Lot,s of good bear stories on here.
I have had a few encounters but usually they turn and run.
Last deer season which is shotgun only in our area now I was sitting in a 15 foot high wooden stand with a 2x4 ladder to climb up to get in.
The stand is fairly confined so my gun was over the rail where you climb in the stand.
I was looking straight out towards a swamp when something caught my eye to the left on an atv trail.There is a lot of cedars and I just caught a glimpse of black going behind a clump of cedars about twenty yards away.I never even heard him.
As I watched for him to come out he circled back and was looking around the tree as the wind was blowing his way, unfortunately.He knew something was wrong but eventually came forward anyway.
He came the rest of the way up the trail which came right past the base of my stand and led to a food plot out front.He was quartered to me coming up the last part of the trail so I held off as I expected him to walk by and into the plot.
All looked good as he walked by the ladder but just as he passed he stopped and in a heartbeat spun around and came right up my ladder.
It happened so fast all I could do was put my boot out in front of his face to stop him.He did stop right at my boot and just leaned over and looked around right at me. We had a stare down for about ten seconds and then I decided to yell.It worked as he slid back down and ran out to the side.At not much more than ten yards I shot with a slug and he ran about fifty yards and rolled while doing the usual death moan.
I gotta admit I was shaking for a while after that before climbing down to check him out.
They can get pretty big but a well placed shot will bring them down pretty quick.