Bear Charge

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Good Ol' Boy

Good Ol' Boy

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This could pertain to any animal really, and I don't know the backstory on the video.

What I do know is I wouldn't let a bear this size bluff me three times with three opportunistic shots without taking one. Albeit I also wouldn't be in his situation with just a double barrel either.

Again, with no knowledge of the video I don't know if the guy was hunting or what, and maybe he simply walked away from the situation.

I've given you my opinion on the scenario, whats yours?


 
My guess is that the fellow understood bear behavior. Over nearly 50 years of hiking in black bear county I have been charged by females with cubs twice. They were defensive charges. A bit of bear spray and the bear families left. I was charged by a male once. It was an aggressive charge. Agin bear spray did the job, but I had to spray him twice. The second shot he was about 20 feet away. Except for 2 tours in Nam that was the scariest thing I ever encountered. I f you are on foot in black bear country it pays to know the difference between aggressive and defensive charges.

Defensive charge is preceded by a lit of growling, standing, showing teeth. All meany to scare you off. You may get charges but it will likely be broken off. An aggressive charge is different. The bear crouches, is quiet, stares the you and the ears are back. If see that, the bear is likely out to get you.

‘I do not know if that applies to all bears because I have experience only with black bears. I have one bit of advice. Carry bear spray. It works.
 
I think that suggesting this guy made a stupid choice when everything turned out just fine, means your choice would have been the wrong one. What he did was smart, compassionate, and prevented the unnecessary death of an animal that obviously didn't really want to hurt him. Why are you being critical of someone who made the right choices?
 
Aletheia said:
I think that suggesting this guy made a stupid choice when everything turned out just fine, means your choice would have been the wrong one. What he did was smart, compassionate, and prevented the unnecessary death of an animal that obviously didn't really want to hurt him. Why are you being critical of someone who made the right choices?
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You have no idea what the intentions of the bear in the video had, nor do any of us.

We don't know what happened after the video stopped. That guy could be bear poop. Or he could be sitting at home with his wife and kids.

Point being, I'm not willing to bet my life on a bluff (much less 3) by a large dangerous predator that could maul me to death. And I'm not relying on something that may or may not work like OC. 12g with slugs WILL work.

But you do you...
 
Bfh_auto said:
I'd be hyperventilating just like he is. With only one dog barking. I'm going to guess that shotgun was loaded with bird shot.
I definitely wouldn't want to shoot and make it angrier.
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Like I said I have no info on the backstory but based on what we see Id be inclined to agree with your assessment.

I think the guy was hunting and happened to stumble into this. And if he was loaded with something 7.5 field loads I imagine he basically felt unarmed.
 
Looks like a positive wilderness encounter to me. Both parties communicated their intentions and calmer heads prevailed. Seemed to me that gentleman had large ones and remarkable restraint. Pretty sure I couldn’t have been as restrained, though given the firearm, he may have only had bird shot.
 
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Double barreled shotgun if he is hunting birds in a bears woods I would have shot in one barrel & a heavy slug in the other, then probably a large caliber pistol on my hip for back up.
 
Those were bluff charges intended to scare the hunter away. I wouldn't have shot either. Especially with a shotgun that was most likely loaded with birdshot. If he had taken a shot, it wouldn't have been effective anyway and would have probably made it worse. In my experience an animal that means business comes in fast with its head down and ears back.

He didn't panic and "relatively calmly" backed out of the situation.
 
jmr40 said:
Those were bluff charges intended to scare the hunter away. I wouldn't have shot either. Especially with a shotgun that was most likely loaded with birdshot. If he had taken a shot, it wouldn't have been effective anyway and would have probably made it worse. In my experience an animal that means business comes in fast with its head down and ears back.

He didn't panic and "relatively calmly" backed out of the situation.
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From his reaction and his demeanor and self control I’m guessing the hunter has been around grizzlies quite a bit. If you’ve grown up in bear country and been an outdoorsman and had multiple encounters with bears you’ll start to get a pretty good read on their behavior and body language.

Same as watching these PH’s and park rangers in Africa who will stand there and let an elephant bluff charge right up to bad breath distance. They know the behavior and body language of an elephant well enough to understand when it’s time to stand your ground and when it’s time to defend yourself. The first time I ever stood for a bluff charge on a big bull I was nervous but I simply took my queue’s from the highly experienced PH and elephant hunter I was standing next to. He was perfectly calm as he held his rifle in the air vertically with one hand and made enough human sound that the bull figured out we were human, we weren’t going to run and is bluff wasn’t going to work on us. The bull pulled up short at about 20 feet screamed at us, flapped his ears and then kicked some dust and threw a snoot full of sand at us. When we called his bluff he turned and trotted off trumpeting some insults.

I’ve seen experienced hunters and guides in bear country do the same on big brownies and grizzlies.
 
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Captcurt said:
That actually gave me chills. Since I've never hunted anything more danger than a whitetail, I'm not sure if I would have pulled the trigger. I do know that I would need some clean underwear.
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There are plenty of videos out there of guys hunting and fending off big bears they've stumbled across.

The difference is generally they're either hunting with a medium to larger caliber center fired rifle, or a shot gun with buck shot or slugs.

I imagine if any of us were bird hunting and ran into the same situation as the vid in the OP we would probably all feel the same way if that's all we had.
 
3 weeks ago I was in my stand and a young bear came in just at dark. He had to smell me because he was downwind. He laid down looking my way until it got too dark to see him. I shined my headlight at him, growled and yelled and took a couple of flash photos. Since the idiot FWC thinks that bears are endangered or some-such nonsense, they are illegal to kill.

Almost an hour later he left. I had to walk a half-mile back to the cabin and did many pirouettes while walking back.
 
I know one thing for sure, now amount of "Tide" is going to get my shorts clean. I applaud the man for not shooting, realizing there were cubs involved.
 
Even though the Russian was excited, he had the fortitude to turn on his camera. I would never be that calm to think of it.
On the 3rd charge I would have shot. That was well within my "non-comfort zone."

Maybe bird shot would not have turned the bear but I would have had to try. 3 cubs or not are not worth my life IMO.
 
As far as birdshot on grizzlies there was a case of a bear being turned by birdshot not too long ago. A guy was pheasant hunting in MT and encountered a grizz out in the flat country where there aren’t supposed to be any grizz. The bear was in some thick brush and charged the hunter who whacked it in the face at close range with a load of birdshot. The bear turned and retreated.

I read that somewhere, might have been Sports Afield or American Hunter and it was several years ago.
 
ms6852 said:
I know one thing for sure, now amount of "Tide" is going to get my shorts clean. I applaud the man for not shooting, realizing there were cubs involved.
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Eat enough of the pods and you may forget about it. Idk. Never tried. Lol.

Like others said, I suspect he was carrying bird shot and wasn't keen on firing that at a bear. The hunter did well. BUT had the camera been recovered from bear poo, everyone would be singing a different story. "Should have had bear spray/never got a shot off/ etc etc" Hindsight is 20/20
 
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