Bear Stories While in Elk Country

[WapitiTalk1]

On the tail of Trophy's thread (how should one react to successfully save your bacon), I thought we'd get this one going. I see that some bear stories were starting to appear in David's thread so figured I create a spot where we can just share some "bear stories". We already know elk.addict had an encounter recently and went for his camera like a gunfighter goes for his .45

Bring em on. Tell us a bear encounter in the elk woods story!

[MountainmanZ]

Encountered a grizzly while going back for the remainder of an elk we got the night before. We approached the area with spray in hand. As we approached we could see there was a monster bull and a cow standing only yards from our elk's carcass, and the bull was screaming its head off. We called the bull a little closer, and eventually it and the cow left. As we began walked again toward where we had our meat (stored near the carcass) I mentioned to my friend, "Guess that means we don't have to worry about any bears (since the elk were just about standing on top of the carcass)". About five steps later I caught movement out of the corner of my eye...

Here came a grizzly barreling down the hill through the trees! It moved faster than I would have ever imagined, zipping through the brush, trees and deadfall like they weren't even there! It veered slightly and ran past us and disappeared in the brush downhill. Before my friend or I could say anything here it came, back up the hill toward us! It veered hard to its right and disappeared again. I was thinking, "Oh crap, he's not going to want to give this elk up..."

I stood with my head on a swivel as my friend quickly loaded our packs with the remainder of the meat an we split. Needless to say we were looking over our shoulder the entire way down the ridge. The experience taught me that in a similar situation I'd never have a prier of hitting that bear with a shot from a pistol, especially a mortal shot. It all happened too fast, with no warning, and the bear moved way to fast. However, I could stand a chance of getting a burst of spray out before the bear was on me. And I think the fact there were two of us might have helped deter the bear from continuing both charges. Either way it was exciting!

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I've also had a couple memorable encounters with black bears. Ones I was walking down a trail, looking at my feet (like I shouldn't have been doing), glanced up and saw a bear coming down the trail right toward me only 35 yards ahead. I side-stepped behind a tree, and thought for sure he'd seen me to. I peaked around the tree and he seemed unaware of my presence as he began tearing apart deadfall. I snapped some pictures and backed out and circled around without him ever knowing I was there.

Another time my bro and I were crashing down a ridge, in a hurry to get back to camp so we could pack up and head out. I busted through some brush, stopped and looked to my left to see a monster black bear sitting on his rear about 30 yards away, just looking at me. I froze. My brother busted through the brush, looked at me, then saw what I was looking at. The bear just sat there like a giant stuffed teddy bear looking at us. I never knew a black bear could get so big! Not far from here we have Wyoming's state record bear mounted in a Visitor's Center, and this bear completely dwarfed it! My brother whispered to me, "Take a picture." As I began to reach for my camera the bear must have thought he'd seen enough and commonly rocked forward, turned around and waddled off. We always describe it as looking like a black Volkswagen Beetle sitting there looking at us. It was a monster, and something I'll never forget.

[Swede]

It was early afternoon on July 4th several years ago. My friend Randy and I were out scouting an area we were especially interested in. I was out ahead about 40 feet, when I entered a dense young tree regrowth area. There was a narrow cow/game trail through it. A person could not see anything much off the trail, and only about 20 feet ahead, to where the trail turned. All of a sudden this huge Black bear came around the bend with his head down. I was not sure what to do, but I remembered being told to try to look big and holler at them. I don't remember being told to run at the bear, but with no real thought about it, I threw up my arms, yelled and ran at him. When the bear looked up, I was nearly close enough to kick or slap it. He plunged into the brush and instantly disappeared.

My friend came running up and asked what happened? I said there was a big bear in the trail. I spoke and pointed in the direction he went. Randy ran back to see if he could catch sight of him out in the open timber. He got a good look at Mr. Bear, and then turned to me and said; "you needn't worry, if that bear had been on you, I have my knife, and I would have been there to help you out." I calmly looked at Randy and said; "I wasn't worried. If that bear had come any closer, I would have run back, and it would have been just you, your knife and the bear." For some reason Randy never saw the humor.

[foxvalley]

I had a big black bear come into my camp one night while I was sleeping in my tent,I heard something outside,and at first thought rabbit or coyote..... then CRASH! he tore my pantry out of the tree it was in. It was quiet for a few moments as I grabbed my .44 and sat inside the tent indian style, and here he came....... I will never forget the slow, deep breathing as he started to circle my tent.He was so close, that any closer, and he would have been stepping on my tent.I could tell about where his head was from the slow, deep breaths,and cocked the hammer back, and followed him as he circled twice. My thought was as soon as the fabric on the tent moves,I start shooting,thankfully, that never happened.

[WapitiTalk1]

