Close Encounters....

[Turnem n Burnem]

Anybody have close encounter experiences with big cats or bears on the hill? What happened?

I ask because last year my buddy was hunting about 3 hours east of my location and when we spoke on the phone mid week he said that a mtn lion had stalked him pretty close while cow calling. The cat ending up easing away.

 

[dotman]

Every year I have a few bears around 30 yards or less, some run fast other move slowly away. Have only had a big cat close once and as soon as he got my scent he was gone. I'm sure many other cats have followed or seen me but I've only seen the one in 20+ years.

 

[mt100gr.]

Last year, about 30 minutes after complete dark, 2 bears had a knock down, drag-out brawl about 40 steps from our tents. All is well that ends well but we had a couple intense minutes.

 

[Shrek]

Last year, about 30 minutes after complete dark, 2 bears had a knock down, drag-out brawl about 40 steps from our tents. All is well that ends well but we had a couple intense minutes.

Wow ! I'd have squeezed a diamond out !

 

[dotman]

Last year, about 30 minutes after complete dark, 2 bears had a knock down, drag-out brawl about 40 steps from our tents. All is well that ends well but we had a couple intense minutes.

I think I remember your post on this, that sounded very intense!

 

[AK Troutbum]

Long story short, in '06 my buddy and I had two bears that came into our camp on Kodiak and trashed everything, took all of our meat (five deer) then came back the next night and the following night. We had made calls to our bush pilot to try and get us out but the weather was too bad and he couldn't get in. We ended up killing both of them on the third night at about two in the morning. It was a pretty hair raising experience all in all. BLP (defense of life and property) killings aren't a whole lot of fun, but I guess they're not supposed to be.

 

[Shrek]

Long story short, in '06 my buddy and I had two bears that came into our camp on Kodiak and trashed everything, took all of our meat (five deer) then came back the next night and the following night. We had made calls to our bush pilot to try and get us out but the weather was too bad and he couldn't get in. We ended up killing both of them on the third night at about two in the morning. It was a pretty hair raising experience all in all. BLP (defense of life and property) killings aren't a whole lot of fun, but I guess they're not supposed to be.

Sounds pretty intense too. Frankly , grizzly bears freak me out.

 

[ChrisA]

Back in '06 in the Buffalo Peaks, a buddy and I dressed and hung an archery cow elk and were headed back to camp in the dark. Our head lamps caught a pair of bright eyes ahead of us about 60 yards, dead down wind. We did a stare down for a minute then lost them. I took a few steps forward then shined back that way and figure out it was a lion which had closed the gap to about 45 yards. It was one of the weirdest feeling I've had. Not really scary, just an intense eerie cool feeling. My buddy had his 475 Linbaugh drawn so that was a bit comforting.

We changed direction and in the excitement we skirted nearly a mile out of the way. I never looked over my back so many times in my life.

Damn eerie for a flatlander in the hills for the first time.

 

[209hunter]

Last year I was hunting by myself for deer and I wanted to sneek into this sage bowl to glass. I worked into the wind pretty slow so I didnt bust any deer out of the bowl. I was working uphill toward a juniper tree that I wanted to sit under while glassing. I got about 20 yards from that tree and two lions came out from under the tree, they looked at me for a second or two and then bounded over the hill the other direction. I was so jacked up with adrenalin haha I figured well there's no deer in this bowl and scrambled back to the truck as fast as possible checking behind me every 50 yards or so. Once I got back to the truck I'd wished that I could have watched them but I figured I made the best decision by leaving haha

 

[mt100gr.]

Wow ! I'd have squeezed a diamond out !

For all I know, it was Winnie the Pooh and his little sister....but in the dark you would have thought National Geographic was over there filming a couple 700 pounders going at it.

And yes, I did post a little bit on that experience once before.

 

[mt100gr.]

About 4 years ago I was hanging out behind an antelope decoy while my buddy stalked a nice buck. All of a sudden, the buck exploded from behind some sage with a big lion right behind him. The buck got away and the lion sat down right out in the open. I was just watching him from about 100 yards and it wasn't until he started walking toward me that I realized I still had the decoy up. I put it down pretty quickly.

Later that day we saw two more young lions chasing squirrels in a big brush pile. I can still see the look on the gal's face the next day when we were in town and my buddy very casually asked if he.could buy a couple mountain lion tags.

 

[Lawnboi]

Had a mouse chew a hole in my tiny msr Hubba 1 man tent before and enter while I was sleeping.

