I have none of my own, I've heard some.

Have any tales of the bears?

00 Buck at close range in the dark. Slugs at longer ranges hopefully in daylight hours or with the aid of a good flashlight. Nuisance bears is all I ever shot. My backup was a 40 S&W with 180 grain HP. Right between the eyes for proper effect.

How stupid are you, bear charging at close range with a shot between the eyes???

had a disagreement with a blackie over a dead steer years ago. tripped over a log back peddling and broke my left leg. canceled my dance card with the blackie with my 41 mag as he was sticking his head over the log.
was up at my shed the other day and saw a snowshoe hare sitting by the porch munching on something. went over to look and it was that bear skull. wind blew it down and shattered it. Rabbit was munching on splinters.
had 3 griz in the yard for about 5 hours one day. they definitely owned the yard. head is on a swivel now when we go out in the yard.

A good friend of mine has probably shot more bears than most of us will see. I remember one summer when he shot 67 or 68 bears. He was the government predator hunter in that area for many years. Most were shot with a 270 Winchester using 130 Silvertip factory loads. He had a few interesting experiences. One of the more amusing was a bear he had trapped and shot with a .22. He put the bear in the back of the truck to haul it to the disposal site and was driving on the highway. He glanced into his driver's side mirror and the bear was sitting up, head out in the wind, with his lips flapping. He looked just like a black lab out for a ride. When they arrived at the disposal site, my friend had to climb out on the passenger side and finish the bear with his 357 which settled it down well.
I worked for a time maintaining Forest Service campgrounds and would occasionally have to deal with bears. One of the best reactions I got out of a bear was when I saw one (a small bear) which had tipped over a garbage can and was in the barrel with only his rump exposed. I shot him in the butt with a Wrist Rocket slingshot and a 45 caliber lead ball. When the ball hit, he drove into the bottom of the can hard enough to slide it along the ground. When he got turned around he shot out of there like a rocket. GD

I’ve hunted deer and moose up north a lot of years but have only caught a couple of glimpses of bears in 35+ years. There and gone, before even getting the gun up. Areas I’ve hunted weren’t heavy with bear either.

Did a dedicated bear hunt over bait in 2015. Got a 200 lb female (fall hunt) with 30/06. Rug is in my game room.

I do love bear meat. Was kinda hoping to book another hunt this fall when I’m up north for work but the Covid has put the kibosh on that for this year. Northern trip postponed until spring at the earliest.

One you need to visualize -- flew into a fishing lodge, landed and headed up to the cook shack for a coffee. Inside the cook shack was a shambles and the cook was putting stuff back in place. The door on the opposite side had a outside round circle of bird shot. The center of the patter was missing as the cook shot at the bear on its way out.

Caribou hunting -- camp had an electric bear fence. One night a barren ground grizzly tried the fence. There was a fair amount of noise and getting back to sleep was not easy.

Hunting a big clear cut with dead scraps of trees and piles of brush that you could not see over. My partner was off a ways to my left and we heard something ahead of us but could not see anything. Moving forward quietly I was going around a brush pile and heard a noise immediately behind my left side. I turned and a black bear had den site in a brush pile and its head was sticking out looking at me from about 4 ft. After the shot it took me a while to stop shaking.

A family friend had a bear in her cellar one morning. They waited until the bear quit making noise, then her husband tracked it in the wet grass and shot it.

Had an encounter many years ago with a grizzly just West of Calgary. Was fishing a stocked pond in a picnic area just off the highway that was normally busy with families.
Sun was going down, had my limit so I told my partner I was heading to truck, would put on a pot of coffee while he finished his limit out.
Was headed across the parking lot when the bear wandered out of the brush between me and the truck. He caught wind of me and stopped and looked right at me from probably 35 feet. danger close anyway. All I had was my fly rod and a cotton sack of fish. No firearm, hadn't carried bear spray that evening.........bear ended up with my catch as I tossed it to him, he took of with the fish and I wandered back to the lake to intercept my buddy. He thought I was bringing him a cup of coffee LOL. I heard later that the bear was a known PIA due to "begging" grub from folks that was trapped and relocated.
I never go anywhere without a minimum of bear spray nowadays. Prefer to have both spray and a firearm but can't always carry both here.
Have had other run ins over the years where I had to use spray but that one sticks out. Haven't had to shoot in self-defense, yet. Life is an adventure!

wabigoon;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the second weekend in July finds you and your fine family well and more or less bear free!

