What is it about Bears?

[schromf]

I can't figure out whenever there is a thread about bears being shoot the immediate default seems to be get out a Howitzer. These are flesh and blood creatures that range from a little over 100 lbs for a small blacky to 1600 lbs for a big Alaskan brown. In most contexts bears in the lower 48 states mean Black Bears, yeah there are a couple of states with Grizzlies, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming to be exact. Your odds of seeing a Grizzly in the lower 48 states are worse than being hit by a comet in your own back yard. The only place that changes in the contential US is if you are near Glacier National Park ( they do have " DO NOT EAT THE TOURISTS" signs out for the bears. And the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. They have some sighting occasionally in Yellowstone. But other than a few very remote areas you aren't going to see a Grizzly. You are going to run into a black bear, even a real big one at close range can be handled with a 30-06. For years one of the big record bears in Alaska was shoot with a 30-06, Fred Bear killed one with a bow.

I have seen small black bear taken with a 357 revolver. It doesn't take a cannon. I wouldn't feel undergunned using my 30-338 on a Alaskan Brown, no I don't want to have to do it a 5 yds, but if I did I would keep my cool, trust the rifle and ammo that I came with and shoot for paydirt. Actually if your that close to a bear and don't know it you shouldn't be in the woods anyway. I suppose if you are running around in willow thicks with no visability a big gun is insurance, but it is also a liability, can you swing a big gun around in thick brush quickly? I am not a guide and I won't be in a postion to deal with a customers mistake quickly, if I was I would carry a 375 H&H with a 18" barrel, or a 404 Jefferies or a 50 Alaskan. But I am not, and I would be damned embarrised if my guide had to clean up something I fumbled up so bad.

One of sons friends that comes from southern California to visit is absolutly paranoid every time we take him out in the woods about bears. I guess our odds of seeing a bear are about as good as it gets, as we have about 40,000 black bear in a fairly small ( western standards ) geographic area. He actually saw one with us the last time he was up, a small blacky probably less than a year and a half old, running lickety split for the high country as soon as he spotted us. It wasn't bear season, but I couldn't have gotten out of the truck before he was gone. My sons friend just about croaked, if I had of stopped and let him out of the truck he would have gone into a medical condition. It brought back a memory when I was a boy and I wasn't allowed to go to school cause there was a Grizzly Bear on the playground, I wondered what he would have thought of that?

I guess I grew up in bear country most of my life, they were always around, always respected, and caution whenever you were close to them is important, but I think repect of any big game animal when your close is a very wise thing. Frankly as a boy I was more scared of being trampled by a moose, they would come into the yard all the time to eat the shrubbery.

 

[Art Eatman]

I guess the excitement comes from a mix of reasons. Face it, most folks, today, live in cities. There's generally a shortage of bears. Difficult to gain first-hand knowledge.

The movies usually show all bears as large. You don't see Happy Housewife out on the ranch being threatened by a 150-pounder; it's always a Big Fat Hog of a bear. And it growls and slobbers and tries to pick the lock on the door.

A hunter's 200-pound bear won't get shown in the newspapers or on TV, but a very large monster will. So, a lot of folks take it for granted that all bears are big and mean, all the time. Except, of course, in Yellowstone Park, where they're all nice and sweet and tame and want you to feed them.

Art

 

[Smokey Joe]

Yellowstone bears

The problem w/Y'stone bears isn't that they want you to feed them, Art, it's that a lot of the idiots DO so. I guess they're conditioned by pix of Smokey, Yogi Bear, et al. on the tube.

Anyhow, bear feeding isn't really the problem, either, it's just that the bear (1) doesn't want to stop eating when you run out of treats, (2) can't tell the difference between the offered treat and your fingers, and (3) has no conception of property rights beyond that of an average 2-year-old human (If I see it, it's mine. If I want it, it's mine. If it's yours, it's mine, you can't have it.)

Interesting, looking back over this, that I'm blaming the same medium for making bears cuddly that others are blaming for only showing huge, dangerous bears. But I think they do both. On the cartoons, bears are cuddly. On the news, they only get mentioned if they are gruesome or huge.

The Y'stone bear feeders often know that what they're doing is wrong. I stopped behind a bear feeder there once, got out of my car to photograph the incident. His car was right beside a "Do not feed the bears" sign! I was wearing an Army jacket (might be a ranger uniform?) and the bear feeder took off like a bat out of h***.

 

[Sunray]

"...get out a Howitzer..." Bears seem to bring out an unwarranted fear. In all the time I've spent wandering in the bush, I've never once been bothered by a bear. Just seeing one would be an incredible thrill. People seem to forget that to a bear, we smell bad. Smell like trouble. Even to that 1600 pound Kodiak.

 

[Smoke]

I don't need a Howitzer, I got Pete!

My 4 year old somehow became convinced a bear was going to come around the house and get him. I asked him if he had ever seen a bear anywhere near our house; he admitted he hadn't. I then told him Pete (my old Australian SHepherd male) kept all the bears away.

He was convinced and slept soundly ever since.

Bears in Bosque County - when I see one I'll be more surprised than my kid!

Smoke

P.S. Art, do the HUnting statutes address bears? Or can I shoot one on sight? (Like I'll ever see one ) Baylor is just up the road....you never know...

 

[Smoke]

Bears part 2

Several years ago another couple, the wife, and a I made an excursion up to Durango, CO. We went out to eat one evening at a steak house out near Lake Vallecito.

