Country boy hunts bear with a BOW !!!

[Robert_S]

Did anyone watch the video ? that wasn't hunting .

Yes, I did. He was stood on that little observation platform with his bow and shit-eating grin ... he was even wearing camouflage gear and everything.

I think I'll just dedicate this posting of a Paul Thorn song to him:

[Seth]

Hardly sportsmanlike conduct shown in the video, and the people involved got what they deserved. Still, bear hunting is a legitimate activity when done ethically.

The very first animal I shot after I took up bow hunting was a light-coated black bear, whom I shot with a bow, face to face, at four yards. I'm looking at his cinnamon-brown pelt right now as it sits draped over my office chair.

I was elk hunting in Colorado about six years ago and had drawn a bear tag. I drove my Jeep up a trail on some private land where I was hunting and parked, waiting for the wind to shift so I could hunt up the trail. I was standing in front of the Jeep getting ready, getting my camo on and my bow ready when I heard a crashing in the brush up the ridge to my right. I at first though it might be elk, as one crashed away up the ridge and the other came towards me, but it wasn't a loud enough crashing to be an elk coming at me. I pulled my camo mask down, picked up my bow and knocked an arrow. I was standing about a foot in front of my Jeep looking up the ridge when I saw a black nose peek up out of the brush about 30 yards away. I drew and held and aimed at the little game trail arch in the brush at the edge of the trail. Sure enough the bear came right down the trail to me, stopped at the edge of the trail, put his front feet up on a log and looked directly at me. I let him have it right through the chest. He snarled and batted at his chest, turned and ran back up the trail.

The fun part was crawling through the oak brush on hands and knees following the blood-trail of a wounded bear, .45 in hand.

He got about 70 yards (in about 10 seconds) and then died, shot through from stem to stern, right through the heart and out just in front of the left rear leg. The hard part was dragging him through the oak brush back to the trail. Not a huge bear, he weighed about 300 pounds. Very, very tasty too.

He looked a lot bigger than that from four yards away though, I can tell you. One of the most exciting moments of my life.

Well the only saving grace in that little tale is that you ate him. At least you did that. But perhaps a bow isn't the most humane way to hunt your meat?

Sure it is. Gives the animal a much better chance to escape. You have to be stealthy and get within 40 yards, which means your camo and noise discipline needs to be perfect. Plus, he could have attacked me and it would have been a tossup as to who won. He was four yards away, that's perhaps two seconds. Had I jerked my shot and missed, I could have been lunch. I think it's eminently fair. He died within probably 20 seconds. That's far more humane than any other death he was likely to encounter in the woods. And the only thing I hunt but don't eat was prairie dogs when I was culling them on the ranch to keep a stable population, and coyotes, who are rank and pretty much inedible...unless you're starving.

I make no apologies for ethical hunting. It's as natural as nature itself, and mankind has been doing it for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Nature is neither cruel nor kind, it just is, and human beings are fully a part of nature and have every right to hunt other creatures, just as other creatures hunt each other and us, and from personal experience I can say that I've never been more closely attuned to the rhythms of nature than when bow-hunting. It also provides an appreciation of nature and the habitat that animals require like no other. Most people never experience the outdoors in as intimate a way as when hunting, especially bow-hunting. Unlike some, I'm not a blind hunter, I'm a stalker, and to be successful, you have to be really good at it. I have yet to get an elk with a bow. I also rifle hunt, but prefer the intimacy and craft of bow hunting.

[charlou]

Seth, ethical hunting for meat ... yes ... but what's ethical about hunting for sport? What do you make of the attitude of the guy in the OP who was just killing an animal for fun?

[pErvinalia]

Hardly sportsmanlike conduct shown in the video, and the people involved got what they deserved. Still, bear hunting is a legitimate activity when done ethically.

The very first animal I shot after I took up bow hunting was a light-coated black bear, whom I shot with a bow, face to face, at four yards. I'm looking at his cinnamon-brown pelt right now as it sits draped over my office chair.

