Any other chickens out there?
 

Hello all i am usually talkin turkey' s and havent posted in the deer section although i do read alot of posts on here. I don' t think anyone has ever posted this before or brought this up so i thought i would. As bow season approaches here in WV i can' t wait till im in the woods. I think the only thing i hate is walkin through the woods in the dark in BEAR country with only a bow and a mag lite. I just always get this un easy feeling when im doing this not so much though with my 7mm during rifile season:D. Anybody else have that same problem each year?

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

we don' t have the bear problem here in Fla; but I think I can see what you are talking about.
they say make a lot of noise when in bear country.that goes against all the bow hunting rules,so what do you do?

wish I could say I would worry about bears in our country...(sorry I can' t help on that" )[:-]

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

Question for ya, when was the last recorded black bear attack? These things arent just sitting in the woods waiting to maul hunters. Dont worry.

I have a rule, any large game within 15yds, has my crosshairs on them, any within 5yds(and moving in my general direction) has a bullet in them.

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

SwampBuck, I like your way of looking at the problem! :D

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RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

We have a few black bear where I hunt, I have never seen one, but I have seen their sign. I will be honest and say that it has never bothered me, if I saw one it might, but all I have seen are a few tracks and a tore up sign tree!

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

I also agree with SwampBuck, the bear can smell you comming and chances are he wants nothing to do with you. Bear atacks are so rare, but we still seem scared in the woods especially at dusk/dark. I' ld worry more about unsafe hunters then I ever would about any wildlife.

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

I used to get freaked out in the dark years ago. I would rush to my stand and get up fast. It wasn' t bears, just me being chicken. Now I realize and I get to tell my ten year old, there is nothing here in the dark that isn' t here in the light. And it will not act any differently because you can' t see it.

Greg

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

Hi LIL E,

I' ve worked in black bear country as a logger in the Catskills most of my life, and have seen hundreds of bears up close when working, hunting with bow and rifle, and just hiking/camping.

Black bears are very shy and afraid of people. When they hear you coming they prefer to melt away into the woods and you usually never get a chance to even know they were there.

The two instances when black bears can potentially become a threat are:

1. When you encounter a mother with cubs. (I' ve seen plenty and they just take off, but if you weren' t making noise and surprised/cornered them maybe then, but just walking in the woods you make enough noise. And I' ve been very close to mothers with cubs (100 feet or less) many many times. They ignore you or run.

2. If you walked up on a sleeping or distracted bear and surprised it (Again, slim chance. I' ve surprised many bears sleeping in downed tree tops and against fallen logs and the first time you know they are there is when you turn to see what the ruckus is and it' s a bear running away).

My uncle shot the biggest bear ever taken in the Catskills a year or two ago (970 lbs.) and the bear just wanted to get away. My brother was walking along under a ledge and noticed some leaves raked out from a hole onto the snow. He looked in and didn' t see anything so kept walking, and the bear sprang out of the hole less than 10 feet to his right and barreled away down the mountain to get away, where he was shot by my uncle. True Story!

Pepper spray is more effective against grizzlies, but works on black bears to a certain extent. They issue pepper spray to the forest rangers up there to keep the bears away from the state campgrounds. My friend is a ranger and I' ve witnessed black bears who were used to this treatment getting sprayed in the face from 10 feet away and just standing there or ambling off, no aggression whatsoever.

Don' t worry about it, I see them all the time before first light. If he gets too close stuff him behind the front shoulder with an arrow, many are taken with bows. But don' t shoot him if he is facing towards you unless you have no choice, bears tend to run in the direction they were originallt facing when they get shot!

Hope this helps and Good Luck this season!

Mark
http://www.buckhuntersecrets.com

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

Somebody has to make up the 1%!!! I sometimes get a little spooked, too. I know a lot of it is in my mind but sometimes I get a little spooked anyway. It adds to the excitement, though. Around us, there are plenty of bears that aren' t exactly afraid of people. They break into houses to get food. Our log house has chunks ripped out of it and claw marks in the logs and on surrounding trees from bears marking their turf. Darn right I think about bears.

Scott Meier
White Oak Lodge

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

Don' t have bears here.
It' s the possums and racoons that give me the willies. ;)[&:]

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

LiL E, I feel your fear!:DWhere I hunt there are both black bear and cougar. I think you can hear all the comforting statistics on attacks, but in the back of your mind, like Barnes said, somebody has to be the 1%. I hunt alone most of the time and don' t worry too much till the sun goes down and my truck is still waaaaaay over there! I just try very hard not to freak myself out and pay extremely close attention to anything I hear around me. I always wear a pistol and I' ll admit there are many times when I carry it in my hand all the way back!:D

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

we dont have bears where i hunt, but i still walk a little quicker after dark. Im fine before sun up walking in, but something about the woods after dark makes me pick up the pace, i wanna get out of the woods ASAP after dark

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

Thanks for all the replies! Its nice to know im not the only one who feels a little timid when going into the woods. Bucksecrets helped out alot because of the few times i have seen bear they have been in almost same situations all resulted in th e bear bolting! Believe it or not what Gryan sd helped too even if it was meant for a 10 year old. animals pretty much avoid you as much as possible in the day so why should the dark be any diffrent. Thanks to all for the help!:D

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

I' ve only been hunting for two years (with a .308 semi;)) and my only two fears were getting completely lost and meeting up with a bear.

My first year, there was tons of scat all over. I climbed down a hill and was looking back up it to find my marking tape and when I did I turned around to a perfect three feet wide hole at the base of a tree leaning at about 45 degreees[:o].

Needless to say I was pointing my rifle right at it and scanning around nervously.

I wouldn' t want to run into a bear although with a .308 I have the upper hand.

Last year, not as much scat, but I did end up getting spun around twice (not completely lost though).

Good luck.

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

I never thought about it much before today, there are a few black bears in my area of southern new hampshire, but i never saw one until this morning when i was out with my bow. Managed to get a picture too!! What made me nervous was after I got his picture he dissapeared, and not knowing where he was was worse than having him near me!! ;)

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

I get a little bit nervous whenever I' m huntin and get that feeling something is watching me, seein a bear really gets my heart goin too, but I don' t hunt with a bow, so I' m not real worried about it.

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

Don' t have any bear or anything like that where I' m at. But I can tell you I' m a little afraid of walking up on a wild hog. I' ve heard they could put a pretty hurtin on ya if they wanted too. Other than that I seem to be okay.

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

Ya the woods sometimes intimidate me too. Especially like some people said, once it gets dark. I find sometimes when im walking through the woods I get this sort of tunnel vision (hard to explain) and have a hard time seeing things around me because im afraid that im being watched or some stupid thing..anyone else get this? sounds crazy eh

One guy from our camp was once talking about shooting bears and how after you shoot them they go on instinct or something (someone explain this) and will come for you or whatever hurt them. Is this true? This guy gave me serious doubts to shooting a bear now because 95 percent of our watches are on the ground.

I also hate when your sitting there against a tree, and you hear or see a squirrel above you going around. These suckers can get vicious! They may seem friendly but a squirrel can rip you apart! all joking aside[:o]

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

DAM A BEAR or GROUND HOG it dont matter they all get BIG TEETH when it gets DARK!!! [:o]

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

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. :D

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

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.

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

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

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

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.

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

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. [>:]

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

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

RE: Any other chickens out there?
 

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.