While we were waiting for our meal, the waitress came by to fill up the tea glasses and commented that there was a bear in the trash again. I lloked at the other guy with me and we decided that we had to go see this.

We walked across the gravel parking lot to the back of the building and there right under a security light was a large dumpster. But no bear. We were a little dispointed, I had my camera and wanted a picture of a real bear. We were just standing there about 60-70 ft from the dumpster wondering where he went when he just pokes his head up out of that dumpster. I brought my camera up for a picture and the flash hit my hat brim. So I took my hat off and turned to hand it to Scott to hold for me and.... he was gone!

He had run 100 yards across a gravel parking lot without making a sound!

Maybe I was supposed to be scared too, but was to stupid to know better. I stood and watched the bear for a minute then he unloaded out of the dumpster and took off up the hill.

After we ate the girls wanted to go see if it was still there. We eased around there again but couldn't see anything. Scott wouldn't come up anywhere near that dumpster, prefering to keep a distance. THe girls commented that he must have left. I said "Hang on, watch this" I picked up a rock and chunked it at the side of the dumpster. That bear flew oout of there as fast as he could move!

The wife and I turned to look at Scott and his wife had duplicated the amzing act of flying all the way across that gravel lot soundlessly, and had beat his time by half!

Thats all the bear stories I got.

Smoke

 

[Frohickey]

We would be in trouble if bears ever got civilized, learned how to read and write, and wielded fully-automatic weapons.

 

[PATH]

Most Black Bears will run if you yell. The problem is that when the imprint on humans as a souce of food they keep coming back. Fools who feed bears are inviting trouble. The bruins are not Yogi and BooBoo. They can and have attacked people. There were a couple of fatal attacks by Black Bears up in a Canadian Park a few years back. Man and his wife were killed and partially eaten by a young male Black Bear.

In the Catskills just north of me a Black Bear made off with a baby out of a carriage left outside a cottage. The Bear was frightened by some men who ran after him and dropped the baby. The baby was killed though. The DEC had to tack and kill the Bear.

There was also a case where a backpacker was attacked in the Catskills. The Bear knocked him around quite a bit and ran off with his backpack. The backpacker had food in the pack.

As suburbia creeps out the city refugees think that feeding the bears is such a sweet thing to do. Why the bears are so cuddly and nice to look at. The problem is that these bears will lose their fear of people and may have to be put down if they become too aggressive in their pursuit of food.

I especially love when people walk up to moose, elk, or buffalo to get a cute pictures to wow the neighbors. Folks, these are wild animals that can kill you! I guess some people have to learn the hard way though.

I saw what looked to be a 500 lb Black Bear up in the Adirondacks near Old Forge. Biggest of kind I ever did see. I took a wide path around him. Why tempt fate!

 

[Diggler]

I think there's a big difference what I'd use to hunt bear with and what I'd want to use to stop a charging, ticked off bear that wants to maul or eat me. I mean, a .30-06 behind the shoulder will do the job on a bear at any range that I'd hunt with, but when it comes to bear defense I'm not necessarily worried about the eventual death of the bear... I need it to go down, and go down NOW. Before it chews on me.

Maybe that's the discrepancy... out of season, you're carrying for a close range aggressive encounter while in season you're probably going to shoot the bear WAY before he's close enough to be that big of a threat.

 

[Hook]

Used to live in bear country.
Winter time is best for hunting bears.
What ya do is go down to a pond and knock a big hole in the ice then sprinkle peas all around it.

When the bear comes down to the pond to take a pea, ya kick him in the ice-hole.






Hook

 

[Dave R]

Your odds of seeing a Grizzly in the lower 48 states are worse than being hit by a comet in your own back yard.

Then I should've been hit by that comet twice...

Saw a Griz in Yellowstone last year. More to the point, saw a Griz in the "Frank Church River of No Return" wilderness (I am not making that name up) on a fishing trip on the Middle Fork of the Salmon. Yep, its in Idaho. It was over 300 yards away, maybe as much as 500, but 3 of us felt pretty positive through the binoculars. That flat face is a pretty good indicator its not a brown bear.

So it can happen in the lower 48.

The story on the yellowstone griz...This was in Oct. It was feeding on a carcass somewhere about midway between Madison and Old Faithful lodge. Maybe 300 yards from the road. Near a stream (the Firehole?) A flyfisherman was working his way up the stream. Back to the bear. We all started hollaring, but he couldn't hear us.

Bear stood up. Probably chuffed, but we couldn't hear it. Fisherman was smart. He didn't panic, and didn't face the bear directly, just started moving away promptly, but not panicked. The bear went back to feeding.

Lucky day.

 

[schromf]

The only place that changes in the contential US is if you are near Glacier National Park ( they do have " DO NOT EAT THE TOURISTS" signs out for the bears. And the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. They have some sighting occasionally in Yellowstone. But other than a few very remote areas you aren't going to see a Grizzly

Yes, there are a few remote areas, I spotted one about 5 miles from the Canadian border, North of Priest Lake. But other than the areas in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming grizzlies are the exception.

 

[sitkablacktail]

I live and work at a salmon hatchery in a remote part of Alaska and we have Brown Bears wandering all over in the summer and fall, I just don't see all the fuss is over bears. They are nothing more than a over grown racoon, they will always take the easy meal and if you don't put a chain on it then they will be in it. Oh by the way I carry a 45/70 Marlin I never said I trusted them.