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Had to defend myself against a bear while moose hunting up in the NW corner of Sakatchewan. Thankfully, bear was no match for the 250 grainer out of my 338 Win Mag, at 7 yards, and thankfully I hit it!


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Originally Posted by DeanAnderson
Had to defend myself against a bear while moose hunting up in the NW corner of Sakatchewan. Thankfully, bear was no match for the 250 grainer out of my 338 Win Mag, at 7 yards, and thankfully I hit it!


Well that certainly sounds... Exciting!

Good grief, bear at 7 yards...

Glad it worked!

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Two 2017-2018 accounts out of WY-MT. Most recent was a late 2018 Wind River area NE of Yellowstone.
Elk hunter with guide bow hunt-successful but had to come back next AM. Grizzly with yearling cub attacked
both at elk. Guide killed. One pistol not enough. All should be armed returning to kill site in bear country.

Other incident outside entrance of Glacier Park-2017. Forest Service L Enf officer on Mtn bike slammed into 6-yr
old boar grizzly and killed- on blind curve gravel trail. Hair samples showed age. Left wife and kids.
Carry a firearm and be alert. Black bears are predatory. All bears must be watched.

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Nothing hair raising. But when I lived in Florida, before they opened up a bear season, they could be a bother. This little guy camped out under my tree stand one morning and would not leave. I even threw my hat at him, he was not impressed.
It was not unusual to see a couple a year. Enjoyed seeing them, even if they were a bother at times

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I was walking back to my truck through a food plot one evening after a deer hunt, no flashlight on, as deer were still visible a few minutes before. I was watching my step in the dim light, as to not trip, when I looked up and saw a large black shape in front of me. We spooked each other at maybe 20-25 yards and he stood up and growled. He was a good-sized bear that I'd see again later in the year. I unslung my rifle and he backed off a few yards to the brushline, where he hid and made some angry racket. Every deer and hog within earshot started blowing and squealing as they left out. I eased by him and went on to the truck. I now try to make sure I have a flashlight on when I hike out, and I carry a backup handgun.


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We have always had problems with range cattle breaking through or jumping over the fence and getting into the yard so when the dog started barking one night, I grabbed the Louisvlle Slugger and headed out to beat on what I assumed was a black Angus under the apple tree. When I got closer I could see, in the pale glow of the crappy flashlight I was carrying, it was no cow but a pretty big bear. I backed off while the dog sailed right into the bear. The bear, probably startled by the attack, simply blew through the fence on his way out. In thirty years, fruit trees notwithstanding, this is the only bear which has come into the yard.
A few years back, my son and I were up fishing on a local creek. We had our weimeraner dog with us. We had caught a dozen smallish trout and were walking back to the truck. Out of the corner of my eye, on the left, I noticed the dog, about twenty feet off, just keeping pace. I never looked directly at the dog, just noticed he was there. We chatted as we walked along and when I looked over at my son, who was on my right side, I saw the dog was right beside him. I looked back to the left and saw the small bear which had been walking along with us. All three of us, son, dog, and I, stopped and stared. The bear, uncomfortable with the attention, turned and shufflrd back the way we had come. We had seen the remnants of a fawn earlier and the bear had probably killed it and eaten most of it. He seemed to be following us out of curiosity as much as anything.
Black bears are especially hard on the calf elk population. I am surprised their are not a lot of calves belonging to the range cattle killed but such losses are relatively rare when you consider that the cattle are on the range, unattended, for five or six months each year. GD

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Stopped at Lake Kluane, British Columbia to stretch my legs, walking a couple of miles along the lake shore. Lovely walk, the ice covered lake was starting to melt in the shallow areas.

As I was headed back towards my parked Jeep... I noticed a grizzly headed in my general direction. The bear was just cruising along, looking for food as bears do...

All the same, I stepped it right on out and happily made it to my Jeep before the bear did. smile

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That was the second grizzly I'd seen in BC, in two days.

Ironically, I was driving north to Fairbanks, to fly out for a grizzly hunt!

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I had gotten some water in the local village on the Alaska highway, and made coffee with it in the morning. At mid morning I come back to camp and was sitting down on the two poles nailed to a couple of trees heartily regretting using that water. With my pants down at my ankle a cub wanders into view. My rifle is in the Jeep and I'm more than a little messy. I'm worried the mother is around, I had earlier seen a mother and cubs in the area. In this predicament , my temper gets the better of me, I start swearing. Since I'm able to write this the cub ran off.


