Black Bear Stories

[Gen273]

The Grizz thread, which is great, by the way, got me thinking about Black Bear encounters. Does anyone have any accounts of hair-raising encounters with a Black Bear?

The worst I have had was running up on a big sow and two cubs. I was upwind, and they were bedded. I was within 35-40 yards before I saw them. They didn't know I was there. While I was watching, the wind shifted, and momma got up looking and smelling. When she located me, she started walking back and forth, popping her jaws together. She never bluffed a charge, but I thought she was going to. Finally, she ran off to my left. The cubs went up trees as soon as she originally stood up. I backed out without ever seeing her again.

 

[smoke]

Some years ago while bowhunting alone, I walked onto a kill that clearly showed a bear had been actively feeding on it. I thought I'd better back out and as I did, the bear started bawling at me from up the hill. I couldn't see him but he followed me for over half a mile, angerly bawling the whole time. Not sure how close he was because it was thick timber but he was LOUD and was definitely escorting me out of there. That was a bit spooky.

 

[Theringworm]

2021 I was on a guided SE Alaskan black bear hunt in the fall during the salmon runs. We had been wading all day in the rivers stealthily trying to get on a bear. We had seen several throughout the day, even had one young boar within about 10 Ft. He was more curious than anything.

It was now well after shooting light & we were making our way up a river to a road system to get back out. We had come to a huge log which had fallen over at some point forcing us to get out of the river and up onto the bank to get around.

We went about 20-30ft into the forest to get around this massive tree, and then climbed up onto another that was next to it and began walking down it back towards the river. These trees were massive. 6-8 ft diameter trees.

We had just got up on this log and we’re headed down it towards the river when we see a massive sow coming down river along the river bank we were on. She was maybe 20 yds from us when we first saw her. We stopped & just watched as she walked closer. My guide was in front of me and whispered back to remain quiet and keep still and we’ll see what she does. Sounded good to me.

As the sow continued advancing she ended up passing behind some trees that would block her view. With my view blocked of the bear, my guide in front of me and light quickly fading to where you can now only see silhouettes it was making for an uneasy situation. Then, all of a sudden the tree we were on violently shook. The sow had just lept up onto it. I peer around my guide to see where this beer is and she is now walking straight towards us, in the dark. She’s maybe 15-20ft at this point. My guide could feel my nervousness and repeated to be quiet and be still.

With every step the sow is getting closer and closer. I am wondering when my guide will do something, what, I don’t know. And then, out of the blue, I did something unexpectedly, I blurted out “Oh Sh!t”! The bear clearly heard it, spun around on a dime and was gone in an instant.

Tense moment for sure. The majority of these bears where we were hunting have problem never seen a human. No reason to do anything drastic as it probably wouldn’t have done anything aggressive but, it’s still a bear. It was a great hunt and a great time. I learned a lot for sure.

 

[htlt_surfboards]

Archery hunting elk solo a few years ago I was in an area that I had seen a black bear every day for the previous 3 days with no incident. On the fourth day I came into a small clearing and on the other side maybe 45 yards away was a sow and two cubs. They all saw me as soon as I came into the cleaning and I saw one cub run the opposite direction but one cub went straight up the tree is was at. The sow then started popping her jaw and huffing while running back and fourth under the tree the cub was in. She then did her first bluff charge and covered probably half the distance.

At this point I was yelling at her and trying to seem confident but all I had was my bow, no spray or gun. After the first charge she retreated back towards the tree and continued to pace and be aggressive. I now have an arrow nocked pretending that I'm somehow going to be effective with it at a charging bear and picked a bush that was my line in the sand. If she charged again and crossed that I had decided I was going to have to try to arrow her. After what seems like forever she charged again but stopped just short of the bush maybe 15-20 yards away as I was again yelling at her as loud as I could. While she was making this second charge the cub came out of the tree and bolted the same direction as the first cub. The sow then after stopping the charged turned back and followed the cubs.

Unfortunately they had gone they direction that I needed to go to get back to camp so had a pretty long uncomfortable walk back in the dark although I reached camp without further incident.

 

[Jbogg]

I shared the following story in another thread, but it happened this past fall, and thought it was worth sharing again.

