Bear Encounters.........

kamlooky

kamlooky

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Interior BC
I'll start with this story..........

I was out picking berries in the fall season one year and noticed
two grizzlies that were beginning to follow me. I immediately climbed
a tree way up to about thirty feet above the ground.
I waited for the two furs to go away.
Instead of leaving, the bears began digging at the roots of the tree I
was in to try and tip it over.
They traded places on the digging endeavor to rest a bit. One would
dig and the other would try and push the big tree over.
Finally they quit, but then they stood facing each other and seemed
as though they were communicating and coming up with another plan.
Well, one of them left and the other stood guard...........chit.
Quite a spell went by and the other bear returned with a beaver under
each arm. He put them down at the base of the tree I was in and the
beavers went to work falling the tree.
I figured that was the end of me, but when the tree started falling, I
jumped to another tree and the bears had to move the beavers over
to this tree. Once again they managed to fell the tree and I jumped to
a different tree. This kept up for several hours and the only thing that
saved me was the fact that beavers always fall trees toward water.
Later that day they finally fell one that reached a river and I managed
to swim away to safety.





Hookay, b.s. on this story. I am reading a series of books written by
Jack Boudreau and I took this one from his book, "Grizzly Bear Mountain".
I have read "Mountains, Campfires Memories".
Another good read.

Sooooo, let's hear your bear stories...:wave:
 
Here's one for ya Looky;


My buddy and I were hunting moose and were staying in an old trappers cabin way up on the Nahanni Range. There was a big grizzly hanging around and I had a tag for him. We saw him several days in a row close to the cabin and at the days end his tracks were all around it. I jumped him one morning and he swapped ends and evaporated faster than any animal I've ever seen, didn't even get the .375 H&H to my shoulder. The next morning I got up extra early to answer the call of nature off the front porch and lo and behold the bear was 30 yds out in front of the cabin, digging for something in the grass. I grabbed my 375 and cranked in a round just as he popped up his head, got the crosshairs centre on the chest and let fly. As the shot went off the bear did his infamous end swap, it happened so fast that the 270 gn Barnes TSX hit the door post right beside my hip....................................
 
My dad would tell me his bear story every couple years after a few drinks. And is a true story according to him.

3 guys go out deer hunting and decide to split up and circle around the mountain and meet on the other side, half way around the mountain my dad smells this awful stench and it seems to be everywhere, they fail to meet up on far side of the mountain so he continues back to camp with this smell in his nose the whole way back to camp, then the smell just stops. Tells his buddies when they get to camp about the smell and they get all excited and tell him he was being stalked by a griz and proceed to hang up the food between two tree's
hanging it about 15' ft up and setting up the truck headlights towards the food. then decide maybe to raise it up to 20'ft thinking the bear would have stand under the food and they could turn on truck lights and shoot it, got the rifles all ready and settled down for long night of waiting. So bunch of hours later there is a big crash bang snap and everybody jumps up hits the lights and foods gone.. ropes gone.. tree's can be still herd snapping in the distance. 4" tree's busted like twig's. Dad puts his rifle in the truck say's im leaving with or without you.. last time he ever went hunting...
 
I was working in the Callaghan valley in about 2006 on the Olympic site, building the water and waste water treatment plant. We got a call over the radio informing us that a black bear was making his way towards our site, a pretty common occurance. I thought nothing of it and we all continued working and watched the bear meander past the site and keep going. Well about ten minutes later, I get the call of nature, the nearest porta potty was about a five minute walk up hill to our company yard. I hoof it up there and low and behold the bear had camped out right in front of the porta potty and I've got to go! We did a Mexican standoff for about three minutes until I picked up a good size rock and tossed it at the porta potty, which of course made a great big clatter and he was gone like a flash, to my bowels great relief. :redface:
 
