I was joking about the tree hugging part...I'm just saying that I'm not going to allow a black bear, which is by no means endangered in any way, tear my stuff up. You, and others before you brought up valid points about food storage in the wild, and most of the time people have problems with bears it is because they did something wrong. That said, I'm still not going to let them tear up my stuff. As to making the bear mad....if you can't hit the heart or head at that range with a scoped rifle, you should never even hold a firearm. Again, we're talking about black bears here, not the much larger polar bears or brown bears....for those a 30.06 would still work if you had good shot placement, but I'd want a different type of rifle if I was dealing with them.
Running like an antelope out of control is known to confuse a bear. And if they charge, it helps to use Zui quan drunken fighting techniques, too. It throws them off.
Try a blow horn, first, before shooting. And carry mace for the cats. Also, when hiking a rifle is quite a burden to carry. Kayaking, I suppose you have more room. You literally have to weigh the benefit of a rifle (vs pistol, blow horn, mace) when hiking.
Or any predator. The pack of gazelles instinctively knows to scatter to avoid the lions. Like phishheads when the cops show up.
This reminds me. I'm from a family of 5 boys from a small town where people don't lock their doors. We did our share of fairly harmless vandalism and other dares like sneaking into a neighbor's house during prime time TV watching to steal something out of their frig. During the height of the streaking fad in the '70s, 5 of us (3 brothers and two friends) tried streaking through our adjacent neighbor's 2 acre baseball field of a backyard. Suddenly, the 40 something owner came out running out from behind a bush to chase us. As taught by the leader of our pack, we scattered immediately, but I was the unfortunate one he chose to continue chasing -- a buck-naked 8yr old. He had no chance to rope me in despite being right on top of me. Naked 8yr olds can spin on a dime, hugging the ground and run back through your legs old man. You ain't catching me! Years later when I became his age, I thought, what the hell was he trying to do. Catch me then take me inside to call the cops. "Uh, sir, so let me get this straight. You have a naked 8yr old boy in your house." Or worse, explaining me to his wife. Look what I caught honey, a naked 8yr old boy.
To me it's not that much of a burden and I'd much rather have the firearms than the horn or mace. If I'm going to be out in the woods or whatever, usually I'll carry a sidearm of some sort and a .25-45 Sharps AR-15, that's sufficient for damn near anything you would come across in most of North America. That said, I wouldn't want to try and take down a grizzly bear with a hand gun or AR so if I REALLY thought that running into a hostile grizzly was a possibility I'd probably take the Marlin 1895 instead of the AR. Of course it's important to remember that unless you are in the north....like Canada or Alaska, you aren't going to have to worry about the threat of a 1,500 lb bear. I can understand why some wouldn't want to carry that extra weight, but hell we're not talking about lugging around 100 lb rucksacks
in the open, word is it is highly unlikely a bear scavenging for food will attack. so i mainly worry about sleeping in a tent with my dog. i have had coyotes approach my tent. if a bear does try to enter my tent, what side arm would y'all recommend and bullet for a close quarters kill shot. rangers say is it highly unkikey this happens if i follow the 100 yard triangle rule. but nonetheless, they shut down some of the best trails in CO this year due to habituated bears. and im planning several multi day maroon trails hikes next year with my dog regardless if i can convince a buddy to join. probably the last year i can do it with my old dog.
Marry this woman and take her everywhere with you. She is unbearable. Do not worry about her status. She is single. Trust me on this.
I bet. I don't have to worry about game that size though. I would like to go elk hunting one day though. Oh man, I REALLY wouldn't want to have to deal with a bear that made it into my tent. If it's a black bear a .45 would probably do if you shoot him in the head, hell even if not black bears usually run away if they get hurt. If it was something like a grizzly...well, I'd want something ridiculous like a .500 Linebaugh because you need to be 100% sure you kill it instantly if it's already that close.
That's all close range. Most .44 mags will also shoot .410 shotgun shells, slugs or buckshot, that's your campsite gun (unless you are in grizzly country, then go bigger) If you're talking big antlers in the mountains, and making loooong shots, get a .300 H&H Mag or something comparable.
tent encounters happen here, but in every case the hikers had food left out. but at 10,000 feet with coyotes circling your camp, i do get paranoid. thats only haopened in know campgrounds though. when backpacking best plan is to stay away from campfrounds and get off trail for the night. it gets spooky though.
That's more along the lines of what I've had to deal with in my experience, wild dogs, coyotes, wild hogs, and even a cougar once....but that wasn't in Texas. Small calibers work on all of them.
