bears?

[ironhead22]

I know we are going to have encounters, what do you guys recommend? Should we carry a side arm? What about in camp? Much less of a worry but what are chances of seeing a lion in south central Colorado?

[Lefty]

Lions dont attack, so dont worry
I cant really give a responce about black bears other than if you expect to see some, buy a tag

When in griz country we wear pepper spray

I worry much more about freaks in the woods than animals

[ironhead22]

Not to much worried about an attack, but wouldn't mind seeing a lion from a long way off LOL

[BobcatJerry]

I just read an article on pepper spray. How it is much more effective than a handgun for the average guy. If I recall, nobody has ever been maul while using it properly, where two people using handguns have been killed, in some study of griz attacks. I don't carry either in Idaho, but if i was in Grizz country I might carry both. My buddy carries a handgun and doesn't like being on the trail after dark. I think black bears and lions are making tracks as soon as they know you are around. Sow with cubs might be a problem, or a habituated bear. I had a lion at 18 yards for 3 minutes in a tree stand (no tag) and the instant he picked me out he was gone. I'll probably buy some spray as a "just in case" option while bow hunting.

[Sean D.]

Lions dont attack, so dont worry
I cant really give a responce about black bears other than if you expect to see some, buy a tag

When in griz country we wear pepper spray

I worry much more about freaks in the woods than animals

Lions do attack, just not very often! Ive been around all three animals mentioned and have only had a problem with a black bear. It was a sow with cubs though, all others have taken off when they seen me.

[Swede]

Pepper spray is a better defense against critters. You are probably more likely to be struck by lightning than to be attacked by a cougar. Bee stings, food poisoning, broken bones are also more likely. Use reasonaly caution and enjoy your hunt. Carry a pistol if you like.

[POk3s]

I've seen a grizzly in the woods. Scardest I've ever been. I pack a pistol just because I'm more confident with a firearm than I am with a spray. #1 - In Wyoming the wind is always blowing. What if it's blowing in my face (the direction I often choose to walk when hunting) and a bear charges. What is my effective range with spray. Obviously it's not a mist but a stream....but still. If you carry a pistol like me, hey to each his own. If you carry spray good for you. If you carry nothing hey you're lighter and not having to adjust your belt midday like I always do. After seeing that parked volkswagon (grizzly) sleeping in the trees it's not something I want to see much closer.

[WapitiTalk1]

Black bear country? You may wish to carry into a kill the next morning for obvious reasons but no need to when you're hunting really. Brown bear country? I carry a large bore pistol. Personal choice. Most brown bear attacks happen in close proximety (you surprise them) so neither pepper spray or a large calibre big bullet will save your bacon from the initial charge and ensuing knockdown. I carry my Taurus .444 ultralite (.44 mag) so I can possibly disrupt the big guy's nervous system as he's dragging me away by my leg .. It's on on going debate that will never end; stinky spray vs hand cannon in big bear country. I always like to share this video when the topic comes up. The reason this sow turned is because of the "BOOM", not because of a cloud of stinky spray. Do what you feel comfortable with. For me, it's a 305 grain bear load

[buglmin]

In 2009 in Utah, we jumped two cubs up a tree, bout 25 yards away. Just as my cousin moved back and next to me, the sow came from nowhere. I swung my bow like a baseball bat, catching her along side the head and knocking her down...she got up, looked at us, and turned and ran. The cubs came out of the tree and went followering her.
Most black bear charges happen quick, and sometimes you dont have time to get the pistol or bear spray out. With the sow in Utah, we wouldnt of had time for anything. And even if we did, as close as she was, and how fast she was, I dont think a pistol would of worked. In 2009 in Colorado, I had to use my aluminum flyrod case when a sow stood up and came at me not four feet away...again, there would of been no time for a pistol or spray. With me straddling a log, I was out of position that I couldnt of reached the pistol under my shoulder. But when she ran back to her cubs, that pistol felt mighty good in my hands.
But I do know that a pistol was enough to stop a bluff charge from a young bear. He was 30 yards when I shot in front of him, spaying gravel at him, that stopped him...if a bear is far enough away, I'd rather have a pistol to try to stop him a distance away by shooting in front of him. If that dont work, then you'd have 5 more shots to try to turn him. Spray only works close in, and to let a bear get that close to you is asking for trouble...