We've just rolled back in from a few days up the mountain tenting and this time didn't see a black bear - though we did see some reasonably fresh bear scat so were watchful for them as usual.

Black bears and I go back a long, long ways and sometimes we've been pretty close to each other.....

The first time I was tenting with my oldest sister in northern Saskatchewan, I want to say we were less than 100 miles from the North West Territories, near the Dene community of Black Lake.

The campsite we were using was shared by some archaeological folks doing a dig and they'd been having issues with a pesky bear. The first or second morning I woke up to a noise outside the tent, looked out the screen and saw the bear's nose about as far away from the outside of the tent as my nose was on the inside!

I saw that one again when I was washing up one morning at the lake - and he was too I suppose - again we regarded each other with more curiosity than anything else and left on our own separate ways.

When I'd moved to BC for the first time in '81, a buddy and I were chasing whitetails up on the mountain range east of us. We'd split up an hour or so earlier and as I was sitting on a stump looking over a cut block for movement, a young black bear mother came feeding up the mountain directly towards me, her single small cub behind her. For reasons that make no sense whatsoever to me now, I decided to sit still and see how close she'd get to me before noticing me.....

Now you have to understand wabigoon that I was young and dumb in many, many ways then and had no concept of how fast a black bear can actually move.

Anyways, she's feeding directly towards me, junior about 10' behind her and as she does, I'm becoming less and less comfortable with my decision. As she puts her head down to feed I'm now tracking her with the muzzle of my '06, but she's a mom and I don't really want to shoot either of them.

When she's maybe.... maybe 25' away from me, I get up off the stump, wave my ever present cowboy hat in the air and yell as loud as possible - which I've been told is pretty loud considering my lack of stature....

So mom bear about doubles in size as she puffs up, spins left and tears down the mountain away from me and runs right over junior!

Junior begins the most heart wrenching and pitiful squalling one can imagine! Quite loud for a little guy as well, but then by this time mom bear is running back and forth at about 50yds bawling and clacking her teeth.

I can still actually hear the teeth clacking now as I type this all these decades later wabigoon. That was something, you know?

Junior was clearly lost at this juncture and began to wander up towards me and I found a few more notches on the dial for volume explaining to him he needed to not advance towards the little guy in the hat.

Finally, though it was likely quite quick in real time - junior headed down the mountain to mom, she gave me a few more vulgar expletives and left with the little fellow in the direction they'd come from.

About that time my hunting partner shouts out to me asking why the shouting and I yell back "There's a mad mother bear over here man!"

That's one bear story wabigoon, the closest I've let one come on purpose I believe, but certainly not the last.

Thanks for letting me recall that hunt from the sunny slopes of yesterday sir and thanks for coming along with me on it.

All the best to you folks this summer.

Dwayne

In Baniff National Park they have a she bear stuffed in the tourist center. It had been relocated three times, each time farther away and came back . OK you can stay. She's still there.

Urban legend has someone in North Vancouver catching a couple of bears mating in his hot tub. Bears in hot tubs is not uncommon, my cousin had to replace his cover a couple of times.

The only bear I ever shot was back in the 60's. A friend and I were moose hunting in the back of beyond and one afternoon we saw a small bear trying to get in to a cabin being used by mining prospectors. It took off and we watched it go. The next afternoon at exactly the same time it showed up again and headed for the prospectors cabin. When we had warned them the day before they asked us to kill it since they expected it to return. My friend shot and wounded it (his brothers gun which had never been properly sighted in). It started to run and I killed it when it jumped over a cut bank.

The prospectors were so happy they asked us if we wanted to join them in the cabin. Unfortunately it smelled like a garbage dump so we declined. We mentioned about having a camp set up down the lake as our reason for not joining them.

Jim

Our good family friend Joe, was famous for telling, "You keep the bear up the tree, I'll get the gun". His wife Helen said, I could get the gun".

Joe, and Helen were late one evening in Wabigoon getting to our place, that is when the bear was loitering in their back yard.
I should still have some bear claws from that one. I'm impressed, a bear could easily
take the face off a man with one swipe.

I'll be quite happy to keep, "social distance" from any bears, say six hundred feet.

Put your glasses on and read my post again. I said nothing about the bears charging. Most of them had their heads down eating garbage home owners would not clean up.

over a few years i shot a few bears over my legal bear baits with a bow,but i kinda quit baiting bears got to easy for me to kill a bear with my bow over a bait. finally figured out how to keep bears from my bird feeder on a wood post, i used plenty wire on porcelain insulators with a electric fencer close by that`s on 24 hrs a day 7 days a week, otherwise i am fixin or replacing wrecked bird feeders,coons and squirrels are stay`n away too now. had to do the same thing in my garden too and the turkeys stay out now too. i know city people think bears are so neat but in my world bears are a nuisance and can be dangerous too .