6 or 7 years ago, I was hunting a WA wilderness area with my friend Joe. We were doing what I call a sweep hunt. We dropped one pickup off at the bottom of a 4 or 5 mile chunk of wilderness and drove the other to a high access trail. We would walk in the trail, drop into the area, and hunt through to the other truck. After a few miles in on the trail in the dark, we dropped down into an area I knew well (lush meadows, water, previous elk encounters) and started our hunt... it was Joe's turn to call. He received an immediate hit in response to his locator and I adjusted my setup a bit as we started moving in (60-70 yards down and to the side) on the small bull. The smallish 4X roosey parallelled our location, gave me a brief visual, then bumped outa there a bit too quickly for some reason. Joe was above me off to the side of a little finger ridge I was set up beside, he had no idea what was occurring below him when the fun began. I held my setup for a few more minutes to see what the little bull was gonna do... As I heard the small guy throw a locator back from several hundred yards away, I figured it was time to either move on the bull again, or, move on to a new bull. At that point I heard a very light splashing in a swamply little creek down to my left.. Odd, I thought, perhaps there was a cow or two coming in to the bugling. I move closer to an intercept spot, readied myself for a possible shot, and here they came; two of them, very small, very black, and moving "quickly" across the trail right below me 20-25 yards.. . Uh, oh.. I've been here before. As the two little buggers starting scurrying up trees, here came mama running sideways (if you've never seen a bear false charge, they oftentimes run sideways)... she came right at me up the tiny ridge game trail, knowing exactly where I was at, and me in my best camo patterns . HEY, HEY, HEY, I yelled loudly, waving my bow above my head. She stopped, retreated, and repeated her intimidation. The second time she came way too close for comfort and finished her false charge with a few seconds of jumping up and down on her front legs, popping her teeth, and shaking her head a bit from side to side (probably 15 yards from my position). She did not like me at all. I repeated the yelling, and slowwwwly, starting backing up the trail. She eventually moved off the trail towards her cubs and I moved back the finger ridge and found Joe. The look on his face was priceless.... he didn't know if I'd shot and elk, or, had just completely gone mad on the mountain.

[flystrait]

A number of years ago in the Eastern Oregon back country I was calling in an elk for my partner. The bull started hanging up as I was cow calling so I started to retreat little by little to get this bull to commit a little more as I turned to retreat I stopped dead in my midstride as there is a black bear about 5 feet from me just staring into my eyes holy crap I thought (probably trying to decide if this retarded cow elk was edible). Well this time I had an arrow knocked in case the bull circled around so instantly I grabbed my string and started to pull my bow back in self-defense, about half drawn the bear made a loud bop sound turned and ran away. Needless to say I fell to the ground with legs like jelly. Did I ever mention that I do not like bears, snakes or sharks!

[Texasdan]

A number of years ago in the Eastern Oregon back country I was calling in an elk for my partner. The bull started hanging up as I was cow calling so I started to retreat little by little to get this bull to commit a little more as I turned to retreat I stopped dead in my midstride as there is a black bear about 5 feet from me just staring into my eyes holy crap I thought (probably trying to decide if this retarded cow elk was edible). Well this time I had an arrow knocked in case the bull circled around so instantly I grabbed my string and started to pull my bow back in self-defense, about half drawn the bear made a loud bop sound turned and ran away. Needless to say I fell to the ground with legs like jelly. Did I ever mention that I do not like bears, snakes or sharks!

Ha. "Retarded cow elk" made me laugh as I sit here cow calling in my office.

[Fullabull]

When I started still hunting for deer in CA is when I started running into bear almost every year. The first time I was hunting alone up a small creek, just before getting to the top of the hill I saw a doe come running across the creek all alone. This did not look right for archer season and I know I was the only one around there. 30 seconds later I hear something coming from the same direction as the doe. Sure enough, it's a sow, two cubs and boar running down the hill right at me. They did not know I was there because I was in Camo so I started yelling and whistling. They stopped in their tracks, the sow stopped in front of her cubs looking for me and the boar flew up a tree about 30 feet and started looking for what was making all the noise. I just backed out of there.

The second encounter was a bit more scary. I was hunting up canyon working my way to a dirt road I knew on one side of it. As I was getting closer to the road (there are always small pines growing next to the road) I started to hear a familiar growling sound. I started making some noise to let it know I was there and was still coming up to the road. As I come through a couple of small pines at the side of the road I notice a HUGE sow and two yearling cubs standing on the other side of the road directly across from me, we are talking ten feet! This time I was hunting with a rifle so I just stood there and tried to talk to her softly hoping she would decide to just leave. Well, she stood there growling for what seemed like minutes (it was only seconds I'm sure), then she let out a huff and both cubs turned and ran up the hill behind her. I was thinking she was getting ready to charge me when we both heard a logging truck way down the canyon hit his breaks. This seemed to break her concentration and she turned to follow her cubs up the hill. I have to say, I could not believe how fast this HUGE sow ran up that steep hill. She did a 40 yard dash faster than any football player could. She stopped and stood on a downed log just looking at me. I slowly turned down the road and walked and whistled my way away from there.

Had a couple other encounters but nothing like that one. That is one of the reasons I don't plan on hunting in Grizzly country, with my luck I would end up as dinner for some lucky Bear

[Texasdan]

It's early October on SW Montana, big wind has pushed in and you are walking around with it in your face doing what you do.

You stumble upon a hefty griz. Wind is blowing hard enough to make you question the effectiveness of spray, you've got a trusty 44 mag on your hip. As you try to descalate and back out of there griz starts indicating a charge with aggressive behavior. You fire over his head. Nothing. You put it into him...ethically when do you pull the trigger? Obviously we want to be safe. But bears posture and strut and false charge etc. we also don't want to be dropping a bear too quickly if it can absolutely be avoided. But yogi is quick. You won't have much of a chance to make any decision to shoot while he is still a relatively stationary (meaning you might hit him) target. If you say don't shoot until he charges..lets be real, You don't have some short barrel tactical shotgun with buckshot. You aren't likely to do much damage, if any, once he is on the move. So with that...is there really a point to carrying a heavy duty side arm for bear? We all acknowledge te extreme difficulty in making a kill shot on a sprinting (at you) grizz it any other bear. The mostly like hot would come when he is attached to you or your pack (stationary and point blank) but spray is also an even more likely hit at such extreme close distance.

What say you?

[Texasdan]

Man, I should avoid posting while that sleep deprived from a phone with autocorrect.