I was elk hunting in Colorado about six years ago and had drawn a bear tag. I drove my Jeep up a trail on some private land where I was hunting and parked, waiting for the wind to shift so I could hunt up the trail. I was standing in front of the Jeep getting ready, getting my camo on and my bow ready when I heard a crashing in the brush up the ridge to my right. I at first though it might be elk, as one crashed away up the ridge and the other came towards me, but it wasn't a loud enough crashing to be an elk coming at me. I pulled my camo mask down, picked up my bow and knocked an arrow. I was standing about a foot in front of my Jeep looking up the ridge when I saw a black nose peek up out of the brush about 30 yards away. I drew and held and aimed at the little game trail arch in the brush at the edge of the trail. Sure enough the bear came right down the trail to me, stopped at the edge of the trail, put his front feet up on a log and looked directly at me. I let him have it right through the chest. He snarled and batted at his chest, turned and ran back up the trail.

The fun part was crawling through the oak brush on hands and knees following the blood-trail of a wounded bear, .45 in hand.

He got about 70 yards (in about 10 seconds) and then died, shot through from stem to stern, right through the heart and out just in front of the left rear leg. The hard part was dragging him through the oak brush back to the trail. Not a huge bear, he weighed about 300 pounds. Very, very tasty too.

He looked a lot bigger than that from four yards away though, I can tell you. One of the most exciting moments of my life.

Well the only saving grace in that little tale is that you ate him. At least you did that. But perhaps a bow isn't the most humane way to hunt your meat?

Sure it is. Gives the animal a much better chance to escape. You have to be stealthy and get within 40 yards, which means your camo and noise discipline needs to be perfect. Plus, he could have attacked me and it would have been a tossup as to who won. He was four yards away, that's perhaps two seconds. Had I jerked my shot and missed, I could have been lunch. I think it's eminently fair.

I don't really care about "fair". I don't hold silly idealistic notions requiring fairness before you can hunt. It's not competitive sports we are talking about here. It's hunting for food. I'm most concerned about humane killing. The fact that he didn't die immediately (or as quickly as possible using appropriate weapons - i.e. guns) and pawed at the arrow shows that he was in pain. I'd hope you mostly hunt with guns now that you've got that childish fantasy out of your system.

He died within probably 20 seconds. That's far more humane than any other death he was likely to encounter in the woods.

But less humane if you had of used a gun perhaps?

I make no apologies for ethical hunting. It's as natural as nature itself, and mankind has been doing it for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Nature is neither cruel nor kind, it just is, and human beings are fully a part of nature and have every right to hunt other creatures, just as other creatures hunt each other and us,...

Sure, I agree with this. But due to our sapience, we can make reasonable arguments in favour of reducing suffering, and take reasonable measures to reduce suffering. I've never been seriously hunting in my life (i've popped a few random shots off at things from time to time), but I would imagine that a reasonable measure would be to use a gun instead of a bow.

[Feck]

The humanity of hunting with any tool is almost entirely up to the hunter . A bow is just as capable of killing even a large animal quickly BUT only if used correctly .If you are the sort of person who ends up flinging, arrows,bolts, spears or bullets at an animal in the hope of hitting a vital spot then you should not be hunting . The thing I found disturbing about the video was that this wannabe hunter is living in a culture where a point blank shot from a treehide is seen as a brave almost heroic thing . I find that distasteful enough, to then find that the bear had been hand reared and was 'tame' and fenced in just reinforces my opinion of both of those guys . I would happily hunt them .

PS hunting of any animal with a bow is illegal in the UK mostly because of the amount of animals found by animal welfare people dead or dying with arrows stuck in them .

[Seth]

Seth, ethical hunting for meat ... yes ... but what's ethical about hunting for sport? What do you make of the attitude of the guy in the OP who was just killing an animal for fun?