A 15 minute battle ensued to get the little bugger out. Was a rough night.

 

[tuffcity]

A few years ago I was bowhunting moose and had come out of the bush at the end of the day to wait on the side of the road for my buddy to pick me up. It was late evening and I was standing on about a 5’ bank above the road when I saw a black bear pop out on the road about 100 yds away. He started walking down towards me and I thought “perfect photo opportunity. He’ll walk by, the flash will spook him and I’ll get a good picture.”

Sounded good in theory…

All went according to plan until the flash went off and then from 20 yards away he just turned and looked at me. The breeze was blowing from me to him and I stood up and yelled “hey bear”. His ears came forward and he started a slow, methodical, one foot in front of the other, stalk towards me.

I dropped my camera, grabbed my bow and backed up a few more feet, yelling at him the whole time until I hit the willows behind me,. Now I had nowhere to go.

As he came up the bank I drew my bow and kept yelling at him to f&*%-@#f. I can vividly remember running options through my mind and when he stopped with both paws on the top of the bank I picked one. We were now about 10 feet apart, and I picked a spot on the notch of his throat just above the collar bone. It’s amazing how long you can hold a recurve at full draw when sufficiently motivated! I had decided that if his paw came up he was getting 32” of arrow. I was slightly higher than him and I figured the arrow would probably reach organs.

While it seemed like forever it couldn’t have been more than a minute or two, and I recall being aware of the weirdest things and thinking with absolute clarity of what I would have to do. I made a mental observation that my heart rate had gone down, my breathing was back to normal, I was “zoned”, I thought about how I would hold him off after I shot him, until he died, were in my pack my first aid kit was, I was prepared to get hurt. I knew where a small personal rescue strobe was in my pack and I thought I might have to activate it so my hunting partner didn’t run me over on the road, or drive by, when he came down… the weirdest stuff… and I realized I was getting mad.

With nothing to lose I started to half lunge at the bear, bow still drawn, yelling. I did this about 3 or 4 times and suddenly he spun around and run up the road a short ways, turned up hill and circled into the bush behind me.

I took the hint and grabbed my stuff and hoofed it up the road in the direction the truck should be coming. I’ve never been happier to see headlights.

I’ve bumped into a lot of bears over the years, both blacks and grizzly, and this is the first and hopefully the last that ever acted this way.

 

[Frosty82]

The fall of 2013 was my first hunting season in AK and this South Dakota boy quickly learned if in grizz country always, ALWAYS have fire power. It's a pretty helpless feeling walking up on a grizzly with a caribou on your back and only having a whistle and hoping if it charges me, can I hit an eyeball with my walking sticks!! He cooperated, but dang are they big when they stand on 2 legs....lesson learned and glad I am not a pile of poop!

 

[Jason Snyder]

Had a griz try to take an elk head/cape from camp at 0200 hours. Fortunately it had a different outcome than AK Troutbum's story did.

 

[Archerm]

From a Thread I did a few years ago##How Close is too Close...Ill tell you!!##

Thought I would share a morning hunt from my trip to Montana.

How to start this post?? I finally have a few moments to sit down and make a post from my two week solo Elk bowhunt.As I have mentioned before this is my 21st Season elk hunting in Montana. I have never carried a side arm during all my trips. I have always thought that the extra weight would be to much. I also thought it would be awkward carrying it with a pack on all the time. The hunt I just returned from might have changed my mind. Over the years I have always seen Bears and a few skiddish wolves and never had any encounter that I felt uncomfortable with.

I had been doing some glassing and finally found a few nice bulls to go after. I hunted them hard a few days and found a trail below a large rock slide that they had been using every other day early in the morning . Sort of a pinch point. One morning I decided to go in early and set up in a good spot I had cleared out between two trees to see if they would pass through. As the sun started to come up I heard a very light sound behind me on a rock trail not more than 10ft behind me. I turned to look over my shoulder and there was the culprit a pretty good size Tom MT lion. He was crouched down facing me with his tail wrapped around the front of him!! This dude had totally snuck up on me and I have great hearing. Instinctively I turned and faced him my bow on the ground and tried to scare him of by giving him a generous shout. All he did was to inch a little closer and let out his own displeasure by growling and hissing at me. By this time only a minute or so had passed by and I am thinking Mark Chops for breakfast!! Now a little flustered and my bow on the ground to far to reach, I un-clipped my sheath knife and opted for a good size rock while keeping my eye on him. With a good grip on the rock I threw the rock hitting him square in the chest. I know I know a rock!!! Anyway at that point he jumped in the air and vanished into the timber. After all the years I have been doing this I have never really considered Mt Lions as a threat as they are so elusive but this one was so stealthy and snuck right up on me getting so close!! He definitely got my attention and has me thinking about carrying my side arm from now on.

