I had to play dead once in my tent when a black bear got curious :(. I only had a 9mm... just enough to piss it off if it tried anything.

Rich: Wow....man that's so cool. A bobcat in your backyard? You're lucky to see such a thing as that, so close. I've yet to see one here in Kentucky and I'd sure love to.

Paul, I'm sure I probably could pack a pistol, or a rifle, when coyote hunting, but to be perfectly honest, it's more of a money thing. Namely, I can't afford a pistol. Sure, I could take the SKS with me, but it might be unwieldy to grab in a hurry after dropping my bow. I hunt on an extreme budget. It limits what I can and can't do, but that's life I suppose.

The LA River (a sewer really), matriculates through L.A. to the sea. It's full of every poison you can imagine, and smells of it on hot, humid days.

Guess what four-legged varmint lives down there on the leafy banks, and likes to come up for a house cat lunch?

Yep. Coyotes can swim in poo-water, too.

No coyotes in Sweden. Only wolves. Twice as big as the coyote, but rarely seen.

Since this has gotten a little off topic and turned into frightening animal encounters, I have to refer to a post I made last June:

Last September I was hiking at a local park in the foothills near my home in Monrovia, Ca. I had been hiking there every evening. The park was closed and I was alone. I heard a lot of rustling leaves on a bluff above my head as I rounded a steep switch back and thought it must be squirrels or birds. After passing the area and walking about 20-30 yards, I was standing face to face with a baby brown bear. It was like it just magically appeared in front of me. He just looked at me as if to say "You just screwed up big time". Before my next foot step even hit the pavement I thought "SHYT!!!!! that rustle in the leaves (which was 20 or so yards behind me now) is the mother bear!

I pivoted and walked as silently as I could back the way I came. It was surreal. I got all the way to the switchback so the bluff was directly over my head and suddenly all HELL broke loose. The mother exploded over my head on the bluff toward me and I firckin changed tactics and sprinted down the road. The mother was still on the hill as she took to chase ripping through brush and small trees making a sound that was so powerful and amazing I was astounded. The hill and road gradually became separated by a gully. I had to sprint for about 60 yards before she stopped. I was thinking, "this is bad, this is really bad! By the grace of the hillside, the gully, the heavy brush, and poor decision making by the mother bear I escaped a big time mauling by a very angry mother brown bear.

I have hiked that trail a couple times since just to face the fear, but I really don't frequent it any more. It was pretty unnerving.

Mike

Wow Mike, that's the stuff nightmares are made of. You are lucky.

About 3 months ago, one of the neighbors was out walking their little dog and she said she felt a presence behind her. She said it went on for a while and when she finally turned around she saw the cougar that had been following her down the street. As soon as she turned it ran into the bushes.

Thanks Rich.

I was actually kind of amped with adrenaline when it first happened and I could not wait to get home and tell my "cool" story. But after the whole thing really settled in, I was a little more shaken. Browsing the internet for bear attack victims did not help either. Check out Yahoo or Google images under "Bear Attack". It gives one a little perspective...

Mike

The squirrels here in exposition park have a very surly look.

Fantastic story, Mike!

Nice story Mike!! Not to dimenish it at all, but there are no brown bears in CA.. only black bears. I'm talking species here, the bear may have been brown in color but it was still a black bear.. FYI,, more people are attacked and killed each year by black bears than brown bears..

Close encounters with large predators are always somewhat... "exciting". I know I've had my share, with all the time I've spent in the wilderness. I've been approached - some might say "stalked" - by three of our largest variety here in Washington.

My all-time "most exciting" was actually quite near civilization. We were fly fishing a small creek up in the North Cascades, up behind the little town of Newhalem. We actually had to walk between a couple of houses to get to the trailhead leading up the creek.

It was on the way out, when we came within sight of the houses, that my partner mentioned I might want to remove my sidearm and put it in my daypack, so as not to alarm anyone when we walked through the neighborhood. So I did. It wasn't five minutes later that his dog (who had a habit of running ahead on the trail) came hauling ass back with a sizable black bear hot on her heels. As my buddy was stammering "b-b-b-b-BEAR!!!!", I was struggling to get my daypack off and the revolver out. I was on one knee with my pack in the trail in front of me, trying to get the damn zipper open, when the dog and the bear arrived.

