Well this was a little touchy
 

I just came back from Texas visiting over Christmas and my hunting buddy was telling me what happened to him the first day of PA's late ML season. We had a fairly heavy dusting of snow and he was out in one of our favorite thickets when he spotted a nice bear. He decided to go check out the tracks and found that the front paws were 6"-7" wide - a pretty good size. Just for fun he decided to follow them a bit and after a bit my buddy realized that the bear made a complete circle and was actually following him! Upon realizing this my buddy thought that he would be better off heading to another section of the woods rather than seeing what the outcome of this encounter would be.

Probably a good move.

That poor bear was obviously lost and confused, and looking for help. Shame on your buddy for not waiting for him to catch up. :s2:

lol wow we don't have bears in rhode island its a huge thing if someone see's one

The only dangerous game in our hunting lease is poker.

Texas Holdum being the Brown Bear of dangerous game

Me being me, i would have been curious and kept going on him, your buddy had a gun to defend himself with if need be. I have had Cougars Track me, and Back Track me in the Snow several times, They actually do that quite often, when you think about how easily a cougar can sneak up on a deer and kill it, and most of the time there is no sign of struggle? Makes your thinker start thinking when you find where 1 has tracked you.

I would have had to move a distance off the trail and sit down and see if I could get a look at him.


I don't claim to be the smartest guy here though either..


-Jake

Always carry your 9mm, 40, 10mm or 45acp with you and your single-shot muzzleloader.

I always thought bears go into hibernation by PA's late ML season and even Michigan's December ML hunt dates. Unless someone were to enter their den, then the deep-sleep lethargy with cold weather bears should continue until late March at-least.

But then-again, I'm not an expert on bears in northern climates.

Pregnant sows will den up but as far as I know the boars will keep moving until the real bad weather sets in or food becomes scarce or hard to come by. They will even get up and move around in the middle of winter if a warm spell comes through.
I've come across a couple bear in "sleep mode" in nothing more than a depression in the ground (like from an uprooted tree) or a tree top in a clear cut.