Opening morning of my very first bow hunt I had quite of an experience. It all started with 15 turkeys startling me when they left their roost right above me. They sure make a lot of noise in a quiet woods. Shortly after I had some load crashing into the woods behind me. I looked over my shoulder to discover 4 bear walking towards me. At first I was thinking this is pretty cool. It looked like momma bear and a couple cubs and one other in between them in size. Knowing nothing about bear I couldn't tell ya if the cubs were this year or last year. Nonetheless, it was cool watching them sniff their way around until they all looked up at me in my stand. At first I didn't think they knew I was their but then momma decoded to walk over to my stand, put her foot on my ladder and looked up sniffing. Now I'd just got done spraying Nose Jammer. I'm not sure if she got a whiff of the vanilla aroma around me and was thinking breakfast or if she could smell the stain in my shorts I had just made when she approached my stand. After deciding I wasn't worth the trouble they gradually left. I was shaking pretty bad so my picture I took as they walked away is terrible. The guys at camp think it was pretty cool. Me too now that it is over but it leaves me with some questions. 1. Will deer and bear use the same woods. Note that this isn't a very big woods. 2. Is there a good chance the bear will be around there again ? 3. Should I have any concerns with going back? I'm sure many of you are laughing at a 45 year old guy right now. But this encounter with the bear was totally unexpected and not looking forward to it again. Thanks Jason
I have no input on the bear and deer use part because there are no bears in my area but I would have been really nervous as well!
I had my opening morning hunt crashed by a bear as well. I do not have much experience with how deer react around bears but I can tell you how the deer reacted to the bear I saw Sat morning. I had several deer just approaching my food plot, just as they stepped foot in my plot and I was getting ready to pick the doe I was going to shoot they all stopped started sniffing the air and blowing. At first I thought they winded me but I was down wind of the deer. About the time they all took off running a bear approached from the other side. He casually walked through my plot, stopped of near an oak tree and grazed for a moment then decided to take a nap less than 10 ft from my stand. I eventually cleared my throat and he got up and walked slowly away. I did not see any other deer during this hunt. I did not hunt this stand again until yesterday afternoon and I did not see any other bear sign to make me think this bear has been back. I had several does come in late afternoon and they were very cautious, more so than normal. I don’t know if they were skittish because of the bear or if they just knew something was going on. They did not ever see me or make me out but you could see them twitch every time a nut fell from a tree.
Sounds like you ran into a mom, her two cubs and an older sister from the previous year... Yes they share the same woods as their preys, deer or moose. The deer and moose don't worry much about them since the bears will mostly be after the calves and fawns in the first 3-4 weeks of their life. I have a picture of a bear walking at my salt lick 13 minutes after a mother and two calves left. Chances are your bears will be in the area for a while, so go easy on the vanilla spray... they love that stuff. Any sweet smells actually. A mother with cubs can be aggressive mostly if she feels the cubs are endangered. In your case, she was just investigating about the smell. If she felt that there was any danger, she would have sent the cubs up a tree or away. Having soft paws they are also quite sneaky compared to ungulates and they will be breathing down your neck before you ever realize they are there. Fortunately, cubs are noisy in their walk. They'll try to avoid you as much as you will want to avoid them, but just be a bit more careful. They won't be ''hunting'' you, their diet is concentrated mostly on berries, cereals and fruits this time of the year versus, carrion and newborns in the spring.
Thanks everyone. Crazy! I'm alone at the deer cabin this week until the weekend. I'll be "working" in the mornings now and hunting my evening location instead. Speaking of which - a great hunt tonight. I was 60 yards upwind of a nice 8 pt for about an hour. The 80 acre bean filled was home to 38 different deer tonight from what I could see which is about 2/3 of the field. I've seen this 8 pt come out in the same location 4 times and once in another spot. The hunt is on and I'll be sure to post a pic when he is down!!! Good luck to everyone! J
I hunt areas with deer and bear. They will use the same woods. I have saw on several occasions bear while on a stand and after the bear leaves deer have came by. In the wild bear will be much more afraid of you that you are of it. If a bear has been conditioned by someone feeding it that is when I become concerned. I have had several bear encounters in the woods but never had a problem with a wild bear.
I hunt areas with deer and bear. They will use the same woods. I have saw on several occasions bear while on a stand and after the bear leaves deer have came by. In the wild bear will be much more afraid of you that you are of it. If a bear has been conditioned by someone feeding it that is when I become concerned. I have had several bear encounters in the woods but never had a problem with a wild bear.
