Would you track a wounded bear at night without carrying a firearm? Your guide has a big knife.

BH63

Nope!

That’s one of the reasons there’s a thing called “tomorrow”

quote:

Your guide has a big knife.

Sounds like a party, I think I would go just to see the show.....

I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around how that scenario would even come about.

If a guide suggested that to you and it wasn’t followed by knee slapping and laughter, his credibility would be at -1 there after.

Obviously, the big knife is to cover for small brain.

quote:

Originally posted by drummondlindsey:
That’s one of the reasons there’s a thing called “tomorrow”

Perfect reply!

Zeke

The guide said he has had two close calls with armed clients while tracking wounded bears.

It’s possible he carries a pistol concealed but he follows the blood trail with a light in one hand a big knife in the other.

BTW He is a certified Master Guide in the state where he works.

Seems a little foolhardy to me, but the guy has tracked and found hundreds of bears that had been shot and ran off (most of them found dead).

BH63

Is this a trick question? I wouldn’t hunt with a guide that is that stupid....

A cold steel boar spear might better.

At least it would give you some reach.

Let me guess Buffhunter, that “guide” must be from Maine?

A real guide does not need a knife, he just chokes them out. Why do you think they call it a Bear hug?

My solution to working with this guide (if I hunt with him again) is to track the bear by myself, before notifying them I have shot one.

On the hunt I was talking about, I didn't have a GPS, compass, or map with me and the woods are very thick in this area, and go on for hundreds of miles, so I didn't want to go too far in.

I will be better prepared next time.

BTW I have a .44 Mag Tarus Tracker I normally carry when in bear country.

BH63

Just don't wound one

I cannot figure a way in which that should ever come about.I shoot a lot of deer with a bow. A fair percentage of them are shot right at 1/2 hour past sunset, which means I track them with a light and in some pretty dark woods. Using a light good enough to show me a small blood drop means I am going to be night blind. A bear means either something brown or black. Not something that is easy to see in the dark. Out of the last 50 some deer only two were still alive when I walked up on them and had they been a bear that decided to come after me, a big knife probably would not have been much use because the bear would have me before I knew what happened.

Taking the simplest and most likely situation as probable, this means a black bear. Black bears are by far the least aggressive and most man shy of the bears, but they can still do you a lot of harm in a second should they decide to, and making holes in them does not improve their disposition. I would not hunt with anyone who'd pull a stunt like that. There is something not wired to code between their ears. Were said guide to trade his knife for any kind of gun, he would be on his own as well. If the bear is dead, it will be dead in the morning. If the bear is not dead, it might be dead in the morning. If the bear needs killing it's illegal everywhere I have hunted to shoot them at night. I do not believe a knife is a legal weapon for taking bears here or anywhere else for that matter. The only reason I can see for carrying a knife in his hand while tracking a bear in the dark is to make it easier for you to gut him out so he's lighter to drag after he trips in the dark and stabs himself to death and before you drag his carcass out of the woods.

Next time your guide wants to do that show him this story out of Duxbury MN 2014

A hunter has been mauled by an enormous black bear after shooting it with a bow and arrow in Minnesota.

The man, who has not been named, was hunting in dense woodland near Duxbury with a group of friends on Friday night when he fired at the 525lb animal

Fearing the bear's meat would spoil in the evening heat, the group then waited four hours before using its blood trail to track it several miles in the darkness

But after they found the bear lying injured on the ground in the early hours of Saturday morning, it suddenly charged and pounced on the victim.

The man started screaming as the bear clawed and bit him, before fatally stabbing the animal around 20 times with a hunting knife, according to

Fellow hunter Craig Lindstrom, from Wyoming, said: 'I heard him screaming - felt like 10 minutes, but was probably two minutes - literally screaming, and you knew he was being mauled.

'He made that thing die because he stabbed it about 20 times while it was chewing on his arm. He kept stabbing it and it was pounding on him, a quarter of a ton - a 525 pound bear pounding on him.'
Using first aid skills he had learned as a Chicago City firefighter, Mr Lindstrom then led his friend half a mile out of the woods, where he was able to call the Pine County Sheriff's Office.

'I thought he was dead 10 to 15 times. He would fall down and he told us about telling his parents, his fiancée, his kids — tell them I love them, said Mr Lindstrom.

The man, who suffered two broken arms and wounds to his face, jaw, stomach and legs, was then flown to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale. He is said to be in a stable condition.

