Who has gone after brown bear with archery equipment in the last 5 years? What arrow/broadhead setup did you settle on?
I'll be shooting my Bowtech Assassin at 71#, 30" draw. For elk and deer, I have been shooting my Victory arrows with Montec G5 Strikers. I shot my bull this year at 30 yards (frontal) and nicked the front of the chest cavity. My arrow drove right through and broke bone, I got 3/4" shaft penetration and my bull went 80 yards.
I KNOW that I need heavier arrows and stronger BH's, but I trust bowsiter opinion and experience more than I trust industry hype for the products I have been browsing.
So, thank you for any comments. I can't wait for 2015!
Your setup is fine and if the arrows fly well don't touch a thing......
You should have complete confidence in your set up especially if you are taking whitetail (very strong flight/fight reaction on shot) and elk both probally are at the top of NA big game animals to recover on marginal shots.
....FullCryHounds X 100..... I'd take a double lung shot over a heart shot...anyday.
If at all possible, get access to a brown bear archery target....or get a black bear target and paint it brown. There are few things that will improve your confidence more as you are drawing on a big brown bear, than being able to say to yourself, I have practiced this shot a thousand times....being able to VISUALIZE a shot that you have actually practiced, has huge benefits, IMO.
Practice various angles. practice holding your bow for a minute or two at full draw, practice taking a shot where you have to acquire your target and release within five or ten seconds....practice for every reasonable contingency that you can imagine.
Plan for challenges. Anticipate what could go wrong, and find solutions in advance. I always try to take a back up bow...and needed it on a grizzly bear bowhunt. As I have aged, my vision is still good, but my pins are getting fuzzy now.....many options here to consider....but I opted for a verifier....but in foggy weather (which is a very real possibility on a brown bear bowhunt), I have an Rx bottle with a snap-on top, taped to the riser of my bow.....and in it, are Q-tips. I either carry one on my ear, or under my hat..... in case the verifier lens ever gets fogged up. A Q-tip can clean it in a second or two....
Good luck....take a camera or two. You're gonna want a million photos (or a video)....afterwards, they'll be worth the effort.
I'll be using the same setup for them this year as everything else. Sharp two blade head on the end of a gold tip pro hunter, around 400 total grains.
In truth, I was hoping that I'd get more responses advising me to go heavier . . . as I have been considering this for a few years now and just haven't done it. My current setup is ideal for longer shots that are typically presented in Western hunting scenarios, but in truth, I don't take these longer shots. I practice and am quite proficient out to 70 yards, but I have never taken a shot on an animal more than 40 yards. I have killed a lot of archery whitetails on the East coast and have become quite sneaky in the noisy leaves of the East, so it's not difficult for me to sneak in to 40 yards of a feeding target.
With all of that being said, since I don't really see myself gravitating towards these long shots, I think that I'd be better off with more arrow weight for penetration and flight stability in the wind (for my typical Elk and Mulie shots). A brown bear is certainly NOT an animal to take marginal shots on, and I really don't take marginal shots on ANY animal, they deserve more respect than that. Along that thought process, I'll probably only be giving myself the "warm fuzzys" by going heavier, but I think confidence will be a HUGE factor on this hunt. If switching to what, in my mind, is a more ideal setup for such a large animal, then that's probably what I should do. When I step off the float plane, I should NOT be asking myself if I should have gone to a heavier setup.
What do you guys think of my thought process? Am I overanalyzing?
Jaeger63, sending you a PM.
Thanks for all of the replies everyone, I appreciate it.
Yes.....you are overanalyzing :) but confidence is important all the way to your brand of lip balm.
Outside Africa,give me the best flying arrow over the heaviest EVERYTIME......
