Any good bears in camp stories

[dapper]

Anybody have any interesting bears in camp stories?
I've never had any in camp, while we were there, even though we've done a lot of bear hunting.
Though on my first elk hunt in 1980 into the Bob Marshall Wilderness, when we arrived at the drop camp after a 18 mile horseback ride in, the wall tents were left alone but a little storage shed where all the salt, pepper, paper plates, etc were stored had been totally demolished by a black bear. It looked like a tornado had hit the area. The outfitter said to throw everything away, because what he didn't bite into, he probably pissed on. Being bow hunters we were the first hunters in, so the camp wasn't set up long before we got there. The bear never bothered us while we were there.
And on the same trip I got some great photos of fresh grizzly tracks near camp. We never saw it, but just knowing it was nearby kept you on edge as you left camp on foot before dawn.

Dan

[Lefty]

My buddies story
Short version he and 2 others were camping in a primative campsite that had a picnic table.
One slept on the table , my buddy and another on the ground. A bright moon. My bud woke i the middle of the night to his one friends snoring and he saw a grizz nose to nose with the guy on the picnic table. The bear paced the camp site a number of times and kept walking up to the guy snoring many times just feet from My buddy.
the bear had been gone some time, the guy on the table stopped snoring and the bear came back,.. untill the the snoring started again then left

[Bullnuts]

Grab the popcorn boys...This is a bizarre story, but it's all true and took place two years ago.
Me and my oldest boy go to camp the day before the season, got things set up, and went up to check a trail camera. On the way back, driving down the main road and picking up some firewood, I saw this stuffed bear in the ditch.

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I think, "Cool! New camp mascot!" and bring the teddy back to camp with us.

An hour or so later, after getting the rest of camp set up, talking, shooting our bows, and generally making noise and messing around, we headed out of camp to check another camera that I had set up. We pull onto the main road and there, not 25 yards from camp, is this black bear. My son asks, "Is that a dog?" Nope, it's a little black bear that wandere in while we were making lots of human noise and other ruckus.

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That one ran off. The next day, opening afternoon, we're sitting on a wallow. Just before dark, a movement catches my eye and I see this dude come walking out into the open.

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A few days later, we're sitting on another wallow. It's the first day of bear season and I have a bear tag in my pocket. We saw some tracks in the wallow and I tell my son to keep his eyes open. I'm sitting there in the afternoon sun when my boy whispers to me, "Dad, bear!" I look over to the wallow and see nothing. "Where?" I ask. "Right there!" he says pointing, and I see a small bear standing about 40 yards away eating grass in front of us. It's a little guy, who turned out to be one year old, so not a cub, bt he had great color and a yellow stripe running down his back, so I take aim and let an arrow fly. I nail the bear, which is quartering away from me, but right through the thigh (terrible shot). He growls, breaks the arrow off at the broadhead, snapping the ferrel in two, and runs up the trail right at us. Crap. This little bear is going to eat us. My son has just enough time to get an arrow on the string as the bear runs by and into the trees. We hear stuff breaking then nothing. It's getting dark so I decide to come back in the morning to take up the trail on this poorly hit bear.

I tell my brother about the bear when we get back to camp and we agree to meet up at 9 and go after it. We hunt elk first thing that next morning and then drive over to where the bear trail is, and my brother is there first. His son is pumping his fist, and I think they must have already found my bear, but it turns out that they pulled in, walked up the trail, and another bigger bear stood up in a berry patch and my brother zipped an arrow through its chest.

We recovered both bears, mine didn't get 50 yards before it bled out on a lucky femoral artery shot, and my brother's was basically DRT, so we ended up with both bears in the meat locker that afternoon.

I'm a big believer in good luck charms, but this stinking teddy bear was too much! My son and nephew didn't have bear tags that year, so they made a spit and roasted the teddy that night over the fire, effectively killing the crazy mascot and hopefully protecting us from future bear encounters. And you know what? We didn't see another bear the rest of the season.

[MT_Nate]

I had this happen just 2 days ago elk hunting in NW Montana - I had a problem bear in my usual camp. It was Monday night, I was hunting solo, walking down ~1000 vertical feet back to camp after trying to get some elk riled up in a rut spot I know. In the last 300 yards of walking with my headlamp (almost pitch dark) I startle something in the alders to my side and it crashes through the timber. I stay my course and get to camp, get my camp clothes on, start a small fire and eat some food.

