Would someone with real world experience please recall the last time they were attacked by a bear.
Rugdoc;
Good afternoon to you sir, I trust the day in your part of the world is as sunny and mild as it is here in the south Okanagan.
I am cognizant that you specifically asked about an attack and the answer to that for me personally is never. Having said that and it being sufficiently dealt with, if you were to expand the question to "had a negative interaction with a bear" I would have replied in the following manner.
To the best of my recollection it was about two years previous to this photo that I ran into a much smaller black bear within a half a kilometer of the photo of the good bear making an exit. The boar in the photo winded me and like all good bears before and after the incident, left without any further discussion.
That September day I'd been hoping to hear some bull elk calling, but hearing none and the Okanagan sun starting to heat up the day, I was hiking back to the pickup with the wind at my back - decent wind at that.
Presently I spotted a lone black bear coming directly towards me at about 150 meters. I recall thinking it was odd that he hadn't smelled me yet and when he continued on towards me at perhaps 100 meters or so I flipped my rifle off of my left shoulder and chambered a round - I carry cold if I'm moving in rough terrain.
At about 75 meters I started muttering out loud to him that he was getting close enough already and by 50 meters my volume was up to 10 - perhaps even a less than civil name being tossed his way by then. The bear stopped facing me, shifted back and forth on it's front legs and licked its lips.
Now I'm no bear expert, but I did grow up around livestock and we had horses for 17 years so I can assure you that when a horse is facing you and licking it's lips it is cogitating on what it's next course of action is going to be.
The bear continued this behavior for a bit, perhaps a minute and while it was doing so I was very loudly assuring it that the next noise it heard was going to be really, really loud - as in .308 Norma loud...
I'm no giant at 5'5" and I believe the bear was weighing whether or not he could take the little fellow in the cowboy hat. Further, I can assure you that I wouldn't have been nearly so confident standing my ground if I'd not had that old tang model 77 in my hands as we've had a proven record of things going our way over the years.
Finally the bear shuffled away, stopping at least two times to turn broadside and consider the situation while remained rooted in my part of the cut block, still encouraging it in the strongest possible terms to make haste and vacate.
That's it for me anyway, though we have had our tent checked out during the night by what I assume was one of the 2 or 3 black bears hanging out at Blanket Creek Provincial Park last summer. Beside me in the tent that night and all nights is one of these two shotguns, the Lakefield being one I've had for 43 years and the Uzkon a recent purchase that's been reliable enough that I now it as a meat packing arm.
Anyway that's just one BC guy's opinions on some of the vagaries of life that we run into quite often in the rural south. All the best to you and yours as we go into the Christmas Season.
Dwayne
