My first ground bear encounter!

[sandbur]

I took my SIL on his first bear hunt quite a few years ago. We used a baiting service up in NW MN. My SIL said he kept hearing a slight noise and felt the presence of "something". He had his pack under the seat on his tree-stand....and had a can of chew on top of the pack. His stand was about 8-9 feet high. He looked down between his legs to grab his chew.....and saw a bear's paw reaching for the chew too! He immediately shot the small bear as it backed down the tree.

He got so panicked.....and did not want to crawl over the dead bear at the base of his tree.....so he jumped from his tree stand and walked out to find me.

I stood in some trees just off the road after dark, waiting to meet our ride. He was about a mile down the road from my stand. He came walking.....down the middle of the road....trying to whistle and make some noise. His eyes were as big as saucers and he was on full alert looking for bears. Grin. I love telling his kids this story. ;)

Every good bear hunt has a good story. ;)

So for bear baiting, what kind of chew do you recommend? Jerky, Copenhagen, Grizzly???

Just kidding!

 

[Jason]

my first bear encounter was a wounded bear in the dark at about 2 feet. the bear took a couple steps away from us and then stopped and kind of half circled us as we were walking backwards. once the gps locked on we bolted. weren't sure what direction to run at first. good thing we were armed with flashlights though. :)

i see them all the time in wisconsin. isn't really even noteable when i see one.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We have lots of them in Pa. If you want to plant anything for deer - food plots, apples, crabapples, pears, - they are a pain in the a$$. We planted a plot of corn 2 yrs. ago & before fall arrived, it looked like a 'dozer went thru the field. Big starving coons on steroids. To make matters worse, the gas pipeliners were feeding them in the mtns. of Pa. and the bears got so used to people handing them food, they'd come around the cabins like dogs & walk right up to us expecting a handout! Archery season the last 2 yrs. has been a real adventure. Gotta have eyes in the back of your head!