How to properly kick a bear

[dirtlooter]

Summer is the time of the year that the young juvenile male bears get kicked out, it is for their own safety as a big male will kill one when the sow comes into heat. My house for 20 plus years was located at the foot of the second largest mountain in Arkansas, Rich Mountain. My 5 acres bordered the national forest and so we got to see a lot of wildlife. We had a compost pile out from the north side of the house that all biodegradable stuff went into. Summer is a time of heat etc but also a time that bears try to capitalize on food. Adult bears have been known to cover over 20 miles in a day in search of food, any kind of food. Thus we have the saying "hungry as a bear." I have always considered them to be like Hobos, always on the go and always looking for a free hand out. They are omnivores, like us, they eat meat and plant, what ever they can find that will give them subsistence. Anyways, we usually see a lot of bears in the summer and into fall. We see them all from a sow with cubs to the singles big or small. We actually had one that was leaving huge tracks and I mean huge. This particular one began thinning out a neighbor's sheep. The game and fish came in when some dogs treed it in a tree in the sheep pen. It took three darts to bring it down, the crazy thing was it was actually a midget bear with huge feet. It definitely had an attitude, like a Banty rooster. I have opened the front door because it sounded like someone was at the door only to see it was a bear.
Enough of this, I can talk all day about bears, now to the kicking part. Homes are pretty spread out around here and most people let their dogs run freely. There was this one big black bob tailed male with thick hair that had been coming around a lot and trying to eat our dogs' food. So we have thrown rocks at it numerous times to run it off. Between the house and the compost pile, is a big propane tank and a clothesline.
My daughter, Bev, was 14 at the time and all country. Bev had gone out to gather the dried clothes and bring them in. As she approached the clothes line, she could see the butt end of that black dog and so she quietly sneaked up to it and kicked the fool out of it. Instantly as the young male bear whipped around, she knew that it was not that dog. I'm not sure how fast she was moving but the clothes were found scattered pretty good. Anyways, she somehow cleared the end of the porch, three feet high with a plastic tub on it and was back in the house. I was inside and looked up to see the door slam shut hard. Her eyes were wide as she told that she had just kicked a bear thinking it was that stupid black dog. So I asked, big or small? She grinned as she told me, it was just a small one but it surprised her. We both quietly went back outside and walked around the opposite side of the house to see if it was still there. It had moved over to where my boat was parked and was nervously looking around. It actually got behind a small peach tree, the trunk maybe an inch thick and began slowly watching us from behind it. I couldn't help but laugh as it acted like the little tree hid it. It would look from one side of the tree and then the other. I knew why it was there, it wanted the fish scraps from earlier and so we quietly walked back to the house and watched it from inside. Bev was all smiles now as she proudly said, "I kicked a bear!" And so that is how you kick a bear, you kick em and run like hell! Just remember that a bear can actually outrun a horse. I do not advise anyone to kick a bear.

 

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[GB1]

take a crotch shot and run

 

[uglymailman]

As long as you have someone with you that runs slower than you do, kick away.

 

[GB1]

As long as you have someone with you that runs slower than you do, kick away.

agreed

 

[dirtlooter]

The game and fish gave me 12 ga rubber buckshot for the big ones. I shot one really big one in the butt but it stopped and looked back at me so I helped it along, ended up also putting a couple of holes in the wife's dress drying on the clothes line. Another time I had just got back from a trip to wally world when I realized that I had forgotten something important. I set the big bag of Ole Roy dog food on the porch and opened it to feed the dogs and then hurried to town. Got back, the whole bag was gone. Walked up the bear trail behind the house and found the biggest bear that I had ever seen. He was hunkered over the bag and eating away. He looked at me and growled so I let him have it. most of the dogs killed by bears around here was over dog food.
During one bear season, I shot one with my bow off my porch.

 

[4x4x4]

....Dirtlooter ! READERS DIGEST buddy !
Thanks for the memories.

 

[kingskid1611]

These stories are hilarious......

 

[Dave Rishar]

Ancient wisdom: If you find a bear and you can't figure out whether it's a black bear or a brown bear, sneak up behind it and kick it in the ass. If the bear goes up a tree, it was a black bear. If you go up a tree, it was a brown bear.

 

[dirtlooter]

my grandfather always told me that he wasn't afraid of a bear catching him, he said that the bear would be slipping and sliding as it tried to follow him. He had a super old dried bear paw that hung by the bell that you rang at the door. It was from one his grandfather killed with a muzzle loader. As a kid, it was a super cool thing to see.