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Back in the early 80's as a much younger person with the associated lack of judgement, I went on a backpack trip into an area that was posted as closed, due to a high concentration of grizzly bears at that time of year. I wanted to see a grizzly in the wild, so by my youthful logic I had concluded that it wouldn't happen. This was all before bear spray and I had left my 270 behind after the first day, since I got tired of carrying it and needed my hands to travel off trail in some steep terrain. In our youthful wisdom we also stored and ate much food in camp including a watermelon and a jar of peanut butter. Packs were very heavy. After a couple days carrying packs we set up camp in a nice area from which we would day hike up a high mountain. Next day we began our climb.

I tended to watch my feet as I was hiking and not focus proper attention on my surroundings. We had just resumed our climb when my buddy reversed course at a sprint with no explanation, other than Just Run!. I wasn't too concerned. Figured we might have run into a forest service person and at worst were going to get in trouble for being where we were not supposed to be. The next breathless shout I heard was Bear! Once we had gotten behind a large boulder, I turned and looked to saw a huge grizzly running at an amazing speed away from us. Buddies German Shepherd following in pursuit.

The bear looked at the dog, which backed off and my thought was oh no the bear is going to follow the dog back to us. I should have been looking for a tree to climb or getting ready to play dead, but we were mostly above tree line anyway so not much chance of climbing a tree. I had unsnapped my sheath knife for all the good that would have done. Adrenaline dumped and heart pounding I watched and thankfully the bear kept going up to a saddle above us where it slowed down gave us a look and then disappeared beyond view. After collecting or wits (few though they were) and waiting for heart rate to go back to normal we decided to continue the ascent.

Ended up running into a group of three young bears further up the mountain, close enough I could see their tongues and hear their breath. They went one way and us the other thankfully. Made it to the top of the mountain, enjoyed a short break and amazing views, took pics, etc and then as the sun was starting to go behind the horizon, began to work our way back to camp.

The trip out took all night. At one point we were stopped taking a break when my buddy saw a shadow approaching in the dark and told me to not move. What? Bear! We waited frozen as it approached and we thankfully realized it was just the dog. The dog would often run off and do its thing then come find us. We would hear it barking at times and not know what it had encountered. This always gave me cause for concern.

Now having actually confirmed the existence of grizzly bears in the area we approached our well stocked camp with some concern. Thankfully no bears had gotten into our food at camp. Thankfully our lack of judgement only resulted in a memorable experience with no bear attacks.


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Adirondack Mountains I think the year was 1951 when 4 neighbor boys, brothers each, joined me to go up to the Huckleberry bluffs to pick blueberries. We were spread out pickin-n-munchin quietly when one of the boys yelled, "Lyle! Quit makin that noise!" Lyle yelled back, "I aint makin no noise!" About 5 seconds of silence and someone yelled BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! Boys were scattering in ever direction as fast as they could run. After about fifteen minutes we were sneaking back together outside the berry bushes and noted little Lester was missing. "Where's Lester? "Dunno." We all started calling his name. No Answer. WE huddled together calling his name and began creeping back into the berry bushes calling and looking for little Lester. We finally found him laying face down. WE just knew the bear got him. I keenly remember that flush of horror! When we rolled him over he opened his eyes and when asked what he was doing he said, "Hiding from that G D Bear!" No blueberries made it home that day.
I did get a glimpse of the bear as I ran. He was standing up looking at us. Was gone when we crept back looking for Lester. I was 12 yrs old. Oldest of the five.

Last edited by Rug3; 07/16/20.

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I have a couple of them.

Most memorable one was standing on the roof of a shack at the mouth of the Knife River where it emptied into Hudson Bay north of Churchill, Manitoba trying to stay out of the reach of a polar bear. He could not get a purchase with its back feet otherwise it could have gotten onto the roof. He could reach far enough up that the best safety was to step to the other side of the peak. The six of us and that bear played keep away for a few hours before a float plane flew over, saw our predicament, and buzzed the bear until it left. Worst part is we missed the tide so had to stay there a few more hours until the tide came back in.

