LeeinVa1

In just one season a few years ago i had the pleasure of running into six bears. the first one came to visit the site of a gut pile i had left there the weekend before, i put out some buck lure and he must have gotten a whiff of it and came back to it. sat on a log in front of me for about 20 minutes before he left, about 30 mins later i heard a noise coming in from another direction, it was just about dark and bow season, well, here comes the bear again. stuck his nose about six inches from the tree i was sitting in. wind must have came up because the tree was shaking. he made a woof, walked backwards for about ten feet and just walked off. Next encounter was during muzzle season, i was sitting on the ground, just poured a cup of coffee and as i raised it to my mouth i seen a black bear hit the deer trail in front of me about 100 yards and was heading right at me with leaps of about 10 feet, he covered that distance in about three seconds, got within 30 yards of me and made a quick right and left the area, i still had the coffee at my lips. the next time was opening day of gun season, again i was sitting on the ground when i noticed something black move around a rock pile about 100 yards away, it was a female with three cubs, they came with 60 feet of me, but the wind was blowing from them to me, so they never noticed i was there. the last time was the last day of gun season, again sitting on the ground when i heard what i thought were a couple of deer busting brush and coming at me from my left. it was another bear. the wind was blowing a little and he must of gotten my scent because he slammed on is brakes and sat down behind a little pine tree about 30 feet away. i had a conversation with this one. told him once he needed to get out of there, but he did not move. told him again the same thing, only a little louder tis time and he still did not move, i finally had to yell at him to get his arse out of there and he hauled it. do i get nervous walking in the woods knowing there are bears around, you bet i do.

skeeter 7MM

While bears have the allure as dangerous, they really pose little threat to humans. Exception to that rule are a sow and her cubs, hunter between mom and her cubs...not a good situation to be in. When they become reliant on our food(garbage) and comfortable with human interaction, such as parks, etc..they can get aggressive and lose that fear of man. I have had many occasions of crossing paths with bears in the wild, both dark and daylight. In fact this year archery elk I was glassing a large meadow in the timbers (mid day), when I heard the rumbling of a bear, I turned and saw a small blackie(boar) coming down the ridge, he got within 20 yards of me before noticing the bush isn' t a bush and then peered at me for a few seconds then turn and ran up the same ridge from which he had come from. Later that same week while bugling I had a large boar come around to see what the fuss was all about, however he styed well out of range[:' (] and once he got a whif he was gone. Both occasion I was on ground level (eye level) with these blackie' s, I will admit the mystique of a bear does send tiny shivers up my neck, but I am not scared of them persayjust being eye level is a little over the top9something most people could only experience at a zoo). So I am not scared but I do respect them..big difference.

If confronted by a bear don' t make rash movements or run. Yelling at black bears will often be enough to deter them from advancing but not always. Carry bear spray or pepper spray is cheap insurance if your are really scared of bears or want the ability to defend yourself without weapon. By all means if you feel it him/her or you than shot the sucker, even a shot from a gun that is nowhere near them will have the run away. With the bow you better hit him and then I would try yelling and spray first. In most cases they smell or hear you they are gone...just respect them and give their space.

HidinFromFeds

Yep Joe, I know how it feels.....gotta get home, gotta get home, gotta get home, don' t let em get me don' t let em get me lol

PAHUNTER21

I' m just afraid of the dark[:' (] Actually all kidding aside, different woods give me different feelings. For some reason when I walk in the woods that I grew up in, I get the creeps, but when I walk to my stands on other properties, I have no problems at all. Guess it was all the nightmares that I had when i was a kid.

A little background info:

my parents house is located in the middle of about 700+ acres of woods..... This means that since there were no neighbor kids close, there was a lot left to my imagination as a kid. I guess it carried with me all those years.

Ken/WV

I to hunt here in WV, and it does get alittle nerve racking walking through the woods in the dark....but I find it even more weird when your finally in the stand sitting quietly and you can hear every little thing moving around you in the woods.

You don' t have much to worry about considering your 20ft in the air on the side of a tree...but you hear everything. [>:]

kevin1

Lil E ,
if you gotta put an arrow in that bear instead nobody will blame you , trust me .

crc

I HAVE SOME BLACK BEARS IN EAST TEXAS BUT NEVER SEEN ONE IM MORE WORRIED ABOUT PANTHERS AND WILD BOARS.A WILD BOAR WILL GUT YOU PRETTY QUICK SO WHEN I WENT DOVE HUNTING I WAS PRETTY DARN NERVOUS SINCE I ONLY HAD A 20 GAUGE SHOTGUN.SORRY I COULDNT HELP.