Encountering critters with teeth/claws!?

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Cascade_mtn's

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The thread regarding cougars got me to thinking a little about the wildlife we all might encounter when out and about. I normally do not stress/worry about those chance meeting very often, as I'm usually with someone else, and well prepared with a pistol, and or bear mace. I've ran across many black bears (no mothers with cubs to date whewww) and all have ran at the sight or me. I'm sure there have been many where I didn't even know they were there. I was taught the rules:

Never walk up to what looks like a kill.
Never intentionally get between a mother moose/bear and her calf/cubs.
Make yourself easy to be found. Be a noisy backpacker.
Food storage awareness.
Use your common sense, be aware of your surroundings, ect.....

My brother and I had an encounter while fly-fishing with a mother moose. She pounced out into a shallow of the river we were going to fish. Never saw a calf, but it was late spring, and she seemed very agitated. We dropped our fly rods on the spot, and flew back to camp.

What I wanted to mention here, after all this rambling is the time I made a big mistake. One well learned, and will not duplicated.

I was going on a solo 2 nighter 4 years ago to Mt. Hall in the very N.E. part of Wa state. Ref link: http://www.mountainzone.com/mountains/detail.asp?fid=3847056

I started at Sullivan lake, and was going to camp at a spot I knew well at about 5000'. Next day I would head to the summit at about 6300' IIRC. I decided to stop at a huckleberry patch I had been to at least 20-30 times before for my pancake topping in the morning. Ran into a guy coming out with the tell tale bucket, and black/deep purple fingers. "Any black bears back there"? says I. "I didn't see any, and was there for about an hour". says he.

I took my backpack as I didn't want to leave it in the back of my truck. I had bear mace clipped to the waist strap, and my Glock .45 was in its scabbard on the top lid compartment.

Just wanted a small baggie full so I wasn't there but about 15-20 minutes or so. Most of that time was spent munching away on the ripe berries. I stood up from the sizable bush I was picking from and there it was. GRIZZLY. I have seen a few cinnamon black bears before, and this was no black bear. Tell tale hump of a grizzly, and grayish fur. Now the shock of adrenalin that shot through me (ringing ears, instantly dry mouth, lungs feel like there is no air left even though you are breathing rapidly), I'm sure skewed my sense of how far away it was. I would guess about 50-75 yards, but that is more than likely wrong either way. My pack, with pistol and mace were a good 25-30 feet behind me leaning up against a huge cedar tree. "DUMB A##. I know better than that in a HUCKLEBERRY patch for pete sake"! He was just standing there with his nose up sniffing from what I could tell. I backed to my pack, grabbed it, and just kept backing away until the trail hit some thick woods and I was out of sight. Ran like hell to my truck, and off I went to the trail head. Rest of the trip went without incident.

Now I'm not one of those paranoid types that is convinced I will be eaten when out. Most of the time I feel fortunate when I see black bears, or any critter in their natural state. Especially White tail buck through my scope during hunting season. :D This was still a mistake to be sure.

Any of you have a similar experience to tell. I would be interested to read/hear it?
 
grizzs were moving into washington state by the early 80s & some biologists were aware of this but kept knowledge at a low key. anyone familiar with oregon & wash. woods west of the cascades should realize some of this is so thick you could almost bury new york city in it & no one would be aware it was there.--dennis
 
The north west is a rain forest and very dense. Those brown bears have been expanding their range... Just like the Jaguars moving up from south America. Awareness is the best defense.. Glad it worked out ok for ya, and now you have a very memorable story. Keep that glock on your hip, when alone. If something happened, you would most likely not have time to remove the pack and get the pistol out. Altough, stats say that mace is the best option against a bear... Ask Jack!!
 
cody1 said:
If something happened, you would most likely not have time to remove the pack and get the pistol out. Altough, stats say that mace is the best option against a bear... Ask Jack!!
Click to expand...

I know I wouldn't have had time for the Glock. Might have been able to get the mace out, but it (the bear) more than likely would have been pretty damn close at that point.

I have read the same thing about bear mace. It takes away their sense of smell and totally twists their world. As stated..... lesson well learned. :o
 
Growing up in a coastal, forested area, I've had plenty encounters with black bear. Quite often I've awoken to find a bear sticking his snout in the Koi pond outside my parent's old place, or sitting on the porch sniffing around. The answer i've always used is a paintball gun to scare them off. I've sent 400lbs bears scurrying into the woods with their backsides painted blue and pink.

