Ghost Story Friday - Ursus Americanus

[AvidIndoorsman]

Was listening to Remi Warren's podcast yesterday and he insinuated that he had had more scary experiences with black bears that with grizzlies. I've probably had 20-30 encounters with black bears under 100 yards all went the same way, as soon as the bear smelled me it was in another county. I wanna hear about peoples experiences with bears that went south in a hurry.

Ep. 8: Answering Your Questions

This week on the show, Remi is joined by Ben O’Brien of the MeatEater crew to answer some questions from listeners. They cover keeping your meat dry, horizontal distance versus linear distance, figuring out how dangerous black bears can be, and how to solo hunt elk. Connect with Remi and...

www.themeateater.com

Gus isn't afraid of black bears... please help me change his mind.

 

[----]

Last weekend I was hunting elk, and almost had to spray a black bear. The draws were covered in a blanket of pine cones. There was one bear that was targeting these pine cones and I bumped him three times. The last time I bumped him he was sleeping, and when I woke him up he was very confused about what was going on. The sun was at my back and wind in my face. I first saw him at maybe 5 yards, then he ran out to 10. He got curious about what I was, and turned back around and started walking right at me. I yelled a couple times, and he kept coming. He was obviously not aggressive, but really wanted to figure out what I was. Finally I hit him with a stick and he turned around and waddled away.

Funniest part was @Mthuntr was laying under a tree only 30 yards away from where the bear was sleeping, and they were oblivious to each other. Grant had a bear tag he wanted to notch, so we went back after the bear after we met up and never caught back up.

I've been bluff charged by sows with cubs a couple times, and had to scare them off like situations above a few times too. I know that black bears are dangerous, but my mind just never goes in that direction when I bump in to them at close quarters. I've just never personally seen one act aggressive enough to where I thought I needed to do something about it.

 

[Jape]

Can’t say that my experiences have been negative. They have always been much more afraid of me than them. I did find this article interesting. Notice how many of them occurred north of the border.

Fatal Black Bear Attacks in North America Over the Last 20 Years

Twenty-four fatal black bear attacks have occurred in North America during the last 20 years. Here are the stories behind each.

www.google.com

 

[MThuntr]

Last weekend I was hunting elk, and almost had to spray a black bear. The draws were covered in a blanket of pine cones. There was one bear that was targeting these pine cones and I bumped him three times. The last time I bumped him he was sleeping, and when I woke him up he was very confused about what was going on. The sun was at my back and wind in my face. I first saw him at maybe 5 yards, then he ran out to 10. He got curious about what I was, and turned back around and started walking right at me. I yelled a couple times, and he kept coming. He was obviously not aggressive, but really wanted to figure out what I was. Finally I hit him with a stick and he turned around and waddled away.

Funniest part was @Mthuntr was laying under a tree only 30 yards away from where the bear was sleeping, and they were oblivious to each other. Grant had a bear tag he wanted to notch, so we went back after the bear after we met up and never caught back up.

I've been bluff charged by sows with cubs a couple times, and had to scare them off like situations above a few times too. I know that black bears are dangerous, but my mind just never goes in that direction when I bump in to them at close quarters. I've just never personally seen one act aggressive enough to where I thought I needed to do something about it.

That was wild...laying there I heard Randy yelling and at first I thought he was yelling at me. Didn't know what was going on down in those trees. I would happily notch a tag on that bear knowing that it was a big guy

I think bears and I share some sort of lineage since we're always eating, sometimes like sleeping under trees after a snack, grumpy when hungry, eat a lot in fall and get fat, become lethargic in the winter burn off fat while fasting, in spring gorge on things while in search of a partner. I also have a shaggy unkempt look.

Personally haven't bumped into too many black bears that I felt were aggressive. Most times they were curious about what I was or I bumped them and they took off. Mostly same for griz. I've had chuffing bears where I got spray ready but I think it was a "I don't know what you are and you make me nervous" response before they take off. I guess I'm lucky so far because I'm often alone with my nose to the ground looking for sign. I always carry spray and definitely not good enough with a sidearm to feel any safer.

 

[Brian in Montana]

I know they can be dangerous, but every black bear I've ever encountered ran like hell as soon as it identified me as human.

That is except the one getting in the trash in the middle of the night.

 

[sierrahunter]

Interesting thread. I, too, noticed the many north of the border attacks in that article. Like the others have noted, the black bears I’ve encountered are scared to death of me.

