Bear Bums – Bear Hunting

Yesterday one of the blog readers asked about bear attacks. This spring I shot a bear while bear hunting on the coast of Alaska. The black bear showed no aggression but no fear, and was shot at approximately 5 yards. That’s not real common but not surprising. I’ve watched hundreds of bears, harvested dozens and been chased by a few. gout and coumadin

When I hear things like; “he’s a bear expert”, or “you’re safe, you have a gun”, or “leave them alone and you don’t have to worry”, I laugh or become concerned. Bears are very independent and very unpredictable. There are situations that increase the likelihood of creating a hostile reaction from a bear.

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In 2007 in southern British Columbia 3 of us black bear and grizzly hunters rounded a steep rock outcropping in a mature timber forest and found ourselves 20 yards from a black bear sow with 3 cubs. They took off the other direction, the sow sending the cubs up a tree not far from us. She then whirled and came at us in a very serious fashion. After a short burst of bear and people speed, barking, screaming, etc, she was gone and we were safe. We had 3 guns and no time to even think of them.

Most of my bear experiences have been like that. Grizzlies are different. They require being shot, shot at or something more serious to get them off your heels. My approach to bears is that they have no set of rules to follow when it comes to aggression.

Bears require aggression to survive and harvest much of what they eat. This places the ability to hurt a frail animal, like humans, close to their surface. I do everything I can to avoid a conflict and keep things in my favor. In an honest to goodness bear attack, from my perspective, the human always loses. Pepper spray, shooting guns, never showering and making lots of obnoxious noise will scare off most bears before you see them. Being sloppy with food scraps or having an unkempt camp attracts them. I plan on having no bear attacks and I always worry about them.