A fellow bowhunter was recently telling of an experience he had this past year. He has hunted this area for at least 10-15 years. It is public land open to anyone. One evening when returning to his pick-up after spending the day in the woods he found he had a flat tire. When he took it in to be fixed, the mechanic told him it was not fixable because the inside wall had been stabbed or slashed by a large knife. He had seen two other "hunters" in the area, but completely avoided the section they were in. Apparently they were trying to force him out of the area.

It reminded me of another incidence in the same general area we had a number of years ago. We were quietly moving through the woods, stillhunting when we came upon a bear that had obviously died 3-4 weeks earlier. One of my friends wanted the skull thinking it would make an interesting display. This is what he found after cleaning the skull:
I have given it a little thought and can come up with three possible scenarios.
1. The guy was bearhunting and after he killed it he realized it was too small.
2. Was deer hunting and the bear happened by and he took the opportunity to kill a bear even tho he was not licensed to do so.
3. Was bearhunting legally, shot the bear but was afraid to trail it. I don't think it to likely as we were in a fairly open area of the woods and besides,I can't imagine a bear would go very far with a 4 blade broadhead stuck in the middle of his brain. But,I could be wrong.
Any thoughts?

it came by and they just killed it for fun.... that also explains the head shot.

It sure doesn't appear to be too small, so I can't imagine that would be the case.  I suppose the other scenarios you list are possible, but my guess would be that the unfortunate bear was just a lot more resiliant than you give it credit for.  Animals can take amazing hits, and often times recover.  I've certainly seen plenty of photos with broadheads in skulls where the animal survived perfectly fine.  Pretty hard to say for sure that it died on the spot that it was hit.

MnFn, I don't want to poopoo, on your poopoo party, but you would be amazed at how far a mortally wounded animal could go, I also doubt it had much of a blood trail.

It could of rained all night and there was no blood trail etc......

I'm going to go with the glass half full and the hunter did everything they could to find it, but it was still lost.

I gotta say a 4 blade to dome and what looks like pretty good penetration I don't think that animal would have gotten very far.

Could have been a quartering away shot that was too high.
Could have been the bear had his nose to the ground during a quartering away shot that went wide.
Could be the bear made a quick movement at the time of the shot.
Could be that the bear traveled for miles or days before it died and the hunter lost the blood trail.
Could be the blood trail was lost because of rain.
Could be the hunter still feels sick every time the scenario of this shot is played over in his/ her head.
Could have been the bear was caught slicing a tire and was shot. Did you find a knife by the corpse?

The tire slashing incident is really bad. These people are out there,same type that would steal a tree stand or break into a fella's truck. The dead bear is just an unknown. A bears head is a long way from the center of his chest. Nasty shot.

Both are unknowns. I'd hate to have someone assume I did something to their vehicle just because I was hunting in the woods in the area. Posts like this serve no purpose but feeding on ourselves. We have enough folks out there who want us to look bad, why do we need to help them like this?

I can't see it well enough but that hit is pretty far forward in the brain, and low.  I doubt it is in the middle of his brain. Probably blinded that eye from the damage. Three inches back and it would have dropped on the spot.  Head shots are bad news cause....if done right, there is no blood trail (needed)..  if done wrong...  well there is no blood trail.   He very well may have been able to run quite a way with that hit.. hard to tell.
ChuckC

Tyre slashers.... arse holes.
You can only speculate about the bear. give whoever was in the situation the benefti of the doubt.

Hear say, would a could a should a.

I have the right to remain silent,          :D

Good responses all. You could be right that it got far enough away that he could not find it. Still does not seem too likely to me tho.
Whip, the bear was faily small - the picture is very flattering to the bear.
Good one Gatekeeper, no knife was found. Yes there are a lot of could be's. I like your last possibility the best.
I should note that when you view the picture all you are seeing is arrow shaft and  fractured skull. There are four nice slices through the skull.The entire broadhead is inside the cranium.

Having read the post and then reading Vermonster13's reply, I agree with David. Was getting ready to fire my response and when I saw David's post he said it all.

Maybe the guy that shot the bear just packed out the meat.

A few yrs ago, while quietly slipping into the woods, I inadvertently, disturbed another hunter, in his tree stand.  I apoloized, for my unintented presence, as I passed by his stand.  A few minutes later I here his stand come crashing down, as if he had thrown it. I thought Chill Man, $h-t happens, and the day was early--(dawn)  Anyway when I came out a few hrs. later, I found that the door of my truck had been kicked in--- $1400 repair.  I watched every where I went for months, hoping to see that guys truck. Its probably better for the both of us, that I never found him.

Depends where on the brain that shot was. Does anyone else remember that true story of that man on a construction site who had a good size pipe come through his head? It blinded him in one eye as I remember and he had severe personality changes..but he lived for years. People have literally shot themselves through the head and lived-the bullet went in one side and came out the other, usually doing some damage but surviving the trauma nevertheless.

A friend of mine once killed a huge buck with a razorback five broadhead buried in the skull, between the antlers. It had been there for quite awhile and the deer showed no outward signs of being injured...Things are not always what they seem...I will agree that there are some real jerks out there, but you don't have enough evidence of that in either instance.

David

Gotta go with Vermonster on this one guys.....

Ok. I thought it was just going to be an interesting post. In retrospect the title was not the best, and I did jump to some pretty negative conclusions. Some plausible explanations about the bear were offered by others. I probably should have just posted the picture and let people come to their own conclusions. Wasn't intending to offend anyone, sorry if that occurred.

We all jump to conclusions at times and it is a good thing to have someone(s) to talk to and discuss the scenario,  get another point of view.  Sometimes it changes our own perspective on what just happened.  Something happened and you now have a really cool trophy.
ChuckC