Black Bears

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SA John

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I've never seen a black bear in my life. Not even in a zoo. (never been to a zoo) You guys up north in NH and ME who bow hunt or deer hunt must run into them sometimes. How big do they get in New England and are they dangerous enough to be concerned about? I only ask because I ran into a Natural Resource cop down here in Mass. a few days ago and he told me he was being sent to investigate the report of a black bear feeding on a dead dear carcass in Bradley Palmer State Park in Hamilton, Mass. That's my backyard. I border on it. Should I start carrying the buffalo gun?

Signed, Hunkering in the window with a rifle, watching the treeline.
 
Some helpful information here. They are frequent visitors to my yard and deck. Generally docile, but don't get between a sow and cub. A friend of my son had quite a run out of the woods last fall in Sandisfield.
 
I'm certainly no black bear expert, but I grew up in the Smoky Mtns.
My dog and I would roam around the mountains all day in the summer. I guess we ran across 30 or 40 bears during that time.

As I recall all but one ran away like a rabbit except for one. For some reason this one hesitated and made kind of a threatening move towards us and my dog ran in front of me and charged the bear and the bear then took off running.

They are fast. But I never developed any fear of them. They really didn't want anything to do with us

I had to edit this as I remember back. The other reason I was fearless was because I was carrying my Winchester Model 61 .22.

I mean, what could hurt me with that?

I still have it.
 
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I've gone black bear hunting 2x. I've seen 3 bears, and 2 of them ran so fast I never even got a shot off. The third one I saw while scouting the day before hunting season opened, and my buddy and I were walking down a trail in our normal clothes making a ton of noise... Black bear crossed 20 feet in front of us without even batting an eye at us, no fear, but no aggression. It just flat out didn't care, which was wierd. It was as if it knew we couldn't touch him that day.

They are generally very fearful of people, but I still wouldn't want to corner one or piss off a mama bear with cubs. Other than that, no need to worry, bears are smart enough to know people are just bad news.
 
I've seen abut a dozen or so while hiking the trails in NH, they are either trying to sneak by you or running away from you. But never under estimate them, they are still wild. I've had one nose around my tent one night and just blew my whistle and it ran like the wind. I'm more concerned about moose during the rut.
 
How big do they get in New England and are they dangerous enough to be concerned about? ---SA John
Click to expand...
Black bears are usually less than a couple hundred pounds, but can get to over six hundred (I think). I've read that they almost never attack humans, but they have killed and eaten people. I'm not sure that was in New England but I have no reason to think that black bears in New England are not capable of the same.

There is a video somewhere of a house cat chasing a far sized black bear.


Respectfully,

jkelly
 
Have seen a total of 5 in the woods. Once while hiking with my niece and baby daughter. It was funny, we were crossing a stream, I look up the stream and see a tall guy in a black rain coat and black hat standing in the stream. I do a double take, and notice it ain't no guy. Move my hands around and make a noise and it takes off. This one was probably 210lbs or so.

2nd time I was hunting in a tree stand, just set up, blowing on a predator call. About 1 minute into blowing, a bear jumps over a log 50 feet away and stops and stares right at me in the stand, looking like "what the heck are you doing up there" at me. Being unprepared for soon of a hit, I am scrambling for my pistol, and he just takes off. That one was a small one, maybe 180 lbs.

Final time, I was hunting all day long, it was getting very late, I am following a hiking trail down off the mountain. I am around 200 yards from the state campground, well after legal hunting time, and sure enough, there is a bigun, must have been near 300 lbs. I go "oh sh*t", and fumble around trying to reload my handgun. After I have a few rounds in the thing, I whistle at him. He stops rooting around in the underbrush, looks at me once, and takes off the other way. Good thing I was not tempted to shoot him, because as I get into the campground, there is a game warden sitting in his truck.

Another time, break of day, just when it is legal to hunt, I am starting out under some power lines on a footpath. Go in around a couple hundred feet and there is a bear grunting and puffing at me. As much as I strain to look, I just can not make him out in the brush and dark. He makes noise for what must be another minute, fully knowing I was there--not coming out, but not going away. Then he just moves on. 5 minutes later and it is light enough to see him, but can not figure out where he went to and the brush off the path was too thick to go crashing thru.

Last time, I am camping with my wife in the white mtns. Hung our food in a tree, like ranger danger said to. Middle of night there is a bear jumping up and down underneath the food, trying to reach it. He went away eventually, did not see how big. Did not want to go looking for trouble, as I was not carrying.

So, 5 out of 5 encounters and they went skeedadling. I think if it had been late in the season (late november) and they were starving (especially if the mast crop was poor), and it was dark out, I would not put it past a big one to stalk you for dinner! They certainly CAN kill you if they wanted to.
 
