Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles There it is, a 115-grain from the .257 Bob at 3000+ fps

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Beach

Gotta hit the rack, and back to the Roberto thread

Dober

The real photo is MUCH better on this one, damn scans

I had one follow me when I was walking out from a hunt once. Being they were pretty new to me, it was a disconcerting experience to put it mildly.

I would walk and it would follow off to the side about 25 yds away. When I stopped, it would stop and sometimes climb a tree and grunt.

It was getting dark and I damn sure wasn't going to run, but I wasn't going to let it get dark where I couldn't see that bear either.

I looked like one of those Mexican Olympic speed walkers...

I never really figured out why that bear followed me like that.

Those are some cool pics.

That's the nice thing about living in Alaska and being allowed to shoot a couple per season and such a long season. When you get one of those funny acting bears you can flame them.

This bear charged my pard, it was late October and the bear only had 3 legs. He didn't even have time to look though the scope, just a point and shoot thing. He puked and then humped out after his nerves settled. Me and another pard hiked back there the next day and skinned it for him. Wasn't an ounce of fat on the bear, he wouldn't have made it through the winter.

Thanks for the pics and the experiences, fellas.

I love 'hunting' bears, especially in the spring. I say hunt because mostly I just like watching and playing around with them.

I remember wanting to get some pics of a beaver dam one spring, set the rifle down and yanked out the camera. Went to a little drop off to climb down and there was a bear eating grass. I wasn't 2' from the top of his head. I looked back and saw my rifle laying on the ground 50 yards away. Did the slow step by step backwards. When I got the rifle the bear realized something was wrong and bolted.

When you see 20 bears a day you tend to have some silly encounters.

The pic with the bear on the falls, I was fishing there with a pard and I heard him yell 'HEY' I looked at him but he wasn't looking at me. I looked to my left and on a big fallen tree was a cub and I could have reached out and touched him. He was just checking [bleep] out, then it struck me, where the hell is mom.

I have a million bear stories, fun critters and I could go the rest of my life and never shoot another, unless they are acting WEIRD.

Could you go your life without shooting one?

I've shot a ton of crap that meant little when I was younger, but bloodlust is outweighed by good meat these days.

Serious question from one who hasn't.

JM, some of those cropland bears could grow to enormous sizes..the Carolina's and PA crank out some monster cropland bears.

No, not likely. Aside from hogs as a kid in SW Florida, a black bear was the first big game animal I ever shot. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Even though I can't hunt them, I appreciate the opportunity to see them now and learn a little something about bears.

After that one followed me, it changed things. Before, I never worried about anything that was in the woods with me with the possible exception of snakes.

Having that experience with the bear brought home the fact that a critter is now out there that could do some damage if it wanted to.

You'd enjoy blowing a deer call in brown bear territory....

JohnMoses,

Bear tags in Montana are over-the-counter for both residents and non-residents, and there's lot of public land to hunt. We have both a spring and fall season. No dogs or baiting are allowed, so it's all spot-and-stalk.

Most people head to the northwestern corner of the state (near Idaho and British Columbia) because there are more bears up there, but bears can be hunted all over the western third of the state. There aren't as many down here in southwestern Montana where Dober and I live, but there aren't as many bear hunters. Back when I was guiding I could always find somebody a bear, but whether or not they got it was another question. Some people get pretty excited when they see their first bear....

As to the age of black bears in the wild, a good friend of mine killed a 29-year-old sow in Alberta some years ago.

If you had to put a number to it, what percentage of bears in MT would be color phase?

Steelie, we'll see what John chimes in here with, cause hes prolly seen more bears than I have, but the bears Ive seen, the colored ones outnumber the black ones..I'd say about 60%/40%..


Ingwe

Interesting. The island I hunted I NEVER saw anything but black nor ever heard of anything but black.

That said, the majority of bears I shot did have the white chest chevron.

Get used to it now that you have them. Perplexing animals.

Once in spring Turkey I got between a mother and two cubs. She didn't like it.

Another time my English Cocker put two young ones up a tree and wouldn't leave the tree. Eventually I had to go get her while the mother sat and watched from about 40yards away. Once I got the dog away, she made some funky noise and they crawled down and we all went on our way. Didn't seem to bother her all that much.

That same Cocker started barking at a blow down once in Feb. I walked over and a Bear was hibernating. I watched as it raised its head-at which time I tripped and fell while backing up
-picked my self up and looked and it was sleeping again.

Had a big Pa black get up right next to me on a logging road while Deer hunting. It walked up a ways and then turned and walked back towards me, but turned and went down over. Stopped looked back and then started digging under fallen trees. Twice I could have touched it with the rifle barrel. Yea I was a little edgy. Actually it was a grown over logging skid trail. Thick as sin and I couldn't easily back away or I would have.

Other times they have left quickly as soon as they knew we were around.

My Cousin has had one coming up and laying on his back deck a couple times this spring. I figure he as a pic and will try to get it when I see him.

And thats interesting cause A chevron is rare here...

I have heard it said, and it seems to "bear" out....that the denser the vegetation and wetter the climate, the more black in the bears....the more arid and open, the more colors....
I have only ever killed one black "black bear".... all the rest have been colors...including my first, a smallish dude I shot with a handgun while fishing, that is what could best be described as a light milk chocolate...


Ingwe