[paintballdude902]

i was out deer hunting around 5 oclock and i was going to check a section of a beanfield. the trail i take to get to it is boardered by the woods an a swamp

about 30 ft down the trail i hear something in front of me and stopped thinking i had just spooked a deer the a dang bear came running at me so i fired 2 shots from the .30-30 one hit it in the shoulder the other was a tad low but it went away (today is the last day or bear season here) so i decided to go after it figuring i had already shot it im gonna try and not let it go to waste when i took a few more steps i found a cub in a tree so i left thinking the mother might still be around and i called some friends that do alot of bear hunting and they said the mom was probably either dead or ran pretty far away so i went back int he woods with 2 guys we searched for about 2 hours and figured that it was too dark to do any good now so were heading back tomorrow i feel really crappy now for 2 reasons 1 i wounded a bear and couldnt find it or finish it off and 2 it was a sal with a cub and now i may have just orphaned a cub :banghead::(



would you guys have done the same thing i did?

it didnt click until i saw the cub that that is why it charged me

[justice4all]

Of course. Better the cub be motherless than my girl be fatherless.

[WardenWolf]

You did what you had to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

[meef]

a dang bear came running at me so i fired 2 shots from the .30-30would you guys have done the same thing i did?Well, I'm curious to hear what other options you think might have had.

[JohnnyOrygun]

I agree, Bear charged you, what are your options? I don't think you had any choice. You wouldn't want to leave your family without you, would you?

[armoredman]

You are alive, not bear poop, all good.

[Aaron12]

maybe ring the wildlife place and get them to take the cub?

[koja48]

Third option which I'm glad you didn't take is that of not defending yourself . . . you would have been injured or worse, with folks out in the woods searching for you. You reacted properly & did what you needed to do. I'm glad you are okay.

[qwert65]

you did what you had to do. I would call the wildlife service though

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

Call the wildlife service for them to look for the cub (which, I would think, should be in the same general proximity).

Look for that bear! Be ON THE ALERT as it could STILL be alive!

And, YES, you absolutely did the right thing!

Too bad your rifle didn't have a bit more umph behind it, but, as they say, "oh well!"

[Shawnee]

Your dismay is understandable but I don't see that you had any good alternative.

The cub is likely old enough to fend for itself, albeit lonely for a while.

It might be prudent to tip off the Game Dept. about the possible presence of a slightly wounded adult bear.

:cool:

[Harve Curry]

If you hit it in the shoulder, I think you mean broadside? At 30' from a 30-30 then she probably ran off and died. If not she'll be back for her cub.
You did the right thing in defending yourself. Better the bear then you.

[ccsniper]

you did the right thing.

[Dr. Tad Hussein Winslow]

Well, if it was a mother with cubs, then it wasn't a predatory charge, but a protective charge. So in hindsight, running, standing up and yelling, playing dead, any number of things would have "worked" and kept you (and her) alive, though possibly wounded. BUT, you of course had no way of knowing that so certainly yes you did the right thing. Just glad you're alive and well - scary incident. Did you not find any blood trail?

[paintballdude902]

thanks guys idk i just feel bad that i shot something, wounded it and couldnt retrieve it plus it had a cub


im about to go meet my brother inlaw and boss and were gonna try and find them but it rained last night so idk if it will do any good.

premium i found about 5 drops in the woods but by the time we got together and figured what we were going to do it was getting dark we stayed and looked for probably an hour after dark but it didnt do alot of good

[Friendly, Don't Fire!]

With internal bleeding, it may not be far off at all. Make sure you look under overhanging vegetation, and under anything where it could be hidden.

Around 1982 -- When I shot my black bear (about 165 pounds, as I recall), when I finally got up the courage to go over (about 25 yards away), after throwing sticks and stones where I know I dropped it in the wild blackberries to make sure it was dead, it was wedged underneath a fallen tree that was about 3' off the ground. It was quite a bit of hard work getting the bear out from under that log with all that "dead" weight. I shot it in the neck with a .270 handloaded with 130g Hornady spire soft point. It didn't know what hit him and he basically dropped like a ton of bricks as his neck was broken and his head was flopping around as I was moving him.

The reason I'm saying this is if I hadn't know precisely where it was when I dropped it, I may have never have found it. That meat was just like eating roast beef! The bear had been on a diet of blackberries, so I guess that helped with the taste. Another thing, after I see how close I was when I shot that bear, it convinced me to take up handgun hunting. I now hunt deer and black bear with my S&W 500 (I occasionally use a rifle).

Look closely for signs of blood drops and the way any leaves on the ground, weeds, etc. may have moved or been disturbed. I have a feeling you will find it, and not far from where you shot it!

I wish you the best in finding it! Let us know your results in searching for the beast!

[Geno]

Are you asking what I would have done before or after I soiled myself?! You did well. Regardless of the bear's reason for charging, I would have fired.

[leathermanwave]

If a bear charges me it is going to get shot.

It is not your fault the cub is orphaned.

[paintballdude902]

inspector thats small for around here our bears are considered small if its under 3 and good is 5+ but we also had the record black killed around here in like 98 or so

this was around a 3-350 a pretty big sal



i spent around 2 hours looking today but it rained last night so there was no blood left first thing is i went back to where i shot from found my casings and from there i went to where i remember the bear going but no luck im thinking maybe i got lucky and grazed it just enough to get rid of it but i did find fresh bear poop so when the second session of bear season opens in december i know where im going

i searched umder every dead tree in the thick brush i went around 500 yards into the woods and 300 yards to each side but it may have gone into the swamp so i never would find it back there

[waffentomas]

You could have reasoned with the bear...