I wonder if bears in rural Canada have less fear of humans because of how infrequent their encounters are. I’ve watched countless bear baiting videos in Canada where bears could care less when they discover hunters nearby. They just keep feeding. That would never happen where I hunt.

Also, it seems like the attacks in the article were all pointing to bears feeding on their victims, versus defending cubs or something. Any other hypotheses?

 

[Cogreeny]

I had one come in on my kids when we were picking raspberries for jelly. He was low to the ground and coming in quick I got between him and the kids and told the wife get the levergun that was under the seat I convinced him to leave before she got there with the gun. Had I had the rifle I’d of shot his face off he obviously had no problem stalking humans. I have the 10mm on my hip from that time on.

 

[Kaitum]

I worked in close proximity to lots of black and brown bears in AK. Only hair raising experience I had was with a black bear. Had a large male black bear pawing at our tent with me and two colleagues sleeping inside. First swipe rattled the tent and woke me up, second swipe had us grabbing our spray and pouring out of the tent. I was relieved to see it was black and not brown when I left the tent. But try as we might, we could not haze or push the bear away. It was extra windy so we wanted that bear super close before we sprayed him. He never got quite close enough. Lots of posturing and bluff charging. I finally hit him in the head with a rock and he moved off. We packed up camp and left the area. Definitely was not 'typical' bear behavior. Probably food conditioned if I had to guess.

 

[Doublecluck]

After a short 1 mile hike at my local elk spot a few weeks back I stopped on the ridge to glass a bowl. I hunt this spot a couple times a week as it’s only 30 min drive from home. This section of state land has cattle, subliminally my mind has been trained ignore black objects in my peripheral vision as cattle when I’m hunting this spot. As I’m sitting there glassing I hear heavy footsteps running my way through the sage, I take my eyes off the glass and first thought on the black object rapidly approaching me from 100 yards away is oh this cow thinks I’m the farmer here to feed him. About a half second later my eyes adjusted to not looking through Binos at about the same time my brain registered this black object now at a full run toward me had a different wobble in its trot than a cow. As it passed between two cows I remember it’s back was at least 2/3 as high as the cows body. Strangely enough my mind instantly went to knock a arrow rather than pull the bear spray or the 10 mm Springfield in my hip. At about 40 yards the bear started to veer to my left and slow his run, at 20 yards I was at full draw, I whistled a few times to stop him as he passed by 10 yards to my left but he disappeared in to the pines before I could get a arrow off. This is by far the biggest black bear I’ve ever seen in Montana and I’ve been looking for him since. The whole encounter was less than a minute.

 

[Dunning Kruger]

People say black bears are all afraid and run away, and most of them do follow that mould, but not all. I think black bears are a lot like people in that most want to avoid confrontation, but a few of them are just assholes and its really just a numbers game. Spend enough time around them and youre going to run into the assholes at some point.
First black bear i killed, i was taking a nap in the woods in september. Woke up and opened my eyes and a cinnamon phase boar was roughly 20 or so yards away, sneaking up on me following my back trail. Pulled my .44 and blasted him from 8 ft while i was still laying down.
Had another one, a good sized boar, following me down a creek, keeping just out of range of my sidearm. He followed me for a couple hundred yards or so, and i cut through a tangle to get out of the creek and back onto a trail to get back uphill to my quad, didnt see him after that.
Plenty of encounters too where the bear wasnt acting aggressive, but certainly wasnt being scared and backing down. November 2017, a week after bear season ended, i was sneaking through the woods deer hunting in thick fog. Couple coyotes appeared in front of me acting really agitated. I shot one, missed the other. Kept walking and maybe 100 yards further on i came up on a really nice boar eating a deer, no more than 5 yards away. Im assuming he stole it from the yotes. Had my gun pointed at him telling him to back off, back off. He didnt listen. Just stood there stink eyeing me, eating the deer.pretty unnerving. I ended up being the one to back off, while having my gun pointed at him, walking backward. It turned out okay, but in hindsight the prudent thing would have been to shoot. He couldve covered that distance in a heartbeat, and a big bear on a kill is nothing to screw with.
4 years ago elk hunting had a 10 yard encounter with another good boar. Face to face, bow drawn on him, short standoff, then he ran but only about 20 yards, stopped in the thick crap where i couldnt shoot him and started popping his teeth at me and making all sorts of very unfriendly noises.
Have had a couple sketchy encounters with sows with cubs too, both not aggressive, but certainly not turning inside out and running like they should have. Deer hunting in september i was taking the afternoon off hiking up higher on the mountain above camp, just looking around. Walking real quiet on mossy rocks, i hear something coming toward me through the ceanothus 30 or so yards in front of me and i stopped and out popped a sow with a couple big grown cubs. Pointed my .357 at her and once again telling her to back off, back off. Didnt back off. Stared at me while i was just getting ready to let her have it she made a funny noise like s gorilla. "Oonk oonk oonk." Never heard that before or since. When she did that the cubs ran off to my left and stopped about 30 yards the other direction. Now i was right halfway between the sow and cubs. Cubs both stood up and looked at me. Okay NOW im shooting, screw this! A split second before i shot the sow ran over to her cubs, stopped next to them, looked at me for a couple more seconds, did the gorilla noise again and all 3 ran off.
Another time i came home in thf middle of summer, windows in my truck down, radio cranked. Pull up, slam the truck door, basically making a huge racket. Walked around to my back porch and sat down to look at my phone for a minute and a sow with 2 cubs popped out of the brush at thf edge of my lawn, right there, after all the noise i just made. I had my little CC 9mm on me and pulled it and yelled st her, she didnt budge. Yelled sgain, still not impressed. So i fired a few shots over her head and then she took off with the cubs.
Basically, they dont ALL run away at first sight of a human.

