Do You Sleep With Your Food in Bear Country?

[svivian]

I’ve had cattle destroy my shit. My tent is not your scratching pole…

That’s no joke especially where I archery hunt.

 

[bojangles808]

The game trail at timberline near our usual western Wyoming deer camp has so many bears, we aren’t trying and see one every other year on the 5 mile hike up the mountain through timber and fresh sign every year, all season. Any place we bone out an elk or deer will get a black camped out on it. Wyoming doesn’t seem to be a bear mecha, but blacks are very common on all regularly used high country trails, even above timberline.

I have a stubborn friend that always kept food in his tent - until a bear came into camp well above timberline. If the bear doesn’t leave, you either shoot the bear, shoot to scare the bear or get out of the way. He got out of the tent and stood 100 yards away as it ate all their food - only then did the shock wear off and in hind sight kicked himself for not shooting to scare it. Just because you’re allowed to shoot a bear doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences. If you want to have a hunt interrupted while waiting for a game warden on horseback to investigate in the middle of their busy season, shoot the bear, but be warned simply having a dead bear doesn’t mean it automatically qualifies as justifiable. I know a guy who knows a guy who got the privilege of paying the full sticker price of a bear without even driving it off the lot.

so you are hiking down to timberline to hang everynight when hunting above timberline?

 

[CodeMonkey]

I always have the best bear repellent with me... a bear tag.

 

[Calcoyote]

Depends on if I am truck camping or backpacking. If I am truck camping in a wall tent I leave food in ice chests and place them about 30 feet from the tent. If I am backpacking I hang food in an Ursack no more than 75-100 feet away.

There was a thread like this over at 24 hr campfire a few years ago and an Alaskan confessed to being horrible at precautions. He said that once when he had shot a Big Horn sheep he kept the meat and hide in his tent when he slept at night because he feared a bear might get it otherwise. He said that he has done stuff like that for decades with no issue. He seemed like a pretty tough hombre. lol.

 

[TaperPin]

so you are hiking down to timberline to hang everynight when hunting above timberline?

Yep. It’s not far. We’re camped between two big bowls - twenty minutes to be on top of one, 30 minutes to be on top of the other. 45 minutes from a big open face covered in Krumholtz, and as much country as you’d like to cover each day. Big deer can be anywhere and as many move in in a week as were there to begin with. To move from one drainage to the next, elk and bear come up to timberline, then drop back down the next drainage. In September those damned feral elk keep us up at night pushing each other around 400 yards away.

This isn’t our place, but it’s similar. The uppermost trees on the ridge to the right would be a similar location if you imagine another bowl on the other side of the ridge.

We have a cold camp, but it’s nice to be in the trees to stretch, move around and cook without being seen. Our location also has prevailing winds that keep our scent away from either bowl.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

Yeah, a brown/grizzly will just slap you around and bite you a few times, and then run off. A black bear however, will actually kill you and eat you, literally. Either one isn't good, though.

Not true. You have a better chance of a griz just knocking you around vs a black. They can and will kill you though. Just ask Grizzly man and several others who have lost their lives. Gal in Ovando MT got eaten in her tent by a griz a couple of years ago.

 

[Mykolaivka887]

Not true. You have a better chance of a griz just knocking you around vs a black. They can and will kill you though. Just ask Grizzly man and several others who have lost their lives. Gal in Ovando MT got eaten in her tent by a griz a couple of years ago.

That's what I said -- a brown/grizzly will merely slap you around a little and bite you a few times, and then run off. Unless you're an idiot like your esteemed Tim Treadwell, brown/grizzly bears, by-and-large, flee after quickly incapacitating their opponents. Whereas black bears won't. Black bears are in it to the death. This is based on nearly 70 years of living with and among bears.

 

[grfox92]

That would be a hard no in grizzly country.

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[WY SkunkApe]

Idk that we’ve exercised the practice of the 100yd triangle.

If a bear wants my food or horses it will have to earn it.

 

[Dust Rider]

Not true. You have a better chance of a griz just knocking you around vs a black. They can and will kill you though. Just ask Grizzly man and several others who have lost their lives. Gal in Ovando MT got eaten in her tent by a griz a couple of years ago.

Was she the bike tour lady who set her tent up by the post office?

 

[Stalker69]

Even if there are no bears around, I've never slept my food. Are you saying you cook in your tent ? Or store food in there ? I guess the couple of times I've spent in a trailer, there was food inside. But that's been like twice in 50 years. We do at times have a cook tent set up, but don't sleep in it.

 

[Northern Outback]

I was always taught to hang anything with scent away from the tent including food (obviously) but also toothpaste, etc. How many people are doing this vs sleeping with food in their tent? If you are sleeping with food in your tent, is it just the convenience factor of not having to mess with hanging it in the evening and retrieving it in the morning?

There seem to be very differing viewpoints on this, and I'm curious to see the split of what people are actually doing in the field.

