doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Close encounters

My buddy needed to stop for a potty break yesterday, so I took a little walk with my truck gun (an old 870 express) while I was waiting.

Just walking along the roads here can be surprisingly productive and this walk was no exception.



It felt good to have that 870 just then, even if the bear wasn't all that big (maybe 150lbs?). He was either ignoring me of he really didn't know I was there (which I doubt). I was within 20-yards of him at one point so I can't imagine he didn't know I was there.

I hollered at him and he quickly sprinted off, thankfully.

I am almost always armed when in any "wild" country and this is partly why.

Lloyd,
Remember what I said about the "bear"? He showed up!
Karl

He sure did Karl.

Lloyd, from the other side of the Lake, I’ve got some pics of a mother with her three cubs. The cubs wandered out of the woods when my 10 yo son and I stopped to take a leak. We quickly got back in the car and watched as the three cubs came over to investigate us, while mom watched carefully from about 40 yards away.

After a bit, mom got tired of waiting and called the cubs back. They didn’t mess around and did what they were told right away.

Made up for the 300 pound male laying dead in the middle of the highway about 50 miles west of Thunder Bay that we had passed on the way to LOTW that summer. Gordon was a little goggle eyed to get right next to one at his age. Even when it was dead he was still pretty cautious. lol.

Only dead bear I have ever seen on the side of a hwy. Sad.

LOTW area is crawling with black bears. Come up on a few of them in my boat while they are swimming from one island to another. They don’t like that at all. It’s a bit strange to be 10’ from a big male, angry as shit and growling at you and not be in the slightest danger.

Never bugged them for more than a 10 sec drive by mostly so visitors in the boat with me can see one up close. And they are never crossing water more than about 3-400 yards and usually much less.

James:

Did this bear not see me walking down the road only maybe 10-yards away? Was he being some form of passive-aggressive?

I was shocked that I was able to get so close. In Colorado or Wyoming (where they are hunted hard) you only see them running away.

We found a dead elk and set up a trail camera and this is what we found. Big bears are out there and they aren’t all in Alaska…

Lloyd, I’m no bear expert but I would be very surprised if he didn’t know you were there. He most likely just didn’t perceive you to be a threat of any kind whatsoever. And he probably wasn’t hungry.

We used to keep our boat (we were on islands) docked on an Indian reservation and used the rez dump when leaving. Just about every time I drove into that dump 8 to 12 bears wandering around in close proximity. A little unnerving to begin with. But then one day I watched a couple of older native ladies sifting through the garbage looking for useful stuff. They would walk right up to the bears and shoo them away, like one might shoo away a cat under foot. I got the distinct impression the bears understood the ladies had no interest in the bears…..they were just in the way. So they ambled out of the way of these women. And this wasn’t a one time thing. I watched it play out over 20 plus years.

I think the important things with bears are….in order…..don’t be a threat to their cubs….find bears that aren’t hungry……make sure they are aware of you asap…..don’t ge a threat to them.

Just about every time we came back to the islands during the summer after being in the city during the week, there would be a bit of bear scat on the docks, decks or pathways. These would be 15 acre islands. Bears just swimming by and stopping in to see if there was anything interesting. Usually though they stay out of sight. But you know they are around.


My experiences with grizzlies in the Rockies has me behaving very differently around those bears.

50 years ago I was in school abroad with some young Russian college students (destined for greater things in the Soviet bureaucracy). Several were from Siberia. I said that I had heard that in Siberia bears walk down the roads. One replied, "Not true, there are no roads in Siberia."

But on the serious side, I persuaded my son to start carrying a Remington 870 with slug barrel in Alaska. He was carrying bear spray but in a mid-latitude rain forest or in a very windy tundra area I was worried it wouldn't work. However, this video changed my mind - carry both. Once again as in all "combat" situations, and a sudden bear attack in dense woods would be such a situation, getting your deterrent out and to bear on the target is the first priority and takes some practice. Bear spray as the gentleman observes and documents is the more flexible:

Very neat Elk carcass situation. I don't mean to be flippant about the bears, but Eastern black bears pose very little threat to personal safety, both in my anecdotal experience as we as documented research. I am far more worried about encounters with ticks. The bears can be a real PITA though. My smoker has had quite a few bear hugs, some quite unnecessarily aggressive!

EDIT: The bears have been relentless on my trail cameras this year. 1/2 dozen busted camera shells sit next to my desk as I continue to piece together the remainders. It's getting a little pricey!

Our son and his girl friend had a close brush at Glacier Park about a month ago. They thought a small black bear was foraging around in a small stream, turned out to be a grizzly, laying on its stomach cooling in the water. Lots of pictures and a short video. It didn't look aggressive, but it came at them pretty quickly. They were backpeddling, and it came within twelve yards. He didn't pull it, but had his hand on a pistol. It rattled them, they were done with anymore little hikes.

I'll edit to add, there were a few other hikers near by, one of them emptied their bear spray for no reason when bear was at a significant distance. The wind wasn't strong, but they got a good whiff.