Some of you may remember my post about bears and dealing with them - well It must have been premonition of some sort. Wed afternoon of opening week found me along side a cornfield in Beaufort county, gorgeous day to be in the woods, So around 7:10 pm I hear movement coming from a string of white oak trees to the cornfield - I turn slightly to see what is approaching behind me - lo a behold is a cub -which promptly walks to directly under my tree and starts sniffing around, few seconds later here comes the 2nd cub followed in short order by momma and a huge bear bringing up the rear. Thats right 4 of em - so I realize at this point I am outnumbered - best thing to do is keep quiet and watch them move on. Well, no such luck ,there is a huge oak tree to my left -a few feet. Well cubbie(we got a little intimate-read on) decides that tree would be nice to climb, he scurries his little behind up to the same height I am at 22ft and parks his rear into the fork of this large oak. So now I am more than a little concerned - I look at him, he looks at me - kinda cute to be honest, but back to the dilema - the 2nd cub is still direct below me -decides he likes trees too- yep you guessed his furry azz is heading right up the tree I am in - man they can climb quick, as he is about half way up is slid my feet into the bottom section of the climber and slammed it against the tree - cubbie #2 promptly scurries back down the tree and lets out a bawl --he hits the ground and takes off, the biggest bear decided to follow - so now the odds are 2 or 1 but mama isn't happy - she has been circling the tree for 5-6 mins at this point and popping her teeth and snarling - my adrenaline is through the roof btw, after a minute or so cubbie #1 decides he wants a closer look, he came out of the fork and around the back of the tree - where he is eyeing me up -- hmmm not good I thought, I momentarily had a insane moment and thought about shooting the cub- which common sense took over - I realized that if I did that - mama would either come up or never leave - both of which were not good -- So I leaned over to cubbie and yelled as loud as i could get outta here - cubbie looked like i hurt his feelings for a second and then let out a bawl- scurried back down the tree and went in the direction of the other two- Mama snapped her teeth a few more times and then left the scence as well - leaving me intact - except my nerves were shot.

Anyhow after exiting the scene and being here to talk about it - my mind went to wondering -- why in the heck would a bear choose the tree I am in out of 4000 trees and 100 acres of corn- well I am going to tell ya

It is called B.A. TREE acorn scent - I sprayed down with this before heading into the woods, it was sweet smelling so I lured the bears right to me - they must have thought I was a scooby snack - so the end of the story is - the acorn scent has been disposed of, and I will have a little more firepower in the future[/align]

WOW!!!!

I have encountered bears...but not that close and defenitely not four at one time....

Thank goodness you made it out of there safely.....

WOW that is crazy! Bears are cool to see but not when there heading for you

While I don't condone breaking the law......when in bear woods.....I have been known to "pack" a touch differently than normal.

I think that is an awesome story and your giving the bears a little more power than they deserve, especially the cubs. You saw what happened when you ID'd yourself as a human being. They left. That is normally the case. I don't fear bears in the PA woods. Even momma and cubs. Once they ID you, they are gone like the wind.

Please don't shoot the bears unless you REALLY think your safety in jeopardy...I don't feel that was the case in that story. I only wish you had a camera with you.

Exactly. Black bears are no more than overgrown raccoons.....pretty much harmless. I had an instance one year where a cub climbed up the same tree as one of my hunters and his camera man. The cub actually got above them and was there for 45 minutes. Needless to say, momma wasn't happy. She didn't do anything but pop her jaw and make a few intimidating noises. As soon as the cub came down, they were outta there faster than the wind.

Respect them, don't fear them.

Your big mistake was not letting them know you were in the tree soon as they started to climb it!! Luckily you weren't hurt.

Thanks for the responses guys, there are a ton of bears on the east coast and up until this point I have had no issues, normally see 5-10 per year and they are curious creatures by nature - just got a lil unnerved this time but was pretty exciting as well

Great story Frank!!

Wow, good story!Did you see any more deer that day?