Tell us a bear story.

[WapitiTalk1]

Let's hear a hair raising, knee knocking, man I'm glad it turned out for the best bear story while either hunting them or during another species hunt.

[the weasel]

Late 90's, I had a stand setting over a water hole. EARLY one morning as I approached my stand my back pack had something shift inside and it was poking me in the back. I thought I should stop and fix it, but was about 100-150 yds. from the stand so I decided "ah heck it's coming off in a couple minutes tuffen up." So I got to the stand and took it off and clipped it and my bow to the string and climbed the tree. I got settled and strapped in, reached over and pulled about 2-3 pulls on the string and something "caught my eye" looking across the water hole...(it was 37yds. to the far side) I see a Momma black bear and her 2 cubs. The cubs just kinda milled back and forth a little as Momma stood up on her hind feet and sniffed then huffed and turned around and went back down the trail taking her cubs with her.... I was a little wound up realizing "IF" I had stopped to adjust my pack we most likely would have met at the water at the same time......

[the weasel]

How about Cougar? Well OK if you insist.........
2005
Dropped Dad off at his stand and drove a few miles over to mine. Walking down the trail I'm amazed at all the Deer and Elk tracks and droppings I'm seeing! It's looking like an Interstate highway on my trail!! As I round this 12-15ft. tall "Christmas tree" that the trail goes around I finally peel my eyes off the ground in front of my feet and stop dead in my tracks...... Cougar is face to face....OK about 10ft. max with a big old Doe and I'm less than 15yds. from them, and frozen! The Doe turned her self inside out and hauled ***, the Cat looked at me for about 1.3 seconds and turned and went straight down the trail I needed to go down to get to my stand. About 5 seconds went by and and I actually hot footed it to the little knoll before the trail dropped down and seen NOTHING! not even dust in the air! (mind you early September in Oregon... you spit on the ground and there is dust.) Last thing I seen was that tail waving at me as it went over that knoll.... So lets just say I was back at the Jeep WELL BEFORE DARK! waited for hunting partner to get back, and told him the Cat story. We drove the few miles to pick up Dad and he wasn't waiting as usual in the usual spot??? I see a flashlight about 50-75yds. out the drivers window, here he comes up to the Jeep... "what the heck you doin"? i ask. "waiting for you to help me with this damn elk"! I said "yeah right". so he takes a step back and puts his hands in the air and said "really". BLOOD from shoulders to the tips of his fingers!! So I get a nice little KITTY CAT experience to last me a life time and Dad shoots a 5x5 before he even got up his tree.........

[WapitiTalk1]

It was my buddy’s turn to call so he threw out a locator. Bam, got an answer below and to the right. Let’s go! Straight down the little ridge game trail we went, closing the distance on the bull. After covering about 150 yards or so, I pointed to the spot I was gonna go set up, dropped my buddy (caller) and moved to a good setup spot where I would have shooting lanes and the wind in my favor. Buddy called, bull sounded off but was probably not coming in so I moved a bit closer to the bull and set up again. Buddy had moved closer also, beat the hell out of some brush, called one more time but I saw the tail end of the bull heading away. Hmm, wind seemed to be right… he must have seen us move, not sure.. Down to my left, in the little wet draw, I heard distinct splashing. OK, there are elk down/over there so I’ll crawl in and see what’s up. Moved down another soft dirt game trail and figured out what the sound was real quick. Across the little ridge trail below, two small blackie cubs scurried and headed right up trees, just off the trail. Oops, been here before. Up the trail she came and when she fully saw me standing there, turned somewhat sideways (quartering to me) and did a bluff charge, stopped and jumped up and down on her front feet and shook her head side to side. She was about 25 yards from me when she stopped the first time. She turned around, went back down the trail 15 feet, turned and came my way again doing the same thing with some jaw popping thrown in for good measure. Well, the entire episode with the bear took less than a minute but for those moments, I was holding my bow above my head, waving my harms yelling “hey, hey, hey….. back off, hey, hey hey” very loudly. She finally moved down the trail to the base of the cub trees far enough that I started backing up the trail slowly…and when out of sight of the bear, I moved pretty quickly back up to where my buddy was standing with a priceless look on his face. He had not seen any of the bear incident and was wondering what all the yelling was about. Good times.

