Wisconsin Forums

[Foragist]

I've heard some good bear encounter stories before. There's getting to be more and more of them around here.

Here's my story:

A couple years ago, in late september, I decided to bowhunt the last couple hours of light. I had a tree picked out in the county forest about 20 miles from home. I thought I had a good chance of a deer coming in range there.

Shortly after getting my treestand and bow and stuff up in the tree, I heard something coming. It was a deer! coming right toward me! As I slowly got ready to take aim, The deer stopped behind a tree. He stood there for about 5 minutes; looking back over his shoulder. Never looked at me once. Then, he started walking towards me; I took aim, and shot. Good hit! He ran about 40 yards (just out of sight), and fell over. I heard the short struggle, then silence.

I decided to stay put and wait a 1/2 hr. After just a few minutes, I could hear footsteps rustling the leaves; coming from the same direction my deer went. I suspected it was another deer. I had another tag, so I was hoping to get 2 in 1 day. I made a couple sounds on my grunt call, and waited. It was several minutes of listening to these sounds when finally, a small black bear came toward me. He stopped about 15 yards away, stood up, and looked right at me. I made a very slight movement, and he dropped, turned, and ran. When he started running, I started yelling at him: "HYAA! GIT! GO ON! GET OUTTA HERE!" He kept running.

Well, then I decided no more waiting. I'm gonna go get my deer, and get outta here myself. I lowered my bow and duffel bag to the ground, climbed down with my treestand, packed up the treestand, and got my knife out of my duffel. Then I stood up to start walking to my deer, and there where 2 more smaller bears! They started running away, and I started yelling at them to keep them running.

Then I started walking to my deer. I got about 15 yards when I heard something to my left. I looked and saw a HUGE blackbear about 35 to 40 yards away, staring at me. Now, I'm scared. I froze. I put down my duffel, loaded an arrow onto my bow, and watched that beast watching me. I think it was the Momma. She moved her head side to side, snorted a couple times, but did not seem agressive. I thought that waving my arms, banging my knife on my bow, and yelling at her would scare her away like the rest of them. It did not. She stayed there, watching me.

My next move, my friends tell me, was stupid. Instead of slinking out of there with my life, I went after my deer. I kept talking and yelling at the monster as I made my way forward. As I moved, she circled behind me, keeping that same 35-40 yard distance; watching my every move. I got to my deer, got out my tag, and tagged the small buck with one eye on Momma Bear the whole time.

Now, I had to gut out the deer, and drag it back up to the road. When I lifted a hind leg of the deer, I could see that one of the hind quarters was half eaten already. Only now did I realize that those small bears were eating my deer right after I killed it, and Momma was waiting her turn; and I was in between a big Momma bear and her cubs! But I killed this deer, I tagged it, and I'm taking it, dammit! (as long as that's ok with her of course)

Now, it takes time and two hands to gut out a deer. My bow was still loaded, and placed carefully in front of me, where I could grab it and draw at any second. The bear was getting anxious as I was elbow deep in deerguts. She was starting to pace side to side. I kept telling her to stay back! Don't come over here! She seemed to be listening. But then she took 2 steps toward me. I jumped up with that bow in my hands and hollared NOOOOOOO!!! as if I were scolding a dog. She stopped right there and went back to pacing. This happened twice before I finished gutting my game.

It's getting fairly dark, and I have about a hundred yard uphill drag to get to my car. I tied one end of a rope to the deer, and the other around my waist, with a quick-release slipknot, just in case. I needed both hands free, so I could use my bow if I had to. I started walking out, and Momma Bear immediately started moving too. She was circling around behind me again, still keeping her established distance. The last I saw of her, she was chowing down the fresh innards I had just left behind.

It was dark in the woods now, and every stump and pile of brush looked like another Blackbear stalking me. I was soooo glad to see my car, and extremely relieved to get in it and drive away. It turned out there was substantial damage to the deer from those smaller bears tearing and clawing at it; but my share was the best venison I ever brought home. Everyone got fed, and nobody got hurt.

Anybody else got a good bear encounter story? Let's hear 'em.