 

[kingskid1611]

my grandfather always told me that he wasn't afraid of a bear catching him, he said that the bear would be slipping and sliding as it tried to follow him. He had a super old dried bear paw that hung by the bell that you rang at the door. It was from one his grandfather killed with a muzzle loader. As a kid, it was a super cool thing to see.

That would be neat to see......

 

[Duckshot]

I heard someplace that you are supposed to carry a bell and pepper spray in bear country. It is important to be able to identify the kind of bears in the area. One way to tell what kind of bears you are dealing with is by looking at bear scat. Black bear scat has lots of fruit and grass in it. Brown bear scat has little bells in it and smells like pepper.

 

[RGINN]

That was a cool post dirtlooter. And I haven't heard anybody compare anything to a banty rooster in a looooong old time!

 

[scruggs]

Well said!

 

[Peyton Manning]

I go by the golden rule
" kick em where you would least like to be kicked"

 

[Honest Samuel]

I will not smell bear pool to find out what kind of bear it is.

 

[Timfromholland]

Lmao great story best idea ever kick a bear

 

[pepperj]

Great story, a memory for you and your daughter for a lifetime.
My first encounter with a bear was when I was 4 yrs old, my siblings thought it was cool feeding the black bear sandwiches through the side back window of the 52 chev. while I was sitting in the middle. Terrified, crying at this monster gobbling down the lunch, while everyone was laughing at my silliness and the bear liking lunch. Talk about renting space in my head for the next 20 yrs.

 

[huntsman53]

Thanks dirtlooter! I got a real laugh out of the story and some of the replies. I have a few stories about my encounters with Black Bears but will leave you with the one most notable and funny.

Everyone knows that it is against the Law to feed Black Bears here in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and that it is dangerous to do so but the dang tourists never heed the warnings or obey the Laws. In July of 1978 not long after leaving the U.S. Army, my' ex-wife's cousin came to visit from Germany. We took her on a drive into the National Park on Highway 441 towards Cherokee, North Carolina from Gatlinburg, Tennessee in hopes of her seeing a Black Bear. We came up on a parking spot with cars and Motor Homes stopped all around it and sure enough, there was a big Black Bear there being fed bread by some stupid tourist lady. I pulled my' car in beside her car, got out and warned her that it was dangerous, against the Law and that she should get back inside her car, a brand new Buick Station Wagon loaded with family members. Well, she said that she did not care about the Law and continued to feed the Black Bear which must have weighed 450 pounds or more. When the bread loaf bag was empty, the Black Bear started after the lady and she finally retreated to her' car. The Black Bear clawed at the door and the lady kept rolling her (driver's side) window down and up telling it to stop as it was scratching the heck out of the paint. I hollered for her to get the heck out of there before the Black Bear did more damage but she wouldn't move the car. The Black Bear seeing that it could not get in the door of the Station Wagon, climbed up on the hood crushing it, then the windshield cracking it and then on the top crushing it. Well, the lady finally started the Station Wagon, backed out of the parking area and took off down the road towards Gatlinburg with the Black Bear still on the top of the car, passing a Park Ranger on the way. The last we saw of them, the Park Ranger was in hot pursuit of the Station Wagon.


Frank

 

[dirtlooter]

Thanks dirtlooter! I got a real laugh out of the story and some of the replies. I have a few stories about my encounters with Black Bears but will leave you with the one most notable and funny.

Everyone knows that it is against the Law to feed Black Bears here in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and that it is dangerous to do so but the dang tourists never heed the warnings or obey the Laws. In July of 1978 not long after leaving the U.S. Army, my' ex-wife's cousin came to visit from Germany. We took her on a drove into the National Park towards Cherokee, North Carolina from Gatlinburg, Tennessee in hopes of her seeing a Black Bear. We came up on a parking spot with cars and Motor Homes stopped all around it and sure enough, there was a big Black Bear there being fed bread by some stupid tourist lady. I pulled my' car in beside her car, got out and warned her that it was dangerous, against the Law and that she should get back inside her car, a brand new Buick Station Wagon loaded with family members. Well, she said that she did not care about the Law and continued to feed the Black Bear which must have weighed 450 pounds or more. When the bread loaf bag was empty, the Black Bear started after the lady and she finally retreated to her' car. The Black Bear clawed at the door and the lady kept rolling her (driver's side) window down and up telling it to stop as it was scratching the heck out of the paint. I hollered for her to get the heck out of there before the Black Bear did more damage but she wouldn't move the car. The Black Bear seeing that it could not get in the door of the Station Wagon, climbed up on the hood crushing it, then the windshield cracking it and then on the top crushing it. Well, the lady finally started the Station Wagon, backed out of the parking area and took off down the road towards Gatlinburg with the Black Bear still on the top of the car, passing a Park Ranger on the way. The last we saw of them, the Park Ranger was in hot pursuit of the Station Wagon.