However, it's one thing to use a paintball gun to scare them off your porch, but i doubt it would phase a Grizz, or even a black bear if it were foraging in the wild.

The scariest encounter (and also most humorous) i've had with one was in my driveway when my dad and I were trying to scare a repeat bear away (and was out of paintballs lol). We walked out onto the porch and tried to shout at it, which made it walk up the driveway a bit, and then stop. We walked out a bit further, and my dad, looking for something to throw at it, decided his shoe would be a good projectile. The bear was about 50 ft from us, just sitting on his ass sniffing when the shoe bounced off his shoulder. Needless to say, it didn't flinch, but rather got up, walked over to where the sneaker landed and picked it up in his mouth. Bad idea dad.
So now it's not a matter of scaring the bear off, but trying to get it to drop the shoe first before taking off into the woods. Oddly, waving our hands, shouting "Drop the Shoe!, DROP IIIIIT!" as if it were our chocolate lab, wasnt working. There were some angry stares between us and the bear, until it decided to walk towards us. Now my dad and i are pretty big guys, and we quickly realized standing our ground, and trying to intimidate a bear into giving back a sneaker wasnt going to work. So we walked back into the house and watched it from the front door. At that point the bear followed us back to the porch and stood on the other side of the front door, as if waiting to be let in, with the slobbery sneaker still between it's teeth. After trying to figure out what to do, the bear seemed to give up, dropped the shoe at the porch, and wandered off into the woods.

On a side not, (from another encounter), throwing a bucket at a bear might encourage it to charge at you, forcing you to run into the house and glare at it from the window.
 
Going in deer hunting this year - very early, very dark. Was probably 1/4 mile into the woods. Coyotes start yelping and howling - couldn't see them, couldn't exactly tell where they were from the sound (tight valley). Found a big oak to put my back against. Saw 2 that were close, probably 50 yds. I started waving my headlamp at them quickly and they took off.

I had a G19 and a 30-06 with me, so I wasn't in danger of my life or anything. But I think I pooped my pants a little.

Definitely explained why this normally good deer location I saw nothing this year. I do plan on going back out this winter and seeing if I can find my new friends, give them a little .223 justice.
 
I was in east timor on patrol and one morning I woke up unzipped my mozzie net went to get out and holy shit there was a massive viper 2 feet away from my mozzie net entrance just sitting there in the sun. I very nearly put my hand on it. I got my knife out, hacked through the other side of my mozzie net and ran back a few metres then through rocks at it until it moved away. To be honest I just about shat myself, snakes and bugs just creep me out, there slimy sneaky little vermin
 
It was the first day of a 3-day trip into the Grand Tetons. I was in front of my two friends, when I saw a large black mass behind a bush. I stopped instantly, my heart stopped, I don't even think I was breathing at this point. I was sure it was a black bear. We had seen them near the road on the drive in.
Slowly, the head of a full grown moose turned to look at me. Now I'm thinking this is worse than a bear. Then the moose starts walking away, and I see there are two of them.
I was really scared for a second or two, I was lucky it wasn't a male during the rut.
I've seen numerous black bears on hiking trips, and they have always ran away. But, seeing a moose was far more scary.
One other night, my food was hanging off a small cliff. In the middle of the night I heard it fall. I was assuming a bear was going after my food. In my long underwear, a flashlight, and some rocks, I went to get my food. I made lots of noise and threw small rocks all around, and off the cliff. Luckily, my twine had just been chewed by some rodent. I climbed down, got my food, and went back to the bivy.
 
foxx said:
Slowly, the head of a full grown moose turned to look at me. Now I'm thinking this is worse than a bear. Then the moose starts walking away, and I see there are two of them.
I was really scared for a second or two, I was lucky it wasn't a male during the rut.
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You and I see eye to eye there. A mother moose with a calf, or a Male during rut is more dangerous than ANY black bear IMO. :eek:


Great stories guys. :thumbup::cool:
 
probably dumb and wouldn't do it again, but I chased a black bear one time in the Smokies.
 
Great stories.

My brother and I hiked into some lakes about 9 miles in. The situation was not ideal. My dad was at the lakes horse packing with several other guys. A family member was sick, but doing okay. When he took a major turn for the worse, we decided to go find my dad (so that he could say goodbye). My brother and I got to the trail head at like 1 AM or something. We threw on our headlamps, packs, and gear and headed into the backcountry.