You did fine, I feel bad too, go home and sleep well tonight.

Tom

[paintballdude902]

its just got part to do with i was taught not to kill anyhting i wont eat or not to shoot anything with a baby since you want the baby to grow up

so i just violated 2 of my personal hunting rules

[dunlop]

u know how much baby cubs go for these days??? u can get 20k per cub if u sell it to the circus!!!!!:what:

[rondog]

<ahem> It's SOW, not "sal". A mama bear is a sow, just like pigs and hogs. Glad you came out OK, let us know if you find her.

[salthouse]

I hope you were wearing your brown pants!

I know you feel bad about it, but not much you could do. Some might say it was a false charge, but no way to know that until your smelling bear breath. I think most of us would have done the same thing you did. Glad your ok.

[paintballdude902]

soory ron i guess its regional thing we call them sals here

yeah salt i know that most charges are bluff charges but it was coming at me awful fast so i didnt want to find out

[mgregg85]

Sounds like you did just fine. I would go out looking for the bear with some friends to try and finish it.

Were you hunting near New Bern? Just wondering, I saw several black bears when I was down there in the New Bern area.

[Asherdan]

Man, I had a little face to face with a bear this season while out for deer. Mine ended with me backing across the clearing and him thundering away in the scrub oak after we yelled at each other a bit. Remembering those few seconds of excitement and having to make decisions in them, I think you did right.

Me, I blew it completely. I didn't have a bear tag.

[paintballdude902]

mgregg no i wasnt in new bern but i live there we do have a good number of bear but i was at my sisters horse from just out side pollocksville (but 20 mins from new bern)

we looked both saturday night and sunday but with no luck i think it went back into the swamp and is either licking its wounds doing ok or is dead

for once im hoping i did a bad shot and just grazed it enought o get rid of it

i was back out there today hunting and found a big pile of fresh bear poop so it may still be around or its another but either way im glad there is one there for the demeber bear season

asher here when you buy your big game license you get deer bear boar and turkey so i was fine it was open season too

i think i would have done the same thing even if it wasnt open just beacause i just reacted i didnt really think more of just and oh crap moment i did feel kinda dumb because i worked the action ejecting my first round but it loaded more so it was ok lol

[JustsayMo]

Paint, you did the best you could given the circumstances. The outcome wasn't ideal but that is part of hunting. We should feel crappy about it. It shows we have respect and reverence for the game we pursue. Learn from it.

I told you about my Brother-in-law's bear last year in the brush gun thread. I still feel crappy about it and I wasn't the one who pulled the trigger. Spoiled the trip for me and was a bitter lesson for my BIL.

[kmrcstintn]

1) glad to hear that you are okay; consider yourself fortunate & that you able to continue working to provide for your family

2) your sincere regret about the circumstances surrounding the orphaned cub & injured/dying adult bear shows that you are an ethical hunter & conservationist at heart

3) you did the best you could at the time with the tools you had & the reflexes that are ingrained by your humanity (fight or flight; self preservation vs needless sacrifice, etc)

4) you weren't given the time to properly aim & squeeze the trigger using proper form & breath control...the same happens to the best trained soldiers & law enforcement personnel when they come under fire in a combat situation; regardless you did what anyone in your circumstances would have done

5) contact your state's wildlife management agency, explain what happened, and that you are concerned over the welfare of the cub; hopefully they will dispatch someone to trap the bear & find a sanctuary to accept it; your experience can be used for statistical analysis & teaching purposes for hunter safety courses

[ants]

In 1970 or '71 I back-pedaled from a charge, about 40 feet in front of me across a creek. She just wanted me to go away. The baby stayed behind her. It was a snap decision and you never ever know if it's right until afterward.

If your 30 foot estimate is accurate, it surely doesn't leave much time for thinking, does it? You gotta make your best decision instantly and make it stick. There is no right or wrong, just make your decision and make it stick.

[SwearNoAllegiance]

Agreed with the rest about your need to shoot.

My only question is how many times the phrase "Holy $#&%!" left your lips?

[MAGNUM44]

You better just hope that the daddy bear Smokey the Bear doesen't come knocking on your door for shooting his wife HAHA HA

[lgbloader]

Hey Paint ball,

I understand how you feel, but I would consider myself lucky... what if that blackie didn't stop the charge and that shoulder hit didn't stop it?? what if that would have been a brown bear... who knows how the story would have ended.

Hug your family, Mate and give another thanks to The MAN Upstairs.

And stand tall and be proud, you're a good man.

LGB.

[paintballdude902]

swear.........about 12.......per sentence

thanks guys


i got an update from a friend that farms the land around there

he said hes seen 1 bear with a vub all year and it didnt come around for a while but he saw ita few days ago with its cub while he was harvesting the beans

he said it was limping but running and looked fine :)

[moooose102]

while it sucks that you didnt find the bear you shot, you really had no choice. it is called "SURVIVAL"! it is not like you stalked the bear and shot it on purpose. it CHARGED you. this has always played in the back of my mind. but i certainly am not going to just lay down and die because an animal THINKS i am a threat. the MOST IMPORTANT THING about any outdoor activity is coming home ALIVE and safe. you should feel good that you were challenged by an agressive wild animal, in its teritory, and you had enough stones, and skill and wit to survive the attack. it will be something to tell your kids, and grand kids about.

[flyboy1788]

the cub will probobly be alright. animals have instinct on how to survive. But i would have to say you did the right thing as well. if any animal starts charging me, it is going to get shot.