Bears

[dtpost]

While out camping with a friend one time, I had a 300 pound black bear attack my tent while I was in it, as I was coming out of the tent he decided he was coming in. To my surpress when I shined a strobe flashlight at him, he turned and ran behind a tree. This gave me enough time to grab my friend from his tent; however he preceeded to ask me where the bear was and I wasn't in the mood to try and explain it to him. He took the time to go back to his tent and grab things which took about two minutes. I'm not one to leave a man behind while there is a wild animal near, but it crossed my mind..........

 

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[snake35]

Are you sure the bear was attacking your tent? Sounds to me like the bear was scavenging food. How did your tent fare in the attack?

 

[dtpost]

Are you sure the bear was attacking your tent? Sounds to me like the bear was scavenging food. How did your tent fare in the attack?

Well there was one opening when I got there and 8 when I left, i think he got stuck in the tent and made his own way out.

 

[snake35]

Glad that you were not hurt.

 

[RGINN]

You don't have to outrun the bear; just outrun your buddy. Bears will 'attack' tents, tryin to get at what's inside. A lot of factors can cause them to do that, but did you have food inside your tent or anything that smelled like food? (Besides you!) I figure you know precautions to take in bear country, and having done that, did you figure out why the bear came after you?

 

[dtpost]

You don't have to outrun the bear; just outrun your buddy. Bears will 'attack' tents, tryin to get at what's inside. A lot of factors can cause them to do that, but did you have food inside your tent or anything that smelled like food? (Besides you!) I figure you know precautions to take in bear country, and having done that, did you figure out why the bear came after you?

Had a replenish gel pack in the tent.

 

[TheNewCatfish]

(The Mac Guiver Solution) Nearly everybody brings a small battery operated transister radio with them when they go camping just to check the weather occasionally or listen to music. Lotta people bring some fishing line and small hooks with them too. All you need to bring extra are some small eye hooks you can screw into the bark of trees about a foot off the ground and you've got all the makings of an "unwanted animal" perimeter alarm. Run the fishing line through the eye hooks. Surround your camp with the fishing line and connect the end with a perch hook to the on switch on the radio tied to a tree. Turn the radio up as loud as it will go and switch it off. Guaranteed to alert you to the presence of any midnight scavengers. Remove everything when you move on.

I used this alarm system many times. And it ALWAYS worked to alert me to an intruder in my camp area. Bears (If they are in predatory mode) can be especially silent as they approach their prey. Just google "Colorado fatal bear attacks" and read about the guy who had a bear crawl up behind him while he was sitting infront a campfire facing his buddy. I'm talking about a 400 lb. bear sneaking up to within 3 feet of where you're sitting. Scarey picture, Huh ?

At least with the radio alarm you'll be upright and awake while you're being dragged screaming from your tent by a bear. And you'll also have some music to listen to as you are being eaten alive.

 

[TheNewCatfish]

I got the solution to the bear problem ! It's simple. Find a fresh dead skunk on the side of the road that doesn't smell (They all don't spray when they get hit by cars) and make yourself a hat. I don't think there's a bear out there that would attack someone wearing a skunk on their head.

 

[TheNewCatfish]

Heard some more useful information concerning black bears. They "click" their jaws together as a warning or a threat. It means "back your butt up, or get it chewed up".. So if you're walkin through the woods and hear this chomping noise, you should calmly retreat. Curtesey of the Discovery Channel.

 

[RGINN]

They click their jaws together....well, they do alot of things, usually when cubs are around, and that's an incidental behavior that you may not notice due to the charge you may get. I wondered if where this guy was if the bears had come to associate tents with food. They are starting to here in Colorado.

 

[63bkpkr]

Bare Knowledge

Bears, where do I start. Leave your tent open and maybe it will not be destroyed. Do not ever have food or scented things in your tent, cherry flavored chapstick for instance. Use an aircraft cable 1/4" to 5/16" in diameter with loops at both ends, crimped connector type loops. Use one of the ~ 1/4"small threaded closure pear shaped non-caribeener type connectors on each end. Throw a small rope attached to a rock way up into the tree branches. Pull one end of the cable upwards, just as the other end starts to lift off the ground attach a small climbing pulley to the cable via the pear shaped threaded attachment device and then thread some parachute cord through the pulley. Tie both ends of the parachute together and attach them to something to maintain control over the pulley end of the steel cable.

Once the first end of the cable comes back where you can reach it attach it with some tension on it so that the pulley is 20' or so off of the ground. To attach it wrap the steel cable around a tree and when the end with the pear shaped attachment is really close to the tree simply click it over the cable and screw the threaded unit together. You now have a steel cable that will be holding up your two food bags, sleeping bag stuff sacks or sacks for food storage with cord/rope closures, on the end of an easy to manage rope system. Always maintain control over the ends of the rope or it will fall down from the pulley and all will need to be done again. Tie a bag of food to one end of the rope, the food bags should be close to the same weight. Pull the first bag of food all the way up to the pulley (note here that the cable/rope system should not be within 5' of any tree). Stand nearly underneath the first food bag, reach up as high as you can and attach the second food bag using a slip knot as the final tie down method. Tie a ~10" diameter loop at the end of the parachute cord with a solid knot, take up the rest of the parachute cord by wrapping it loosely around the hand and elbow of one of your arms, stuff the excess cord part way into the stuff bag leaving most of the excess hanging and the tied looped end hanging down to just the bottom of the stuff bag. With a long stick push the second bag upwards, the upper bag will start coming down, stop pushing when the bottoms of both bags are about even with each other. The bags should now be about 12 feet or so from the ground itself and this will suffice for most bears standing on flat footed on the ground.