We've been in there several times. There is an area (maybe halfway in) with a lot of bogs and ponds, and I've never failed to see moose there. I have also seen several black bears on this same trail. We were trying to make noise as we went. Remember this is in pitch black darkness. Suddenly, we heard something moving through the brush to our left and above. Sounded like something with hooves. Then to our right there was a crashing - LOUD! If you ever heard a bull elk smashing through the woods - that's what it sounded like! I'm thinking, "Okay, mom moose is down to our right and baby moose is up to our left and we're about to be trampled!"

We pinned ourselves up against a couple of trees, wide-eyed, clutching our Glocks (moose bb guns), trying to figure out if we turn our lamps on or off. It was pretty scary, correction - it was really scary! We never heard anything again, and went on our way.

We found my dad around 6am. We hiked up a mountain and miraculously got one of our three cell phones to make a call out of the backcountry and he said goodbye.

We ate breakfast, packed up the horses, and walked out (not enough horses for my brother and I to ride). I've never been so tired in my life. We had left home at 9pm or so. Hiked around 20 miles (by the time we hiked from lake to lake looking for the group and back out). Then drove home, arriving in the late afternoon.
 
I once pegged a black bear square on the forehead with a softball sized rock, thrown form 30 feet.

THUNK.

snort.

sniff the air

snort,

stagger away.

bear no likey
 
The chances are very slim, that you will have to defend yourself on the trail against things that crawl, slither or walk on 4 legs. Now my thoughts are predicated on living in Florida, not the Pacific North West or Alaska. :D

Around here, a stout walking stick will handle most possibilities. A handgun would suffice for the rest. I am not one of those that espouses using a knife against animals. Never felt I wanted to get my hand that close to those jaws. ;)
 
Good thing you didn't have your Glock handy. .45ACP would probably piss him off just enough to eat you.
 
Afew years ago my best friend and I were quail hunting on an old farmstead. There was an old colapsed house and it had a bunch of tangled briars around it. I drew the short stick and had to walk thru the thick prickley crap. As we neared the end of it I was anticipating the flush of a covey of quail or a couple of rabbits to come running out. What happened instead almost made me soil my britches. There was about 10 ft of cover left and what do I step on? A big bobcat. I felt it move under my foot and I jumped up. The cat took a swipe at me before running off. He missed getting skin but shredded my pants leg. My friend said it looked like I was running on top of the tangled mess of crap when it happened.


mlrs
 
MadBug said:
Good thing you didn't have your Glock handy. .45ACP would probably piss him off just enough to eat you.
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I agree. :eek: The Glock is really more for 2 legged minions, and that "sense of security" really. When we go huckleberry picking, we generally leave the bushes to the bears if they are there first, and/or they come around when we are there. It would be easy to scare them off, but doesn't seem fair. They need them more than me.

Still, I generally carry bear mace in the case of a agitated mommy bear with cubs more than anything else. We can always drive off and find another patch where there are no black bears. When I came accost the grizzly, I was very close to the Wa/Canadian border. Sparely populated up in that corner or Wa/Id/Canada.
 
I have only seen a couple of bears in my life and gave them a wide berth...woke from a nap under some trees in Idaho with a moose breathing gently on my face at about 8 inches..(nearly soiled my pants on that one!)..Down "south" our big concern is hogs. Big 500 pound omnivores with no fear of man. One big beast attacked the tires on a school bus less than a mile from here..yea "charged and attacked" a big yellow bus. I hear Cody & Dave are doing some filming down in Lousiana..might be nice to hear their thoughts on it. My solution is a 12 gauge full of slugs. (A 45 is just going to p*ss them off and I dont have much faith in pepper sprays. :) )
 
Oh Yeah ?
couple decades ago on my parents 40 acre farm, our cat (picture a large lean house cat that looked exactly like a 1/4 size black panther) caught a weasel. The cat looked bored, almost disappointed with his newly captured opponent. The reason being the weasel was using the art of deception to play dead-like. The cat, at first, was pretty sure it wasn't dead, cuz he repeatedly smacked the thing on the head with one of his paws, as if to say.. c'moooonnnn, I know yer fakin it....
I had never seen a weasy before, so I was pretty fascinated by the creature. I think this particular weasel had some Shakespearean training as it faked dead real good like. I was actually starting to worry it really was dead. At this point even our cat seemed to think it was dead as he lost interest and flopped down beside me to get his daily dose of heavy petting. I think the loss of his testes (neutered - rubberband style) made him into a bit of a hunter-sissy... Anyway, the weasel had had enough lounging dead-like, because it suddenly jumped up screaming it's rage and hate, coming at me, then the cat, then back towards me. Both me and the cat were like the scene from Stand By Me when the 45 cal. shot the garbage can. "GEEZUZ! "
Yeah, I'll admit it, I was scared. Sure it's a tiny little critter, but it's bloody well the right size to run up my leg and crash course with my important bits. Hey! when yer 16 those areas are critically important. The older generation, what do they care.... Dangle those suckers in front of a wasp nest. Don't mean nuthin!......um yeah.... Anyway, this didn't last very long, besides I was using the cat as a shield (it's not like he had anything important left to lose!). The weasel used this chaotic opportunity to escape. Now get this, it managed to fit it's entire body inside my Dad's truck's breakdrum. An area I couldn't get my pinky finger inside let alone a 6" creature that was roughly the circumference of a banana. Impressive!