Though most will likely dismiss this story, it is an absolute truth. On a sheep hunting excursion in the Wilmore Wilderness in North Western Alberta I had the joy of an incredibly close encounter with a grizzly. One of the horses on the trip was called "Houdini" because he habitually got loose. On the last night, I was almost asleep when I heard the door of the wall tent start to open. In the dim glow of the stove I could make out a dark shape moving into the tent. Assuming this was "Houdini" I picked up my wife's sneaker and proceeded to whack the "horse" on the nose as hard as I could. In the morning, my wife exited the tent to get some water and informed me that ALL the horses were still tied up! I leapt out the sleeping bag and found boot-sized grizzly tracks leading down the creek, past the horses, right to the door of the tent, and off into the bush from there! I always sleep as far from the door as I can get now, and the rifle is never out of arms reach. :)
 
A friend of mine guides bear hunts (bow). An American wanted to come up and hunt, but kept saying how afraid he was of bears. Guide said "Don't worry. You will be way up in a tree stand and bears can't climb trees."

First day there was an incident just like the one on tape. bears climb like squirrels.
 
October elk hunt 2012. 11 griz sightings, mainly sows with cubs. Average sighting distance <100yds. On one occasion a big sow with two cubs come to our elk calling like they were on a string to 50 yards. Spooked them off after a shouting spree. Fast rewind back to September.....whilst calling a bull we had a solo Griz come down on my partner and I. From 80 yards to 15 yards in the time it takes to stand up and look back. Finally it stopped the charge after realizing the elky sounding critters didn't look too tasty and they had those wild flapping arms and shouts to boot. PS,,,,griz can climb like squirrels too. Saw it climb a tree then jump back after we spooked this one off with bear banger.

Then it clued in for us....last year was particularily acute for calling because it appeared the elk were claming up more than usual. Twasn't the heat me thinkst.

Lets just say.....we gotta protect the griz, cus theres no Griz out there, cuz our protectionist NGOs says so, and our game branch does not have the kahoonas to deal with those nay sayers using real data.

Stay quiet with the calling out there...cuz you'll save yourself the hastle of chasing off Griz. I cannot remember a year like the last for the sheer number of griz encounters. PS. I was hunting with my bow on these hunts and may need to revisit the pepper spray can thingy. Sure hope the game branch wakes up to open up some more tags for griz. Did I say Griz enough?

Elky...stalking silently for now.
 
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I was walking back to my cottage and noticed that something had scratched a hole on the screen on the front window but nothing broke the glass. I had a wierd feeling so i looked into the front window and honest to God there was a black bear SITTING on a chair at the kitchen table, with his paws up on the table eating cookies off a tray. So i opened the front door and he looked at me as if to say "got any other cookies"?. At this point we are only about 12' away. I tried to scold him out but he was in it for he long haul with those cookies. He finished the cookies on the try then literally knocked the tray off the table almost in digust at there being no more cookies. He got off the chair and stepped out the back window screen he had ripped out. He had started at the front window and made hisnway around the whole cottage, tearing up every window screen til he got to an open window.
 
Years ago a good friend and myself was doing a bit of dear/ bear hunting together. From his house it was about a good 40 minutes walk to the first tree stand an another 5 minutes to my ground blind.

Almost every time we walked down to hunt we had to chase his dog back towards the house.

I asked him why he didn't put the dog in the house when we left to hunt and he said it was a sin to leave him in there by himself.
Now his dog is a mix between a black Labrador retriever and a black Newfoundland dog. So it looks similar to a small bear.

On this one pertucular day we set out to hunt. Half why there I hear a noise behind us and there was his beloved dog following us.
I quickly chases him back toward the house.

When I was sitting in my ground blind I could see his dog running all thru the woods around my ground blind.
Just sniffing the ground happy as can be. Every now and then looking at the blind as if saying here I am can you see me.
This went on for about an hour and my patience was wearing pretty thin. i even thought about shooting at a tree just to scare him away. Then he left and proceeded up the hill towards the tree stand.

Then I seen black coming down the hill again and I just closed my eyes. I thought here we go again. So I kept my eyes closes and rested for a bit. Then I heard sniff, sniff.

Now your all thinking it's the dog again. Nope it was a large black bear and he had his head sticking in the hole of the ground blind.
He would pull his head out and slowly look around. But when he went to look back in trying to figure out what was inside there was a 308 win pointed right between his eyes.

