7-8 years ago I was bow hunting in an old abandoned apple orchard.
there was a big cedar on the edge of a draw with a row of apple trees running down the draw. I was busy assembling a ground blind when I saw something moving under a apple about 30 yards away. started paying attention when I saw it was 3 cubs about the size of a cocker spaniel. got my bino's up and was enjoying watching the little buggers arguing over apples when I saw an apple fall from up in the tree. normally I am not so dense as to not figure out that where there are 3 little bears there should be a big bear also, but I was really enjoying the show in stereo vision. about the time it dawned on me that mamma was up the tree swatting apples for the young'uns the wind switched and blew on the back of my neck and directly down to the tree momma was in.
the 3 little guys suddenly disappeared so fast it would have made a magician proud, and momma came down the trunk head first, hit the ground running, straight at me. she was all stiff legged and would pause just long enough to tell me what she was going to do when she got to me, and bounced up and down on her front legs. well at that time I weighed around 200 and was still logging and doing heavy construction. but that gal scared me wet.
she looked as big as a truck while she was demonstrating. I was yelling at her and insulting her character at the top of my lungs. She stopped about 5-6 paces off and blustered some then just lost interest I guess. when she settled down, so did I and I realized she maybe weighed 90 lbs. I guess the 3 cubs were keeping her slim. I am still glad I didn't have to punch her ticket.
the next one turned out different.
I was walking my 900 feet of water line coming down the mountain from a creek. I had a 41 mag on and my Kita dog was with me. now Kita wasn't what you would call a liteweight. In his prime he was about 145 lbs. and not afraid of anything but a moose.
we came over a slight rise and there was a big old stump that squirrels lived in. it was about 20 feet from us and a big old scared nosed black was head and shoulders in that stump after squirrels. I guess he thought we were another bear after his snack because he whipped around in a full charge roaring to curdle milk. Kita met him half way and that bear swatted him in the shoulder and sailed him arse over teakettle. I put 4 rounds of 41 starting at the tip of his nose and the last one went between his shoulder blades. he weighed 312lbs. all the time this was happening there was a strange sound in the woods , kind of reminded me of a little girl getting a frog down her pants. my wife said she heard it down to the house and thought it was a screech owl getting buggered.
took me 20 minutes or so to get my legs to carry me back to the house. Kita stayed with that bear and every so often would savage him. guess it made him mad getting swatted.