I never saw that little guy again, but I can tell you I'm with you guys on this one. I'm carrying bear spray next time!
 
Corpus said:
Oh Yeah ?
couple decades ago on my parents 40 acre farm, our cat (picture a large lean house cat that looked exactly like a 1/4 size black panther) caught a weasel. The cat looked bored, almost disappointed with his newly captured opponent. The reason being the weasel was using the art of deception to play dead-like. The cat, at first, was pretty sure it wasn't dead, cuz he repeatedly smacked the thing on the head with one of his paws, as if to say.. c'moooonnnn, I know yer fakin it....
I had never seen a weasy before, so I was pretty fascinated by the creature. I think this particular weasel had some Shakespearean training as it faked dead real good like. I was actually starting to worry it really was dead. At this point even our cat seemed to think it was dead as he lost interest and flopped down beside me to get his daily dose of heavy petting. I think the loss of his testes (neutered - rubberband style) made him into a bit of a hunter-sissy... Anyway, the weasel had had enough lounging dead-like, because it suddenly jumped up screaming it's rage and hate, coming at me, then the cat, then back towards me. Both me and the cat were like the scene from Stand By Me when the 45 cal. shot the garbage can. "GEEZUZ! "
Yeah, I'll admit it, I was scared. Sure it's a tiny little critter, but it's bloody well the right size to run up my leg and crash course with my important bits. Hey! when yer 16 those areas are critically important. The older generation, what do they care.... Dangle those suckers in front of a wasp nest. Don't mean nuthin!......um yeah.... Anyway, this didn't last very long, besides I was using the cat as a shield (it's not like he had anything important left to lose!). The weasel used this chaotic opportunity to escape. Now get this, it managed to fit it's entire body inside my Dad's truck's breakdrum. An area I couldn't get my pinky finger inside let alone a 6" creature that was roughly the circumference of a banana. Impressive!

I never saw that little guy again, but I can tell you I'm with you guys on this one. I'm carrying bear spray next time!
Click to expand...


Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahaahahah...... I'm cutting and pasting this story and sending it to my friends. That was FREAKING HILARIOUS........ holly crap!!!!!!!! I have tears!!!!!

"Anyway, this didn't last very long, besides I was using the cat as a shield (it's not like he had anything important left to lose"!).
Click to expand...

Ohhhh my holy hell. That was great. Thanks.......:D
 
The worst critter encounter I've had was when a mouse tried to make a nest in my boot and chewed a couple of holes in my sock. There aren't too many dangerous animals here in Indiana. . . There's always a chance of running into a pack feral dogs or a rabid raccoon or something like that, and there are a few isolated areas that have large enough timber rattler populations to make watching your step worthwhile, and there have apparently been some confirmed cougar sightings, but overall, things are pretty tame in our wilderness here.

Anyhow, back to the mouse. . . There's a camp sight along the Sycamore loop trail in the Charles C Deam wilderness where folks have made some "improvements" over the years. . . There's a monstrosity of a fire pit and a couple of log benches. Well, after dinner I was sitting and staring at the fire and i caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye and heard some rustling around, and it turned out to be this little mouse that chowing down on what was left in my dirty dishes. It was hiding out under that bench and it would run out and grab a bit to nibble on and run back. Then it got bolder and was coming out and sitting on the edge of the bowl and lapping up the sauce that was left in there. I thought it was cute and just watched it and left it alone. Well, I didn't think to move my boots which were sitting nearby with my socks stuffed in them. When I got up the next morning, one of the boots had all kinds of leaves and pine needles and stuff in it and one of my nice new wool socks had two little holes in it. Just goes to show, you can't trust 'em just 'cause they're cute.
 
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