Critter attacks in camp

[mj23polaris]

Had a lion meow/growl at me at around 5 am. Had a sow with cub come into a few feet of tent l woke up to a huff and footsteps. Both instances there was snow on the ground so I could prove what I was hearing.

Had a slew of moose elk and deer get curious in the night.


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[Akwoodchuck]

Me and my late uncle had a camp trashed by black bears in the Sawtooths once....spent all day rock climbing in Baron Pass, got back to campsite at Redfish right at dark...tent was shredded, poles snapped, sleeping bags dragged away....no food at ground level.
....brown bear tracks going by moose camp in the night are so common as hardly to be noted....

 

[WV Mountaineer]

Was in my hammock one night in the back country. Had my winter tarp up but, had the doors open. I fell right to sleep and was awakened a while later to foot steps in the leaves. It was already close and closing. My sleeping slumber did not aid in my defense. Because it took a second or two to realize what was going on. By this time, the steps were getting really loud and gaining speed towards me. It prompted me into self defense mode. By the time I retrieved my light and my pistol out of my ridge line organizer, I knew by the sound, it had to be coming under the tarp to get at me. I tried to spin in my hammock to get my feet in its mouth since it was coming in the head end, turn on my light, and get my pistol pointed at the bear, all at the same time. All while trying to holler at it. I flipped that light on fully expecting to see a face full of bear. When that light hit the underside of the tarp, it startled what I now assume were two field mice that were chasing each other, so bad they scurried out from under the thing pronto. Leaving my heart pounding and my mind in total over drive.

I gathered up my senses, put on my boots and peered out from one end of the tarp and caught sight of a field mouse setting on a stump about 10 feet away. When I tried to get a stick and hit it, it took off sounding like a medium sized black bear in the dead, dry leaves. I used the bathroom, crawled back in my hammock, and listened to those boogers for about 20 minutes before drifting off to sleep. Turns out there was about 4 or 5 of them plundering around. And, when in tandem, they were very loud.

Since then, every time I get woke up by stuff outside the tent or hammock, I just go back to sleep. Be best to go quick then suffer another cardiac arrhythmia due to some mice.

True story too.

 

[MTbowhunter36]

I've never had a close encounter with a bear (black or grizzly) so I'm not sure how I would react in that situation. At what point is a person justified to start shooting? I would have a hard time not shooting anything that's within pistol range simply because of their speed and unpredictable nature. I'm sure there are quite a few encounters like this that go unreported each year just to avoid the hassle of dealing with wardens and investigations.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this? How do you prove that the animal was shot in self defense?

Just dealt with this last week. Leaving an area as I had seen a grizzly while black bear hunting. As I was walking down the road I saw a bear off in the tall grass. At first I didn't know if it was a black or grizzly. It was about 120 yards away when I first saw it. Long story short it came out on the road and just sauntered toward me. I yelled and waved my arms, but it didn't faze him. When he got to about 80 yards, I shot in front left of him. He then scurried up the side of the road.

While he was in the brush I backed up about 15 yards. I know you're not supposed to retreat, but things were about to get western real quick. He came back to the road and walked around for a bit. Then continued walking towards me with his head down and trying not to look at me.

As this is happening my mind is going 100 miles an hour with thoughts of what I'm going to do (I won't memorialize them here). I was yelling and waving my arms and it still didn't faze him. He stopped at about 40 yards and I took a big rock and hucked it at him. He then ran below me on the road and popped his head over a stump at about 20 yards. I'm yelling at him and he continues to skirt below me and ventured off.
So I can't answer your question as I don't know myself.

What would you do if you were walking a logging road and a grizzly began approaching you?
I'm glad this ended well for both of us as it could have gone much worse. The potential for fines, legal fees and/or revocation of hunting privileges is something to consider.

Funny thing is was the last time I was hunting this drainage was probably the fall of 2017. As I was driving to this area I was listening to the Meateater podcast about their bear attack on Afognak. The plan was to hike in several miles to a basin. It was during rifle season. After hiking for about a half-mile I ran into several griz and griz cub tracks in the snow. My mind kicked in about the griz attack on the Meateater crew and needless to say my hunt was over pretty quickly as I hightailed it out of there.