Frank

I have been around bears in one way or another for 50 years. Have seen what they can do to vehicles and campers besides homes. Have known of them killing hogs(actually to get their food) and killing various livestock and pets. I do nor fear them but have a lot of respect for them and what they are capable of doing. The object (unless hunting them) is to give them a wide berth. we hear about getting between a sow and her cubs (which I have done once) but it is the big old males that are the most dangerous, if they kill you it is because the mean to eat you. yep, see a lot of very stupid people, heck, they have TV shows full of them. I have eaten bear meat numerous times but I no longer have any desire to kill another one to eat. I guess the scariest I have ever been was when I walked up onto the carcass of a young deer that just been fed on by the killer, big bear. I can only guess that it had moved off because it smelled me coming. anyways, I quietly and carefully backtracked away, ever watchful.

 

[huntsman53]

I have been around bears in one way or another for 50 years. Have seen what they can do to vehicles and campers besides homes. Have known of them killing hogs(actually to get their food) and killing various livestock and pets. I do nor fear them but have a lot of respect for them and what they are capable of doing. The object (unless hunting them) is to give them a wide berth. we hear about getting between a sow and her cubs (which I have done once) but it is the big old males that are the most dangerous, if they kill you it is because the mean to eat you. yep, see a lot of very stupid people, heck, they have TV shows full of them. I have eaten bear meat numerous times but I no longer have any desire to kill another one to eat. I guess the scariest I have ever been was when I walked up onto the carcass of a young deer that just been fed on by the killer, big bear. I can only guess that it had moved off because it smelled me coming. anyways, I quietly and carefully backtracked away, ever watchful.

I see that our experiences are fairly similar! I am 64 years old and have seen a lot of Black Bears in my life with the exception of almost 5 1/2 years in the U.S. Army and nearly 6 years I lived and worked in Key West, Florida. I have been charged twice by Black Bear Sows thinking I was a threat to her Cubs, once in Northern Mountains of Randolph County in West Virginia and the other in the high mountains of Cocke County here in East Tennessee. Both times, I stood my ground and they backed off and left. Another time while Bow Hunting in West Virginia on a grown up logging road, I heard movement under the road bank, so I quickly backed into a little washout on the upper road bank. It is a good thing I did because within 30 seconds, two Cubs and a 300+ Sow Black Bear came up into the logging road. They were feeding on Poke Berries and actually came within 5 feet of my hiding spot. It is a good thing I was in full camoflauge and the wind was blowing up the mountain, otherwise I might not be here to write this. Also, there were several occasions of being stalked by Black Bear while dragging Deer out of the woods. However, the most fear I have ever had of a Black Bear was again while Bow Hunting in West Virginia. I had seen this Black Bear at 500 yards down a mountain the year before and never expected to see it where I was hunting a mile away but like you said and I knew that they can feed up to 20 miles a day. In the late afternoon after work, I drove to my secret Deer hunting spot but found that some other hunters had found it out and where I normally parked, there was at least 10 cars and trucks. Not having much time to look for another place to hunt, I parked and dropped down the mountain below the National Forest Service Road, found a fairly big tree at the edge of a flat near an old logging road and climbed up it with my' treestand. I had not been in the tree more than 15 minutes before the same Black Bear, the largest Black Bear I have ever seen or ever hope to see, comes walking up the old logging road and to within 30 yards of the tree I was in. The Black Bear was huge and although it is hard to gauge size when you are looking down at a Black Bear from a treestand and scared crapless, I swear that that Boar Black Bear was close to 5 feet at his' back, close to 3 1/2 feet wide and nearly 7 feet long while on all fours. Thoughts of World Record Black Bear run through my' head while standing in my' treestand and the whole tree and probably the ground under the tree shaking because I was shaking that bad. It was dark when I came down out of the tree and although the Black Bear had walked out of sight before dark, I had no idea where he was at when my' feet hit the ground. That same Black Bear was killed the next year illegally over bait and was never entered into any Record Books.


Frank