Couldn't Shoot.......

7mm been there myself just this bow season.Had a 175 lb Black Bear 33 yards I drawed my bow back put the pin on it I just didn't let go we sat there looking at each other must have been at least 5 mins.the bear walked off.I was saying to myself man if he was bigger I would have taken his life.I told my hunting buddies about the stand off.I think I personally did the right thing.I have passed on bucks just didn't meet my standards,I guess what I am trying to say I just don't go out to kill everything I kill what I eat & that's it.Its cool just to watch wildlife I have seen some pretty amazing things happen

Loafer that's just it I didn't even reach for my bow. I never even really thought about shooting this bear. I have watched this bear several time over the last couple of years. I know its the same bear because his entire muzzle is almost a fawn color. You know they are big when their ears look like M&M's on their heads and their bellies almost drag the ground. If I had to guess I would figure he is pushing 450lbs and he has marked trees that even with me being a solid 6' 1" I have to tippy toe to reach the top of his claw marks. I just couldn't shoot him call it a history but I had no desire to shoot him.

This story happened two years ago.  We have some property up in Cumbres Pass in Southern Colorado.  My wife and I were taking a walk maybe a 1000 yards below and south of our cabin, and met a bow hunter (first day of Bear Season), who asked if we had seen any sign.

We truthfully said no, exchanged a few pleasantries, then he went on his way.  5 minutes later here comes a good sized bear ambling down the logging road in front of us.  Turning to the left we could still see the hunter working his way up a wooded grade.  The bear was maybe 100 feet from us and never saw us.  The hunter never looked back.

We smiled at each other ... then silently watched both disappear at the same time in opposite directions.   Yeah, true story!  I do have a compound & like to shoot it a lot, but I've never bow hunted......just no opportunity presented itself when I was younger...too many other hobbies.

I do like having wild life around.....doubt I could've shot that bear if I did have a licence and bow to kill it.....so I can relate..............now wolves are another matter.......we are hearing them for the first time ever the last 2 summers.  They've obviously moved south from Yellowstone.  Scary things they are!

And no! we were not hearing coyotes.  I've gone to sleep listening to them all my life.  A wolf pack howling in the distance is totally different..... a chilling thing to listen to at night protected only by a tent & a sleeping bag.

Thanks for sharing these comments and stories. I thought I was the only one that "couldn't shoot". I hunted from the age of eight and had some great adventures. I hunted California, Wyoming, Nebraska, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, West Texas and Michigan. I varmint hunted and bird hunted, I hunted big game and small and had good success over the years but something changed a few years back. I've tried to figure it out . . . old age ? ? ? not sure but I have changed to hunting with my camera. I'm approaching 70 now and I still get the thrill of the hunt and still feel that adrenaline rush when I see game in the sights (lens). There are no permits, seasons or limits and I can shoot the same critter dozens of times. I don't have to field dress them or pack them out. I actually hunt more now then in my hunting days. Don't get me wrong. I still know the value and need of hunting and its roll in game management; I know it's value and need in varmint control. Like some of you; I still coach younger guys in how to hunt and track and how to handle their game when they take them but I just don't want to shoot any more game myself. I still love to shoot and to reload but all my shooting is at the range these days. I haven't told many people this . . . maybe it's age maybe not.

In my life I have killed my fair share of Deer, Elk, Moose, Bear, Hogs, Turkey, Duck, Squirrel, Rabbit and well just about every thing there is to hunt in North America. I have use rifles, handguns and bows to harvest these animals. The only thing I have every regretted killing was a bear. I made a good clean fatal shot but it stayed on it's feet running a screaming, yes I said screaming for what seemed like an eternity. The screams sounded to me like those of a woman. When it finally dropped I was a changed man. It may sound funny to some but I hope I never hear that again. I have killed plenty of Doves, Quail, Ducks Gators and Hogs since then but I know I couldn't draw or pull the trigger on another bear aside from killing one for my survival.
I don't hold it against anyone that hunts and I would again if i needed to in order to eat but for now killing paper suits me just fine. 

Dan I have never had the screaming bear but have heard other stories of them. I think the thing that's has them off limits for me is I saw a bear laying on a skinning table hide less. It was a very long limbed bear and yeah made me think of a person for some odd reason since then no desire to kill another one.

I am 100% positive that it takes maturity & a man to know when to choose not to shoot or you just could not do it.No matter when it's all over you can look at your self in the mirror feel like you personally have done the right thing at that moment in time

Saw him again this morning eating the hell out of my chicory food plot. I actually had a camera this time but he stayed farther away and closer to cover. One of the men that's hunts the adjoining property asked me if I had seen a " BIG ASS FREAKING BEAR ". I didn't deny seeing him but didn't provide details either. All the guys from the other side of the fence are big bear runners so I better enjoy him while I can. Maybe just maybe their dogs will cross the property line again and poof fall into another abandon mine shaft ..........

I also teach Hunter-Ed.

I tell the young ones that just because you are in the field, doesn't mean you have to kill something.
I also tell them that killing something doesn't make you a man.

Hunting, for me is almost spiritual. It is all about the total experience. Taking game is a minor part of that experience.
Besides, once the game is down and tagged, the work begins.

Glad to hear you have your "hunting" companion back this year, enjoy the company! I won't shoot one but saw a recent study done in the area I deer hunt which indicated 61% of fawn mortality is caused by bears. In addition the bears will take a lion's kill forcing the lion to kill another deer. The deer population in our area is declining by a small percentage each year with bears being the biggest contributor to the decline.

Chuck, I have read that coyotes in the East have at some point mixed with wolfs and are more likely to run in packs than our western coyote. Your own encounter supports that information. Occasionally I also have seen groups of them working geese or turkeys and a pair trying to get a fawn.

I always thought the same as you because here where I live there is no bear population so it is coyotes and lions. On the ranch in northern California there are an abundance of bears and that is in the heart of D.F.&W's study area.