A buddy of mine was hunting this past fall with his 13-year-old son. We are in extreme North Georgia in the southern Appalachians where there are lots of black bears. This guy is a local, and has grown up hunting these mountains for the past 30 years. Hands-down, the most accomplished public land Southern mountain hunter I’ve ever known.

On this day my buddy and his son would be bowhunting separately, but in close proximity to one another. His son has been tagging along with him for years, and just started hunting without dad sitting right beside him in the past year or two. They climb the main ridge together, and once they get to the top of the lead my buddy sends his son just a hundred yards down the side of the mountain to hunt a small bench that was covered in dropping whiteoaks. Shortly before dark, he gets a text from his son saying that he has shot a bear.

It was getting dark fast so he quickly made the one minute walk down to his son to try and locate the bear before it got dark. By the time they found the bear it was completely dark and my buddy told his son to sit tight for a moment while he walked back up the hill to grab his pack, knives, and game bags. When he was about halfway between his son and his gear he simultaneously heard/saw movement just outside of his headlamp beam. He stopped and turned to see a huge bear looking back at him at only 10 yards. When this guy says huge, he is not exaggerating. He has killed a ton of them over the years.

For the next 10 or 15 minutes, the bear refused to leave, even as my buddy yelled, and made himself appear large. The bear grew more and more agitated by the minute, raking bark off a large pine tree and snapping over small saplings, and would not budge. My buddy did have his Glock 40 Cal on his hip, but due to the size of the bear and the close proximity he did not want to use it for fear of just creating a horrible situation with his young son just 50 yards down the hill.

He said it was literally a standoff for 10 or 15 minutes. He eventually picked up a couple of dead limbs which he threw in front of the bear to try to scare it. Nothing seemed to work, and the bear continued to just destroy everything immediately around it. He finally picked up a fairly heavy broken limb, about a foot and a half long, and hurled directly at the bear striking it in the face. The startled bear jumped a few steps away, and then slowly walked away back up the hill where it had come from. I guess he knocked some sense into it.

This guy has seen and done it all in the mountains, and does not get rattled. He said in 30 years of hunting. He has never experienced anything like this. Black bears will almost always show fear of humans, but there’s always that one. Sorry for the long post, but thought it was relevant.

 

[TagEater]

I was climbing up this south facing slope. I stepped through some brush and almost stepped into this 20 inch hole in the ground. I had no idea what it was so I bent down and stuck my head by the opening. I came face to face (within 18 inches) with a black bear. I cursed and backed up as quickly as I could with my rifle pointed at the hole but he never came out! Good thing I had brought a change of undies!

 

[Haggin]

More funny than intense.

Was on a spring baited hunt in Idaho, my first ever. The setup was a bait hole about 60 yards from the "stand" which was not much more than a chair in one of those little pop up single man blinds next to the trail. Its pretty steep here, and while sitting I can put my arm out and touch the ground to my right. Its steep down to the left. Bait and blind are "side hill" from one another, no elevation change.

The blind has the standard rectangular opening in the front, and the half moon zipper entrance, also on the right. The half moon door is zipper closure, and is broke about 3/4 of the way up, leaving a 10" or so gap at the top. Not bad as I can see uphill that direction.

I passed on a bear that came in almost immediately, this being the first day of hunting. As I'm sitting there in the blind, I feel what seems to be wind on my neck coming from the right. I turn my head and there is a bear head poking into the blind with me. Small little one, maybe 150lbs, so about the size of a big Labrador, but thicker, giving me the sniff test to determine if I'm snacks or if the bait pile is a little further. The steep terrain made it so the bear could stand on the trail and be eye to eye with me sitting on the chair. We were no more than 6" apart when I looked over at the bear.

My first thought was - where's your mom? I think the eye to eye contact was a bit much for it, so it slowly pulls back, then comes around front of the blind and pokes its head in again giving me the sniff test again before heading towards the bait. It was all rubbed out/mangy so I let it have a few bites of the bait before making a noise to scare it off.

Heart pumping for sure, and I'm surprised I didn't scream like a schoolgirl, but the bear was fairly small, again, almost like a big dog. Either way, it a funny story to tell about my trip and probably my best memory behind the actual harvest when i look at my rug. Ended up shooting a nice bear the next day from the same setup, no little bear visits this time.