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[MTbowhunter36]

I was hunting the Oregon coast area for Roosevelt elk and had mountain biked in on some Weyerhauser land. Since there aren't any predators like MT has I didn't think I needed to pack my pistol (bad decision). While I'm fast asleep I'm awakened by a light and some noise. I look at the time and it's 2:30 a.m. I pop my head out of the tent and see a jeep with a spotlight. My tent was on the edge of a logging road. There were two guys about 100 yards off the road illegally driving off road and behind a locked gate to boot. One guy was out in front yelling at the driver about where to go. As he was moving his spotlight around he spotted my tent. They stopped yelling at each other and started talking softly. I thought oh crap, my only weapon is my bow and it's outside of my tent. They drove right next to my tent and shined the spotlight on it and started yelling at me incoherently. Not sure what they were jacked up on, but after that I didn't leave my sidearm at the pickup.

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[Huey]

Got up one morning and headed for the 100 quart ice chest. It wasn't there. Found it in the middle of the road with teeth marks in it. Not opened though. The next night we heard the bear knocking pans off the table. Later we found out someone had a bear bait station about 150 yards past our camp. Luckily it was the end of our hunt.

 

[5 shot group]

One night after glassing until absolute dark, I made my way back to my food bag (hung in a tree) to cook and eat a mountain house and then go to sleep. So as I sit there waiting for the Mt house to rehydrate, I turn off my headlamp to save the battery. A few minutes later, With my back to the small creek about 20 feet behind and about 10 feet below me, I hear a large branch snap. Knowing there is no way it's a deer, I jump to my feet, turn on my headlamp while spinning around to see a mountain lion frozen mid stride coming at me. My rifle was about 2 steps away, but my cook kit was right in front of me so I grab that and start banging my pot against the fuel can, yelling at the cat. Because that's all you have to do right? Well the cat didn't care. It just remaind perfectly still, sizing me up. After a minute or so and the cat not even moving, I made my way to my rifle and cracked a shot off right in front of it. It just slowly turn and walked into the bush.

I knew he wasn't going far, not with body language like that. So I stood there. Rifle across my arms, eating my Mt house, spinning around in a circle like a light house. And then I see it. A pair of eyes right on the other side of my tent. 3 strikes your out. It was at this point I decided I was going to put the cat down. (#1 noise from the cook kit and me screaming, #2 then the shot in front of it, sorry no third chance). As I moved to get an angle on it so as not to put a hole in my tent, it just walked around the other side, keeping the tent between us, still intently watching me. After a time or two back and forth around the tent, it headed into the brush and watched me from about 25 feet away. I pulled up the rifle, but couldn't see anything through the scope, nor anything but the dim light of my headlamp reflecting in it's eyes (the battery was dying and that's why I had turned it off. I then ran it at full power while doing my lighthouse impression, causing it to go into low power mode). I took my best guess as to how he was standing in the brush and fired a shot. Miss. And again he just turned and walked away. I crawled into my tent and didn't sleep at all that night. I was convinced every noise was the lion coming back, looking for me.

I moved camp the next day.

Oh yeah, and my dumb ass only brought 4 rounds, because really, who needs more then 4? I now pack 10 minimum, and the further or longer the trip, the more I pack.

 

[FlyGuy]

One night after glassing until absolute dark, I made my way back to my food bag (hung in a tree) to cook and eat a mountain house and then go to sleep. So as I sit there waiting for the Mt house to rehydrate, I turn off my headlamp to save the battery. A few minutes later, With my back to the small creek about 20 feet behind and about 10 feet below me, I hear a large branch snap. Knowing there is no way it's a deer, I jump to my feet, turn on my headlamp while spinning around to see a mountain lion frozen mid stride coming at me. My rifle was about 2 steps away, but my cook kit was right in front of me so I grab that and start banging my pot against the fuel can, yelling at the cat. Because that's all you have to do right? Well the cat didn't care. It just remaind perfectly still, sizing me up. After a minute or so and the cat not even moving, I made my way to my rifle and cracked a shot off right in front of it. It just slowly turn and walked into the bush.