[WapitiTalk1]

In 2009 in Utah, we jumped two cubs up a tree, bout 25 yards away. Just as my cousin moved back and next to me, the sow came from nowhere. I swung my bow like a baseball bat, catching her along side the head and knocking her down...she got up, looked at us, and turned and ran. The cubs came out of the tree and went followering her.

buglmin... How'd the bow stand up? Thanks for sharing your story. I've been chased, even treed by blacks (MT and WA) and a brownie (AK) but have never clobbered one with a bow. Glad you and your cousin made it out OK.

[buglmin]

People dont understand how fast it happens...when a bear wants you, its coming. I remember the sow, how low she was running, not growling or nothing. She came from nowhere. I played ball in college, and swing as hard as I could...my hands stung from hitting her. Arrows flew every where...lol. I broke a cable, snapped my quiver off, and my sight housing was broke. We drove four hours into Grand Junction and Gabe from Red Rock Archery met us at the shop and helped fix the bow...and a week later, Darton Archery had a new bow sent to my door step.
If you spend enough time in the woods, sooner or later, its going to happen.

[WapitiTalk1]

People dont understand how fast it happens...when a bear wants you, its coming. I remember the sow, how low she was running, not growling or nothing. She came from nowhere. I played ball in college, and swing as hard as I could...my hands stung from hitting her. Arrows flew every where...lol. I broke a cable, snapped my quiver off, and my sight housing was broke. We drove four hours into Grand Junction and Gabe from Red Rock Archery met us at the shop and helped fix the bow...and a week later, Darton Archery had a new bow sent to my door step.
If you spend enough time in the woods, sooner or later, its going to happen.

Glad to see Darton took care of you.. That was my bow of choice for many years.

[BobcatJerry]

What the article said on spray was that it is a blast you aim downward in front of the bear, this throws up a "mist barrier" that the bear moves into during the charge, you don't aim it at directly at the bear's face. Creates a hot zone. It is a blast spray, not a narrow stream you would need to aim. Their complaint on the gun was you have a very small moving target to be effective, when you already have a pair of dirty underwear.
It was an article posted by hunters and outdoors groups, I'll try to find it. It was an interesting read. Sold me, but I'll still have both in griz country.

[Freebird134]

You are probably more likely to be struck by lightning than to be attacked by a cougar.

Crap. Now I need lightning repellent!?!

[>>>---WW---->]

This thread has gone from bears to lions to lightning. So, let me add one more. You are probably 1000 more likely to have a run in with those BIG white sheep guard dogs than any of the other things mentioned. I've seen good ones and I've seen some that would just as soon take your leg off. Try to avoid them if you can.

[Swede]

Years ago I worked at a ranger station where a pretty young lady was employed. She knew I was out in the forest a lot, and was experienced with the outdoors. She approached me one afternoon and asked about the risk of being attacked by the bears. I knew she was fearful of the outdoors, so she was office bound, unless she could get someone to go out with her. Now I know what you are thinking, but instead I looked at her and said, "you have nothing to fear from the bears, it is the cats that will get you. You will never see or hear them, and when they are finished they cover up their kill." Within three weeks that lady left the Forest Service.
For years I hunted with a man who brought along a medium sized tool box filled with first aid supplies. Fortunately he did not pack it with him on his hunts, but kept his kit in camp. He had his supply for "just in case." But what would he do if one of us had broke our leg down in some canyon?
Ultimately we need to do what we think is best. I am no Timothy Treadwell, but I tend to go lite and just enjoy hunting. In my truck I have a few aspirins and a few band-aids, I think. On occasion I too strap my revolver on my pack. I am not thinking that if a bear comes charging at me I can protect myself with it. I carry it because I just may get an opportunity to shoot something like a cougar. I know it is not likely so I don't carry a rifle. Of coarse if that darn cat gets me first, I can hold the revolver up with my right arm to mark the place where I was buried.

[elkmtngear]

This thread has gone from bears to lions to lightning. So, let me add one more. You are probably 1000 more likely to have a run in with those BIG white sheep guard dogs than any of the other things mentioned. I've seen good ones and I've seen some that would just as soon take your leg off. Try to avoid them if you can.

Bill, we learned the trick with those Great Pyrenees when we come out of a canyon in the dark into a flock of range maggots.......start talking baby puppy talk to them, and they immediately go from baring their teeth to wagging their tails!

I have never been stalked by a black bear, but I have been stalked by a mountain lion when cow calling (crouched with ears back at 5 yards). They are scary silent predators!