I don't subscribe to killing for "fun." I do subscribe to hunting however. The honing of tracking, stalking, hunting, killing and dressing game skills is a useful enterprise, not to mention making the consumption of meat a far more ethical practice than thinking that your cheeseburger came from McDonalds. I believe that anyone who eats meat or wears fur or leather ought to be required to hunt, kill, field-dress, transport, butcher, cook and eat at least ONE animal in their life, simply to give them perspective on where their meals come from and what it takes to produce them.

Hunting is a valuable skill as well because it puts one a large jump ahead of those whose hunting skills only go as far as the corner market, who will starve and die if they are deprived of regular food deliveries. It also gives one a deep understanding of wilderness and habitat and why it's necessary to preserve it.

To me, ethical hunting requires a purpose; either to obtain food, for conservation purposes, to relieve suffering, or in self-defense.

The video epitomizes unethical hunting. If the bear needed to be killed because it was too sick and old to keep alive, then the killing should have been done much more humanely and quickly, using a rifle and a head-shot. I have no compunctions about killing a suffering animal quickly and humanely. I had to shoot the dog pictured in my avatar myself because an inept vet spent 20 minutes torturing him trying to find a vein to inject sedative. It was so painful that Arod, my 16 year old best friend, who had never snarled at or tried to bite any human being ever, did so after being stuck more than 10 times. I finally took him home and let him fall asleep peacefully in the yard, and then shot him in the head with a small-caliber rifle while he was asleep, killing him instantly and painlessly. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and it took me years to get over it, but it was necessary and the kindest thing for him.

[Seth]

Hardly sportsmanlike conduct shown in the video, and the people involved got what they deserved. Still, bear hunting is a legitimate activity when done ethically.

The very first animal I shot after I took up bow hunting was a light-coated black bear, whom I shot with a bow, face to face, at four yards. I'm looking at his cinnamon-brown pelt right now as it sits draped over my office chair.

I was elk hunting in Colorado about six years ago and had drawn a bear tag. I drove my Jeep up a trail on some private land where I was hunting and parked, waiting for the wind to shift so I could hunt up the trail. I was standing in front of the Jeep getting ready, getting my camo on and my bow ready when I heard a crashing in the brush up the ridge to my right. I at first though it might be elk, as one crashed away up the ridge and the other came towards me, but it wasn't a loud enough crashing to be an elk coming at me. I pulled my camo mask down, picked up my bow and knocked an arrow. I was standing about a foot in front of my Jeep looking up the ridge when I saw a black nose peek up out of the brush about 30 yards away. I drew and held and aimed at the little game trail arch in the brush at the edge of the trail. Sure enough the bear came right down the trail to me, stopped at the edge of the trail, put his front feet up on a log and looked directly at me. I let him have it right through the chest. He snarled and batted at his chest, turned and ran back up the trail.

The fun part was crawling through the oak brush on hands and knees following the blood-trail of a wounded bear, .45 in hand.

He got about 70 yards (in about 10 seconds) and then died, shot through from stem to stern, right through the heart and out just in front of the left rear leg. The hard part was dragging him through the oak brush back to the trail. Not a huge bear, he weighed about 300 pounds. Very, very tasty too.

He looked a lot bigger than that from four yards away though, I can tell you. One of the most exciting moments of my life.

Well the only saving grace in that little tale is that you ate him. At least you did that. But perhaps a bow isn't the most humane way to hunt your meat?

Sure it is. Gives the animal a much better chance to escape. You have to be stealthy and get within 40 yards, which means your camo and noise discipline needs to be perfect. Plus, he could have attacked me and it would have been a tossup as to who won. He was four yards away, that's perhaps two seconds. Had I jerked my shot and missed, I could have been lunch. I think it's eminently fair.

I don't really care about "fair". I don't hold silly idealistic notions requiring fairness before you can hunt. It's not competitive sports we are talking about here. It's hunting for food. I'm most concerned about humane killing. The fact that he didn't die immediately (or as quickly as possible using appropriate weapons - i.e. guns) and pawed at the arrow shows that he was in pain.

