Holy Crap!! If that story don't get you some attention around the old water cooler, I don't know what will. Glad to hear you're okay though.

I'm see bear pretty regular. Last year all alone in the swamp, I sawa bear was about 30 yds just destroying 3" trees for no reason. He'd rip one up move on a bit and do it again. I was glad he kept going cause I wouldn't have let him get to close to my tree.

Years ago, while in Tennessee, a few friends and I went into the Smokie Mountains for the day. Along the way we saw a sow with two cubs and one of the guys jumped out of the jeep and said he was going to get a picture. We advised him not to do that, but he wanted the picture really bad. He headed into the woods and found the sow and cubs. When he took the picture, his flash went off and the sow did not appreciate the perceived threat. He came flying out of the woods and sprinted the 200 yards to the jeep. When he came out of the woods, the sow was about 50 yards behind him. When he jumped in the jeep, she wasn't more than 10 yards away. I really think if she wanted to catch him, she probably could have. The hilarious part of this was that in his excitement, he had his finger over the lens! The moral of this story is "If you have an IQ higher than driftwood, NEVER get close to a sow with cubs."
I wish I would have had a camcorder for that event. Thinking of it still makes me laugh at the nimrod who wanted a picture of "mommy bear and her babies".

Great story, I know I would hsve crapped myself.[&:]

I'm going to be hunting with my 15 y/o daughter & nephew thi October in Northern Michigan (again.) I know that tere are black bears around. I always carry my sidearm with me. It's got 15 hollow points in it. Hopefully that'll be enough...

I've read that as well. It stated something along the lines that although black bear attacks are more rare than their brown bear coutnerparts, more humans have been eaten by black bears than browns. There was like only something like 17 confirmed brown bear attacks in the past century in North America where the person was eaten.

He stood up and screamed at the bear - but was that really the best thing to do?

Would you be better off just SLOWLY and quietly backing out of the area? That's what I would have done, but I don't know which is the safer choice.

Without fail every bow season, I will run into a bear. When I say this, I mean this. Iwalk up on (within 10 yards or less) a bear and or bears every year. Last year I thoughtI was gonna get a pass, but low and behold the second to last week was my week. Mother and a cubon my trail on the way into the stand in the pitch black quiet of morningafter about a 1/4 to a1/2 mile from the cabin.I screamed like a girl, they each jumped on either side of thetrail (splitting them up, I know genius) and at that point I sprinted down the middle of them and the last remaining 60 yards to the stand. At which point I was able to climb with a flashlight, a backpack and a bow like a seasonedmonkey in the jungle. I just hope to get this year'sencounter over with early so I can enjoy the season.[8D]

If you found yourself BETWEEN her and the cubs?.........she might have handed you your ass, but like Rob said they're a shy animal even with cubs and are apt to run 99% of the time.

I would almost be more nervous of a big stray shephard or some other big dog than I would an average sized black bear.
Almost.

at least it was daylight for you.. i had my experience at 5:30 am! no cubs but the darn thing wouldnt run away