Quote:
Originally Posted by RWebb
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.
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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.