Close encounters of the bear kind.

My All Purpose Boy was at work today and had a bear encounter. He had just finished up repairing something on an oil well, and had returned a few yards to his truck to stowe his tools before returning home. He secured the tool(s) and turned to his left to get in the truck and there, sizing him up, from 8 yards, was a whopper of a bruin! I think he may have swallowed his gum. The bear had walked out of the brush and walked across the woods road and couldn't have missed seeing him putting his tools away. He said it just stared at him a couple seconds and slowly walked the rest of the way across the trail into the brush on the other side of the road. He's shot several bear, and of course seen a pile come into my taxidermy shop as he was growing up. He was impressed by it's size, saying it was one of the biggest bear he'd ever seen.

At least it didn't have any cubs with

Glad the bear wasn’t aggressive. Whew 8 yards? What’s that about 3/4 of a second, one second at most?

You gonna finish that sentence? Adding "it" followed by a period would suffice...
I am married to one of "your" people. Please take no offence.

8 yards is way too close for comfort as far as I'm concerned. I have been around black bear most of my life and have never felt threatened by one, even when wading in to finish off wounded bears in front of dogs or from a poor hit on a bait. Having one get that close before being noticed would have had me spooked, as it did my son. The fact that it only looked him over a couple seconds before continuing on was likely when his heart started beating again! I don't know if he was packing on the job or not, but I usually do, and my hand would have been on my weapon about 1/10 of a second after spotting the bear. Realistically, if that bear was looking for trouble, you would have been in serious trouble very fast.....armed or not. I really do like this happy ending.

Dang it man

wow that's close ,

I had one within 34 inches one time and it is hard on the heart! I have a 34 inch inseam and kicked the bear twice. The second time I thought it had ahold of me and may have made some little girl noises. I accidentally got between her and the cubs walking down the trail. Now I always carry a short barreled shotgun with me when I go out on "patrol" of the ranch.

Sitting in a tree stand I got to swat one in the face a couple times with my ball cap. A spring hunt in northern Alberta. I had never even seen a black bear in the wild before that afternoon.

34 inches! I have to believe I'd have shat myself, maybe twice.

YOUR all purpose boy sounds like he is a MAN if he can drive and work on oil wells!

It used to really .... me off when I was learning my trade and was call “hey apprentice boy” and I was doing the same job as the journeymen did!

I called in a black bear on this morning’s turkey hunt. A couple of hens had come in to my calls and circled around behind me. They were up the slope purring and clucking and acting like live decoys, I couldn’t have been happier.

After a while I heard a loud snuffling sound. I’ve heard it before, I’ve watched a black bear do it the last time I was stalked by one. The swing their heads back-and-forth and suck air rapidly through their nostrils and mouth. It is no doubt a way to locate the turkey they are stalking.

I heard the snuffling every few minutes. The hens were still quietly talking when all of a sudden one started cackling like crazy, took off and flew right over my head. I turned around and looked around the tree I was sitting against just in time to see a black bears butt disappear in the thick stuff.

I told a buddy about it. He commented that it would not be turkey season without me calling at least one bear in. This is probably the 10th or 12th time bears have come in to my calls looking for a turkey dinner.

Way to many to count and a couple nose to nose

I was antler hunting yesterday and we just got done walking a patch of thick willow, then boated to the other side of the creek and walked the willow there. When we were done and walking back to the boat. My partner yelled to me that there was a bear by the boat. I came out of the brush and looked, and sure enough big brown was on the other side of the creek looking at the boat right where we were searching 10 minutes ago..

We had to cover the 50 yard to get to the boat, so we had to walk towards it. It was not leaving just watched us as we got closer and then laid down to hide as we got in the boat and left. We were both armed of course.

Turned out that it was just a friendly reminder to never leave the gun no matter what.

Glad he made it out of there ok- I'd prolly survive an encounter only b/c I crapped my pants and didn't smell like food anymore

Paul, I once worked with a guy that was born and raised in Alpena County, Michigan. That is fair bear territory. Joe was a soil scientist working out of the same Soil Conservation Service office I was. The year before I met him he was mapping soils in the Dead Stream Swamp, about 15 miles from my home. Joe, who was 51 (?) at that time, had never seen a bear in his lifetime of being outside in decent bear country. As he augered test-sample holes in the dirt he heard a noise. He described it as sort of a whinny, low, annoyed growl. He looked about 50 yards off and saw a good sized bear making a circle around him in the cedars. He pulled this yellow and pink plastic whistle from his pack and tooted on it, thinking the bruin would likely runn oft. It charged immediately. Joe happened to be standing near a slopping white cedar so he made like a monkey and up it he ran. He was only about 6 feet off the ground when the bear got to the tree and the bear acted P.O'd big time. It ravaged the bottom of the tree just below his feet. This was at 2:30 in the afternoon. Nobody knew exactly where he was, and he was literally several miles from any other human being. He was kept in the cedar 5 hours. Each time he moved the bear tore at the tree.His only weapon was a can of pepper spray we used to be issued for dog protection. He dropped it first thing. Around 7:30 the bear acted bored and had wondered off about 25 or so yards after Joe had whacked on his clipboard with a stick or something. It acted as though the noise hurt it's ears. Joe had also taken a whizz and the bear acted like it didn't like the smell. Joe was freezing and shivering badly by then too. It was the end of April and not too warm. When the bear got away about 100 or so feet, Joe climbed down and went for his truck asap.....with his spray in hand. The bear never made a move toward him as he vamoosed. As he was several hours over due at the office, he met a couple of his co-workers coming to look for him. 99% of the bear will run from you, as we have all heard.......My old friend Joe Dumont found out they don't come in numerical order!

