Exactly rightFor your first elk hunt ever do you want to be worried about it all night, or do you want to take 10 extra minutes to hang your food and sleep soundly?
I always hang my food 100 yards or more from camp. None of my hunting buddies bother and they've never had problems but why risk it?
Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk
He tore the hell out of your picnic basket!I agree with what others have been saying about bear bags. When I was in Boy Scouts we used them every trip. Also make sure to get a can of bear mace and keep it on your 24/7. Bear mace is highly effective and unlike a gun you can deploy it over your back even while your getting mauled.
I actually faced down a black bear in Banff National Park some years ago with my Wife. We just ate lunch and had not put away the food yet and we were changing in the tent. I had my mace in the tent pocket. I opened the tent and got out and turned back to see a black bear 6 ft from me. I slowly slinked back in the tent and grabbed the mace. When I got out again he was about 10 feet away and we just kind of stared at each other for like 3 min while I said, "Heyyy bear..." over and over. My wife got her stuff and we just kind of backed off and left the area. I was 50/50 going to mace him but he was not aggressive and just standing there so I didnt want to provoke it.
Anyway, we retreated and the bear tore apart our campsite. I went to get forest service and found a guy with a telephoto and he took some pretty crazy pictures. Eventually the Ranger showed up with a shotgun with rubber deer slugs and we went back and he put 2 rounds into the bear and it ran off. They later trapped it and put it further into the park. Luckily he didnt damage the tent but he tore open the cooler. He ended up eating a whole pack of marshmallows and one of those giant Costco blocks of cheddar cheese.
Moral(s) of the story: Bears can come at any time, they are basically giant woodland critters that just want food, always have Bear Mace and be very diligent about camp food.
I got the guy with the camera's email and he sent me the shots a few weeks later:
View attachment 414571View attachment 414570View attachment 414569View attachment 414568
Yeah I have ran the scenario in my head a good number of times on spraying vs not spraying. At the end of the day my only real objective was getting my wife away from danger and I was able to accomplish that with the actions I took. I basically stood at the end of the tent, had her get out and walk slowly away from camp then I walked backward with the mace at ready in case the bear made a move. He just kind of stood there and looked at me the whole time so we got out. The ranger lit him up pretty good with the rubber bullets so hopefully he learned a thing or two.Ooh, he looks thin. Yeah.. he would not have backed down. Too hungry to have backed down. You'd have had to spray him. Which you most likely should have, so he learns to associates tents and table with facefuls of burning hot sting.