Close Encounters....

[bigmoose]

It was two years ago on opening day of the California deer season and I had been walking for about half an hour in the dark to get to a small bowl in a old burn area. Now it was just starting to get light. I found a old log about 16 inches in diameter that was up in the air about the same and got settled in behind some manzanita. I'd been sitting there for thirty minutes, glassing, when all of a sudden the log I was sitting on went down. I turned to my left and there was a bear six feet away, also on the log. We locked eyes and he took off running down through the bowl I had been watching. My rifle was laying across my lap and I could have easily touched him with it. It happened so fast that I just chuckled as he ran down the mountain...he's probably still running...funny!

 

[Hoyts n Mulies]

While hunting in the cascades, my buddy and I had just gotten back to camp from the morning hunt to grab a bite, get some rest before going out for the afternoon to glass. My buddy had walked down over the hill to do his business and I sat back on a log and pulled my hat down over my face to get a quick nap. I heard something and pulled my hat up to see a sow black bear with two ~20lb cubs five feet away from me between the tent and myself. Luckily, they were just as surprised as I and bolted. I'll never forget though, that sow swatted one of those cubs and completely rolled it 2 or 3 times and it let out such a bawl!

 

[Nick Muche]

Had two grizzly bears at less than 5 yards, on the ground this past spring. The sow charged us while bowhunting them, luckily I had a rifle but did not have to use it. Grizzly bears are absolutely nuts

 

[Wasatchbuck]

Haven't had anything really crazy happen to me since I have lived out west other then coming face to face with at cow moose at about 4 yards along a seasonal creek that was lined with willows. However I grew up back east and when I was around sixteen or so I was hunting behind my house in a big stand of mature hardwoods for whitetails. I was bowhunting and been chasing a specific buck for quite some time. About an hour before dark he showed up and gave me a nice broadside shot at about 20 yards. The shot looked great but he went farther then I thought he would. As I was tracking him he wandered down into a little hollow that had a creek running through it. By this time it was about twilight and I could just barely see 20 yards ahead of me. I sat down to pull out headlamp and heard this god awful snarling directly in front of me. I had no idea what it was until I got it in my headlamp, a big ole coon was standing maybe 10 yards away and he/she looked super pissed off. before I could get an arrow out of my quiver it just took off after me. That damn coon chased me for a good 100 yards. Scared the crap out of me. To this day I think it was a mama with babies or something because I have never had a coon come at me like that. went back to the house and grabbed my pops and a 22 mag pistol to go look for my deer. found the deer about 50 yards from where I saw the coon but the coon was long gone.

 

[Slim Jim]

Had two grizzly bears at less than 5 yards, on the ground this past spring. The sow charged us while bowhunting them, luckily I had a rifle but did not have to use it. Grizzly bears are absolutely nuts

F that!!

 

[timberland]

Had a 300 lb bear climb my tree and sniff my boot one time in WI. Had a sow spook and run her cubs up trees, one came up the tree which I was sitting in.

 

[wyosteve]

Had a bear in Manitoba stand and sniff at my boots on a spring hunt when I was in a tree stand. Was a black and I wanted a colored bear, so didn't shoot it.

 

[duckdstroyer4]

About 4 years ago I was shed hunting in a small mountain range north of the town I was living in, in north central Nevada. I was working my way across a fairly steep slope with rim rock just uphill from me. My dog was below me and the wind was blowing up the hill and slightly in my face. As I rounded the hill something caught my eye at the base of the rim about 10 yards above me. I turned to look and immediately made out the shape and face of a mountain lion, crouched as low to the ground as possible, and intently focused on me. I stopped dead in my tracks and whistled for my dog. He made his way up to me and I grabbed him by the collar so I didn't have to endure the rodeo that would ensue if he winded the cat. We backed down the hill away from the cat and looped back towards my truck. The cat never moved from its spot at the base of the rim. Once I got back to the truck I called a buddy of mine in town who had hounds and about two hours later we jumped the cat off of a deer kill and eventually treed her in a sagebrush about a mile and a half away. Another friend who hadn't killed a cat before got to harvest the 8 year old female that had marbles for teeth. We located 3 deer kills in the immediate vicinity of the rimrock she called home. I highly doubt that she would've ever come at me and I feel she was simply trying to stay hidden as I came by and just by luck I noticed her, still an incredibly eerie feeling. Makes me wonder how many I've scooted by in my life.

 

[kodiakfly]

I have a few uneventful bear encounters every year. Been false-charged twice. But just this past week had a young male that wasn't taking no for an answer. He snuck around in the brush behind me and the guys I had fishing and started growling and getting upset. First time I've ever had my gun drawn for a bear. No shots fired fortunately, but it was as close as I've come.

 

[Msowa]

Last October I was out for a quick evening hunt near town solo. Was on a loop, descending through some thicker stuff and bumped some deer. Made a reclaimed road with alder and brush growing in on it. Wind in my face walking softly when something caught my attention at my 9 o'clock...cougar in a crouched very deliberate position, I swung my 45-70 and found my front post as it came up to his face. Shot him at 10'...he was right frickin there. Thrashed around and second shot killed him. Heard some noise down the skid road and leaned past some brush and there's another one! It bolted.
As I begin to stuff the cat into my pack I begin to realize the other cat is close by and won't scatter, yelling, firing my rifle at his brother didn't spook him and it's making all sorts of noise making me nervous as hell.
I bumped the other cat as I had to break brush before the last logging road out...gotta be kidding me! And after another 500 yds or so I come around a bend and finally see it again and left fly but no luck....made it to the rig and wiped my brow and checked my shorts. 300gr HP through the right nostril destroyed the lower jaw, fractured the skull beyond repair for a euro mount. Cats are spooky, pistol on one hip and fixed blade available for my other hand, you never know which arm is gonna be trying to save your neck or head.
Made some great breakfast sausage though!