Grizzly Encounter / Shots Fired near Big Sky

Fritzh20

FNG
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Sep 7, 2023
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I agree the population base Is geographically different also, being in Montana you’re closer to the bears for the most part with more access
 

hobbes

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Shoot a grizzly with a paintball gun?

This is the animal that you want to teach that we are the boss with a paintball gun:

Lewis and Clark Journals after six men slip up on a grizzly:

they took the advantage of a small eminence which concealed them and got within 40 paces of him unperceived, two of them reserved their fires as had been previously conscerted, the four others fired nearly at the same time and put each his bullet through him, two of the balls passed through the bulk of both lobes of his lungs, in an instant this monster ran at them with open mouth, the two who had reserved their fires discharged their pieces at him as he came towards them, boath of them struck him, one only slightly and the other fortunately broke his shoulder, this however only retarded his motion for a moment only, the men unable to reload their guns took to flight, the bear pursued and had very nearly overtaken them before they reached the river; two of the party betook themselves to a canoe and the others seperated an concealed themselves among the willows, reloaded their pieces, each discharged his piece at him as they had an opportunity they struck him several times again but the guns served only to direct the bear to them, in this manner he pursued two of them seperately so close that they were obliged to throw aside their guns and pouches and throw themselves into the river altho’ the bank was nearly twenty feet perpendicular; so enraged was this anamal that he plunged into the river only a few feet behind the second man he had compelled take refuge in the water, when one of those who still remained on shore shot him through the head and finally killed him; they then took him on shore and butchered him when they found eight balls had passed through him in different directions.
 

Fowl Play

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Oct 1, 2016
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Shoot a grizzly with a paintball gun?

This is the animal that you want to teach that we are the boss with a paintball gun:

Lewis and Clark Journals after six men slip up on a grizzly:
I say this tongue in cheek. But believe it or not, this is the method park rangers use to “haze” bears that are becoming dangerous in national parks. Of course they are doing it from vehicles.

Would I ever recommend someone actually go into the wild attempting to paint a Grizzly bear pink? No. Do I think there should probably be some strategic hazing or hunting going on near Yellowstone. Definitely.

Putting a .270 round into the tree next to a black bear does wonders for keeping the little camp thief’s away. Id imagine something similar from a bunch of hunters would at least make a small difference on grizzlies.
 

Drenalin

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I think any grizzly hazing efforts that come to fruition should be administered by people who have an interest in blocking hunting of grizzlies. Paintball guns, pepper spray, walking directly toward them and shouting warnings, etc. Methods of hazing that offer protection or expediate escape should be prohibited, due to cost of course.
 

hobbes

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I say this tongue in cheek. But believe it or not, this is the method park rangers use to “haze” bears that are becoming dangerous in national parks. Of course they are doing it from vehicles.

Would I ever recommend someone actually go into the wild attempting to paint a Grizzly bear pink? No. Do I think there should probably be some strategic hazing or hunting going on near Yellowstone. Definitely.

Putting a .270 round into the tree next to a black bear does wonders for keeping the little camp thief’s away. Id imagine something similar from a bunch of hunters would at least make a small difference on grizzlies.
I have seen that. It's pretty crazy. I definitely wouldn't recommend for the majority of folks. Or I should say that I'm not doing it. :)
 

t_carlson

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Nov 1, 2022
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Montana
There is a reason our forefathers wiped em out. They weren’t stupid. Grizz aint your friend.

The globalists will kill you before the grizzlies do.

Living in AK definitely doesn’t make you a bear expert anymore than moving from CA to N. ID does. You guys already have a de facto bear season and it doesn’t seem to work. They kill bears regularly when they get in trouble. Killing 1-2 old boars isn’t gonna lower the population. I’m not against a season by any stretch. Just don’t think it’s gonna be all big tits and sunshine with one. You got more people than ever roaming around the woods. Just gonna have to accept the risk of being around them or stay home.

100%. The Feds will never allow enough of them killed to make a noticeable difference.
 

fatlander

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We saw the least amount of sign we’ve ever seen of grizzlies in our part of southwest Montana. There was so little sign that we all felt we got too comfortable by the end of the week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
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Location
Southern Oregon
I've been waiting for them to be reintroduced to California.

“Wisten to the whythmic whythm of the woodwinds as it wowws awound and awound…and it comes out here!” — Elmer Fudd
 
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Bearsears

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Sounds like there is some misconception on who the apex predator is when Grizzlies are on the landscape. I'm no expert but I know enough to know that Grizzlies aren't Black bears, Gators, or sharks. They are THE apex predator in the woods they occupy. They also have a completely different demeanor than most other predators. Grizzlies dont care and arent afraid of humans and I dont believe most any amount of hazing would work. They attack when threatened or pissed off period and they seem to be pissed off most all of the time. There is a reason they say fight a Black bear off and play dead with a Grizzly. But like I say I'm no expert and I live in Black bear country so....
 