To retrive the bags take a long stick and grab the loop end of the rope and jerk on it to pull out the excess cord, pull one bag down, remove it from the slip knot, holding the rope securely slowly lower the upper bag to the ground, while holding the looped ind of the cord untie the know on the first bag, secure both ends of the cord together and tie them to something like a tree.

I put this method to use after the bears in Northern California had learned that anything that was hung up was to be attacked as it would have food in it. They can chew through parachute cord easily but the aircraft cable is a different story, I've never lost a bag of food since I began using the steel cable in this method. I've had Many bear encounters, two with a sow and her cub('s). The first was not a fun experience as she put US between Her and her Cubs, the cubs stayed in camp while she went to the food bag tree leaving us between the sow and the cubs, we were asleep. The second was not quite as dangerous but any encounter between humans and a sow with cubs can go wrong at any moment. The cubs are cute and bears can be magnificent but do not feed them or attempt to touch them! The first sow/cub incident had the sow standing in front of our tent rocking back and forth on all fours and grunting, all I had with me was a .22 revolver and my young son. Several hours after the bears left we went on a day hike and returned to a wrecked camp and our food taken, the food bag was not on a steel cable. The next day they did the same thing, wrecked the camp and hit what was left of the food bag. Oh, the second contact between sow and cub left me with a wrecked camp (I'd sinned and zipped the tent closed, they could not easily go in and inspect so they tore the tent and equipment up). Again, they had left the site and after a few hours I went for a day hike, they returned and did their thing.

Since I go backpacking frequently into this country I now carry a .454 Casull revolver. I have no desire to kill a bear but if it threatens myself or my equipment and if the roar from this cannon does not make it leave well, I've not reached that point yet as the roar has always scared them away and they stay away. The cable, the attachment links, the pulley and cord are all heavy but it keeps your food safe and therefore you safe..............63bkpkr

 

[dtpost]

Well, after figuring out that i was in my tent to put pans back in my pack I started out of the tent to hang my pack in the tree when the bear was coming in...

 

[63bkpkr]

dtpost,
You are not the first person to be in their tent when the bear is coming in, likely the light blinded it enough to spook the bear as it could no longer see to protect itself. Any bear is bad news to humans especially after they've learned to investigate human dwellings for food and being in a confined space with a bear is simply not the place to be as their Fight or Flight response kicks in immediately and they are stronger than ANY human and can tear a human to bits quite quickly. I mean, have you or any of us ever tried to rip the lid from a Metal Coleman Cooler, a Bear can!.................63bkpkr (Oh, did I just date myself )

 

[RGINN]

Interestingly enough there was a bear attack up here last week. Down in Park County, near Red Hill. A guy was out scouting for places to hunt and he said the bear attacked him unprovoked, and he was 'able to fight it off'. (quote from the paper) Unusual, and maybe more to it. Got the metal Coleman cooler reference, too.

 

[Frank Tillman]

It can be scary, I had a bear in my campsite just 30 yards from where I had been dredging, the noise from the
dredge didn't deter it at all. I returned to camp, it was eating my pretzels, It was about 10 feet from me, I fired
a warning shot in the air from my little .380 auto and it didn't care, it liked those pretzels. I started thinking
what is going to happen now? I was screaming and yelling at it.

When they charge, it is fast.
It did finally leave, thank God.

 

[ganixle]

Heard some more useful information concerning black bears. They "click" their jaws together as a warning or a threat. It means "back your butt up, or get it chewed up".. So if you're walkin through the woods and hear this chomping noise, you should calmly retreat. Curtesey of the Discovery Channel.

Here in the Florida Panhandle I've gotten close enough to two black bears that did just that, clicked their jaws together and huffed at me, almost like a dog barking with laryngitis. This place is loaded with them and now to bump into one while rambling along in the woods is commonplace.

 

[DeniseFrank]

Really, it is a bit scary.

 

[Gold Maven]

Dad and I were setting up Elk camp in the high country north of Gunnison Co. when some guys stopped and told us to watch out for a bear that had been raiding camps the last few days.
We thanked them, and laughed as they drove off.....we had a bear tag, dropping one in camp would be so much better than packing one out.
Along comes another group of guys, that set up camp not too far away, and put up an electric fence horse corral beside our tent, so the horses can drink from the stream there.
3 am something wakes me up.....horses...going nuts...Dad wakes up, "it's the bear"...more loud noises and we hear the horses bust out and take off into the dark.
I light the lantern, thinking maybe we shouldn't have put our ice chest full of food just outside the tent flap.
Just then we hear thud...thud...thud...something big and heavy walking on the blue tarp we had in front of the tent.
Dad reaches under his cot, hands me the 357, and shines his flashlight on the tent flap...not tied of course.
This is not how I wanted to shoot a bear.....point blank....in the dark....a split second to identify the target and make a shot...in my underwear.
So I grab the flap with my left hand, pistol cocked in my right, throw back the flap and into the tent pushes a big black horse head...that horse had no idea how close he came to a bullet in the skull.
Went outside with a spotlight, no sign of a bear....just the sound of my pounding heart.

 

[davin]

just wondering if anyone has had any run in's with any bears.
none here so far.

 

[RGINN]

Not much here at the Summit in the mountains. I've seen a few, but they're always makin tracks. Quite a bit of activity over along the Front Range and farther west along the Western Slope it seems like. We'll see them more closer to when they decide to go into hibernation, if at all. We did have one some time back try to get into the house, but just more curious than serious. My biggest threat might be walkin up on a moose and spooking him. That could be exciting.