Headed out for a bear hunt with my brother. Spotted a bear, there was some humming and hawing about wether or not we wee going to take him. I told my brother I'm holding out for something huge. My brother figured if he could get it with his crossbow it'd get him some sausages and he had to head back to work. MY brother was cocked and locked. He asked me the yardage. I called 50. He let the bolt fly. Seen it disappear and the bear walked off. I knew the bear was hit, but a little high and the bear didn't do the classic spin and bite. We gave it a bit and went in. There was no blood where the bear was standing.
I figured with it being a higher hit, the blood may be just pooling in the chest cavity or the hide was soaking up blood. So we tracked down the bolt and there was good blood all over the fletching. So I went to where the bear was standing, I looked up the hill and figured, this is the direction he travelled and the easiest route of travel. The "trail" kind of cut across the trail toward a gully. Our luck I figured the bear would have tumbled or went to lay down in the thick cover... YAY
We cut across the hill a little and I looked down and seen him piled up by a tree about 30 yards below us.
The worst part of bear hunting... going up to make sure it was dead. Threw enough logs and rocks at it to make sure. Then I realized this guy was full of burrs. Good thing there was no intention of keeping the hide anyways.
My brother spent the next day grinding, mixing and smoking 80 pounds worth of sausages.