Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: stringstretcher on October 05, 2009, 06:36:34 pm

Title: Bear hunting
Post by: stringstretcher on October 05, 2009, 06:36:34 pm
What would you consider to be too light of a weight bow to use to hunt bear?  At what weights have you bear hunters used successfully?
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: Justin Snyder on October 05, 2009, 07:25:36 pm
I would say #45 should do the trick. A lot of states require 45# for elk. If it is big enough for elk, it is big enough for bear. However, it also depends on what style of bear hunting you are planning. Hounding, spot and stock, baiting, or calling are completely different and the bow needs may vary. For calling, I want the biggest bow I am comfortable and accurate with.  ;)
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: stringstretcher on October 05, 2009, 07:49:43 pm
Since we can not bait, my bear hunting will be sitting and waiting, maybe some stalking.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: youngbowyer33 on October 05, 2009, 07:54:49 pm
i would never stalk a bear for fear of itattacking me....but i only hunt squirrels
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: mullet on October 05, 2009, 07:57:43 pm
 I sure wish I could stick the one that destroyed my new Pop-up blind this past week. >:D
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: Justin Snyder on October 05, 2009, 09:01:18 pm
youngbowyer, does that mean you wont be calling bears with me? Nothing like using a distress call so you are the wounded animal that they are comming to eat.  ;D

That is what blunts are for Eddie. I like the ones with the slightly concave front. You can stick a paintball to them to see where you hit.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: hawkbow on October 05, 2009, 09:12:39 pm
I would not try and shoot a bear with anything less than 55# at 28.. they are tough skinned and their hair is a real arrow stopper. I am no expert by any means, but would say that over kill is always better when hunting fellow predators.. and razor sharp points is a must for bears.... happy hunting... Hawk  a/ho
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: Indiancharlie on October 05, 2009, 09:15:58 pm
Eddie, were you in the blind when the bear ripped it up??  :o  ::)
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: sailordad on October 05, 2009, 09:16:57 pm
normally i like to shoot 45-55
for bear i think i would condition myself for a heavy draw of atleast 65+#
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: recurve shooter on October 06, 2009, 09:50:04 am
id go with a bout a 500 pound BALISTA from a treestand. ;D

i dont really have any predators to hunt down here (at least not the one's that wold like to eat me) so i would be terrified.

Eddie, you have BEARS over there?????
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: coyote pup on October 06, 2009, 11:04:55 am
I never have hunted bar, and probably never will, but if I ever did it wouldn't be anything less than what Hawk said, a good 55# for black, and I don't think I would bother with less than 70# if we're talking grizzly. You shoot a deer with a less than perfect shot or weight, you can still go home to tell about it, but a danged ol bar - I just don't wanna piss him off.  :o
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: mullet on October 06, 2009, 02:23:28 pm
 Charlie, I was going to get in it Saturday morning and found it flattened and wripped. A 100 yards behind my stand is a cypress tree the size of a telephone pole that looks like a cat scratching post. One of the other guy's had one come under his stand. Said it was the biggest Fl. bear he has ever seen, he said as big as my John Deere Gator.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: Hillbilly on October 06, 2009, 04:40:56 pm
I would want some poundage, at least 55#-60# or more for a bear with a selfbow, and some heavy arrows-at least 600 grains or more, preferably. Like Mike said, they have thick hair plus a thick layer of fat. We were skinning a big old one once and a good handfull of .22 bullets and shotgun pellets fell out when we pulled the hide off, they had just penetrated the skin and got stuck in the fat layer. They don't die real easy with a .30/30-I've seen some shot bears come down a tree and take a few dogs with'em.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: coyote pup on October 06, 2009, 04:57:31 pm
Maybe we should take it from Geronimo. In "His Own Words" he says he has killed several cougar with a bow and one with a spear, but mentions only killing bear with a spear and doesn't say anything about a bow. I wonder what was the method most often used by other indian people.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: zeNBowyer on October 06, 2009, 05:24:31 pm
I've  never  killed a  bar yet  but my  2 cents
tough  dangerous  game  calls  for  heavier  bows, 60+  in  my  book
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: recurve shooter on October 07, 2009, 09:53:26 am
balista.  ;D
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: mullet on October 07, 2009, 09:51:56 pm
  Indiancharlie killed damn near a record bear in Canada a few years ago with his long bow. I think he is shooting around 65#. He said it didn't go far after he shot it.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: redwasp on October 13, 2009, 10:39:21 pm
.44 mag. for backup  ;).
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: brokenhand on October 14, 2009, 05:20:49 pm
    The last bear I killed with a bow was with a 58# at 28, and it did a fine job....brokenhand....Aho.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: WVFishFearMe on October 20, 2009, 08:31:16 am
You see plenty of videos of the bears running away when shot. I saw a video that changed my mind about shooting a bear from the ground with a bow - it defoliated the area and stood my hair up. Someone else said .44 Mag backup. In WV you must have a concealed weapons permit and can not carry the pistol outside your clothing during a bow hunt.
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: zeNBowyer on October 20, 2009, 08:38:02 am
California also  has the  most idiotic  law  of  denying  a  bowhunter  a  sidearm during  an archery  hunt, it  is  an  outrageous violation of  the  hunter  to  put  himself  in  harms  way  like  this
Title: Re: Bear hunting
Post by: mullet on October 20, 2009, 10:50:47 pm
 All I can say if you want to follow your State laws, is to be patient and make that shot count. It seems to me if you are going to hunt a bear on the ground, or low stand with primitive equipment; you better be doing it for the adrenalin rush, and be good at what you are doing.

 I know that's the reason I'm going to do it.  :)