[ishy]

When I was guiding we were going to pick up an elk an archer tagged first day out. We had about ten head of stock between other hunters and pack stock. Right at dusk a bear decides he owns the trail we are on. Huffing and grunting not wanting to give an inch. While the stock is getting nervous the outfitter is asking if anyone had a bear tag and wanted to take him. when out of no where a little cattle dog all of about 25 pounds comes flying in from the side without making a noise and tears into the bears side! The bear gets up the closest tree possible to get away from that ferocious mut. So the outfitter decides he needs to test his new 4570 he recently purchased on this now treed bear. So he shoots, and later we see he had hit him in the but. So the bear starts going nuts in the tree, roaring and swaying the tree all over. By this time the horses and mules have had enough. About this time the outfitter starts asking who is backup is. Well no one else had anything but knives and he having only shot this gun a couple times at the range now couldn't get another shell in! He kept yelling louder and louder for help, horses are now ready to go full on rodeo at any second and the poor bear is still going ape ____ in the tree! It was only a matter of minutes, but felt like an hour. The outfitter finally realized that a 4570 lever has to go a lot farther towards the barrel than his other lever actions, and with the adrenaline going full throttle he just couldn't get it far enough. So he finally got another shell in and finished the poor bear off.

[WapitiTalk1]

when out of no where a little cattle dog all of about 25 pounds comes flying in from the side without making a noise and tears into the bears side!

That's a good boy! Xtra ration of biscuits and gravy for you tonight buddy

[foxvalley]

I was packing in to elk camp one year, 90 lbs on my back,heading into a remote drainage about 2miles back in.I had cliff on my left, and the creek on my right.
All of a sudden three small cubs start climbing a small tree about 15 feet in front of me,and at the same time,right above me,yep there she is,and is not happy with me at all, as she starts popping her teeth,and growling,as she flys down off the cliff,popping and growling,and runs by me at about 10 feet.She runs under the cub tree,as they are already sliding down,and in a matter of less than 5 seconds it's all over, and they are gone.She was a big bear for a sow,about waist high on me,and if she wanted me,she sure could have,as I didn't have time to move an inch.

[Stick]

For my dads 50th birthday I bought him an elk tag, and bear tag in Colorado. Had a buddy who was an outfitter with some private ground back of the Spanish peaks. They had a little 20 ft trailer as camp. It was a permanent job with a covered porch built around it. My buddy went down a couple of weeks before we were going to be there to scout for us. While they where gone a bear tore the trailer door open ate everything out of the fridge, tore the cushions off the furniture, and tore the seat of of their four wheeler. When my dad found out he claimed he wasn't staying there but when we got there and he realized how far back in we where he changed his mind. There was a window right by where my head lay at night with big muddy paw prints on it. First thing I did was take the screen off cause I told my dad we might have to shoot this dude. Bear sign was everywhere. The first two night we hardly slept for peering out the windows. Haha! The third night it started to drizzle rain about dark. Dad had been throwing food scraps in an old bucket on the porch. I told him that wasn't the greatest idea but he did it anyway. After two nights with little sleep and the sound of rain on top of that old trailer we where off to Lala land quick. BOOOOOOOM! About three in the morning pandemonium broke loose on the porch! The bear was back and had slapped that bucket up against the side of the trailer. He comes up on the porch huffing around. Smells the ATV seat. His head is not three feet from me outside the window. He's snorting and huffing around. He knows we are in the trailer. Then all of a sudden he rears up on the door and runs his claws down that aluminum trying to get in. From where he had already tor it up the latch didn't work so we had it shut with bailing wire. Realizing he's fixing to tear the door down and come in with us I told dad you better shoot that thing NOW! I rolled that window out in record time!!! dad shoves his 357 Magnum out the window and shoots the bear. He was three feet away! Man he roars like nobody's business rolls of the porch and disappears into the dark. I'm shaking so bad I can't put my britches on. we found him still alive the next morning and dad finished him off. His rug hangs in dads office and is quite the conversation piece.

[Lefty]

Not scarey but my first close encounter. Prince of Wales Island. Im short cutting to another fishing hole. In the Alaskan jungle it was easier to walk the big downed trees I was almost to the root ball and this this huge fat bear crawls up on the log 10 yards out. I froze. The bear froze the old bear took off; at 50 yards he stopped. I really thought the old guy was going to have a heart attack. The bear was sucking air and wheezing. He was defiantly more afraid of me


My Father -in-laws story. A a young guy he was one of the crew that opened up Yellowstone lodge in the spring. Every year they chased out bears resting somewhere in the lodge. And some years they killed the bears that didnt get out fast enough or where uncooperative.
Shorten the story-- The crew ran out of ammo. a
A 2 1/2 year old bear up in those high log twin beams in the Lodge. my father in law crawled out and killed the bear with a ball peen hammer one swing and a solid hit

[WapitiTalk1]

I've got a night of the grizzly kind of story in the Bob my dad used to tell around the campfire from when he was guiding up there in the 60s. Still makes my arm hairs stand up.. I'll try to type it up late.

