HuntingNet.com Forums

....... Yeah.... As to the bear, we've been seeing a dandy at camp on a regular basis, Doug. I made a big mistake early this spring and left $35 worth of uncooked babyback ribs on ice in a cooler on the camp porch overnight. Found the cooler and the plastic they were wrapped in about 75 yds. from camp the next morning. Cooler was punctured up pretty good from the teeth marks. A couple of weeks later, same cooler on the porch. No meat in it, only ice and some refreshments. I also had given the cooler a real good scrubbing with soap and bleach befor I used it again. About 9:30 PM, CRASH....out on the porch. The bear had taken that same cooler and pulled it off the porch and dumped it. He was still standing in the yard, about 8 ft. from the cooler, and about 15 ft. from my buddy and myself. We shouted at it, but it wasn't that impressed with us. It only slowly moved off, and went around our storage shed and stood for awhile. We found it hanging around back there, and shouted it up again. Very slowly moved off, growling at us. Never popped it's teeth, but showed little fear.
Needless to say, the coolers come into camp at night now. It's a pretty big bear. I'd estimate it at well over 300 lbs., maybe more. Same bear I saw last spring while turkey hunting, I'm sure. No brown on it at all. Solid black including the muzzle. It could become a problem. Hope not. Guess where I'm gonna be bear hunting again this year? Off the picnic table again........

......