Nuts
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2025
- Messages
- 81
What was your coolest/best/worst bear encounter? Black or grizzly. Here is mine.
Alaska near Valdez fishing 6 years ago. A sow grizzly with an older cub suddenly appeared in the open 50yds away. We stood quietly and watched. Very cool. Focused on eating. No danger. Suddenly a giant brown bear charged from the brush toward the sow. The brownie was a large boar with scars on his head and back. The sow and cub took into the brush somewhat towards us. Not directly but our imagination didn't need much to think we might be face to face shortly. Backed out. Watched the boar from an elevated distance. Never saw the sow and cub again
Black bear in PA turkey hunting 25 years ago. Walking down a logging road a decent bear was feeding just on the edge at about 75yds. We slowly crept along. Got to about 35yds and stood and watched. We saw her turn and look across the logging road toward the ferns. A couple of very small cubs walked out on the logging road playing 20ds in front of us. We very slowly backed out. It was agreed upon that was pretty stupid.
Alaska Black bear. 7 years ago Rafting in skinny water moving along pretty good. A bear swam right out in front of us. It made it past the point of our raft just before we would have hit it and kept going. Not overly dangerous but pretty cool.
Coolest Not scary. 4 years ago Alaska moose hunting. Sat on cliff all day. Watched a grizzly on the opposite hill eat blueberries all day. Laying on his back. Nibbling them around him. Moving 10' when local berries gone
Black Bear hunting Canada. 30years ago. A buddy shot a bear. He was elevated and it dropped at the shot. We heard the shot. Waited a while and headed over to him. We pulled up on a 4 wheeler. Just as we pulled up the bear jumped up and took off. We headed back to the lodge where the guide told us we would wait till morning to go look for it. We ate dinner, starting playing cards and drinking. At about 12am the guide comes back and says its supposed to rain in the morning. We are going to go now. We were all caught off guard but stood up and said lets go. He then announced he would be the only one carrying a gun for obvious reasons. We bumped the bear numerous times as we tracked. Each time the guide firing shots at it. At about 3am the bear went into a wash out and laid down. Unable to go further. As we stood on the bank above it the guide went to shoot and announced he was out of ammo. He told us to stand there and watch it while he went back to the lodge and got more. We knew it would easily be 2 hours round trip. But we stood there watching. At 1 point we had a conversation about how worn out the bear was. We believed if we all jumped on it we could kill it with our only weapon a large knife. Now pretty sober we decided against it. The guy comes back and starts fumbling with his gun. Not sure the issue but he was struggling. I walked over to his pack and asked if I could just finish it with his pistol. He said sure and I grabbed it walked over and shot the bear twice. It roared to life and ran up the side of the washout where I shot it again. It was done. A lot of lessons learned. This was my first real bear hunt. 1) A 9mm +p will not penetrate a black bear if it hits solid mass. Not my gun not my ammo. But it supposedly had bear defense ammo he had loaded or bought just for that purpose. The first shots hit to much of the shoulder and were only in maybe 2" when we skinned it. The final shot was well behind the shoulder which I now know is where the vitals are. 2) Evaluate things further and don't let alcohol cloud your judgement 3) An all but dead looking bear can be very much alive 4) When it comes to safety don't let the guide be the sole source of wisdom. Speak up concerns.
Those are my highlights I think. I have seen plenty others but nothing out of the ordinary stands out
Alaska near Valdez fishing 6 years ago. A sow grizzly with an older cub suddenly appeared in the open 50yds away. We stood quietly and watched. Very cool. Focused on eating. No danger. Suddenly a giant brown bear charged from the brush toward the sow. The brownie was a large boar with scars on his head and back. The sow and cub took into the brush somewhat towards us. Not directly but our imagination didn't need much to think we might be face to face shortly. Backed out. Watched the boar from an elevated distance. Never saw the sow and cub again
Black bear in PA turkey hunting 25 years ago. Walking down a logging road a decent bear was feeding just on the edge at about 75yds. We slowly crept along. Got to about 35yds and stood and watched. We saw her turn and look across the logging road toward the ferns. A couple of very small cubs walked out on the logging road playing 20ds in front of us. We very slowly backed out. It was agreed upon that was pretty stupid.
Alaska Black bear. 7 years ago Rafting in skinny water moving along pretty good. A bear swam right out in front of us. It made it past the point of our raft just before we would have hit it and kept going. Not overly dangerous but pretty cool.
Coolest Not scary. 4 years ago Alaska moose hunting. Sat on cliff all day. Watched a grizzly on the opposite hill eat blueberries all day. Laying on his back. Nibbling them around him. Moving 10' when local berries gone
Black Bear hunting Canada. 30years ago. A buddy shot a bear. He was elevated and it dropped at the shot. We heard the shot. Waited a while and headed over to him. We pulled up on a 4 wheeler. Just as we pulled up the bear jumped up and took off. We headed back to the lodge where the guide told us we would wait till morning to go look for it. We ate dinner, starting playing cards and drinking. At about 12am the guide comes back and says its supposed to rain in the morning. We are going to go now. We were all caught off guard but stood up and said lets go. He then announced he would be the only one carrying a gun for obvious reasons. We bumped the bear numerous times as we tracked. Each time the guide firing shots at it. At about 3am the bear went into a wash out and laid down. Unable to go further. As we stood on the bank above it the guide went to shoot and announced he was out of ammo. He told us to stand there and watch it while he went back to the lodge and got more. We knew it would easily be 2 hours round trip. But we stood there watching. At 1 point we had a conversation about how worn out the bear was. We believed if we all jumped on it we could kill it with our only weapon a large knife. Now pretty sober we decided against it. The guy comes back and starts fumbling with his gun. Not sure the issue but he was struggling. I walked over to his pack and asked if I could just finish it with his pistol. He said sure and I grabbed it walked over and shot the bear twice. It roared to life and ran up the side of the washout where I shot it again. It was done. A lot of lessons learned. This was my first real bear hunt. 1) A 9mm +p will not penetrate a black bear if it hits solid mass. Not my gun not my ammo. But it supposedly had bear defense ammo he had loaded or bought just for that purpose. The first shots hit to much of the shoulder and were only in maybe 2" when we skinned it. The final shot was well behind the shoulder which I now know is where the vitals are. 2) Evaluate things further and don't let alcohol cloud your judgement 3) An all but dead looking bear can be very much alive 4) When it comes to safety don't let the guide be the sole source of wisdom. Speak up concerns.
Those are my highlights I think. I have seen plenty others but nothing out of the ordinary stands out
