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I've had at least 4 "close encounters" with bears over the years ... "close" means 20yds or less. In all but one, they were just as eager to leave as I was, and did so ASAP. The one that didn't was a very young bear who didn't know any better. I was baiting for bears, and it was lying down in the weeds a few yards from the bait site, waiting for me to "bring it dinner". When it saw me coming, carrying two 5 gallon buckets full of goodies, it got up and calmly walked toward me instead of running away. I stopped in my tracks, set the buckets down... and drew my .44mag Dan Wesson from it's holster (even a 150lb bear is NOT something I want to wrestle). It got to within 15 yards and sat down. I dumped the buckets right there, and went on my way.

Couple days later, as I was walking out from the bait site, I turned a corner on the trail and met the little guy's 400+lb big brother head on, at about 15-20 yards. I was carrying both the Dan Wesson & an air horn. I grabbed both simulataneously and hit the button on the air horn, and he took off like he was shot. I kept the .44 in my hand until I reached my truck... then emptied my shorts and went home.

From that point on (5 more weeks of baiting every day) I blew that air horn every 50 yds as I walked in and out. Funny thing happened... the trail cameras I had set up, showed that the air horn became a "dinner bell". The bears would hit the bait site within 15 minutes of me leaving, almost every time.

edit to add: forgot about the sow & 2 cubs that kept me up in my bowhunting tree-stand until 2 hours after dark, about 20 years ago... which was the last time I went bowhunting without a handgun. I had deer bait out (corn & apples), and the cubs were eating it. The sow just stood by and watched me... she was one crabby-ass bitch. Every time I moved, she'd look up at me and snarl. I have no doubts that if I climbed down, she would've taken a piece of meat off me.

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This one mauled on of my hounds so I relocated him...legally of course...

<a href="http://s48.photobucket.com/user/DIIshoots/media/bearclose.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f234/DIIshoots/bearclose.jpg</a>

ETA: Fear the bear that don't fear you!

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Seriously the reason I own an Ak pistol. Well bears and mountain lions.

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12 gauge with Hornady SST 300Gr FTX slugs as a backup gun when we hunt bear. Pistol rounds just piss the bears off.  

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We use 12ga slugs when tracking bears too. But I wouldn't feel under-gunned with my .44mag (or .45 Colt) handloads. I use Cast Performance hard cast 300gr bullets in both calibers, loaded to the max (about 1200fps). If you don't handload, you can buy them already loaded from Buffalo Bore.

Typical defensive handgun loads are designed for defense against humans, and are hollowpoints designed to expand and not over-penetrate. Hard cast bullets are designed to penetrate, and in .44 or .45 caliber, you don't need expansion as the hole's big enough. If I carried a .45acp for defense against bears, I'd carry 230gr FMJs with maximum loads. I've shot a number of deer with these hard cast bullets in both calibers, and each time it was a clean pass-through... I've yet to recover a bullet, even after going through both shoulder blades (which puts them down, right-fucking-now!). I even had one completely penetrate a deer lengthwise, which really shocked me.

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Dang! That damned bear came right into your yard and attacked your hound for no reason? Good on you for protecting your dog - I'm glad you happened to be around when this happened!

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No It was not anything like that at all...we were hunting that bear with a pack of hounds and the bear whooped a few hounds asses before before he treed. The dog lived to hunt many more times and turned out to be a top bear dog. However I can tell you all this. When given the chance a pissed off bear can and will charge...never had one sneak up but during the 20 years we hunted them there were PLENTY of close calls. In the end it caused me to quit carrying a 44mag and use an 870 slugger. Those who think hunting with hounds is easy or not exciting should try it sometime. It is not all about the kill at the tree but more the trail to it... In the end like I said fear the bear who don't fear you.  

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Wow - that does sound exciting. Have you ever gotten into dog fighting?

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Wow - that does sound exciting. Have you ever gotten into dog fighting?

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Wow - that does sound exciting. Have you ever gotten into dog fighting?

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Glad to hear the dog recovered and went on to hunt many more bear....I'm guessing Plott Hound?

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Troll Much?

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I'm very sorry I have an opinion on running dogs on stuff like bear and wolves. I hope your feeling weren't hurt too badly.

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If you have an opinion, then state it. If you want to be more specific, make a case why your opinion is the correct one, and people here (for the most part) will listen, and will mostly respect others' opinions if well articulated. They might not agree, but will likely respect it.

But when you make your opinion known by using sarcastic & be-littling remarks, you sound just like a typical fricken liberal/Democrat. That will be respected by nobody.