Fowl Play

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Sounds like there is some misconception on who the apex predator is when Grizzlies are on the landscape. I'm no expert but I know enough to know that Grizzlies aren't Black bears, Gators, or sharks. They are THE apex predator in the woods they occupy. They also have a completely different demeanor than most other predators. Grizzlies dont care and arent afraid of humans and I dont believe most any amount of hazing would work. They attack when threatened or pissed off period and they seem to be pissed off most all of the time. There is a reason they say fight a Black bear off and play dead with a Grizzly. But like I say I'm no expert and I live in Black bear country so....
Unless a grizzly bear suddenly jumps into our discussion on this online forum and convinces me he's the apex predator, I'm going to believe that a hunter with a firearm is the apex predator of any landscape he is on, on the planet. The only reason grizzly bear populations are increasing, is because we allow them to.
 

Bearsears

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Unless a grizzly bear suddenly jumps into our discussion on this online forum and convinces me he's the apex predator, I'm going to believe that a hunter with a firearm is the apex predator of any landscape he is on, on the planet. The only reason grizzly bear populations are increasing, is because we allow them to.
Semantics. I dont disagree that we are the ultimate apex predator and could extirpate Grizzlies again at anytime we wish. I'm simply trying to point out that Grizzlies know they are the biggest most powerful predator on the landscape and arent in fear. Trying to make them fearful would only result in more aggressive responses in my opinion.
 

WCB

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Jun 12, 2019
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I'm in agreement that hunting for the most part, will lead to ZERO change in overall Grizz behavior. There just won't be enough tags and even if there were a bunch of tags there won't be enough to put a noticeable dent in the population.

Gun shots obviously don't phase them in many areas as they are on carcasses before a hunter can even recover them. Hell how many guys have shot at deer and they just keep deeding r run a little circle and hang out. Unless you hit a bear or maybe it is point blank...the bear just knows "shit that scared me and was loud" They have no idea it was form a human.

With that said I applied in 2018 in WY. I would love to hunt one.
 
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Semantics. I dont disagree that we are the ultimate apex predator and could extirpate Grizzlies again at anytime we wish. I'm simply trying to point out that Grizzlies know they are the biggest most powerful predator on the landscape and arent in fear. Trying to make them fearful would only result in more aggressive responses in my opinion.
I've had a couple interesting observations that make my head scratch when it comes to this. I've been in extremely remote areas, and you can watch both grizzlies and brown bears run for miles in the opposite direction the minute you give them your wind a mile away. It's actually quite impressive. Most would tell you that's the most common response almost 99% of the time. These are areas where you would presume very few are killed or even hunted and the bears have seen very few humans, if any. I've now had two times hunting bears from the stand over bait where brown bears knew I was there, have circled to get my wind, and then followed my wind to the tree. I caught it on video one time. This was an area with very high human traffic where the bears are hunted regularly and have no doubt seen numerous humans. I no longer hunt that stand, it just got way too sketchy.
 

Johnny Tyndall

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MT
I've had a couple interesting observations that make my head scratch when it comes to this. I've been in extremely remote areas, and you can watch both grizzlies and brown bears run for miles in the opposite direction the minute you give them your wind a mile away. It's actually quite impressive. Most would tell you that's the most common response almost 99% of the time. These are areas where you would presume very few are killed or even hunted and the bears have seen very few humans, if any. I've now had two times hunting bears from the stand over bait where brown bears knew I was there, have circled to get my wind, and then followed my wind to the tree. I caught it on video one time. This was an area with very high human traffic where the bears are hunted regularly and have no doubt seen numerous humans. I no longer hunt that stand, it just got way too sketchy.
I've had similar experiences. When I moved down south I wasn't all that worried about grizzlies. I'd spent a fair bit of time where the brown bears are thick and while they certainly needed to be treated with respect, they generally weren't interested in us and would take off if they winded us. They seem way more of a problem down here. I don't know if it's some combination of grizzlies vs. brown bears, human habituation, or they're just more mellow when everyone's getting fat on salmon, but it took me a while to adjust my thinking (getting bluff charged helped).
 
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We need some more Alaskan hunters to chime in here.

“Wisten to the whythmic whythm of the woodwinds as it wowws awound and awound…and it comes out here!” — Elmer Fudd
 
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