I missed another bear, somebody shoot me now!!!

[remingtonman_25_06]

Yesterday my dad and a friend all went up to where we were last weekend looking for some bears. The first thing we did was spend all monrning/afternoon looking for the one my friend thought I hit. We found absolutely nothing. We fanned out across the hillside and searchd for about 5-6 hours.

About 3 pm we decided we better start heading out of the bottom of the canyon. Me and my friend just got done climbing a rock wall, literally, and were taking a breather. We were just joking around and I said, "man I"d give my left *** to see another bear down there." Well get the scissors out cuz 10 seconds later, me and my friend both spotted another cinnamon colored black bear in the bottom...

My dad was actually another ridge over and he had the rangefinder. MY rangefinders battery is dead. We figured the bear to be abslutely no further then 300 yards. Yet, once again, I was faced with at least a 45 degree downhill shot. Remembering everything that went wrong last weekend, and how I shot so high, I figured this time I'd nail him...My 7 RM is zeroed at 200 yards w/the 175g ULD at 2875fps. I only clicked my scope 2 clicks, so that would be about a 225 yd zero. I figured that was plenty considering the range/angle/and I had no rangefinder. I know I didin't want to over shoot him again...The wind was blowing to the left off the ridge about 10-15 MPH, but as soon as the bullet got in the canyon, there was little if any wind at all, so I did not even compensate for it..I dont know if that was a good idea or not...Well the moment of truth was nearing, I could tell the bear was behind a little scrubby tree facing me. I figured I put it right on his chest, and he would be mine. At the squeeze of the trigger, I heard the braked 7 RM go off, and to my surprise I heard no resounding "whop." The bear whirled around and was gone in a flash. My friend did not even get a shot, his remington semi auto 30-06 firing pin didn't go off or some stupid thing like that...I was completely dumbfounded. I just cant believe I"ve missed 3 bears all under 400 yards, this one at 280 and I"m just compltely missing them. I dont get it!?!? After I shot, my dad came down and we rangefinded him at 280. My scope was only set for 225.

Now this is waht I dont understand about the ballistics side of it. I should have nailed that bear reguardless of the angle at that range.....With a 200 yard zero, my bullet only drops like 6 inches at 280 yards, right? Ok, now say the angle was 45, what you would do is times the angle value times the drop, then that will give a number that you take away from you drop. So in this case it would be this.

45 angle value is .293x6 drop inches =1.7

Now its to my understanding you take 1.7 and take that away from 6, and you'll have your new drop at this range/angle and it would be 4.3", right guys??? I got this angle stuff right out the back of the sierra manua, so if I"m reading it wrong, please let me know...ALso, at the extreme side of things, just to say he was at a 60 angle, the difference in drop is only like 3", so not a whole hell of a lot difference either with that kinda angle at that little of range...

What I dont get is this, a bears vital zone sure in the hell is bigger then 6", so why did I miss this bear when the angle/drop had very very little to do with trajectory? Assuming my math is right, that bear shoulda been toast...I dont know where I hit, so I cant tell even begin to tell ya if I shot high or low...All I know is I shoulda hit the bear with only a 1.7" difference in trajectory, its about ridiculous IMO. All I can gather from all these missing shots at a downhill angle is this, I need to get my *** out and practice those kinda shots, cuz they absolutely SUCK!

I've since decided that maybe I dont even need to be up in the woods witha rifle. If cant make a 275-375 yard shot on a bear, then somethings wrong with me. Thats about unheard of for me to miss 3 big game animals under 400 yards. I was about ready to throw my freaking rifle off that **** mountain yesterday I was so ****ed off...

I think we have a couple more weekends left. I"m not sure If I'm able to go both of them, but I"m gonna try real hard to make it up there at least 1 more time. Theres just bears running everywhere up there, its crazy. About the only good I can see out of it is this, there gonna be bigger next year.

 

[screech]

sounds like you are having fun. Dont worry, I missed 20-30 coyotes before I got one. After I got one they have all died.

 

[MachV]

Sounds like you do too much figureing and not enough shooting(plunt red-neck anology)
If it where me I would have probibly missed the first one too,the difference is I would have found a rock or something I could spot a hit on and shot till I KNEW where to aim next time.I aint saying I would not miss again =just that a guy would have a real world idea of where to aim /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[edge]

I have to agree. I can see not taking a spotter shot first, because the animal was so close, but I can't understand not taking one after!

edge.

 

[Ian M]

06
Don't get too down on yourself - you are making a bit too much out of all of this. First, there is next to diddly for hold-off inside 300 yards with that or most rifles. You have to get out farther to start to see significant drop changes. I bet you got a bit over-confident and rushed the shot - do you remember getting your breathing nice and even, letting the shot go at the end of a breath, checking how much crosshair movement you had when in your final point of aim, breaking the trigger clean and following-through?

You can do it, just get back to the basics and bust the next one good.