Suddenly on the ridge above me I hear galloping coming right at the camp. I was definitely startled...it wasn't stopping and it sounded big. Judging by the foot thumping sounds, I figured it was an elk. This yearling bull moose blasts right into my camp, nearly hits my rig, looks at me and the fire, then takes off bolting down the road for about 20 yards, then blasts back into the timber directly below my camp near a small creek. He's thumping around a bunch down there on the hollow cedar needle floor (LOUD may I add), cracking branches, then starts running uphill back to my camp again. Trees cracking, thumps getting closer...the moose busts into camp on the other side of my rig...sees me again, takes off across the road and down into the real thick stuff to the main creek about 500' below.

After my heart settled from the excitement, I pulled up a chair to the fire and started to read abit under the lantern light. Then the fun really started...

About 10 pages into my reading, I hear a twig snap in the woods below my camp. The firelight was flickering against the trees...I stand up to look and I see the glint of eyes looking up for a moment...then gone. I sit back down to listen some more...nothing...I sit down and start reading again. Less than a minute later a medium black bear was standing on the opposite side of my rig looking at me...sitting in my chair by the fire. My butt was puckered. I stood up and yelled at him...he didn't run, but sauntered away out into the road, and then I hear him work his way back into the woods below camp. This happens 3 more times in the next 40 minutes...same sequence. I'm figuring that I'm hunting alone, I left my shotgun and handgun at home by accident, and all I've got is a bow and some bear spray. I'm thinking now that I figured out why that yearling moose was on the run earlier.

I'm thinking now that I'm probably not going to get any sleep with this guy around...and maybe I should pick up camp and leave or sleep in the truck. Before I made the decision to leave, I decided to blast out a night bugle from the ridge to see if anything would respond and possibly I could locate a bull for the next morning's hunt. I made my way over to the ridge knoll and blasted out a loud, high location bugle. I turned to my left and there was the bear on the road...running like hell away from me. I start thinking...maybe this bear's had his ass kicked by a bull elk before? I didn't hear any elk responses, but realized I had a secret weapon, and wanted to get back to reading my book (it's a good one!).

Of course...about 40 minutes later, the bear was back in the same spot...but this time I had my bugle. I aimed it at him and let out a giant lip-bawl with grunts. I heard him running away to the other side of the creek and far up the other side of the canyon out of earshot. So, I decided this guy was scared of me...the two legged elk that drives a truck...I retreated to the tent with my bugle and my bear-spray and sacked out without hearing another peep (that I knew of).

Next morning after my hunt I walked into the woods where the bear kept returning...some jerkoff that stayed in the camp before buried a bunch of uneaten cooked noodles and mixed them into his makeshift toilet poop hole about 25 yards below camp. This bear was loving his mini-feast of fettucini with human scat and toilet paper fixings.

I think I should have my bear karma settled for the rest of the hunting season now! And if all else fails...blast a bugle at a problem bear...maybe it hurts their ears...maybe they've been beat up by a bull before...something freaked this guy out though.

[cnelk]

No bears in camp stories for me...

I did wake up one night sharing my wall tent with a Rocky Mtn Spotted skunk tho...

That 8x10 tent got small quick

[Nelsonv]

Me and a friend were camping in NM a couple of years ago. We got into the camping area late do we just slept in the truck and was waiting till morning to set up camp. We were woke up in the middle of the night by a black bear that has crawled in the bed of the truck. I though it was pretty cool and took some good pics. The flash didn't even run it off at first. I thought it was neat.

[MT_Nate]

No bears in camp stories for me...
I did wake up one night sharing my wall tent with a Rocky Mtn Spotted skunk tho...
That 8x10 tent got small quick

I think that'd be far worse than dealing with a bear in camp!

[FireWillie77]

So me and my dad were sleeping in our pop-up camper. Well in the middle of the night I feel my bed lift up and the camper starts to shake. I get up screaming at the "bear" to go get away. Dad gets up and goes outside to see whats happening and just starts cracking up. It was a moo cow rubbing her back against the camper.....oh man did I have visions of a big ol bear breaking into our camper.....

[Vanish]

Last year we were camped in the same spot. At some point in the night I heard a strange sound outside. Tried to scare it off by slamming the car door and such. Awhile later, it was back. I had forgotten a pan outside and thought it might be a bear eating it. Crud!

Meanwhile, it had walked right by my dad in his tent, brushing up against the tent as it walked by. He huddled in his bag and prayed it didn't decide to check him out.

Finally, those noise was getting louder and it was not getting scared. I had to do something. I carefully got out of the car on the other side of the animal, and upon shining my flashlight under the car, found a porcupine eating the undercarriage.