The dog hid behind Terry, her master. I'm sure he was thinking "thanks a lot..." The bear came for me. Funny, though, it stopped in the trail in front of me, with nothing more than my daypack (with its stuck zipper) separating us. Literally less than a foot apart, nose to nose. It looked at me, then over its shoulder and up at Terry, then back at me again. You could see the gears were turning... All of a sudden it had what must have been a bear "oh shyte" moment, realizing it was amongst two humans, and it bolted. Down an embankment towards the river, through devil's club, blackberries, deadfall, and the works. The speed and power with which it just plowed through that stuff was pretty sobering. We were glad he decided to leave. When we got back to my Landcruiser, I had to cut my daypack open, I had so thoroughly honked up the zipper trying to get it open.

Seriously, some wheelguns aren't that $pendy these days. A used Ruger "security six" in .357 Magnum comes to mind. Everybody into semi-autos like the glock 40 makes for bargains in revolvers.

I've purchased a couple of brand new single action Rugers in the last year, one a Vaquero and one a Blackhawk. Both just under $500 out the door. Used Blackhawks can be had a gun shows for $300 or less all day long. You can't wear these things out, much less break them, so there is nothing wrong with used. There are literally millions of them out there, so prices will never get out of hand. Best deal going on handguns for packing in the woods.

Yikes. Some scary stories. Don't count on me going hiking or naturing of any sort with you guys. I'll stick with the scrawny coyotes and oddly plump raccoons I've seen all my life here in the Hollywood Hills. OK, I ran into a bobcat once, but the little guy was more cool than fearsome.

No.

They are still there, Paul.

They are just hiding from primates, having discovered it is not safe to be seen.

We also have a lot more "cat action" than we think.


Jeff, you are lucky the handgun was hard to get to. If you'd had it handy you might have shot the bear. That pisses them off.


Mike's baby bear was colored brown, but could not have been a Brown Bear - their subspecies once existed in Calif. but is now found only on the state flag. Thay was a Black Bear - Ursus americanus - which comes in various color morphs.

Whooaah! Jeff! You must at least have soiled your pants. Remarkable turn of events.

Wolves are certainly native to Idaho -- also CT, Mississippi, Florida, etc.
There were some minor genetic differences across the North American range, but not much.

If you want to get rid of coyotes, wolves will do the job -- and do it with relish.

I thought this thread was interesting, so I googled "coyote" and all I found was this picture.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1228680973.jpg

I have actually been close enough to touch black bears on a couple of other occasions. I was armed and ready those other times. One of the times I was sitting under some low branches on a fir tree, hiding from the rain while I was out grouse hunting with my Lab. Damn bear appeared out of nowhere - I honestly had no idea where he came from. He was so close I had to put the butt of my shotgun under my armpit to get its muzzle on his. He must have been flippin' blind or something. He actually sniffed the gun, probably smelled me on it, and ran like hell. Safety was off, finger was on the trigger...

The other time I was grouse hunting once again. This time with my son Chris, when he was about 8-9 years old. We had our Golden Retriever, Scout, with us. I had my side by side double 10 ga muzzle loader, and I had strapped my Single Six .22 revolver on Chris, so he could feel like he was a "hunter".

All three of us noticed some rustling in the bushes on a bank to our right, and out popped a couple month old bear cub. Ruh-roh... I'm immediately on high alert for momma. Sure enough, she pops out right behind us, not five feet away. She looked at the three of us, looked at her cub, and ran like hell the other way. I had both hammers back before she even decided what to do.

The scariest part of that encounter was hearing Chris unsnap the hammer strap on the holster, and turning back around to see him with his hand on the revolver. Christ almighty I don't want to think of what would have happened if the bear came for us, and Chris started popping off with that thing in an effort to "help". I took it back immediately. He was really upset, because he really thought he could help.

Anyway, there we stood with the cub. I had put the dog on "sit" and "stay" when we first saw it, and he was actually disciplined enough to still be holding it. Momma long gone, cub hanging with us. So much for "protective" bear mommas. I had to shoo the little feller off, hoping he would catch his mom and be o.k.

And yes, livi, that makes three occasions where I damn near soiled myself. There have been many, many more. I could go on and on with these "war stories" from a life spent bumming around the woods. I've never shot an animal in self defense despite these many "close encounters". Except for a few of those goddamn Diamondbacks, that is, but they don't count.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1228686688.jpg

A fox with a 220 swift can be hard on yotes.