Okay....so here's the scoop.
I went to Idaho on thursday. I arrived at 7pm, threw on my camo, and headed into the mtns. As Jerry and I were sneaking in to where the tree stand was hanging, a bear walked out of the bushes, saw us, and left. I climbed into the tree stand and stayed until dark, but he didn't come back.
On friday we went out and looked things over in the morning and then I climbed into the tree stand at about 4:30. At 7:30 I started hearing soft footsteps that were definitely not from the sharp hooves of a deer or elk. Sure enough through the tree I could see the brown fur of a bear walking right at me. The bear was what they call blonde and had brown circles around its eyes and on its ears as well as a white patch on its chest. It walked right up to the tree I was in and stood underneath me sniffing around and looking into the clearing behind me. Then it moved out into the clearing and sat under a tree to look everything over. It must have picked up my scent because he was definitely taking his time looking everything over. He didn't see me up in the tree though. He didn't look up. Anyway, eventually he went back into the woods. About 20 minutes later he came back. He was squatted down eating and I decided that it was time to take a shot. I was in a bad position and pulling my bow back was awkward, but I got it back and took aim. My hands were really shaking and it was taking everything I had to keep my breathing under control (for the record, it wasn't very under control). I decided to release my arrow and began squeezing my release. Just before my arrow went flying, he stood up. The arrow went right under his chest. He jumped in the air and ran about 20' while looking over his shoulder. He didn't know what had just happened. He wandered into the trees and I saw him walk away.
On saturday I went up and sat in the tree stand for a couple of hours in the morning. I then convinced Jerry that we should move to this other place we had checked out. So, we set the tree stand up in this other place along a ridge line and then I climbed in at about 3:30. Jerry left and was going to come back and get me just before dark (8:50). At about 4:30 I heard some noise behind me. I started watching over my shoulder and sure enough....in walked a bear. He walked around and was chewing on some grass. I took aim. I felt much more calm than I had the night before. I let the arrow fly and it stuck in the ground right by his feet. HE WAS ONLY TEN YARDS AWAY! I couldn't believe that I had botched the shot. He jumped in the air and looked around. After not seeing anything, he went back to what he was doing. He must have thought that a pine cone had fallen next to him. So, I nocked another arrow. I pulled back and carefully took aim. This time, I hit him. It was a terrible shot, but blood shot out everywhere. I had definitely hit him in an artery. He jumped in the air, let out a yelp, and took off running. He went about 30 yards and stopped. I could barely see him because the bushes were so thick. He then slowly moved out of sight. After about 7 minutes, I lowered my bow to the ground. I then waited another 7-8 minutes and climbed down out of the tree. I immediately pulled the .44 caliber pistol out of my shoulder holster and moved over to where I shot him. I picked up the arrow I had missed with and a few feet away I spotted my other arrow. It had passed straight through him and was stuck in the ground. I went and got it. It was covered from one end to the other in blood. He was definitely not going to make it very far. Not wanting to face an injured bear, I made my way down to the road (using a path that went the opposite direction the bear went). I then started trying to contact Jerry on some radios that I had brought. I knew that he would be out of range because the mtn roads are so twisted and the forest so thick with trees. So, I started walking down the road in the direction I knew he had gone. I just beeped the radio every few feet knowing that eventually the transmission would make it through the trees and he would hear it. After about a mile and a half I heard him beep back. Our voices weren't making it through, but we were at least in contact. Another half mile and I heard his voice say "If you want me to come get you, beep your radio twice". So I did. He said "I'm on my way". His voice was now crystal clear so I responded "I shot a bear". He was excited and said that he was about a half hour away and would get there as quick as possible. A little while later he came racing around a corner and I showed him the arrow. I told him that we would have to go looking for the bear. We went back and he took the .44 and I took a rifle and we headed back up to where I had shot him. I showed him the blood. He said that he couldn't have made it very far. I told him where it had stopped when it ran away so we headed that direction. Right where he had stopped there was a tree that was covered in blood. It was clearly squirting out of him. He couldn't be very far away. The amount of blood he had lost in those 30 yards was phenomenal. We started looking for more blood trail and Jerry said "There he is" and pointed about 10 yards away. Sure enough, he was dead. We walked up, poked him with a stick, let out some celebratory yells and laughs and then moved him onto a log for a photo shoot.
