I've never had a problem with bears in BC or 'Berta. Back in my surveyin' days,
I had a hundred + pounder black bear as a "pet". Little bugger would greet our
crew outside the back door of the trailer every morning to get some snacks
we'd give it before heading out to the job. After work, I would hang out with the
fuzzy fella and take pics of him, pet 'em and give 'em some more snacks. That
critter was easy going and almost like a dog in it's demeanor.
One day, to get to one of our more annoying co-workers, we led the bear into
the guy's room while he was workin' OT, and shut him in for 3 hours.
When "Stinky" got back and opened the door to his hole, the fat f**k near had
a heart failure as he squealed like a little girl, and went sailing out the back door
of our unit, with the bear right behind him. The bear just wanted out, so it did'nt
hurt Stinky, but we sure were howlin'. Did'nt figure a 300+ lb. guy could move that quick.
Should've seen the carnage that bear did to the guy's room! Every thing nuked, all
his homemade beer drunk and all his stuff piled in the center of the room. To top
it all off, the critter crapped all over it!
Man, I wish we had digital photography in those days. Youtube woulda payed for
that one for sure. Silly me, I was too pissed & stoned to think about pullin' out
the Kodak to get shots of the action. Oh well, the memory of that gag will be with
me forever.
As for pistol cartridges for bear defence, .44 magnum and better will get the job
done in the hands of a cool shot. The main thing is to be "bear aware" and not
to stupidly blunder onto a bear kill or get near a bear with cubs.
Feedin' bears ain't too bright either, but we were young.
Nothin' will make your winky pucker like having a bear cub come flopping out
in front of you in dense brush!
For the skeptics, here's some pics of the critter as well as the camp trailer we
lived in back then.