Anyone need a pitcher

 

[Where's Bruce?]

My buddy and I are 8 miles from the Mexican border at dark thirty with our bows and Foxpro FX5…a little outing of predator calling in the Cleveland Nat’l Forest in eastern San Diego County. It’s a hilly area with lots of chaparral, perfect for close and personal coyote action with a bow. We sneak in 40 minutes before grey light, place the caller 25 yards out and settle in awaiting the first rosy fingers of dawn to pierce the morning sky. Other than a few birds, there is nothing moving.



Wearing 3D and tucked into the scrub brush, we are seated about 8 minutes or so when I hear movement directly behind me. I freeze, unsure what is approaching. I nock an arrow and remove my knife from its sheath…not sure exactly what to expect. The sound of heavy weight moving thru the chaparral is unnerving…whatever is coming up behind me is big.

I lock eyes with my buddy, they are wide open in fear and now I am filled with dread. When you see sheer terror on your hunting buddy’s face, you know you’re in deep sh*t.

The sound is moving laterally behind, not more than 15-20 feet. I’m thinking about jumping up so if it’s a mt. lion I am not such a small target but realize if it was a something like that, my pal would already be up on his feet and you don’t hear lions coming in. He’s not moving. I follow his lead. He can see what it is, I cannot…not until the sound turns again and move past me at 20 yards. At first all I saw was the gun, an AK47 slung over the shoulder of the dirtiest man I have ever seen. Then I saw his buddy, equally filthy and toting the same firearm. In tow were 34 others, all Latino, most likely Mexican. We sit perfectly still and watch as a total of 36 aliens pass by without a word. The “train” was completely male and no backpacks, which I thought was strange. Not at all like the videos you often see posted online with a mixed bag of men and women of all ages moving past a surveillance camera hidden along the trail.

[video=youtube;KD-OPWEmHp8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD-OPWEmHp8[/video]

It isn’t until they had passed a quarter mile away that my buddy and I broke silence. He calls the Border Patrol and gives em the GPS numbers, head count and weapons description. We beat it outta there ASAP.

Later my buddy is told we were extremely lucky. Just ahead of the group that passed us was another of equal size carrying backpacks of dope. The second group was the relief group. We had slid in right between the two. When we retrieved the game caller, there were shoe prints 5 feet away from it.

Now we never hunt that area with sticks and strings…I carry an R25 semi-auto in .308 w/ ten rd magazines. There’s an armed invasion taking place on the border and people who do not live near the southern border cannot imagine just how real the threat is. I didn’t fully appreciate it until this encounter. Though this all happened years ago…I can see it like it was yesterday. The most dangerous animal in the field has only two legs.

 

[philos]

Where's Bruce wins round 1. DAMN that is seriously dangerous. It's good that you are still here to tell us about this. If you had been noticed the outcome would likely have been tragic.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Where's Bruce wins round 1. DAMN that is seriously dangerous. It's good that you are still here to tell us about this. If you had been noticed the outcome would likely have been tragic.

No kidding. The relative danger on that one was off the chart.

 

[Tony Trietch]

Last fall I was in MT mid Sept solo in a wilderness area close to Yellowstone taking advantage of the early Wilderness rifle season.
I hired a horse packer to hall me in 12 miles. Elk sighting were limited to what I could glass up in the morning across the YS line. I saw more wolf tracks than elk. After day 4 it was pretty clear the area had more predators than elk.
I was traversing a west slope still hunting mid day and came across a small drainage that was thick as a swamp. I figured I would bust as$ through it and get to the other side where I'd resume actually paying attention. I couldn't see much more than 20' in any direction while working through. All at once I heard (and felt) the sound of a large animal coming hard at me from straight in my direction of travel. The "WOOF WOOF WOOF" made it clear I pissed off a bear. I whipped the rifle around and had it pointed with safety off at the incoming bear before the noise stopped. And it stopped. I would guess I could see 15'. It stopped out of my site and and I HF my position for probably 10 min, I never made another sound. I slowly backed up, still with the rifle pointed in the direction of the charge. I backed away approx 100 yds and then proceeded to gain a few hundred feet of elevation. I never heard him/her leave. Black or grizzly, I don't know. The area has tons of each.
Was not a happy moment.