Next day, but at the Fort Prince of Wales ruins outside Churchill. We set up camp inside the walls but could only bar the door from the outside, not the inside. A polar bear decided to check us out and spent a couple hours doing laps around the walls. I walked a few yards behind him wondering if it could scale the walls or if it would figure out how to unbar the doors and walk in.

Booted a bear while it had its head in the garbage can. I thought it was the neighbor's lab mutt but was surprised when I realized it wasn't. It, too, pushed the can a few yards before backing up. The same happened to a young bear raiding my bait cart on afternoon. He got a kick in the butt as he was small though I knew it was a bear and had a gun trained on it while I kicked it.

Had a cub try to join me in my tree stand one day. Mom woofed, growled, and snapped her teeth too until junior realized he did not want to sit at my feet. I was much more concerned of the cub biting me than mom as she wanted nothing to do with my tree while junior wanted to visit me.

Best bear story didn't actually have a bear but it was the result of a bear being seen roaming the camp one night. This was a school trip to a "wilderness camp" so it was fairly plush. A bear was seen on the grounds one night so some were concerned. A couple of us from one cabin snuck into the dining hall and stole a buffalo head off the wall. We then rapped it against a window of another cabin to get the attention of the kids inside. Nothing happened so we tapped a little harder. Still nothing so we gave it a harder shove and broke the Window! THAT got their attention and a great screaming and crying erupted. We took off and dumped the head behind another cabin on the way to ours.

The kid that was bunked under the window ended up crapping his sleeping bag as he was too scared to leave the cabin while the others were too scared to sleep. Their chaperone was not in any better shape due to the kids and a bit of fear himself.

We were not proven to have been the instigators but it was suspected. The whole cabin, including our chaperone, was put on double secret probation for the remainder of the year. I strongly suspect the teacher in charge of us ad a little help sleeping which allowed us to carry out our folly.
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SD21 wanted me to take her and a disabled friend camping. She insisted we not go anywhere where there were bears, so I picked a campground about 50 miles south of bear country.

We show up at the campground and on the front door of the warden's office there's a notice that a bear has been sighted in the campground!! Uneventful but funny for the circumstance.

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They show up in places you don't expect on occasion. Someone I consider absolutely reliable saw a grizzly in Washington south of Mt Rainier. Several years ago a black bear was seen wandering through the U district in Seattle late at night.


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Joezone;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the week was a good one and this finds you well.

If I may be honest, I had a rough idea how far south Mt. Rainier is, but looked to be sure.

There's absolutely every chance in the world a grizzly would walk that far - it's only 155 miles south of the medicine line into BC and especially young males will go that far here. The bios I've chatted with indicated that a male will have an "average" area of 200 - 500 square miles, but if a youngster got an especially bad beating from a dominant male, there's no telling how far they'd wander to find an area for themselves.

They travel from two valleys east of us over through our valley and another to the west before hitting the area north of the Pasayten and North Cascades National Park. In fact I read that "they" figure there are "fewer than 10" grizzly bears in the North Cascades, but how they'd know that without a collar on them I'm not sure.

Anyway sir, for what I know of grizzly bears, which admittedly isn't much first hand, but an area of interest for me, I can see that happening for sure.

All the best to you as we head into the hot part of summer.

Dwayne


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Originally Posted by wabigoon
My grandfather has a print of fishermen returning to camp, to find bears sacking the campsite. I wish I had that.


Is this it, Wabi?

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My grandfather was born in 1892 on the western slope of the Blue Ridge here in the Shenandoah Valley. When he was a small child he was picking blackberries on the mountain when his younger brother disappeared. Their grandparents found him in a clearing playing with a bear cub. They hustled him away quickly, but this uncle was called Bear for the rest of his life.

Bears are thick around here. My wife, daughter and I saw one while hiking on Sunday. We watched him for a minute, then I clapped my hands and sent him on his way.

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Close enough, thanks.


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I prefer bears at a greater "social distance". laugh


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Richard—just heard a 67-year old blueberry picker from Red Lake was killed by a black bear on a logging road south of Red Lake towards Ear Falls.
OPP killed the bear and sent it in for a necropsy to Guelph.
I’m bettin it was a big ole boar, in good shape, that hadn’t had much contact with people—a predatory bear.
Not a common occurrence but it happens.

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