[TetonStorm]

I carry both. Bear spray for the thick willow, alder, mt laurel, and sumac zones. I carry the spray in my hand when ramboing through these zones, ready to discharge if needed. My S&W 629 Classic is carried in a chest harness. I live and hunt in black bear, Griz, and cat country. I've had many run ins with the bears and the scariest was a Sow Griz with cubs. She came into my cow calls and I spotted her from 60 yrds. I immediately pulled my 44, aimed at a big fir 30 yrds from me and fired. She immediately turned and ran. I immediately went the other way and went home. Most bear encounters I've had end with them hightailing it outta there once they see me stand up and yell. I have yet to surprise one and when it happens I know I've prepared myself even though neither of the options may work.

[Herb]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1361421434.628397.jpg (31.9 KiB) Viewed 14877 times

This guy wouldn't leave the trail I wanted to use, so we went around him.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1361421528.536130.jpg (129 KiB) Viewed 14877 times

This guy I never saw, but he is BIG!!

[JimKirk]

here a couple of blackies that came out 12 yards from me when I was sitting under a tree. once they got downwind of me the sow got a wiff and took her cubs and cleared out pretty quickly. my experience in bear encounters where they are hunted is they hit the next mountain pretty quickly.

http://youtu.be/QYe5wqXSwzQ

[wawhitey]

lions do attack people on occasion. just this fall i had a guy come into taxidermist when i was there with a young tom he shot at 5 feet.... it was stalking him in the dark, he turned around and saw it 5 feet from him in his green headlamp and shot it in the right eye with his rifle. i say why not carry a sidearm? better safe than sorry. and as for sidearms being ineffective as defense against large bears, i believe the main reason for that is people that use the wrong types of bullets and too small of calibers. people walking around with a .357 full of hollow points are doing it wrong. you need hard cast heavy bullets for bears, not hollow points. hollow points are for two legged critters. and as for sows with cubs, well, it turns out that the vast majority of FATAL black bear attacks have been from boars, and are predatory in nature. i hunt in areas with very heavy black bear and cougar populations, but do i ever expect to be attacked by one? no. but i still carry a sidearm full of heavy hard cast flat nose bullets just in case. better to always have it and not need it than the other way around. my 2 cents

[Sean_TeamNWHunting]

Personal preference. The recent published statistics are very favorable regarding preventing nasty encounters using bear spray with the advantage being that both hunter and bear walk away still living. I do not have personal experience with using bear spray yet, just bought my first batch less than two weeks ago. Handguns are very lethal when the proper load and shot placement are executed. Use penetrating loads designed for deep penetration, hollow points do not have a good record in this area. Keep in mind that bears can take a lot of lead and still be very much alive after being shot long enough to do serious damage to a person. I do have personal experience in this domain after having to put down a charging black bear with a 30-06 at seven yards a few years ago. Could I have made the same shot using the handgun strapped on my hip? Don't know....I think that is an important factor for one to contemplate. Being able to execute a tough shot on a very fast moving target under extreme pressure is not easy. With whatever your choice of defense is, I would suggest practicing to create muscle memory for when and if a life threatening event may occur. Stay safe and happy hunting!!!!

[welka]

I have read the stats on spray vs bullets, but most of those encounters were not in the same day and age of the exploding wolf population. I have personally walked up on two fresh wolf kills in Wisconsin (they are like rats in northern WI) over the years. Both packs backed off when I came over the rise and surprised them (and they surprised me!!). Its a hair standing straight up on the arms, head, pit, you name it when a pack of wolves is looking at you from about 100 yards and it looks like they are thinking "we can take him". Lucky on both occassions. I was reminded of the difference between spray and bullets by Indian Summer last Fall. His advice was simple, spray probably will be a little less effective with a pack circling (spray in a circle?!) Good luck to all and hope you never have to pull either out of the holster!

[caperoll/Scott]

Bears, Lyons and wolfs. I hunt in central Idaho lots of bears, cats and wolfs. I have had several encounters with bears all of which have ended up in the bears running away. I have surprised a few sows with cubs, the cubs went up a tree and the sows ran off a few yards and stopped. When the bears realized I was not a problem the cubs climbed down and they ran off. In all the years of stomping around the mountains I have only seen two big cats and that was not for very long. Wolf’s, I have seen a few nothing standing still long enough to get a shot at. But I have been in areas that I knew they were around but could not see them, a very uneasy feeling. All that being said I carry a glock 45 cal with fourteen rounds in it when I’m in the mountains. The spray works if you have it in your hand out and ready to go. Keep in mind the wind if you spray it into the wind you’re going to spray yourself. The effects can be watering burning eyes, running nose, unable to breathe, choking and coughing, not a good thing to be doing when you have a bear in front of you. Carrying a hand gun and shooting at a fast moving animal that may or may not be in and out of trees, brush, rocks, down fall, tall grass and whatever else is there can be a problem. Going from holster to target acquisition and shooting is not an easy thing to do. It’s not like putting holes in paper on the range. If you’re going to carry a hand gun spend time shooting, get comfortable with your gun, and draw the gun from the holster you are going to carry it in. It’s the only way it’s going to work for you. You have to practice. When an animal attacks it is going to happen fast.

