Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Living with grizz and wolves.

Good point and I'd add that the spray will probably have it's desired effect quicker than a bullet unless you are lucky/skilled/well equipped enough to hit the bear in the brain or spine. Many if not most of us have seen even a deer cover a lot of ground after taking an ultimately fatal hit from a bullet, an angry bear full of adrenaline can be much harder and slower to stop with a bullet. In my experience which is less than some more than others, most bears will run from and want to avoid humans, but it only takes one who has other intentions to ruin your day, and you can stumble onto them when you least expect it.

spec - I am NOT dissen on you.

Fellows I have ZERO experience hunting bears. However have wanted to hunt them a long time. I have a few books on bear & hunting them.

That said, I've done a lot of reading about bears & bear hunting.

I don't think I've ever read 00 buckshot recommended for use on bears. Now SLUGS are a diff story.

Y'all correct me if I'm wrong.


Jerry

Common thing here is for some to alternate buckshot with slugs... "get 'em in the face an' eyes with the first shot an' kill 'em with the second!"

I consider it idiocy...

Common thing here is for some to alternate buckshot with slugs... "get 'em in the face an' eyes with the first shot an' kill 'em with the second!"

I consider it idiocy...

N Idaho montana canadian borders are heavily forested. Moose,deer,elk,blackbears too. His cabin is deep into this population of grizz and wolves.. Each trip into his place if they don't see them the scat and sigh is there. Usually darn fresh.

SU35, he's getting old and feeble! Least thats what I like to tell him. Suggestion noted..

Shag,

Yeah, that part of the world is interesting country, not as wild as most of Alaska but because of the dense forests it can hold a lot of wilderness animals close to towns and cities. Back when I was in college it was common to run into grizzlies when pheasant hunting some of the thick cover north of Missoula. I did once, but the bear went the other way. Another guy got mauled by a grizzly in the same area a couple years later. He shot the charging bear in the face at very short range with a load of 6's, and the fish & game guys had to follow it up and finish it off. As I recall, it was a sow with cubs.

But the same sort of thing is starting to happen even out on the plains quite a ways from the mountains. Maybe 2-3 years ago somebody jumped a couple of grizzlies from a draw near the Missouri River, over 100 miles from the nearest mountains.

NW MT is a jungle. Sitka Deer is incorrect that bears don't just appear. They do in NW MT. I've seen it with my own eyes.

Something else to consider, is that if you spray lead around and wound a bear, you just endangered all the wardens and rescue people coming to your aid.

As far as bears coming out of nowhere, there was a hunter in the area where I hunt elk that surprised a sleeping griz. The bear ran over him and bit him on the way by. He was lucky and got a good story.

That's their native country. Lewis & Clark found them on the plains.

MD, Good point on the varied habitat factor. Even knowing their patterns locally takes time. When they are on the beaches, the rivers, the tundra, at denning time....all are patterns which are affected by important factors. And then there's things like how habituated they are to people. And never-ending breezes in some places too.

One of the things that places bear spray low on my priority list with our bears is the fact that the air is rarely not moving significantly, and it's a pretty rare animal that will be in the cone of favorable 'possibility' (where the animal is more likely to get deterred than the spray-bearer is.) Either we just smell way worse than most people, or the bears hereabout have never quite adapted to human stench, but they sure get busy when they get downwind.

They are pretty easy to see out here on the prairie --- plus we usually get the junior sized Griz. However, Griz being in the neighborhood has caused me to carry a heavy pistol at times when working cows.

I see Counter Assault spray advertised on TV quite often; but it's only the odd day that we don't have wind -- and plenty of it.

Please show me where I said bears don't just appear... I have hunted Kodiak brown bears and interior grizzlies for time that equals many, many months. I have watched thousands of bears over the years. I have fished around them and done lots of other things. I have also skinned more than a few of them.

