mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

Nope, this actually happened to me at 6:15 AM this morning! And I did shoot him in the butt with my pellet gun. Stung enough to make him run off, but doesn't really hurt him. That's why I said I was disappointed because my camera is always right next to my pellet gun.....😎. Guess I'm not a real photographer.....

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

I wear a shirt that says "I am a real photographer"!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

There was a similar story in the news a few days ago except the homeowner did not shoot the bear with a pellet gun to scare her off. Instead he shot her with a rifle intending to kill her, which I believe left an orphaned cub.

mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

Hard to blame a bear for going after sunflower seeds or suet (or garbage for that matter) left out by an ignorant property owner. (I'm not ignorant, just forgot to bring everything in last night). Homeowners in bear prone areas should know better unless the bear is threatening personal harm. Even then, it's your responsibility to know how to scare the bear without harming it or you just shouldn't live in those areas. 🤨. My pellet rifle can't even penetrate the hair on a bear much less kill it. But it does scare the crap out of it with a bit of a sting!

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I have two comments:
1. You are lucky it only made him leave. He could have gotten pissed off and the door on the house is unlikely to keep out a really pissed off bear.
2. If that pellet penetrated the skin it can cause an infection. Also I am willing to bet that somewhere in the state game regs what you did is illegal. Is the local Game Warden a friend of yours? If not just hope he or she is not a member of UHH and reads this.

I come from a family of hunters, fisherman and general outdoors types - you never shoot or shoot at any living creature that you don't intend to kill, and you never do it with a less than lethal weapon. Oh, and you don't break any laws doing it.

mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

Calm down. You see my last post? Been around critters all my life, know how to deal with them and I don't shoot them for sport like some.....😳. I know precisely where to hit them with my pellet rifle which let's them feel it, but does no harm.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I am just wondering, not being a hunter myself and therefore ignorant of various state regulations, how you would chase away a large and potentially harmful mammal non-lethally?

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Noise, flashes, sprays like pepper spray but the best is call the game people or animal control people to either do it for you or tell you what to do.

In one town in the Sierras I am familiar with the police will pull a vehicle up close to the bear and turn on the lights and siren. The FD will also sometimes show up and use a hose attached to a tanker truck.

And with bears (Black Bears actually kill or injure more people than Grizzlies, Brown, Kodiak and Polar Bears combined on the North American Continent) their advice is to stay in a vehicle or indoors since bears are so unpredictable and even a smallish Black Bear is very strong and very dangerous if it becomes aggressive.
One town I lived in along the south edge of the San Gabriel Mtns had a bear the cops were using the lights and sirens to herd get mad over all the noise and people's dogs barking and turned on the dogs, fences and a patrol car. The cops had to use their sidearms and shotguns which took a very large number of shots to kill the bear. Animal rights people really went after them in the media. But as someone pointed out - they don't carry big game rifles in their cars (imagine the reaction if a suspect was shot with a big game rifle) and the only tranq gun that animal control had was being used elsewhere and about an hour wait. The bear was tearing things up and going after the dogs NOW.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You have examined them to see there was no penetration?

And, if you try that pellet rifle on one that turns aggressive instead of leaving, hope you have a good strong door - or a real game rifle handy.

Oh, I too have been around hunters and fisherman all my life, and of course the critters. Both Mom and Dad's families were full of hunters and I grew up in a small town in Western Kentucky where the families that weren't into hunting were considered "different". When hunting season came around the principal at the high school told us to bring our guns in to be locked up in his secure supply room and get them to go hunting after school - no fence or security for the student parking lot and it was right by US 60. You only had until 3:15 pick them up, after that he was gone hunting. I used to go hunting in the Sierras after I moved to California but got busy with my teaching career, family etc, which with the long prep and travel time needed to go hunting when I now live in the LA metro area and gave it up long ago. I still keep in touch with friends and read hunting magazines. I also still have my rifles that occasionally get used at a local range.

bpulv Loc: Buena Park, CA

In California, we only have Black Bears (AKA Brown Bears). The Grizzly is the State Bear, but they were hunted to extinction over 100-years ago. Several years ago when I was a Scoutmaster, I took a backpack awareness course from our local BSA council. One day, they had the head naturalist from Yosemite N.P., who was a specialist in black bear behavior, come down to give a presentation on black bear safety. This is a summery of what he told us and demonstrated (without a bear present in the room), with the qualification that it works 90% of the time and the other 10%, your on your own:

1) When a black bear charges their is a pattern that is distinctive and repeated.

2) Face the bear. Initially he will be some distance from you. Do NOT look him in the eye (he will take that as a challenge) do NOT turn your back or run.

3) When a bear charges, assuming you continue to face him and raise your arms to look as tall as possible, he will stop his charge around 100 feet in front of you, turn around and slowly return to about his original distance. When he turns and starts to walk back stomp you foot on the ground several time and make loud grunting sounds like a bear. It will usually (90% of the time) scare him off.

4) If you are unsuccessful, he will repeat his charge in the same manner, but this time (assuming you hold your ground and look big) he will stop his charge about half the distance from you that he did on his first charge.

5) This behavior can repeat itself a few times before he comes in for the kill.

About a month later, I was with my daughters Girl Scout Troupe at a spot in Southern California called Three River Crossing early in the morning laying awake in my bivvy bag which covered my head, when I heard this thump on the ground on one side of me quickly followed by a second thump on the on the other side. After I got up and went to the camp fire area about 100-feet away, the Girl Scout Leader told me that a bear had come out of the woods and jumped over me.

About fifteen minutes later, I was getting my bivvy bag and sleeping bag put away when I saw the bear about 200 feet away and slowly making its way toward me. I faced him and he started to run toward me. I raised my hands and he stopped his charge about 100 feet away, turned and walked away slowly to his original distance.

Not feeling overly in danger, I decided to see if he would repeat the behavior and he did exactly as the Ranger had stated and stopped his charge about fifty-feet away. That time, when he started to go back I stomped my foot and grunted just like I had been instructed. The bear ran away and that ended the encounter. It does work! ABOUT 90% OF THE TIME.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

But that other 10% can be a little rough.
I know one guy who always carries a 44 magnum when in the woods. His friend prefers a 10 mm semi-auto with +P+ and an extra magazine. When what they are doing allows it one carries a short self defense 12 Ga loaded with slugs and the other prefers a short "Trapper" model lever action with +P+ hand loaded 357s (they actually qualify as +P++ loads that reach the bottom end of 30-30 rifle rounds power curve and he paints the bullets so they don't get mixed up and put in someone's 357 revolver).

Their attitude is the bears live there, the bears deserve to live if they aren't causing problems or attacking. But if worse comes to worse, they intend the humans to be the ones walking away.

Bill_de Loc: US

You take a picture first.

I had reduced this at one time to use as an avatar and can't find the original.
But, I didn't take the first picture ... I'm on the left.

I did take the second one.

--

BrentHarder Loc: Southern California

And you survived too!

indigoblues

Great shot of the bear in the water!

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Some folks talk about the fishes that got away....