Yes, I'm sure there was some pain, but it was brief, and a gunshot is no more certain and does not kill an animal instantly unless it's a head-shot, so it really makes no difference. Nature is not kind to animals, and they die in agony every day by the

millions.

I'd hope you mostly hunt with guns now that you've got that childish fantasy out of your system.

Not at all. It's not a "childish fantasy" it's a hunting ethic. It's no different than two bears attacking one another or an elk goring a bear, or a bear killing an elk. The intent is to inflict as little pain as possible, but there is no "no-pain" hunting.

He died within probably 20 seconds. That's far more humane than any other death he was likely to encounter in the woods.

But less humane if you had of used a gun perhaps?

Depends on what your metric for "humane" is.

I make no apologies for ethical hunting. It's as natural as nature itself, and mankind has been doing it for hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Nature is neither cruel nor kind, it just is, and human beings are fully a part of nature and have every right to hunt other creatures, just as other creatures hunt each other and us,...

Sure, I agree with this. But due to our sapience, we can make reasonable arguments in favour of reducing suffering, and take reasonable measures to reduce suffering. I've never been seriously hunting in my life (i've popped a few random shots off at things from time to time), but I would imagine that a reasonable measure would be to use a gun instead of a bow.

I don't have a quibble with reducing suffering where it's reasonable to do so, but that presumes that one method is less painful than another, which may not be the case. Hunting arrows are tipped with razor-sharp broadheads, and while they certainly hurt when they strike, I've seen deer jump, run a dozen yards, then stop and stand there till they bled out and died, seeming more confused than anything. Having a high-velocity bullet explode inside is likely to be more painful, particularly if it's not a good vital-zone shot.

The nature of hunting is that animals are going to die, more or less painfully depending on the skill of the hunter, and an ethical hunter always tries to make a clean kill to reduce the suffering. Things don't always work out that way, but that's just how life is, and the animal will die eventually anyway, and will likely suffer in the process. Bow hunting has the advantage of requiring much greater skill (ordinarily, during a stalking hunt) and the tipping of the odds highly in favor of the animal, which if it is suited to evolutionary survival, will have keen senses and will detect the hunter and flee and not be shot at at all. Quite different from shooting at an animal from 2, 3, 4, 5 or 600 yards away with a rifle.

[JimC]

I tried hunting rabbits with a bow when I was younger. Never hit one, so I went back to my trusty .22...

Definitely ethical hunting, too, as they are an introduced pest in Oz, and we either ate 'em or fed 'em to the farm dogs...

[Cormac]

Seth, ethical hunting for meat ... yes ... but what's ethical about hunting for sport? What do you make of the attitude of the guy in the OP who was just killing an animal for fun?

I don't subscribe to killing for "fun." I do subscribe to hunting however. The honing of tracking, stalking, hunting, killing and dressing game skills is a useful enterprise, not to mention making the consumption of meat a far more ethical practice than thinking that your cheeseburger came from McDonalds. I believe that anyone who eats meat or wears fur or leather ought to be required to hunt, kill, field-dress, transport, butcher, cook and eat at least ONE animal in their life, simply to give them perspective on where their meals come from and what it takes to produce them.

Hunting is a valuable skill as well because it puts one a large jump ahead of those whose hunting skills only go as far as the corner market, who will starve and die if they are deprived of regular food deliveries. It also gives one a deep understanding of wilderness and habitat and why it's necessary to preserve it.

To me, ethical hunting requires a purpose; either to obtain food, for conservation purposes, to relieve suffering, or in self-defense.

The video epitomizes unethical hunting. If the bear needed to be killed because it was too sick and old to keep alive, then the killing should have been done much more humanely and quickly, using a rifle and a head-shot. I have no compunctions about killing a suffering animal quickly and humanely. I had to shoot the dog pictured in my avatar myself because an inept vet spent 20 minutes torturing him trying to find a vein to inject sedative. It was so painful that Arod, my 16 year old best friend, who had never snarled at or tried to bite any human being ever, did so after being stuck more than 10 times. I finally took him home and let him fall asleep peacefully in the yard, and then shot him in the head with a small-caliber rifle while he was asleep, killing him instantly and painlessly. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and it took me years to get over it, but it was necessary and the kindest thing for him.