Was caribou hunting north of Tok in the late 80's and since we hadn't seen any caribou I started hunting spruce hens with a .22 revolver. I had wandered several hundred yards from my 3 wheeler and rifle when I topped a small ridge and saw a huge scrapped up pile of brush and dirt about 20 yards away. It took a moment to sink into my dense skull that the caribou leg sticking up meant a grizzly kill site. I immediately backed away at flank speed while covering my retreat with the 22, although I doubt it would have helped if the bear had been in residence. Needless to say I didn't leave my rifle behind again while pursuing spruce hens.
Another time while fishing for reds on the Russian at around midnight I looked up stream and there was a brown bear doing the same around 30 yards away. I suddenly remembered that I had a urgent need to return to camp...

Lot of close encounters with bears over the years. Many at a few feet.

One evening on a bow elk hunt I happened across a black bear in a huckleberry patch and took a shot with my bow at 45 yards. I hit just above it's back and stuck in a tree, the arrow close enough to pull hair off it's back. It took off like a shot. Since we'd called in three bulls in a couple hours of hunting I decided to go back the next night and hunt for a few days. I was setting up my tent about 100 yards from where I'd taken that shot at the bear the evening before, and had left my bow leaning against a tree 15 yards away. I looked up and there was that same bear, sitting on his haunches 15 yards away, watching me set up my tent. He was just sitting there, as if to say, "Whatcha doin'?"

I couldn't reach my bow so I just kept doing what I was doing, one eye on that bear the whole time. He finally tired of watching and wandered off. I spent a long night imagining him coming back for revenge and shredding me into strips.

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

in about 1960 we were on a junior camp hike in Yosemite . strict rule was to have all food stuff hung in a tree away from camp. my Nephew couldn't resist a bunch of snickers, butterfingers etc in the bottom of his sleeping bag. about 1 am we were all awakened by his caterwauling like a stuck hog. nice 200lb ish black bear was dragging him into the river about 50 yards out of camp. we counselors all grabbed pots and pans and rescued him. whole bottom of his bag was covered with bear slobber and the inside of the bag with 9 year old's piss! we let him keep the candy
might have been a mistake rescuing him. he was a drug addict for the next 50 years and in and out of prison. PTSD? not!

We are in a high density Grizzly area here, seldom seeing a black bear. Grizzlies prey on them.
They often get into our hen houses, and are sighted frequently . Elk calve in and around our places and these bears kill many calves.
We are off to see Sawbones for a few days and hope none discover our meat birds( chickens) they will rip and tear their way in. Generally leaving the cattle and horse alone, but just love chicken....and easy pickings.
The neighbors are on alert and will check in.
It was a mistake cancelling the season on these Great bears ....but I really love having them around. I won't live anywhere Grizzlies and Bighorns don't reside.
Most of the locals have first hand experience with Grizzlies, some have been ripped up a bit. Not if , but when a hunter will have an encounter....especially if he cow calls elk, they can zero in on this.

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!

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.

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

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.

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

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.



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!

Guy

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.

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.

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.

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.
.

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.

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.

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

Is this it, Wabi?



“Bears Invade Camp”
-Walter Martin Baumhofer

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.

Close enough, thanks.

I prefer bears at a greater "social distance".

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.

Karl, a serious question, what is your idea of protection from bears, other than a firearm? Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Don’t get me started.
I’ve had numerous arguments with law enforcement over this both OPP and Conservation Officers. Iam never very far from a firearm and I don’t own any pepper spray. I have told numerous officers that if they leave their firearm at home and just carry Bear spray so will I—otherwise just arrest me. Many have threatened me with arrest—none have carried thru with it. I don’t know a single cop whoever had to pay for his own bear spray—hell they don’t even pay for their own guns.
On average about twice a year a bear wanders thru my yard—I usually go out and holler at them and scare them off—if they leave and don’t come back its all well and good. If they don’t leave at my request I deal with it—as you can imagine. I do Not notify the local authorities or anyone else for that matter—i can’t stand the inane questions and statements from gov’t employees—not to mention the paperwork.
Predatory Black Bears are not common—very rare really. I have never met one and I earned my living chasing bears for a lot of years. I think a bear that hunts you for food might just get you even if your armed.
A stout stick will handle the majority of black bears and I would have as much confidence in that than I would a can of spray.