[WapitiTalk1]

When I was a pup (a wee wolf pup) we lived in Marten City, MT (Indian Summer knows the place) and my pop guided for fishing and hunting in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Years later, during his annual rifle anti-elk, fill the freezer camps, he used to talk a lot about safety while hunting and he would always sprinkle in this bear story from the 60s with an apprehensive look in his eye. Seems he took some clients from east of the big river into the Bob right after the ice went off the high lakes to fish for those beautifull high lake cuts (guessing late Junish?). I'll abbreviate this in the interest of avoiding boring anyone. On the way up the trail on horses, he told everybody that under no circumstances, should anybody leave food along the trail or by camp (eat it or burn it) as the big brown bears were not to be trifled with. First day, after several miles in, they stopped at a lake and slayed some cuts.... put em in the creels, and headed up a bit farther to camp. It was not long after the fishing stop pop noticed a large brownie parallelling them across a steep canyon. He pointed it out to the guys and reminded them of how dangerous they can be. That night at camp, he assumed it was the same bear that spooked the horses and circled camp, and kept coming closer throughout the night to the point of where they had to throw fire sticks out of the camp fire to keep him from coming in. This went on all night and he said the horses were freaking but the bear never went after them.... seems he wanted what was smelling so good in the camp itself (a bunch of fresh caught, fried cutthroat trout). At day break, the bear seemed to be gone so he saddled everybody up and headed back down the trail... this party is over with a problem bear. At several points, he saw and heard the bear parallelling them just up off the trail. This is not a good trip at all. Pop was armed with an old dirty thirty or perhaps a 30-40, can't remember but he knew he needed more firepower to put the big boar down; problem bears are no fun. He hit a FS cabin a few miled from Spotted Bear and locked the dudes inside and flew down the trail on his pony to get ranger or someone to assist. He returned a few hours later with a ranger and between them, they pumped lead into the grizz who had already tried to get into the cabin the dudes were in. The ranger contacted my dad a week or so later and said they did a quasi autopsy on the bear and besides the burn marks on his torso from the fire sticks they threw at it the previous night, the only thing in it's stomach was a few trout. Seems that one of the dudes caught a few trout he threw on the bank and failed to "remember" to put them in the creel before they left (after dad got the ranger's report, he contacted the guys to talk to them and ask them if anybody left fish anywhere). The brown bear was after some more chow as he was probably not too far out of his winter den and those damn cuts tasted good. Not a fun couple of days in the Bob.

[zpd307]

sorry, I don't have any cool bear stories..... I have only seen 3, 2 at 20 yards and they ran away. one at several hundred yards away.

[WapitiTalk1]

sorry, I don't have any cool bear stories..... I have only seen 3, 2 at 20 yards and they ran away. one at several hundred yards away.

Come on out for a hunt Gary. I'm always bumping them, I'll give you some stories, lol.

[barber111]

Martin City ??? I live about 8 miles from Martin City, Phantom...
Small world.. All I'm willing to post here is that there is no love loss between me and bears.. ALL BEARS... They've cost me tons of money in equipment..
Could it be avoided if I didn't have a sandwich in my pack ?? "absolutely"

Could it be avoided if I didn't enter into bear habitat ?? "absolutely"

Whether I'm in the parking lot of the grocery store, or in the woods, My moto is "protect myself and not be a victim"...

That's all I'm willing to post on this subject...

Thanks, Barber

[WapitiTalk1]

Swede's got a pretty harrowing bear story (well, for the bear) if he gets a chance to chime in

[Elkduds]

Fishing in AK @ Brooks Lodge and Brooks River, Katmai Natl Monument, about 1974. No guns or bear spray then. Godzilla-size brownies all along the river for the salmon run. We were waist deep in the river, which was too big to wade across. Bears would come up behind us on the bank, huff and wuff until you threw a fish their way. Brooks river is where Nat Geo photographed brownies catching leaping salmon on the falls. A big adventure for 14 yo me in wild AK!

[ishy]

There's a couple of stories in this:
https://youtu.be/xlVEbgqFGPg

[WapitiTalk1]

Holy heck, that is some great footage Ishy!

[ishy]

Here's my last one from 2014. Not much story other than I thought it was the bull coming in when I saw the color in the trees and took my camera off the tripod, then had to hurry to put it back on for the shot when I realized it was a bear. The bull was a more frequent visitor than any of the bears that year.
https://youtu.be/5Zau8PpRbTw

[Lefty]

Once upon a time there were three bears,......


Sorry it just struck me funny