do they go down after only taking out one lung or do they give you the bird never to be seen again? are they tough to put down?
getting psyched for a black bear hunt.
Ozy' they can usually survive a one lung hit.
i shot my bear this year through one lung it was a tough track job but there was a dead bear at the end of it. i shot him with a wheelie bow it took 10 years for me to draw a tag and i was hunting a 450+ lber down to the las day the last hour and he never showed alittle one did so i took him so i cant say how a good size bear handles a single lung hit. But from working at the taxidermy shop and doing alot of talking and listening they seem like a fairly easy animal to put down, draw a line horizontally thourgh the middle of the body and virtically through the middle of the lenght of the body any hit above the horizontal line and to the front side of the virtical line youll have a dead beer for sure, be aware that it is easy to shoot low on these critters they have big saggy bellys good luck its a fun hunt
Just thinkin out loud here; but bears do lower their heart beats and while not real hibernators; they can lower their metabolism. Deer cannot - so what goes for deer does not apply to bears. They can take a hit; and lay down for a week; and get up thinner - but healed. A one lung shot might kill a majority of bears; but those that survive.... I think its because they sleep so deeply that their wounds; even a lung hit; can heal.
Total speculation; but I have seen bears others shot and lost; come back into baits a week or two later.
( there was a lot of that when fletched arrows starting coming in left wing. There were a lot of broadheads with replaceable blades; that lost their blades in flight. Then too: it was the early days of compounds; where a porpoising arrow put the inertia not behind the broadhead; but in the arrow shaft itself- causing arrows to flip over or under after hitting a bear: and leaving a small wound)
I would think a bullet wound would cause much more of an infection prone wound than a slice from an arrow.
Best to hit both lungs; and watch them hit the ground.
Its bear season !!!!!!