I agree with everything you've said here.

I think there are few things more representative of cosseted and ignorant modern life than the idiot who whinges over raw meat, while intending to eat a well done steak, or who considers the person who had just wrung a chicken's neck to be cruel, as they chow down on their barbecued wings.

I've been around farms most of my life, and I've been on several different killing floors, from chickens to cattle. Is no illusions about how our meat is produced. Provided that the animals are raised and despatched with maximum care for the welfare o the animal, I am content.

I'm sorry to hear that you had to say goodbye to your doggy Seth. I had to have my perfectly healthy dog killed last year by lethal injection. My wife and I were utterly heartbroken and in floods of tears as he died in our arms. Very sad. We owe our pals the duty to be with them through such moments. They're not aware of what is going on, but definitely sense our distress. (We're still heartbroken).

[PsychoSerenity]

The video epitomizes unethical hunting. If the bear needed to be killed because it was too sick and old to keep alive, then the killing should have been done much more humanely and quickly, using a rifle and a head-shot. I have no compunctions about killing a suffering animal quickly and humanely. I had to shoot the dog pictured in my avatar myself because an inept vet spent 20 minutes torturing him trying to find a vein to inject sedative. It was so painful that Arod, my 16 year old best friend, who had never snarled at or tried to bite any human being ever, did so after being stuck more than 10 times. I finally took him home and let him fall asleep peacefully in the yard, and then shot him in the head with a small-caliber rifle while he was asleep, killing him instantly and painlessly. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and it took me years to get over it, but it was necessary and the kindest thing for him.

Sorry to hear you had to do that Seth.

[charlou]

I don't subscribe to killing for "fun." I do subscribe to hunting however. The honing of tracking, stalking, hunting, killing and dressing game skills is a useful enterprise, not to mention making the consumption of meat a far more ethical practice than thinking that your cheeseburger came from McDonalds. I believe that anyone who eats meat or wears fur or leather ought to be required to hunt, kill, field-dress, transport, butcher, cook and eat at least ONE animal in their life, simply to give them perspective on where their meals come from and what it takes to produce them.

Hunting is a valuable skill as well because it puts one a large jump ahead of those whose hunting skills only go as far as the corner market, who will starve and die if they are deprived of regular food deliveries. It also gives one a deep understanding of wilderness and habitat and why it's necessary to preserve it.

To me, ethical hunting requires a purpose; either to obtain food, for conservation purposes, to relieve suffering, or in self-defense.

The video epitomizes unethical hunting. If the bear needed to be killed because it was too sick and old to keep alive, then the killing should have been done much more humanely and quickly, using a rifle and a head-shot. I have no compunctions about killing a suffering animal quickly and humanely. I had to shoot the dog pictured in my avatar myself because an inept vet spent 20 minutes torturing him trying to find a vein to inject sedative. It was so painful that Arod, my 16 year old best friend, who had never snarled at or tried to bite any human being ever, did so after being stuck more than 10 times. I finally took him home and let him fall asleep peacefully in the yard, and then shot him in the head with a small-caliber rifle while he was asleep, killing him instantly and painlessly. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, and it took me years to get over it, but it was necessary and the kindest thing for him.

Well put and I agree with your points. Sad that you had to do such a difficult thing for your old friend.

[mistermack]

What you have to remember is that Seth tells lies. He's proud of being a troll.
So whatever you mention, he'll have done it.
I wasn't at all surprised that Seth would claim to have killed a bear with a bow. I was waiting for it, and didn't have to wait long.

If that pathetic creep had killed an elephant, Seth would have done it too.
It's very sad, but he's probably never even seen a bear. It's all in his mind.