Still today that was the closest animal that I have ever shot. It was about 6 inches. And yes I did have a bear tag in my pocket.
 
c-fbmi said:
Here's one for ya Looky;


My buddy and I were hunting moose and were staying in an old trappers cabin way up on the Nahanni Range. There was a big grizzly hanging around and I had a tag for him. We saw him several days in a row close to the cabin and at the days end his tracks were all around it. I jumped him one morning and he swapped ends and evaporated faster than any animal I've ever seen, didn't even get the .375 H&H to my shoulder. The next morning I got up extra early to answer the call of nature off the front porch and lo and behold the bear was 30 yds out in front of the cabin, digging for something in the grass. I grabbed my 375 and cranked in a round just as he popped up his head, got the crosshairs centre on the chest and let fly. As the shot went off the bear did his infamous end swap, it happened so fast that the 270 gn Barnes TSX hit the door post right beside my hip....................................
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Laugh2..............frick'in reloads..........................aye...............?
 
Back in the mid 1990's I was doing some wildlife surveys early on a June morning, east of Prince George, BC. I had just left an old cutblock and had entered some conifer forest, when I hear what sounds like a train coming through the woods, crossing in front of me. It was three separate animals, and I soon figured out what was going on: Mother moose first, followed by baby moose, followed closely by a bear. Not sure if it was black or griz, both are in the area. The bear catches the calf just about 40m past me, and I hear a lot of disturbing noise, with bear, calf & mother moose.. The calf didn't die quick, and the mother didn't give up easily. After 5-10 minutes, I hear the mother moose move on, calling the whole time, but wandering off in the direction I had to go, across a small gully. I had a carry permit and was packing a sidearm. Feeling curious, I crept quietly over to where I figured the takedown occurred - gun drawn. There was a LOT of very thick brush... I got closer & closer, but could hear & see nothing. Suddenly, from less than 10m in front of me, the bear let loose with an ungodly growl, jaw-popping and thrashing of the brush. It looked like every single alder brush across a 20 ft span was shaking wildly... sort of like a scene from Jurassic Park. At that milli-second, I realised what a BAD IDEA this was. I backed off, gun still drawn, but speaking loudly to the bear (though my voice was undoubtedly somewhat higher than normal). I talked my way back to the survey path, then across the stream and up the hill on the other side, just to let the bear know I was retreating, and posed no threat. I'm lucky that bear didn't want to leave its kill. Never did find out which species it was, and frankly don't care! It could have gone badly for both of us. I've since had several run-ins with bears, usually blacks, where I've had to draw my sidearm... but on that day I learned not to purposely walk into the danger zone. Happily, I've never had to kill any bear, but I'm probably more 'tolerant' than most.
 
I was shooting clays on a hill side with some friends in a logged out area. We were blasting away when I heard some grunting noise and scratching noises so we stop shooting to listen and no one heard anything but I did then they heard it as well. Then it went crashing through the bush and poked it's head out it was a skinny big bear (salmon season) It saw that I saw it and it gave me a look like o crap I was spotted then it ducked back into the bush and tried to sneak back up the ridge (tree line and ridge) It then scratched the tree again and grunted. My friends started packing up our stuff to leave (they all had a 12 ga shotgun each 3 people total) I loaded some slugs incase the bear had other ideas or came to close but he stayed in the bush. We got into the car and started to drive away when we started to drive away the bear walked over to the bushes beside us and turns out they were salmon berries (Dam bear didn't want to share the spot). I saw a RV at the bottom of the hill and told him about the bear he had tracks all along the trailer and his dogs were out side didn't make a noise that night the bear visited he ran into that same bear he was trying to fish but no salmon were in the river (commercial fishing was running at that time so 0 fish were making it up river). He left the area as well and we waited till he packed up because he was almost done and we left together (didn't want to leave an unarmed camper with a bear that's grunting at people as a warning).

Another story was told to me by a hunter who had a bear stock him as he was walking down a road in winter hunting for Elk. Something told him to turn around so he did and a Grizzly bear popped out and he shot it. He then followed the bear tracks and that bear was walking beside the road and it dragged it self behind a snow bank on it's belly so it wouldn't be spoted (Ie it was hunting him). The bear was out during winter when it should of been sleeping and it was to thin to make it through the winter so it decided to hunt a hunter.