*Question is aimed at any bear country - black or grizzly*

Yup! Just being a bear tag as well and you can extend the hunt all through the night

 

[Mykolaivka887]

Are you saying you cook in your tent ? Or store food in there ?

Yes sir, you assumed correctly.

 

[Marble]

I live in Black Bear country. Usually, it is the most dense area in the lower 48. My answer is sort of. If I'm in the back country with dry food, I'm not too worried about it. But when I leave camp, everything goes on my food bag and into a tree. This is for bears and little critters. Generally, this is how I do it. I'm sure it could happen, but I'm 48 years old and have never had an issue.

A lot of times, when I'm solo, I have my food out for the evening, my morning meal, and my next daily rations. I've had more problems with deer getting into my food than any other animal.

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[Marble]

I can’t be the only one more worried about the damn mice chewing holes in my food and coming home with hantavirus or something rather than a black bear deciding to ransack my tent with me in it. Effing mice.

Not only this, but never ever store your bow outside your tent at night. I caught a rat and a chipmunk trying g to eat either my arrows or my strings. I couldn't tell what it was investigating.

Sure would be a crapper to wake up to a damaged bow in the morning with elk bugling around you and your miles from the truck...

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[Maverick1]

I sleep with it in the tent now. I only really worry about it when I'm gone for the day hunting. But I need my food, so I like the idea of my scent being the main deterrent, and being able to protect it throughout the night, if need be. Never had an issue though. Back country bears don't love human interactions.

Everything I bring is well sealed, to hopefully prevent spreading of the scent. And I burn the daily food trash every night if possible.

Two or three seasons ago I went out hunting one morning. Spent all day away from camp. Came back after dark and the tarp was flattened out. I could see muddy bear prints from when the bear had knocked the tarp over and walked all over the tarp. Luckily the bear only damaged the tarp with claws piercing through a couple areas of the tarp. The expensive down sleeping bag I had under the tarp was unharmed. My food was hung in a tree a couple hundred feet away, untouched.

I packed up camp, retrieved my food from hanging in the tree, and headed up the mountain a mile or so to a new spot.

Continued hunting for the remainder of the week without issue, other than a couple of new ventilation holes in the tarp.

Imagine things would have been different for the tarp, sleeping bag, and food if the food was anywhere other than hanging up in the tree.

 

[Maverick1]

Not only this, but never ever store your bow outside your tent at night. I caught a rat and a chipmunk trying g to eat either my arrows or my strings. I couldn't tell what it was investigating.

Sure would be a crapper to wake up to a damaged bow in the morning with elk bugling around you and your miles from the truck...

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I use a small screw in hook and hang my bow, binoculars, and bugle tube in a tree, up off the ground at night. Had a rodent chew on my limb once (before I woke up and scared it off). Also rolled over and had a broadhead snag my sleeping bag once, and another time I almost cut my toe on a broadhead inside the quiver while moving around getting ready for bed. Both of which are reasons why the bow gets hung up outside the shelter now.

 

[mdtennant]

Are we talking like wall tent type of food or freezer dried 7 miles back in type of food?

I do think that it’s important to distinguish between.

Ice chests full of loosely packaged meat and shitty packaged gas station donuts and croissants covered in sugar, with hanging garbage bags full of food scraps.

Is a lot different than a vacuum sealed food stash the size of a basketball. With everything getting burned every night.

100%. Big difference here.

Situational context is extremely important to the decision making process, as others have eluded to in various ways. I don't believe there is a one-size fits all answer. I was looking for exactly that when I started hunting in GB country and came to the realization that "it depends." It depends on bear density, are they human/food/trash habituated, are you camping where they are likely to travel (like down near a creek), are you solo / with a group, on foot / with a pack string, etc. All this has an influence to some extent.

Personally, I lived in BB country all my life and camp a ton. Never thought much about it until I started hunting in GB country. Started off hanging food when hunting in GB country, and now I do not.

I keep it as clean as possible, avoid stinky food [like bacon, cheese and stuff with a strong scent profile], use mainly dehydrated foods, only boil water [no other cooking], rinse out bags after each meal, no food or consumables stay in tent unattended [it either comes with me or gets hung / buried in snow if I leave my tent].

Note: I also read Herrero's book and the only thing he convinced me to do was carry a side arm. If you really analyze the cases he went through in his book, the majority of the people were being stupid and/or did not have some form of defense. There is absolutely no reason a person should be pulled out of tree.... shoot it in the face!

 

[ThreeOhSeven]

I always hang everything.
I've had worse experiences with the damn marmots vs bears. They will chew straight through your sweat saturated backpack straps just to get the salt content.

 

[MattB]

The question was aimed at bear country generically - black or grizzly. I'm not sure I Understand the desire to differentiate. Personally, I don't like my odds against a black bear any better than I do a grizzly haha

If you do not want to differentiate, you need to add a 3rd response of “it depends”.

Your question is akin to asking people if they lock their front door at night without differentiating whether they live in the city or the country.