Last night I went to the property that I hunt to get my trail cam photos and ran into a bear that was only 20 yds from me when we spotted each other. He took off and I was left dead in my tracks. I checked my trail cam and found out that he visited my area before. With all this rain that we had, I can see why he didnt hear me coming. Hopefully next time he will. Just a little to close for comfort for me. Has this ever happened to any one else. Just curious.
Fortunetly no. I bowhunt in NJ a lot. And there is a ton.of bears here. I'm always waiting for that to happen. But I will admit I hope it doesn't especially when your not expecting it. You better go change your shorts. LOL.
I used to run bear with hounds. On several occasions when I went in the woods in the early morning hours to check a bait I kicked bear off the bait or spooked one that was laying just a few yards away in the brush. The first few times it scared the living crap out of me. After about 4 or 5 times a guy kind of comes to expect it.
That will make the hair stand up everywhere!
Never walked up on one ,but I did have one in Canada with his paws on the 3rd or 4th rung of my ladder stand looking up at me.
I also use to run hounds so being close to bears was common. Most people are scared of the 500# bear. Me, the 90-125# yearling bear is the one to worry about. They are young and fearless and often times are willing to investigate the new thing or interaction they are involved in.
Yep. I'm a bear magnet. Plus they're getting overpopulated here so it's a pretty common occurrence.
I have walked the ridge at 5:00 am going turkey hunting only to see every plate sized flat rock flipped over. I am sure that it was a black bear that did it looking for grubs, salamanders etc.
I've only spooked one while actually turkey hunting, but just this year after getting into the truck to leave, we drive down the dirt road to check a dusting bowl and I see a sow and her cub go running up through the woods not far from the road.
I've had encounters with them while scouting before the season also.
You'll find this funny........while scouting last spring, I see not one, but two orange road barrels down in a hollow, far from the road. I go to check them out and both have claw & teeth marks all over them. That bear dragged both barrels down through the woods a LONG ways. There wasn't any road work going on close by, but there is a PADOT state shed close by and I figure the bear took them from there.
I used to run into bears all the time while walking to my tree in bow season or i'd run into them while spring turkey hunting. Once I walked up on a mother with cubs, thank goodness they never saw or heard me, it was pretty windy, I just backed up and got out of Dodge real quick. ;D
I have run into several bears on remote streams while flyfishing for trout. Never had any problems. One time while returning to my jeep along a remote stream I scared a momma bear and her cubs up the same tree. I did NOT hang around to see her come back down though. I left! :lol:
If anybody wants to kill a bear just follow me around! I've accused my hunting buddies putting peanut butter on me ;D. I don't see many during the spring tho I did have one come in between me and a gobbler a few weeks ago. During bow season in October I can bout bet on seeing at least a half dozen. A lone bear doesn't bother me but I've got in 2 bad situations with sows and cubs where I thought I was going to have shoot the sow. It's to the point now where its hard to deer hunt cause of em. Seen 6 in one day the first week of muzzleloader last year.
We got a couple of pictures of one on our family land, back in August. I haven't seen it since, though. We don't see many bears down here . . .
(http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o281/vgj5/Random%20Wildlife/blackbear.png)
(http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o281/vgj5/Random%20Wildlife/blackbear2.png)
Thats way 2 close for me!