 

[Shawn Carlock]

If the bear was 280 yards at 45 degrees you should have shot at it like it was 196 yards away (.7 x 280 yds). As it is you should have only been a couple of inches off at most. I do find alot of people that sight in their rifles on a bench shooting flat, then go out and shoot from a field position (usually prone) downhill tend to shoot high even with the correct dope. Changing the bodies position relative to the rifle will change how you cheek the rifle (even with a cheekpiece, although alot less) and subsequently chance the bullets impact. You have summed up your problem and you already know the answer .... practice in shooting field conditions and shots.

 

[roninflag]

REMINGTON- WHAT load gives you 2875?? you have a brake on it?? it is a 700 bdl??

 

[blackco]

My experience with LRH has been out to about 400yds. Most of the animals I have missed are inside 100yds. WHat I have learned is that it is as easy to miss a close animal as a far one; if you don't have a good trigger pull, sight picture, breath control etc. the distance better be measured in feet not yards.

All that said...I think you were affected by two seperate things, to much thought into the shot and good ol' buck/bear fever. With a 7mmRM and a big game animal inside 300yards, even if the gun is sighted in at 100yds, just hold high/middle? chest/shoulder and squeeeeeeze.

I also agree with setting up another shot with similar conditions and see if it was the trajectory or the nut behind the gun. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Remember, you have still shot at more bears in two weeks than I have in my entire life...I'm still jealous!!! Good luck the rest of the year.

 

[remingtonman_25_06]

I dont know if "fun" is exactly the word Im looking for here, more like frustrated!!

I didn't think I rushed the shot because it was only 4 pm, we still had 4 hours of light left. We sat there and watched him for a good 5 minutes before I decided to shoot. I couldn't get prone, instead I was sitting with the bipod. It wasn't as steady as prone, but I thought the crosshairs were steady enough to bust that bear.

I double checkd my rifle during the week to make sure it was on, and it was. 1" high at 100, is dead on at 200...The rifle is a 7 RM, Rem 700 BDL w/24" barrel and a Holland QD brake, Leupold VX3 LR 6.5-20x50 w/fine duplex, I"m using 175g ULD RBBT's over 66.2g H-1000 for an average of 2850-2875fps...

I still dont see how I missed the bear when my scope was set for 225 and I should've had it set for what, 200. Thats not enough diference IMO to hit that much higher. In otherwords, I dont think if I woulda left it on 200 yard setting, it wouldn't have made any difference in the shot... I thought I put it low enough on his chest that if I did shoot high for some reason, I woulda hit him in the head or spine. I didn't even think to shoot at a rock afterwards because we didn't want to spook any bears that were still in there. Theres at least 5 bears in this one canyon...

I"m still pretty irritated at the whole event of things and the way they turned out. I haven't shot a bear since 05" and this season I get to shoot at 3 all under 400 yards, and come home with big fat ZERO!! I blame 90% of it on the angle though...I surely need to invest in one of those ACI tools, thats for sure.

Thanks for all the words of encouragement though guys. Its still fun getting out there and just seeing bears, let alone getting to shoot at them. I guess I am pretty lucky to even be able to shoot at them. A lot of times there so far away, and theres not enough light left to close the distance...

 

[roninflag]

i am envious of you seeing all those bears DURING bear season. i have hunted them a lot here in az.. i have only seen them ( a few) when the season was closed. i agree with IAN there is not that much hold off out to 300 yards. i like the 7 mag. i have two . one ( adl) has a 6.5X20 leup with a leup dot. i carried it this year for a couple days hunting bear. maybe you can get a few shots off before you go again. good luck and keep shootin' remingtons. roninflag

 

[Eaglet]

Remingtonman,

Don't give up!

You're right, if you're zeroed about 225 yards on the level, then shooting on a 45° angle at 280 yards you should be closer to 2" high; but a 60° angle at 280 yards, you would be about 5.75" high, now, that's closer to 6". Remember, in the excitement of the shot there is not much difference between 45° and 60° degrees visually speaking. Don't forget to pre-load your bipod before the shot, if you don't, it will have the tendency to shoot even higher especially when you extend the legs of the bipod. Start saving your pennies and get yourself an angle cosine indicator. Remember them coyotes you've been smacking, more likely the angles have not been so severe. You can do it!!!!!!!!!!!
Good luck to you!!!

 

[Eaglet]

 

[TCampbell]

I'm sure you already know this but the only way you are going to feel better is to finaly put one down! Everyone has missed before (probably not three bears in a row)thats all part of hunting. Sometimes all you can think about is how easy the shot is, how there is no way you could miss and thats when you do. I have the leupold RXIII rf and it is suspose to compensate for the angle. I just wish it would range further then 600-700yrds! Go back up there, make it happen and just remember the worst day hunting is still better then the best day at work!!!!

 

[dmgreene]

RemMan are you sure you missed these bears, especialy the last one? We all pretty much know when we pull the trigger whether we screwed up or not. I looked for a deer 2 years ago for about 4 hours with no sign of a hit because I KNEW I didn't screw up. Guess what, I found him piled up in a tree top. Point is if you are confident you did everything right and your gun is on, that last bear is probably piled up somewhere, you just may not have found him.