Hahaha!

The closest I have ever come to a black bear in the wild is about 20 feet. I was walking our lab during the day in the small village where our northern retreat home is and a fair sized bear ( I am not good at bear sizing but I am guessing 200 live weight bear) came out of the ditch and across the road right in front of us at full speed and ran right through the next house and garage, never breaking stride. I noticed his face was all covered with something that at that speed looked like flour. Turns out he was making his daily bird feeder run!. Most neighbors had seen him several times and new his path and timetable. They also stated that I was off a bit on my size as they felt he was bigger than I felt he was. Dog never barked, pulled on the chain or anything, just looked as he passed by. The year before walking the lab we saw a wolf run across the road about 100 yards a head of us and the lab did not do much but perk his ears, but when we got to where the wolf crossed his hair on his neck stood up and he actually whined and cowered. I guess he could sense that a more dominant canine had passed through.

Bryce

I've seen where some have said they've lived in bear country all their life and never seen a bear,I was never that lucky.I've seen plenty,and not from the front seat of the truck.Never felt threatened,just uncomfortable.I think the closest call was one spring I was trapping beaver and walking across a old flooding that was rough walking thru.At one point I looked up to find I was walking right up to a mother bear,who was on her hind feet watching me come at her,2 cubs were in the one and only tree still standing in the clearing with a third trying to climb it.I turned and started back to the truck as fast as I could,which wasn't very fast.The bad thing was to get to the pond you had to walk thru the meadow and the pond was in a thick cedar swamp.I remember going back with a .44 magnum carbine with my head on a swivel.I got to the pond and I pulled the three traps I had there along with the two beaver Is caught.It was a long walk walking thru that jungle with the rifle in one hand a trap in the other,2 beaver and the third trap in my pack basket.Never did see the bear and her cubs again

Cool story, Buck. I had a neighbor that lived up the road a mile or so. He was my Old Man's age. Except for his WW2 trip to Europe, he lived right here in this neighbord his whole long life. He was an avid hunter/fisher/trapper that spent a good deal of time in and around the Dead Stream Swamp. The Deadstream is an excellent bear hunting area near us, and the location of my other story about my co-worker that was treed for 5 hours. My neighbor was in his late 70's before he ever laid eyes on a wild bear, when one finally scampered across the road in front of his truck one day. You never know. My All Purpose Girl lives about 15 miles NW of me in a section of hilly hardwoods south of the Manistee River. She, since early childhood, has been petrified of bears. She will actually get nauseated when she sees one. She is also a bear magnet. She sees the darn things all the time, can hardly make a U-turn without waiting for the bears to get out of the way. She just sent her Mummy and I a video from her living room last week......a dandy bear had just strolled across her yard and didn't seem impressed with her two big, loudly barking dogs. She will probably have the place listed by weeks end.

I had an uncle who was born and raised here,farmed and deer hunted in the fall,and never saw a bear his whole life.Strange.Like your daughter,I seem to be a magnet,I've seen them while fishing,metal detecting,scouting,trapping,etc.I've seen a good amount of them driving on H-58 between Grand Marais and Munising.And that just reminded me of the time Id left a couple of doughnuts in the back of my truck while staying in Grand Marais and I walked outside to find a yearling cub squatting on my spare tire in the back of my truck while eating those jelly doughnuts.It's mother was walking up the driveway like she owned the place.Didn't take long to jump back inside,with the guys I was rooming with laughing their tails off,especially when I was yelling at the cub to get out of my truck! Yep,I've seen my share of the darn things

Funny story: 1975 helping put in a river crossing on the north slope. Guy we called Hippie was working the drag line for a cherry picker moving a tent frame. A full grown inland grizzly walked in out of the tundra. Hippie had his back to the bear. When the cherry picker driver saw all the workers pointing to his off side he turned to look. When he turned to look and saw the bear he forgot what he was doing and drove off the edge of the pad with his right front tire. This caused the boom to drop about eight feet and swing violently out over the tundra with the tent frame and Hippie in tow. The whole mess came to rest about ten feet from the foot of the pad with Hippie on his back and the frame collapsed on top of him. He was screaming that he couldn’t feel his legs and how he was going to own half of the pipeline when he got through. Two men that saw the wreck, but not the bear, started running to Hippie to help. When they got past the front tires they saw the bear and slid to a stop. Hippie was still screaming and cussing when he noticed that about fifty men including the two that were running to help were all
starring at the same place. When he turned his head to see what everyone was looking at the bear was no more than 30 feet from him. Hippie screamed even louder and threw the tent frame off him like it was nothing. The next part was kind of a blur cause even though I know it was impossible it sure seamed like Hippie went from on his back to on his feet then on the pad and by the pipe in a little under three seconds.
The bear stood up on his hind feet looked at us for several seconds and gave a loud WOOOF then dropped onto all fours and did that ground eating lope they have till he was out about a quarter mile where he stood up again for a last long look.
We all told Hippie he probably didn’t have a case after the Olympic qualifying benchpress- bogrun-high hurdle-sprint we all saw him perform.

Good stories thanks