Just my opinion.

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OK - here goes:

Guy talks about a bear mauling one of his hounds. Who's responsible for that? The bear? The bear was defending himself. The dog was doing what the dog does. It's the "hunter" that set the dog after the bear. To me that sounds pretty close to some guy getting his kicks out of setting an animal; on another animal. Like dog fighting. In my opinion that's pretty weak. Now I know that whenever anybody differs from the "collective" here it pretty much exposes him as the commie/liberal/smartass that we all know he truly is, but believe it or not I'm fine with guys hunting bear over bait or stalking like they do out west. I know - people have been running dogs on bear since forever. Dogfighting used to be pretty accepted and commonplace as well. Hell - it used to be pretty acceptable to burn "witches". Not anymore (well - except for parts of Africa). Societies and civilizations evolve - running dogs on bear is caveman stuff. Using dogs to flush birds or to retrieve game is different - I've never heard of a dog getting ripped up by a grouse or even a mallard. Putting a dog in a situation where they routinely get ripped up is animal cruelty.

While I'm stating my opinion in a specific, reasoned manner - it also amazes me how many people seem to live in fear of large predators. I could maybe understand if we lived in a region where there were tigers or griz, but this is Wisconsin. I've seen plenty of bears - some of them very close. And while the close ones startled me, the bear was equally startled and we both ended up backing away. I know - I'm a Tim Treadwell tree-hugging hippie who will probably end up as bear shit sometime soon - that's fine. And If y'alls feel you have to pack a Glock (like that's going to do anything) go ahead - it doesn't affect me one bit so who am I to say you can't? I just think it's odd is all. I go into the woods to relax, not to get all tensed up.

Appy-poly-logies for my sarcastic sense of humor. I guess I should know better than to try that stuff around here. Also - sorry for the Africa remark just now. I honestly wasn't trying to sound racist.

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I'm very sorry I have an opinion on running dogs on stuff like bear and wolves. I hope your feeling weren't hurt too badly.

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Now your opinion is known. Personally, I agree with some of it, and disagree with some of it. But I respect yours, just as I believe you respect mine.

I know several guys who run bear dogs. They have no desire to see a fight between a bear & their dogs... they don't run dogs because they're some kind of masochists. They have no intentions of running wolves with their dogs, although others might. When I said bears will climb a tree rather than fight, and  wolves can't climb so they will fight instead, it's not something I pulled out of my ass... it's the reason given to me, by the dog guys I know, why they will not use their dogs on wolves. So not all bear-dog guys are fans of dogfighting etc. I think very few are.

While bears are not to be feared irrationally as some kind of maneating monster, they are still wild animals, and all wild animals deserve a healthy dose of fear/respect. Why? Because they are unpredictable, and capable of doing harm. Bears are more than able to kill any human quickly... but it's usually those who don't have the fear/respect all wild animals are due, that get hurt.

BTW... The trouble with sarcastic humor when it's typed and read, and not spoken face to face, is sometimes it's not taken as humor, but as an insult. Know what I mean?

A. I doubt very much whether you gave a shit about anyone's feelings ...as basically who cares you passively aggressively went after a guy for his hunting methods....

I suspect you have never run dogs on coon or bears or anything else.

Pretty much been covered about running dogs on bears and how the majority of hunters want their dogs to track and tree a bear and not only any old bear but a particular bear...

They have to be highly trained to do this and selectively bred and that means culling liters or dogs that turn out to not be acceptable.

It's a hard sport...out west they run cougers and bears and wolves and any other predator that is best hunted with dog packs...if you have never done it I suggest it.
It is a heck of a workout I can tell you that especially in July

Personally I think hunting wolves with packs of dogs up to the challenge well bred and trained as well as armored with kevlar is a great idea...but then I am not a wolf lover
at all.

Our forefathers spend years and blood and sweat carving our their homes and working their land and freed us from blood thirsty predators both two and four legged...

I like having some of them in the woods and surviving and "feel" that a few of them is a good thing...but not a lot of them...to the point where they become dangerous
and begin to prey on domestic animals and humans...whenever that happens we need to teach them to fear us....and to do that you must from time to time put their
blood in the air for them to smell and associate that smell with the smell of man....they must continue to fear us and stay shy then there is balance.

Personally I do not give a rat's ass whether or not I hurt your feelings...

And since I did not read an apology I suspect you have none to offer....I don't give a rat's ass about that either...

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Dude - it's a message board. A message board on the internet.

Wow.