>>>*Is it my imagination or are Bears getting a bit pushy on territory?

I was watching the news, some lady looks up and Bears come into her house, she ends up whacking one of them...with a pillow? Then another guy last night just up North had a runin, South of us some lady was feeding a bunch of them, great. The neighbors got unhappy about that since the Bears of course tear up all their stuff, too.

I was just up on the hill thinning Alder stands and looked up to see one headed up the trail my way.

*My chainsaw was running, it didn't care. I shut off the saw and yelled, it didn't care. I keyed my handheld and had the wife set off the ring tone on my walkie talkie, thinking that would spook it off.

All that did was get it to stand up on it's hind legs?? Curious, maybe?

So...I reached for my pistol and planted four rounds in the ground, it understood that and took off.

*Now that I think about it, I was probably safest when I had the chainsaw in my hands, running. I just would rather not get that close, though, 100 feet was already too close.

Sure is a lot of reports of runins around, and I see lots of sign up there on the hill. It's not just us though, seems to be all over?

Maybe the answer is to make some Bear Jerky?...*LOL**....*EB

Make sure you cure the meat in a smokehouse made from cougar hides.

You're dealing with a bear that is losing its fear of humans. That's VERY bad for the bear. You are also teaching it that **BANG** doesn't hurt.

Stood up on its hind legs to get a better whiff; maybe you were downwind? Their eyesight is rather poor too.

Relocation isn't an effective option; the reason being that after they're about 2 y/o they've got a pretty strong homing instinct, so they'd be back on their own turf in a matter of weeks- read: waste of taxpayer money.

Don't know about the wildfire situation in your area, but they've lost some habitat, plus they're trying to get fattened up for the winter, so that makes 'em move around too.

That ($#*&(&@$ woman needs to be fined by F&G for feeding them; endangerment not only for the two leggeds, but the 4leggeds too. The folks down in ANC finally have a fine in place for people who set out their trash too soon, draws the bears right in and habituates them; has been a real problem.

Yep, time for bear jerky; get your tag. We can take up to 3 blackies a year as residents in my GMU. They make some right tasty stew if they've been in the berries.

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmm berry bear.

Glad there was a happy ending....

I wonder how the outlawing of hunting bear with dogs in the mid 1990s in Oregon has affected things. I'm not a hunter, so I'm not advocating either way...just wondering.

I'm in the woods alot and have decided to carry a .357 mag revolver with me with the hottest hardcast ammo I can find as my "bear" gun. Not necessarily the most affective caliber, but it will push a 180 grain bullet out the 3" barrel at almost 1400 ft/sec so it's not bad either. I pack a rifle too in my rig. I've seen a few bear myself. Ironicly, Cougar is said to be the bigger threat, but have yet to see one of those.

The gun is really just a crutch. If I actually thought I would encouter bear, I'd probably rather have pepper spray. I just dont' like a packing a bunch of gear and the gun sort of covers more contingencies.

EB, you've mentioned your pistol a number of times. What kind do you carry. I think you mentioned a long time ago that you have a .22LR Revolver?

Out here (Kalifornia), there's the 3 "S" rule when it comes to cougars: Shoot, Shovel and Shut the hell up. There are few tags available, and a lot of cats with no one to fear.

Did I ever tell my deer hunting story with the cougar? That was in Oregon. I bought a cougar tag either that day or the next (they'd been DEEPLY discounted after dogs and bait were outlawed). I'm not too scared of bears in Oregon. Cats eat people.

You and I would make nice meals <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

MMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm boyz on bikes.....

"EB, you've mentioned your pistol a number of times. What kind do you carry. I think you mentioned a long time ago that you have a .22LR Revolver? "

>>>*I pack my Hi-standard 9 shot .22 everywhere I go, it is strapped to my handlebars. I also have a Ruger single six, (pearl) I bought when my Hi-standard came up missing.

I use them for rodents and Coyotes and just in case when I run into poachers up on the mountain.

I am dead on with that Hi-standard, for some reason I can't hit much with the Ruger. Not sure why, except it is nose heavy and has a shorter barrel.

I should use a heavier firearm but I am completely used to the pistol, for some reason it is extremely loud.

For anything serious I would use the .30-30 Marlin, that was my Dad's rifle and my brother mounted an open sight on it for me. It used to have a scope but I was all but blind in my right eye until just a month or so ago, eye surgery fixed that so I was thinking of putting the scope back on.

*No need though, I can hit a six inch target at 100 yards easily with the Marlin.

Margie is right of course, "bang" works a time or two but then Bears get used to that. Still, I knew better than to pop him one, even if it was maybe only 100 pounds or so. I figured that just might irritate it. When it stood up, so did both the hairs on the back of my head, let me tell you!

Bears have always been around here, but lately I am seeing way more sign than normal and this last one wasn't afraid of me at all! That upper field I have been working on looks to be one of their runs, scat everywhere and lots of trees clawed.

There is a Bear season around here, I may just go thin them out a little. Le's brother hunts Bears every year, maybe I will just assign the duty, he would love it.

I figure a bit more fear of people will keep more of them alive than having them "friendly."

That lady down South that was feeding them? She got fined, then went back home and went right back to feeding them! Back in jail, this time she was banned from going back there for five years. Bet she does, though, that one is a nut...If she does, then she gets to spend the five years in jail.

We have another woman down Waldport way raising white Wolves. I heard that some of the young ones didn't turn out white so she actually released them?...That would be just swell. I read in the paper that she says all we have to do is train our dogs to run them off?

Yea. That will work. "WOLF!! "Sic-em, Sam!"...*LOL**...Yea, sure. I can see the outcome, ...barkbark....bite bite...

..next Dog.

Makes me wonder if maybe that isn't what is going on with the Bears? In decades here we have seen Bears maybe 2-3 times, I have seen 4 of them just this year......*EB

My aunt is in the smokey mountains on vacation, and she said she saw one in a dumpster digging.

In the early 1990's Reed Noss and Dave Foreman put together something called "The Wildlands Project".

The overall goal was to re-make Norht America into pre-Columbian appearance with carnivores (bear, mountain lion, etc) at the top of the food chain in habitat regions linked by corridors.

The current pace of proposed wilderness is moving in that direction...