A friend of mine e-mailed me some pics of a bear killed here in Illinois. I guess it was somewhere around Decatur. A guy was combing his corn when his combine fell into a hole and got stuck. When he got out to check the hole out, a big black paw came out at him. They called the game warden and was instructed to kill it. It weighed almost 300 pounds. The hole evidently was the bear's den. Too bad they had to kill it, I'd love to see bears here! I'll see if my wife will post the pics when she gets home.

I got that email too. From what I hear, it actually took place in Minnesota.

Neat pictures anyhow.

My hunting buddy had a bear experience on Monday. He was rifle hunting up on the mountain in GW national Forest behind our land where he had seen a nice 10 point buck last weekend, when he saw a bear (est: 300+ lbs) walking across the valley from the next ridge. He just sat there until the bear changed direction and started sauntering right towards him. He pulled back the safety on his gun and waited until the bear was within about 10 feet before he said “hey!”. The bear stopped and looked at him. Then he (my friend, not the bear) said “get out of here!” The bear turned around and leisurely sauntered off. Good thing for the bear it wasn’t in season!

whyd they kill it?

I don't get the part where they were told to kill it. If they backed the combine off the hole, I'm sure the bear would have run off. Puzzling.

Consider this....I live with in 15 minutes of Decatur, Illinois. The only place that this bear story has been told is on websites or coffee shops. The rumor/story says that DNR was contacted and the bear was put down. It was supposedly a 300lb male. The problem with the story is this...if it happened in the greater Macon/Christian County areas it would have been all over the local news. The local news here jump all over any story that has nothing to do murder, violence or job loss in the area.

Sorry boys but I am throwing the BS flag on this one.

I know there are pics of the incident, so it happened somewhere just not here

We have had quite a few sightings of black bears near St. Louis and other areas of MO. If you shot it here you would be arrested immediately, unless it was endangering you.

i wouldnt wanna see any bears around here!!

It was on the local news here in Southern Illinois. They said it was near Taylorsville I think..

Of course I heard about the Bear in IL...and the truckloads of mountain lions that the DNR shipped in to Pike County...and the mutant Timber Wolves...and the World Record whitetail that is killed every single year by 'some out of stater'...

where did this bear come from, and how did nobody see it before it got to Decatur???

I dont believe any story untill ISEE one dead on the ground.