[BowKill]

My buddy had been wanting to shoot a bear with his bow for along time, but he never had the opportunity until this year. On the last day of the Colorado archery season he spotted a bear milling around in some trees about 150yds away. He took out the mouth call that I gave him and blasted a couple short series of rabbit distress at him. Not being able to see the bear or having confidence that he had blown the distress call correctly he put the call back into his pocket. As he stood there on the edge of a clearing pondering what to do next the bear came charging out of the trees on the other side of the clearing at 20yds. He instinctively drew his bow back and hit the bear in the chest at 10 feet. The bear rolled over on the impact and jumped up and went back from the direction he came from.

He said it happened so fast that if he didn't already have an arrow knocked and had his release clipped on that there would have been no way to shoot that quickly. The bear had no idea of his presence he was only heading in the direction of sound, but at the time he thought the bear was going to tackle him. It made for quit a memorable end to his season, the bear only made it about 40yds with the heart shot.

[WindedBowhunter]

Interesting dilemma...

If I am solo, a side arm

If I am with anyone else, then spray! I suggest this to all who is in the party.

I would want anyone to identically shot if any excitement were to present itself, especially at night.

Just my 2 cents...

[Willie makit]

The more I read and hear about encounters with "people" the more I'm leaning toward bringing both.

[Accipiter]

If I had a 400 to 500 bear running at me at 30 mph would I really want to wait till it was 30 feet to do something? Think I would rather be firing a large caliber pistol at 50 or 30 yards than waiting till it was almost on top of me and hope the wind was in the right direction.

[WindedBowhunter]

Just a side note, back in the 90's we did random "shooting" demonstrations for folks.

One was shooting a .44 mag from 10 yds away from a bare/European mount Black Bear skull. All the .44 mag did was crack it, from that point on in my mind, all I have done is really ticked the beast off!

Not related, but another shot was setup with a bucket filled with sand with a plate mirror behind it. From 20 yards away, we shot it with .44 mag and the bullet never passed through the bucket. We shot it with a fixed-blade broadhead, it went through the bucket and busted the plate mirror. A cool demonstration for folks to see, that aren't around shooting guns, bows and the like.

[buglmin]

Its all about bullet design, even for handguns. I know for a fact I dont carry wad cutters or hollow points in my handguns when I carry them. And some pistols, just like bows, point better and faster. Personally, I shoot my .357 better then I do my .41, but I've had the .357 longer and I've shot it more.
Sometimes, the best line of defense for black bears is dog. And Im not talking Labs, but dogs like Heelers, Austrian Shepards...when I was young, my dad made me take a dog everywhere I went, and Im doing it again starting this spring...

[Pop-r]

Windedbowhunter.... Cracked skull with a MAJOR headache! He'd b done!!

[WindedBowhunter]

Pop-r you're probably right!!!

But, it's hitting the skull with adrenaline and a charge!

[Coveyleader]

Two years ago I had a great evening of elk hunting. I didn't connect that night but I knew the next morning it was going to be good. I get to my two man tent after dark and its destroyed. My sleeping bag is nothing more than a big fuzz pile and I immediately went on edge. I salvaged what I could and moved towards the direction the elk were in with pieces of a tent and the outside of the bag. I tried to sleep but it was horrible. I was cold. About 3ish AM I hear a snap, and low an behold its a flipping bear. It must have followed me. I threw sticks and debris at him and he left. An hour later he was back bluff charging popping etc. I freaked out a bit and walked/jogged to a look out point I always go (in daylight) and hung out until light. I went back and that flipping bear was laying on my 4 feet of tent licking it. I had my bow drawn and was walking towards him and for the life of me I wanted to kill him but I didn't let go. He was totally different in the light and left after tons of yelling (cuss word city) he left. It wasn't then until I noticed he had a tagged ear.

I wish to god I would have had a gun that night. When your in your house, or on the internet its easy to say what you would do, but things change big time when you're alone deep in the woods and shit like that happens, a pistol would be far better than some can of spray. Needless to say, when I pack in alone I get pretty nervous these days when the lights go out.

Be careful out there.

[Accipiter]

Another story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_wzV0k77hQ