 

[sierrahunter]

This video shows a bear I encountered in California last year at 8 yards away. I was deer hunting. This is how almost all bears I come across behave.

 

[dgc1963]

my friends and I have had many black bear encounters that made us nervous from not being able to get out of our tree stands huffing and popping their jaws to the point of needing someone to come out on a quad to scare them away, bluff charges one even wouldnt let 3 of us out of the cabin to go bear hunting it was charging us 10 yrds outside of the door. One time we had 4 or 5 guys all trapped in stands in archery season on the same nite. I live in pa and love archery hunting bear been luck to get 3 in a state with no baiting or scent use but have a very healthy respect of how pissy they can get

 

[Kharper]

I remember the child getting killed in the Cherokee national forest as it is about 45 miles from where I live. I couldn't believe it when it happened as there are lots of black bears in the southern appalachian mountains and I have seen them my whole life and never felt threatened or in danger around them. Awful situation, it's a popular recreation spot and just not what you expect when on a short hike with your family. I've still never had an incident after a lot of close range encounters with bears, however, my brother was charged by a sow with cubs this past summer while scouting some national forest land so you just never know what one will do. I've never carried a sidearm or spray while bowhunting, fishing or hiking outside of gun hunting seasons but my brother's incident has me thinking I may start.

 

[JTHOMP]

While he was not aggressive, really mostly curious, it was not a fun experience when this guy started climbing up my tree while bow hunting. He paused half way up the tree while I was yelling at him. Then causally climbed down and walked away. I suspect he smelled the peanut butter crackers I had just eaten.




I spent a couple summers working on the LA black bear population survey. Of the 3 populations in the state, for whatever reason the Pointe Coupee population had bears that would be aggressive at hair snare locations. Some bears would non aggressively sit and watch the tech bait the site. Others were aggressive and bluff charge techs carrying delicious Krispy Kreme donuts.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

@JTHOMP do you get a bear tag just in case, the way a lot of western hunters do?

 

[JTHOMP]

@JTHOMP do you get a bear tag just in case, the way a lot of western hunters do?

No season on bears in Louisiana. They were delisted in 2016, and are continuing 8 years (think that's right but could be wrong) of monitoring before a possibility of a season. Even with a season, I'd bet only the Tensas population will be hunted AND the Tensas NWR which I was hunting will likely remain a refuge for bears. So better have good proof of self defense before killing one.

 

[Irrelevant]

Working on the Olympic Pennisula I was once caught ~8 feet off the ground working through slide alder when I heard a bear woofing and clacking it's teeth, it charged twice, but due to the density of the veg I never saw it. I don't know what I would have done. There was no escaping, I had no spray or weapon, all I could do was yell.

Another time I had a sow charge me while bear hunting. I snuck up on her and her cubs, when I saw the cubs I yelled "hey bear" and she lept out of the brush charging at me. I fired one round at her feet and she stopped, and eventually walked off.