Jim Beam....worst ever

May of 2004 I was bow hunting Grizzly bears in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska. Its what they call the Dalton Highway Corridor, an area that runs for 200+ miles in which you cant shoot a rifle inside 5 miles of the highway, its bowhunting only. I had made a modification to my drop down rest on my bow prior to the trip and adjusted the serving on the string that attaches to my cable and activates my drop down. I shot it a bunch after making my adjustment but apparently I screwed up in the serving. After several days of glassing bears, chasing a few, and passing on some smaller ones I spot a monster for this area at about 1 am, big dark choclate colored boar who was easily wearing Pope and Young headgear.....literally. So the stalk commences, and after playing cat and mouse with this gorgeous bear for an hour or so I end up downwind of him at 52 laser ranged yards and he's quartering away from me. I didnt like the shot and convinced my buddy (and back up gunner) that we needed to get just a little bit closer. So as I try to cross a small dry creek ditch , now keep in mind neither of us are wearing our boots , we took them off to make a silent stalk so the crunchy ground wouldnt give us away. I am sneaking across the rocks all stealth like with my eyes dialed in on the bear that is feeding but facing away from us, and I slip just a little bit on some big rocks and one of the nocks on my arrows in my hip quiver hits a rock , that crisp nick sound got us busted. The bear immediately turns in our direction and busts us, he stands up on his hind legs to get a better look at us and tries to wind us but the wind is in our favor. Just to give you some insight on mountain grizzlies, this is what goes through a grizzly bears mind when they encounter a human in wild country....." Are you something I can eat"......."Are you something I need to run from?" and they make that decision pretty fast. Well as I suspected with the wind not helping him make his decision he drops back down on all fours and starts coming our way, highly alert and very methodically. I knew he was gonna circle us and try to wind us and he was coming at us on an angle to our right. I looked right and thought....if he gets behind one of those spruce trees thats when I'll draw back. Well sure as chit he heads for the spruce trees to my right and at about 15 yards as he goes behinid the first big spruce I draw back.....he clears the spruce tree I put my 20 yard pin low on his chest and as I am thinking....I got your azz!!!! I release the arrow and instead of it going to his chest where my pin is it hits rocks in front of him sparks go flying in the low light and ricochets straight up in the air! Well as I am thinking that the game of life is over my buddy steps up in front of me with the shotgun and the bear bluff charges us to about 8 yards and then all in one motion blasts away from us through the thich spruce. After a bunch of WTF just happened I nock another arrow and draw back, about the time i get the bow drawn my buddy goes dude....look at your riser, my drop down rest never came up, the arrow is laying on the riser shelf. I then realize that the string that activates my riser had slid down the cable and that was that. I have never felt sicker in my life, this was my dream bear with a bow and I literally just let him get away off my own stupidity. Here I practised for months, daily, shooting at tums tablets at 20 yards and Ive got a 500 lb grizzly in front of me at 15 yards and well.....you know the story! It will haunt me for the rest of my life! Cant tell you how many dreams about that bear I have had in the last 8 years.

Not trying to take away anything from that story but you just gave a great example of why I stick with the Whisker Biscuit. I personaly know three people who have had drop aways fail on them, one froze up due to ice, another froze due to a mecanical problem and the other had the same problem as you had. While I may not be quite as accurate with my WB compared to a good drop away I've yet to encounter a problem or know anybody who has.