Another time I was stocked by a mountain lion when I was young but my Grandmother shot and killed it. (it had a damaged eye and was looking for easy prey ie small kids) I was going to climb a tree I had no Idea that they can jump or climb trees but that's what I was taught for bears so I figured climb a tree for a mountain lion.

Another time I was mountain biking and coming down a 1 way trail and ran into 3 cubs and 1 adult mountain lion they were on a trail waiting for hikers to come up to practice hunting (a few people had problems with them) They were always on that 1 trail and the only thing that came up it was people so she was teaching them to hunt but people would be the targets the Conservation officer happened to be heading up that way to check on it (lots of reports from adults in large groups that they were stocking people) I told him I just past them and they're just around 2 corners on the left side you wouldn't see them till you get past them (very good spot for an ambush you can see going down but not up the hill) Well he went up there with a semi auto shotgun that holds 15 rounds. (That’s what he uses) He shot the mother first because she was about to jump him then he shot 1 cub that didn't know what to do then the other cub went up the tree and the last cub broke a branch behind him so he spun around and shot that one then finished the last one in the tree. He came down the hill to drive the truck up to remove them and I spoke with him he said he had never seen anything like it before in his life because they were hunting people. He sure had 1 heck of a story to tell after that I just happened to run into the mountain lions before he blasted them I happened to be going down the hill really fast and I just flew past them so they didn't have enough time to react because I was going down so fast.

To be honest I want to carry a pistol when I mountain bike in the bush now It’s the only practical firearm to carry for that application. The CFO said if you want to carry a gun for that reason just stay out of the bush…. (I wasn't in the bush when I ran into that first mountain lion it was a farm)
 
I used to chase black bears out of the yard on foot with my sister. I was 8 and she was 5 at the time. :yingyang:
 
There is a Clam beach north of here near the mouth of some of the coastal inlets , every few years they open it up to commercial clam diggers. Usually during the openings it is the same time of year when the Grizzly come down to forage on the beach . Sometimes you will have five guys and six + grizzly doing a side shuffle dance up and down the beach . The Funny thing is some of the newer guys freak out and bring air horns to try and frighten the bears off . Normally as long as you aren't packing a roast beef sandwich in your raingear the bears move in ,you see them coming you move up or down the beach 50 meters or so and they pass by fairly quickly. When you pull out an air horn and start blasting it in their general direction they STOP and glare at you for 15-20 minutes while you Beep away at them . Guys usually move a little farther if a big Boar Grizzly happens down the beach . When you are a little below eye level with nothing but a small rake, a bucket and a vizzy vest , Those Guys look HUGE.
 
was working nightshift in the fab shop at Mica Dam which is just out of Revelstoke BC. One night I was welding at the rear of the shop on something when for some reason I looked around and there was a black bear about fifteen feet away sitting watching me. I went into the shop and in a while he left.
The next day one of the guys was talking about this bear he had just seen in the river and it was rubbing its eyes like crazy and then would put its head in the water. I suppose it got what is known in welding circles as a flash, which is just burnt eyeballs. I have had minor ones and they are quite sore.
 
old hound said:
was working nightshift in the fab shop at Mica Dam which is just out of Revelstoke BC. One night I was welding at the rear of the shop on something when for some reason I looked around and there was a black bear about fifteen feet away sitting watching me. I went into the shop and in a while he left.
The next day one of the guys was talking about this bear he had just seen in the river and it was rubbing its eyes like crazy and then would put its head in the water. I suppose it got what is known in welding circles as a flash, which is just burnt eyeballs. I have had minor ones and they are quite sore.
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Well the least you could have done was offer it a welders helmet.
 
Lots of Black bears around my cottage and 2 years ago momma and 2 cubs were a common sight. I took my fishing boat to the bottom end of the lake and pulled it up on shore. Got out and fished my way down the runs and stillwaters for a few hours. Came back up on the other side, walked across the rocks and got in the boat. Pushed off and only got 20-30' feet off shore when I heard WOOF! Here was momma standing on her back legs and the cubs going up trees behind here. Right where I just pushed off!


Bear encounters since then have involved a rifle and have not worked out well for the bears.
 
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