I knew he wasn't going far, not with body language like that. So I stood there. Rifle across my arms, eating my Mt house, spinning around in a circle like a light house. And then I see it. A pair of eyes right on the other side of my tent. 3 strikes your out. It was at this point I decided I was going to put the cat down. (#1 noise from the cook kit and me screaming, #2 then the shot in front of it, sorry no third chance). As I moved to get an angle on it so as not to put a hole in my tent, it just walked around the other side, keeping the tent between us, still intently watching me. After a time or two back and forth around the tent, it headed into the brush and watched me from about 25 feet away. I pulled up the rifle, but couldn't see anything through the scope, nor anything but the dim light of my headlamp reflecting in it's eyes (the battery was dying and that's why I had turned it off. I then ran it at full power while doing my lighthouse impression, causing it to go into low power mode). I took my best guess as to how he was standing in the brush and fired a shot. Miss. And again he just turned and walked away. I crawled into my tent and didn't sleep at all that night. I was convinced every noise was the lion coming back, looking for me.

I moved camp the next day.

Oh yeah, and my dumb ass only brought 4 rounds, because really, who needs more then 4? I now pack 10 minimum, and the further or longer the trip, the more I pack.

That would absolutely ruin me.


You can’t cheat the mountain

 

[5 shot group]

It made me absolutely twitchy the rest of the trip

 

[Midwest.Bushlore]

Oh yeah, and my dumb ass only brought 4 rounds, because really, who needs more then 4? I now pack 10 minimum, and the further or longer the trip, the more I pack.

Man, I'd head out deer hunting with just the three rounds in my '06 all the time when I was a kid. That was South Dakota where there wasn't much for dangerous animals but I still shake my head today. No way I'd do that now!

 

[treillw]

A few weeks ago I went bear hunting. Rather than getting up at 3am and driving to where I was headed in the morning, I decided to sleep in my Jeep at the gate on the road where I planned on hiking in from.

I got there around 10pm and did a little drive around to see if anyone else was there. Perfect, nobody else. I backed the Jeep up towards the gate, making sure I was off to the side so emergency vehicles could still use the gate if necessary. I stopped about a car length and a half from the downhill edge of the gate.

I rearranged things a bit in the Jeep to get ready for sleeping. I locked my bike to the trailer hitch and moved it out of sight of the main road. I popped a couple of melatonin so I could actually sleep crammed in the back of the Jeep. I fell asleep and was sleeping like a rock with my head jammed into the corner by the rear hatch, facing the gate.

Out of nowhere I feel like something is rocking the Jeep back and forth. In confusion, I pop my head up and look out the rear window. There are taillights behind me and I hear people talking. I have to be dreaming, I think. A couple more seconds go by and I realize that I am not dreaming and there are tailights almost touching the other side of the glass I'm looking through. I grabbed my pistol and surefire, still not sure what in the world is going on; why in the world would there be a vehicle in the narrow space between me and the gate in the middle of the night? Then barely awake I realize that they are trying to drive around the gate. The one dude is standing outside, drinking a beer, directing traffic and I'm sitting there, gun in hand, wondering what I should do. I was almost certain that these morons just ran into my vehicle. Should I get out in my underwear and start something with them? That didn't sound like the best idea - two on one, firearms likely in their possession, alcohol, middle of nowhere, 2:30 am. I just sat there and kept thinking. Then the dude outside says "Hey! There is a bike over here!" The guy in the truck said something which I couldn't hear to which the outside guy replied, "It's all locked up". At that point I figured I should let them know that I am in the vehicle. I lit up the inside of the Jeep with 600 lumens from the surefire for about a second and then let it go dark. The guy outside said "we're just trying to get turned around here". Yeah right, I thought and sat there in the dark watching them. They did a 15 point turn to get out of there. I still was wondering if I should get out and look for damage to my vehicle, but figured it's a piece of crap anyway and it's not worth it. They drove off and I hopped out and made sure they went down the road. I inspected the Jeep and didn't see any damage to where I anticipated they would have hit me. I took a leak and crawled back into my sleeping bag and tried to go back to sleep. Finally got a few hours of some crazy dreams in before my alarm went off.

I'm still half puzzled as to whether they hit me or were shaking the vehicle and knew I was in there, or what. He seemed to be surprised when I turned my light on. A couple days ago I did notice that my taillight is cracked and there are some scratches near it that I don't remember seeing before. I wouldn't have expected them to hit me where the marks are though.

 

[Jameson]

I had a black bear come into camp 4-5 nights in a row and never heard him. He managed to get the griddle off the camp stove silently, only 2 feet from my head. He hauled off with two deer heads that were in the back of a pickup. His paw prints were all over my horse trailer that we hung the carcasses in after he ate the heads. On the last night I finally woke up when he was dragging my beer cooler off. I was going to fight that bear for that cooler! He ran off after waving flashlights and yelling at him. Thankfully he left my beer about 10 yards from where he found it and never came back!