But, that said, the opportunity to surprise a bear can be greatly reduced by paying attention. If the bear you are walking into cannot smell you due to the wind you need to make enough noise to ensure he hears you. Avoid the brush along the creeks where the bears are likely to be napping, basic stuff, but you have to stay aware.

To suggest a Kodiak alder thicket is not as dense as any other, anywhere, is to prove you have never been in one. Glassing at distance it is amazing how often a bear will simply appear on the hillside and vanish at any time.

alder thickets can rival the thickest South Texas stuff I've seen...

I'd rank it right up at the top for nightmare thick... and I've seen a few examples of such across the US, including AK thickets..

Probably the biggest difference between grizzlies around here and in Alaska is they're not hunted here. This can result in bears that are "habituated" to humans--though not always. Biologists trapped a huge grizzly on the Rocky Mountain Front during spring maybe 10 years ago that they'd never trapped before, and apparently had never caused any problems with numerous ranches in the foothills. They aged the bear at over 25 years, and it bottomed out an 800-pound scale in the spring, fresh out of the den.

But others have become much less wary of humans. Montana lost it's grizzly season in the early 1990's, and by then it was down to only two weeks in the fall anyway. Idaho's season had disappeared even earlier. There was a relatively quick change in attitude among some bears, especially younger males, and while many will still run from any scent or sound of a human, others are much less wary. They're not exactly like park bears, but not like hunted bears either.

Some rancher friends along the Front had a big male start eating sheep and cattle a few years ago, and after a relocation attempt failed the game department cured the problem with what my friend called "Weatherby injection." Luckily the bear had been radio collared during the relocation, so was easy to find.

Since the population has increased considerably over the past 25 years, there are quite a few bears moving into more open country, partly because they're not very nervous about humans anymore.

The Feds recently proposed opening hunting seasons around Yellowstone in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming because of the increase in that bear population, but didn't make any such proposal about the Glacier/Front/northern Idaho population, which includes the bears showing up on the prairie and those living in pheasant cover on the other side of the continental divide. It will be interesting to see what happens, but no doubt lawsuits from various groups will keep any season from happening for several years.

Spot on. Keeping wild animals wild, and honest, is better for people and critters.

During Antelope season in SW Montana a few years ago I came across the fairly fresh carcass of a cow out in open sagebrush, well away from timber. I had a black bear tag so a few days later I approached the carcass from downwind peaking over a nearby ridge, hoping to get a chance at a black bear but knowing a grizzly could be on it. Sure enough a big grizzly was on the carcass so I ducked back behind the skyline and reversed course. I'm glad I knew of the carcass by this point and didn't pass by unawares while the grizzly was there. I would have never expected to encounter a grizzly at this location well after daybreak. You never know where or when you may see them and the population in Montana has rebounded quite successfully from when I was a teenager there in the 70's. Seeing a grizzly in this area during that time period would have been possible but highly unlikely even in the most remote corners.

Whatcha goin' to do with that little dude, shoot him, or spray him? (His back is almost sticking up into the water, just a bit right of center.)



Where's Ma?

Just like when a goat kid gets separated from it's nanny. You can go handle the young one a little and when it makes some noise momma will be along directly....

Given enough notice, spray in left hand pistol in right. Although many times I slip through the forest with spray in hand, safety off. You can bump up a sleeping or nursing bear within 20 feet and that distance will be closed before the hand reaches the holster. I walked up on a nursing bear in heavy timber, within 30 yards, and saw her with binoculars before I was on top of her. She was on her back with eyes closed nursing 2 cubs. When she winded me she jumped up, cubs flying, and hightailed the other direction. If I had been any closer, within sight, I would have been in deep doo doo. Others can do what they want, I pack spray and a pistol for backup.

I give my girlfriend the pepper spray and I carry a Glock 10MM.
I gave her instructions to spray the bear and if that doesnt work run behind me and I will use the Glock.

If you have seen a griz in the wild you would realize the Glock is a desperate last attempt before getting ate.