Recovering an Animal after 36+ Hours

[tigrr]

Don't feel to bad we all loose an animal sooner or later. I shot a bear last fall and it went charging into a hillside of 4 and 5 foot brush, thimble berry and rose bush cover. I spent 2 days looking and never found any animal. I know it was a solid hit. Lots of blood at the impact sight. I searched a foot ball field sized area and nothing. You give it your best and move on.
My 2020 spring bear yielded 60 lbs of just meat.

[two-feet]

One thing I learned is that it is easy (at least for me) to get too focused on the blood trail and but obvious to the big picture. Bear was sitting there 3 yards away, luckily in a dazed state, while I'm still inspecting the ground for little specs of blood. Oops.

Pretty much impossible to spot a black bear in thick bush/shadows especially in fading light. I shot a bear that went 30 yrds and it took me 2 hours to find it, stone dead. Visibility of zero with rhubarb 7’ high.
My dad lost a bear that he arrowed at 7 yds, found a puddle of blood with big lung pieces in it, never found the bear after 2 days of looking. They can hole up pretty good.

[Huevos]

That is too bad to hear you were unable to rcover the animal. I am glad to hear you have taken some lessons from the experience. I'd like to add a couple pointers. You made the right call to back out at dark. No animal is worth risking your safety, but you should have been back first light. I don't know your particular circumstances, especially with this whole pandemic crappy job market, but I view this as an emergency. Work usually can wait.
The rifle used was plenty of gun to get the job done. If I were to guess what happened to this bear, I would say he was shot too low. In my experience, I have seen bears wounded a few different times in similar situations. Bears are built different than deer, they have no brisket. They are barrel chested like we are. Their fur can hang down 3 inches or so, and their armpit is a small hollow spot. Your eye will a lot of times fill in the space between the bears elbow and belly, so the bottom looks farther down than it is. If you aim bottom third (like on a deer or elk) you run the risk of missing the vitals by shooting too low. I recommend aiming right behind the shoulder, midway down. Double lung a bear and he will not go far. If you listen, you can usually hear him die with a death moan if double lunged.
There is a fair chance that this bear is still running around and will make a full recovery (we will never know).

[Pablothemagnificent]

Jrax made a very good point when he said to keep your ears alert for raven, crows and eagles when searching for an animal. If the animal is dead, the scavengers will be on-site in short order. I would add one thing. If you are tracking game and you hear a cacophony of ravens, ascertain whether they are on the ground or in the trees. If they are on the ground then they are feeding, however, if they are in the trees that would be an indication that there is a larger scavenger on the meat at the moment - possibly another bear, coyotes or wolves. I learned that lesson the hard way twenty years back. My son and I were in the Hudsons Hope area on the August GOS for moose. He was 14 at the time. We heard something big in a spruce grove as we made our way down a seismic line. A moose perhaps? We approached slealthfully. There was a lot of noise coming from a conspiracy of ravens. They were in the treetops. Being a new hunter, I didn't clue in. We got closer, and I started to get an eerie feeling, that hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck feeling. Finally, I turned to my son and said, "We're leaving" He called me a chicken. I insisted and we backtracked. Two minutes later, back on the main fsr, we are making our way back to camp for breakfast. Suddenly, my son yells, "Dad! Look!". Out from the bush behind us ambles a grizzly. Turns out he was burying a kill. Fortunately, we had sufficient space between us and the bear that he didn't charge us, but we were definitely on the defensive the rest of the 4 km hike back to camp.

[elch jager]

Surprised no-one mentioned it already... whoever wounded that animal needs to cut their tag. Probable should report it to the CO as well. If it was in an area that people may be hiking, especially unarmed camper/hikers... your responsibility is to ensure no-one wanders into a cranky wounded bear...

[IronNoggin]

Surprised no-one mentioned it already... whoever wounded that animal needs to cut their tag. Probable should report it to the CO as well. If it was in an area that people may be hiking, especially unarmed camper/hikers... your responsibility is to ensure no-one wanders into a cranky wounded bear...

While it may well be a good idea to let the CO's in on the situation, no-one "needs to cut their tag".
Period.
Absolutely Inane to do so.

Reality.

Nog

[elch jager]

Yer positive on that Matt? I was pretty sure you had to, but now can't find anything in the wildlife acts that says you have to cut your tag for an unrecovered animal...
Hmm.... I'll ask my CO friend...

[Arctic Lake]

I’d like to know as well !
Arctic Lake

Yer positive on that Matt? I was pretty sure you had to, but now can't find anything in the wildlife acts that says you have to cut your tag for an unrecovered animal...
Hmm.... I'll ask my CO friend...

[JagrM]

Can’t recall where I heard/read this information or if it’s true but as I understand you don’t “have” to cut your tag for an unrecovered animal. The powers that be account for some wound loss in their equation.

[Ron.C]

Can recall where I heard/read this information or if it’s true but as I understand you don’t “have” to cut your tag for an unrecovered animal. The powers that be account for some wound loss in their equation.

Look on page 10 of the regs. You cancel your tag after you kill the animal and before you handle it. Need to make sure you have a dead animal first, so don't cancel your tag until you are standing over one.