I considered that when you report killing nuisance bears, they have to drop by and ask those questions. It's their job. One of the things they often do, depending on the animal, is investigate to see if it is sick. Rabies is always no. one. I agree that calling the authorities is usually bothersome.

When we worked air wpns ranges in bear country, we carried shotguns.

Steve—I live 35 miles outta town—the idea that local law enforcement would just stop by to discuss a nusiance bear killing is ridiculess. If they get a report of someone discharging a firearm in the middle of July—that will get their attention right smartly.
In a year when we have a complete berry crop failure its not uncommon for 30 or 40 bears to be dispatched in the little town of Nipigon.
There hasn’t been a reported case of rabies locally in my lifetime.
If I report a bear killing I will get a call from some young sweet lady—from where I have no idea—but she will ask me about how full my bird feeders are and where I store my BBQ. She will also want to know exactly how the bear carcass was disposed of. Iam quite sure it would give her apoplexy if I told the truth.

Last Fall, I was deer hunting on a ranch about 60 kms North of Medicine Hat. While I didn't see a bear, I found a steaming pile of what looked to me like bear schitt. No snow and the ground was dry and hard so I couldn't see any tracks. I have seen plenty of it in the past so, being on the bald azz Prairie a long way South of the Parkland region where there are bears, this was a surprise. I took a photo of it with my cell and showed it to a few folks who I know are familiar with bears to confirm my suspicions. Every one of them agreed with the assessment that it was bear schitt. So, yep, they do show up in strange areas.
In addition to the White tail, Mule deer, Elk, Antelope, Moose and Cougars in SE Alberta, I also believe Black bears are slowly repopulating the area. Makes sense as they were once common here as were Grizzly.
Jeff

What you say doesn't surprise me. They have procedures that they have to follow. I am merely pointing out that they are doing their jobs. Whether it's on site or a phone call, they are not doing it to annoy you.

Handguns might be better than pepper spray, maybe. Or it might just make him mad. My cousin had always want to kill a bear with a handgun, so when there was large problem garbage bear. He got his chance. He emptied the 357 and the bear literally died at his feet. His brother was supposed to be backing him up with a 30/30, instead when he turned, his brother was laughing his head off.

Had a blackie raid the lodge kitchen supplies. We wrapped bacon around a can of mosquito repellent and he stayed away for a couple of days after chomping on this. When he came back he smashed through the screen door of the cook cabin, our cook who was the first woman to finish the Iditarod was not going to have any of this. She whacked the bear soundly on the head with a twelve inch skillet. The bear departed in great haste and destroyed what was left of the screen door. Not only did the bear not return none of the guides pilfered from the kitchen after this encounter.

Several black bears have been spotted and one taken this spring by a young guy, just east of Sedalia.

These people in Anchorage have a bear story, don't know what language they're speaking...The mother got in first, was surprised by someone's return, took off, leaving the cubs inside

Huh, good summer thread. Living in BC we probably have our share of bear encounters. Reading the thread brings back some memories.

My closest encounter was up the BC coast a bit, in the early summer of 1980, when I still made my living with a chainsaw. We were way up and back in a high box canyon that the tree line faded away in. The place was rotten with berries where the trees disappeared so there were a few bears around. I was about 800 feet back off the road near the end of the treeline. Had my 2100 buried in a 6 foot red cedar when I got this funny feeling and looked to my left. There was a sow and cub about 5 feet from me. The cub was acting like a puppy but the sow had her head down, her ears down, and she was making that clicking noise with her teeth as she slowly approached me swinging her said side to side.

I yanked my saw out of the cut and shoved the bar in her face while I revved the saw up. She jumped back a couple of feet and then started coming in again. I had the bar a few inches from her face with the mist off the oil going right in her face. She stopped.

I grabbed my axe with my left and continued to jab the saw at her with my right (I was pretty strong back then). My day pack, which had my lunch in it, was evenly between us. With my axe I hooked my pack and backed away. When I was about 10 feet back I put the pack and axe down and stood there facing the bear with saw back in two hands, idling.

We stared at each other for awhile and then I backed up a little further and started bouncing rocks off her head to drive her away. She just kept on staring at me. Then I bounced a couple off the cub, he started bawling and rook off. At this point the mother took off after the cub.

I was up in that valley for another week... Kept looking around all the time until we finished up there.