One hitting bears...and wolves and deer

[German4XXX]

For all of you that don't know...

I first found this out on my first bear actually. I decided that I was going to give killing one a try and I had seen one intermittently out by one of the islands on coastal hiway. I needed rabbit pelts as well and not wanting to get ganked by the wolves checking my traps I decided to camp out in one of the ice shacks with a clear line of sight of my snares. I didn't see the bear that first day so I went to sleep and was woken by the bear trying to get at me in the shack. It was dark and I could barely see so I lit a fire in the woodstove and that gave me enough light to shoot out of the entrance. I fired one shot into the bears face and he meandered around for a while until I couldn't hear him any more. I went to sleep and found him the next morning piled up behind the ice shack.

I've tested this multiple times since and after one shot its taken anywhere from 1:45 to 5 minutes before the bear dies.

The trick is to pick the right time and place. If you don't have the patience for this than 3 headshots will drop them but if your playing for the ultra long run than every bullet counts and in this case all that bear meat translates into calories for gathering wood, crafting, or slipping into a 25+ day coma.

Also wolves. For the people who don't know, if a wolf is on a kill feeding and you approach him from behind you can get crazy close to them and not alert them. Additionally and many times ill use this on feeding wolves (but this shot also works on deer as well) because there heads move a lot, a single shot to the real life kill zone (lungs) right behind the front shoulder will drop them in one shot. I struggled with this shot at first because it seems vertically center of the animal rather than down a little. it seems this shot is more of a guarantee if you are shooting the animal perfectly from the side rather than a high angle shot...that might be me but I stopped shooting quartering away animals as I would rather not chase them.

Good luck

[AmericanSteel]

I have killed a number of wolves while they were feeding. They end of falling in this macabre version of Yin & Yang, with the wolf laying one way and the deer laying another. I usually go for the lung shot because the head shot can be a real beast to make.

All that said, I have never killed a bear with one shot. I am going to HAVE to try this technique. There is a bear that wanders around Mystery Lake directly next to one of the fishing shacks. He actually tried to come in to welcome me as a new neighbor while I was fishing

[Tejas_Stalker]

I've killed all with one shot but only one time did the wolf drop right away. I usually have to go searching for them later ( wolf kills deer + I shoot wolf at deer = I skin the deer but the wounded wolf flees ) with the wolf sometimes going very far. One time I killed a wolf by the main road just east of the PV Farmhouse. It ran and I searched a long time for it. I found it the next day halfway up the mountain to the Radio Tower ( Signal Hill ) which was almost missed if I hadn't spent the night up there and descended from it the next day. Another time I killed a wolf south of the PV Farmstead near the lesser road and it ran westward. Again after skinning the deer I killed and taking the deer meat, guts and hide back to the Farmstead, I went searching for the wolf the next day. It had run so far to the other side of the Three Strikes Homestead. I've never not been able to find one but it has been a long and enjoyable search a few times. The white snow really helps. If not for the snow I might have never seen them.

My first bear kill almost cost me my life. I shot it once in the rear from behind and it turned around and attacked me so quickly I didn't have a chance to get off a second shot. I was down to 9% life and barely made it back to the PV Farmstead. Took 2 days to recover. Went back and found the dead bear. That's when I realized you only need 1 shot. Since then all my bear kills have been from elevated rocks or hills where it can't get to me like before. I rarely ever have to kill a deer since I usually steal wolf kills.