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Come hang out here in The Berkshires with me for a day - black bears are not just up in NH and ME....We have plenty out here. I have had many encounters with black bears in the woods around my home...I carry a gun when I hike, but it's more for protection from AT hikers, (some nefarious folks wandering the AT). For any chance encounter that becomes aggressive with a bear, (as remote as that chance is), I carry Bear Spray. Proven to be a lot more effective at stopping a bear attack than a firearm....
 
dvajda said:
I still wouldn't want to corner one or piss off a mama bear with cubs.
Click to expand...

A few years ago I was heading up to Minis-On-Top at MT. Washington. It's an annual gathering of Mini Coopers with 200 making the drive up the mountain. I was 10 miles from arriving there when a bear cub ran across the road in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and just avoided hitting it. Thankfully I didn't hit the cub because it would have made a terrible mess of the Mini, but I was more worried about a pissed-off mama bear ripping the car open like a sardine can.................
 
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I lived in the Alaska bush for 5 months a summer ago and was in the constant presence of mostly black bears, some brown bears. Most of them would run at the first wiff/sight of you, and a few would be indifferent and do its thing but not run away. However, I was still comfortable having a 12ga hanging around "just in case"

Don't sneak up on them, and don't be stupid around them.
 
I have seen several in the woods while deer hunting and several more while stream fishing. A really big bear for MA would be 300lbs although they can get bigger. They will almost always be gone before you know they are there. You need to be extra cautios if a sow is with her cubs. Believe it or not I saw one in Hopkinton, right in the heart of the Metro-West, 2 years ago. A small bear but a bear none the less. We had one killed on Rte.495 2 years ago and one hit their and not found last year
 
xstickfightx said:
I lived in the Alaska bush for 5 months a summer ago and was in the constant presence of mostly black bears, some brown bears. Most of them would run at the first wiff/sight of you, and a few would be indifferent and do its thing but not run away. However, I was still comfortable having a 12ga hanging around "just in case"

Don't sneak up on them, and don't be stupid around them.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we are really fortunate in the Northeast in that we can use predator calls in the woods and not have to have an armed buddy watching our back. Hunting out west must be a whole different thing. Between the griz and moutain lions!
 
You know what it is crazy, I have seen more black bear in New Jersey than in New Hampshire. Same story though, they scramble away when they see you, although the NJ bears have gotten much more bold recently and a little bigger. More dear down there too, (that you can see)!
 
SteelShooter said:
You know what it is crazy, I have seen more black bear in New Jersey than in New Hampshire.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised.
NJ wildlife officials and hunters have been pushing for a legal bear hunt for years, but the tree-huggers have been blocked it every time. Now the bear population is out of control.
 
theGringo said:
Grizzly bear are an altogether different matter, as Timothy Treadwell and friend discovered.

Warning: Gruesome death audio. Not suitable for children. (may be faked, though)
Click to expand...

Oh, that's real alright.

Here's a photo taken just prior to the attack:
Timandpedobear.jpg
 
Thanks for all who responded. Gringo, I watched a show on Treadwell: one sick puppy who's no longer suffering.
 
I've been told that the best defense against a bear is to always go into the woods with a companion......who runs slower than you.

Jack
 
SA John,

You mean like one of these?

100_1896.jpg


This bear was actually very, very skittish. Any sign of movement or noise and it was diving over the handrail of the deck into a nearby tree. I did see a guy in Arizona (at the top of Mount Lemmon) get his ass ripped wide open by a black bear, but he had stumbled across a sow and her cubs. She was most likely just protecting the cubs.
 
A couple wandered into my parents front yard over the years (before the subdivisions killed off their grounds.)... my parents dogs had a habit of bursting through the screen door and chasing them off (didn't take much, they can run a lot faster than a morbidly obese golden retriever). (we're a few miles from Bradley Palmer, and the Georgetown/Rowley state forest is their backyard)

A friend had one rifle through his cooler while camping in Littleton, NH... his tiny red nosed pitbull barely looked at it and it scooted like a raccoon.
 
I am from PA and still do all my hunting back there.
Black bears are rampant in PA and this years harvest was near 3000.
My cousin harvested one that weighed out at 510 lbs.
We stopped by the bear weigh station in Luzerne Country this year and there were a number over 500 lbs and two or three over 600.
The PA record this year was 719 lbs.[smile]
Guys bringing 200 lb bears were being razzed about shooting the neighbors dog.[laugh]
Black bear will follow any scent of food and can come thru a screen or glass door with little effort.
A few years back we had one rip the door off my brothers trailer to get to some biscuts we'd prepared that morning.
They generally avoid humans and as long as you make some noise as you move thru the woods they will get out of the way.
Bears in areas near developments are loosing their fear of humans and noise.
Whistles and banging pots & pans may no longer work.
One point to remember is that black bears and brown bears are different.
You can play dead with a brown bear and it may go away.
Black bears NEVER stop an attack.
My Mom lives in a rural area that now has regular visits from bear. If I'm out & about I usually have the .357 snubbie.
Everyone in PA has an LTC.
My 76 year old mother has a gun.[rolleyes]
 
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