if I was you, I'd be picking my shots better come hunting time, and in the off season, I'd be doing a bunch of shooting practice to hone your skills more, so when crunch time comes you are more natural about it!

I would also highly suggest spending more time learning more about bears, how to judge them for size and sex!
as they say knowledge is power, and will ONLY make you a BETTER hunter in doing so and that will also lead to you being more successful down the road!

also food for thought here , and again NO bash, just speaking from experience
WHAT IF??
what if there were two bears and you shot BOTH
as I highly doubt you THOUGHT there was a second bear at the time
but what IF
the first bear you shot at you actually HIT and just wounded and it left a blood trail
that would maybe mean you killed 2 bears(unknowingly )

as you sure wouldn;t be the first person to shot at a animal, thinking they missed and then shooting a second one ONLY to discover that you actually HIT the first one too!

this is why its always sort of expected for hunters to do there due diligence in LOOKING for signs of a hit before going after other animals!
and why many state game dept, I think used to make folks fully remove one big game animals(like say a deer) before they were allowed to continue hunting same species(as in if you had more than one tag to do so)

it helped prevent SOME TIMES< folks from targeting others animals till they got there first one tagged and back at there vehicle or home p[ending rules!

again, food for thought and things again happen in the heat of the moment
but we as hunters should try our best to make sure anything we shoot at is either found/recovered , determined as a miss by actually LOOKING, before continuing on with our hunts!
its the ethically and moral thing to do! IMO

First off, I am not taking this as a bash whatsoever. I really appreciate you helping. Like I said, it’s a lesson learned. Second, About the color, the first one was black, the one that charged me was brown that I shot, now that I think about it. I think they WERE two different bears.

What did I learn from this? Well, a lot. Everything you said, in fact. We all make mistakes, some bigger than others, but we learn from them.

Anyway, I actually moved far away from that bear spot. I have yet to find a new bear spot, so I won’t bear hunt for a while.

That’ll give me time to review and learn from my mistakes.

Thanks a bunch for being willing to help me. Maybe my next bear will go more smoothly.

Jared