 

[Sunbkpk]

Have only been scared of a predator in camp at night once. As a teenager I had backed packed in a few miles and decided to sleep on the ground with my pack as a pillow and a tarp laid over me for morning dew. Pack was full of food including steak and bacon as bear precaution was not something I thought of in Washington then. I woke up to the plastic tarp rustling and turned on my flashlight to see brown hair of an animals head by my knee.

I immediately remembered my dad's story of waking up to a wet nose in his face while sleeping outside like I was. He sat up abruptly and headbutted a bear in the dark. Luckly my dad's headbutt in the dark scared off the bear. Tracks confirmed it was a small bear coming into camp looking for food that he had left around. Was always a joke while camping after that. Dad didn't take bear precautions even after that and that was passed onto me.

So after some rapid thoughts, I decided to rustle the plastic to let the "bear" know there was a human there. This caused it to turn and I then realized it was a huge porcupine and not a bear. Adrenalin turned to anger and I started yelling and kicking at the porcupine to get it out from under the tarp. Stupid but I luckily was not smacked with a bunch of quills. Took about 30 minutes for adrenaline to wear off. I did start doing bear precautions after that.

I have numerous times woke up to elk and deer outside the tent at night but find myself excited, not scared.

 

[CaliWoodsman]

Mice are pretty common. Did a summer camping trip with the family in the Mammoth Lakes area of CA and had multiple black bears in camp every day. Had a bigger one run off a smaller one in the middle of the night. We did our best to lock everything up but they found a bag of marshmallows and a can of cooking oil spray. Opened up my brother in law’s car door as naturally as a human and stuck his head in to look around. Came back to camp one day to find a hole in the side of the tent. And they swam in the lake 50 yards from our camp. Unreal - I’ve never seen so many bears, and they were so indifferent to humans.

 

[JP100]

Small critters can be just as bad as the big ones!


Been on a Stone sheep hunt in Northern BC, came back to camp to see the main guides tent full of feathers...some ground squirrels(not sure the exact name/species) got into his tent and ruined his sleeping bag
Here in NZ we have problems with Kea(a mountain parrot). Last hunt(10 days ago) one of my tents was shredded by them, and luckily it rained every day......

They wreck all manner of tents here every year, and nothing you can do will scare them off.

Had bears in and around camps in Canada, but never caused any real problems, one guide lost a whole Mt goat worth a meat from camp, but that was it.

 

[MNGrouser]

I was camping with my girlfriend and I needed "just 5 more minutes" of sleep. She woke up and opened the tent fly, spins around and hisses, "There are cows outside!"
I figure it is just that I haven't cleared the cobwebs from my head just yet because that makes NO sense. I crawl out of the tent to see the camp surrounded by beef cattle. We were on the bank of a river in northern Minnesota...quite a long way from cattle country. Some farmer's herd gotten out and just followed the riverbank until they got to our campsite.

 

[Corvus Corax]

I had a pine marten not like where I decided to have my morning constitutional. Came ripping out of his tree making a ruckus startling me pretty good. Talk about being caught with your pants down.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Grouser,
That happened to me Aoudad hunting on the Guadalupe Rim in NM.
Woke up to a weird noise.
Cows were licking my tent.
Cows were the last thing on my mind.

 

[Minute_of_Antelope]

Definitely didn’t need to stumble on this thread before spring bear season…

 

[jnawalaniec]

I was hunting by myself a couple years ago, I was able to truck camp and had just gotten a roof top tent so luckily I was off the ground. Woke up around 2:00 am to something growling outside of my tent. Grabbed my pistol and headlamp and tried to look out the window, light reflected off the tent body and blinded me. It growled a few more times then moved off, still not sure what it was.

This past season my buddy and I were spike camping while chasing elk. We went into an area with a ton of black best sign. We decided to set up camp in some timber, I was under a tarp on the ground and my buddy was in a hammock. I woke up and heard something walking around outside my tarp, I listened to it walk around for a bit then fell back asleep. Woke up in the morning and asked my buddy if he heard it and he tells me it bumped his hammock but he was to afraid to move