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Bear sighting
You need to make a lot of noise when walking in bear country. They claim that many people are attacked because they essentually sneek up on the bear and do not give him time to determine that you are not food.
In timber cruising in grizzly country we normally took dogs and a pump 12 gauge with shot. Your target gets pretty small if they decide to run at you. You only have a heart or head shot. A charging bear can move very quick. I have heard of a 30-06 round glancing off the thick slanted cranium of a grizzly or large black bear. The 12 gauge will stop them if they get too close and makes a great little noise machine.
Finally bears will eat oil. They even go after the mixed fuel. When falling in the high country we had to keep doubles of everything and try and hid them where they could not find. Once the area is cleared it become a bear deli as they go in looking for grubs etc. I have spent weeks with the black following me checking out the last trees that went down. At least it was natural behavior.
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Bear sighting
Murf and Tom are talking about weekly encounters with bears and knowledge of bears. I certainly would not have wanted a gun hand gun in my pocket when fighting up the mountainside with a large chainsaw in hand. I have had the brush and slash will unclip everything. Would not wear a watch. Unless you know what the leather fringes are for at the bottom of the laces you have no idea. I would give it a probability of 100% that the safety would be switched or you loose the gun. I would place it a bout 50% that you would shoot your self. More precisely the slash would catch the trigger on the non-safe gun. I guess I always had a weapon in hand but he had to get with in 3 ft. I can not say that that it was the bears were the most dangerous things on my agenda during the day.
I have scared my self once or twice where I stepped a little to close to a bear, but as someone mentioned earlier in this post we are a greater threat to bears than they are to us. In any encouter case I was the stupid one and had violated proper procedure with wild bears.
The native population was not on the lunch menu despite having only arrows and pointy sticks. So why do we consider our selves at threat? Knowledge of the wildlife is far more effective that blowing them away.
When I was younger an American was in Skookumchuk with his power boat. The killer whales were playing around his boat and he decided that it was a threat to him. He pulled out his gun, something that was illegal for him to transport into Canada and started blasting away. The killer whale washed up on the beach a day later. Was the large porpose a danger to him or was he and his ignorance a danger to the killer whale? Again within native Coast Salish, Haida, Tsimsan etc. cultures there was no fear of killer whales only reverence.
Fear is a difficult thing to control. I am not against dispatching with problem animals, but normally the problems in bears arise from the foolishness of man. I have had large young wild western black bear(~500lb) with in 6 inches, I felt in danger, but did not think he was threatening me. Certainly startled me though. My first thought was not to fight with the bear, only to extracate my self from a bad situation.
I would not go into deep bear country without a good bear dog as they definately reduce encounters. My brother in-law uses the Catahoula that my niece brought back from here, his lab just doesn't cut it. My mom's wolf/shepherd certainly puts the bears on the run. He kept on treed beside the house a couple of days.
I think you are foolish to believe you can easily bring down a large bear with a 9 mm despite what the Alaska wildlife does with two shotguns aimed at the bear. I have seen a large grizzly brought down with a 30-30 and he had to empty the mag into the heart. Luckally it stood up and walked toward him.
I do not consider myself an expert despite maybe 100 encounters with bears, beyond the crowd at the dump. I do find it upsetting to see people afraid of bears rather than learning the rules and treating them with respect.
In my childhood neighbourhood you went out the back door and had about 3 or 4 road between you and the artic ocean. Although we were aware and wary of bears we still had encounters fishing etc. For example, I went running down Terrace mountain racing ahead of my friends (11 year olds). I jumped over a log and bounded down the wooded hillside. Got to the bottom and looked behind. No friends trailing. I stood there for a few minutes then headed back up the mountain. I got up a ways and found them comming down a little white. I asked them what happened? They said didn't you see the bear that you leaped over. Huh? They sat there until the bear ambled into the woods then followed.
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Bear sighting
I am sorry if this rubs some one the wrong way, but I see little need for guns in dealing with black bears. The west coast bears are about double the size of the eastern bears I have seen. I was nose to nose with one day and his nose was in my navel. He was a youngster. I had certainly seen bigger blacks bears.
My biggest problem is what I consider a threat after maybe a hundred bear encounters, not including the weekly nature encounter at the dump, is not what some suburban neo hunter thinks his ass is in danger.
I worked daily with the bear with in eye site working over the trees I had fallen. I never had a weapon other than the chain saw. They normally kept a safe distance from the noise. In that situation a handgun, like Tom stated would have been a greater risk to me than nothing at all. When working in the brush and slash everything is stripped from you. You certainly would not wear a watch. The idea that you could keep a handgun on safety and in the holster is ridiculous. If you do not know what the fringes on the lace bottoms of you boots are for then you have no idea.
I am against blasting away wildlife just because it looked at me wrong.
When I was in my teens an American decided to sail up to the Skookumcuk. The Orcas started playing around his boat and he got frightened. He took out his illegal fire arm and started blasting away. We had to clean the Killer Whale off the beach later. There are only some 150 Orcas in the southern pods, now there was one less. Certainly the natives never considered the whales a threat in their cedar canoes why did he in his 50 ft motor cruiser.
When common knowledge comes from Hollywood and the media, we are in real trouble. Certainly the idiot Italian that made the movie about them attacking the boat was not doing it to educate, but titillate.
If you want protection from bears take a good bear dog. My brother in law has found the Catahoula that my niece brought back from AL is effective. The wolf/shepard we had treed more than one grown bear. Kept one up the tree next to the house once, for a couple of days. The dog smells them and lets you know of their presence in the area long before you will. Also helps to make more noise as you hike through the woods.
I never killed anything I did not plan on eating. I don't like bear so I don't plan to shoot one, therefore if I am not hunting I don't carry a gun in the woods. I have never felt threatened although I have been in danger once or twice, mostly do to not following the rules.
I am afraid about moving around a city like NY. Mostly do to the hostility you experience from the inhabinants when invading their lane of traffic. Let alone their shopping line or space in the subway. You are much more likely to get killed or injured by one of these idiots than the average black bear or grizzly for that matter. I certainly have experience a greater frequency of hostility from the New Yorker than the bears. I never tried taking the bear dog to NY. Do you think that would work?
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Bear sighting
I agree and am sorry I essentially wrote one post twice. The first appear like it had not posted.
I am the opposite spectrum to AZ5ZO, most bear I have encountered were truely wild working and living in the back country. We tended to avoid contact with the bears so that they would not become accustomed to us.
We certainly not feed the bear or leave food wrapping where we were working to draw them. We had a hard enough time keeping the birds like the Whiskey Jacks (Camp Robbers) from landing on your finger and stealing your lunch. Totally unccustomed to human contact.
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