Meanwhile, the bear, which died around 50 yards from where it was stabbed, was later dragged out of the woodland by the remaining 10 hunters.

Despite the incident, Mr Lindstrom said he, the victim and their group of hunters are licensed to hunt bears and will not hesitate to do so again in the future

No getting caught in the crossfire risk.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada...th-lawsuit-1.4394010

Or go skydiving without a chute....

not no, but hell no

quote:

Originally posted by BuffHunter63:
Would you track a wounded bear at night without carrying a firearm? Your guide has a big knife.

BH63

Only if he carries the knife in his teeth.

I actually met a guy who was attacked by a bear in Colorado. He rounded a bend and surprised a bear
at close range. The bear was on him so fast he had no chance to get off a shot. He survived but the bear ate a big chunk of his calf. He went east and didn’t hunt for almost 15 years.

He finally moved back but he never hunts alone and always has a big
pistol securely holstered as back up.

BH63

As long as the guide does the gutting...

Maybe 30 years ago a 'guide' and his hunter were trailing a wounded bear near Bergland MI. They found the bear, rolled it over to nut and gut and the beat took offense. The client was going to gut and the bear balled up on him. The client fed the bear his left arm. The bear crunched it to the point of requiring amputation. After getting the hunter to a sawbones, the guide went back to gut the bear, this time he brought a firearm.

It was a good year for mentally deficient bear hunters. A couple of guys near Newberry loaded a 'dead' bear into the back of a Blazer/Bronco or something like that. (No one knew the term SUV then). The driver happened to look in the rearview mirror and saw a standing bear. Both men abandoned the vehicle.

Waiting until morning to recover a bear may result in the meat turning green upon exposure to oxygen. I think eating green bear meat may preclude dysentery.

Even in cold weather one is almost assured of losing the meat of animal left over night not gutted.

Below is an excerpt from "Outdoor Life's Guide to Spring Bear Hunting," which I wrote some time back in the 1990's. The outfitter was Roy Pattison from British Columbia. He died from natural causes a while back.

***********
"Earlier our binoculars had located two dark spots in a swath of emerald green grass more than a mile distant. Although the sighting prompted Pattison to assemble his spotting scope, I surmised he already knew what he was seeing after having chased Canada's bears for over 20 years.

Once, however, it was the other way around.

On a fall hunt a few years ago, a lady from Germany put a bullet through the hump of a big grizzly. Armed with a 30/06, Pattison, along with his German shepherd, Radar, followed the bear into the bush. The dog soon found the wounded grizzly, and Pattison put three 220-grain bullets into it.

Still, the enraged animal managed to launch an attack, tearing a huge chunk of flesh from Pattison's left buttock and biting his ankle. The dog's persistent harassment and Pattison's kicking and screaming eventually caused the bear to flee.

While Pattison spent a week in a Prince George hospital receiving numerous skin grafts and treatment of a chipped ankle bone, his brother and friends unsuccessfully searched for the bear.

The following spring the lady from Germany returned and wounded another grizzly. This time, with a new-found respect, Pattison borrowed his brother's .458. Radar again located the bear, and two shots from the big-bore rifle put it down for keeps.

When Pattison removed the hide, he found four healed gunshot wounds and recovered two 220-grain, 30/06 slugs; it was the same grizzly that had mauled him the previous fall.

The 10-foot tall, life-size mount sitting in the main lodge now serves as a grim reminder of the guide's close encounter."

quote:

When Pattison removed the hide, he found four healed gunshot wounds and recovered two 220-grain, 30/06 slugs; it was the same grizzly that had mauled him the previous fall.

Would be interesting to know where they had actually hit.

You don't have to convince me the dangers of bears, even unwounded black bears have been known to stalk, kill, and eat people.

Even a small blackie can ruin your life in just a few seconds.

BH63

Not without a gun. I have retrieved two wounded bears at night with success. Both times I went in was because I was worried that my clients bear would make his way off of my property.

First, I would never think about this without using Lynyrd and Skynyrd. These are two of my best hounds and they know how to bay. They truly work as a team.

I have a light on my dogs collars that I can turn on remotely. It really helps in this situation.

I have had other situations where we had to wait until daylight due to real thick bush or bear went to and island. Hounds can not swim away from bears quick enough. A big bear knows how to hold a dog under water long enough to drown them.

^
Your way certainly makes more sense to me.

BH63

quote:

A big bear knows how to hold a dog under water long enough to drown them.

If a bear gets ahold of dog long enough to drown it.

That dogs life is most likely over any way.

The damage a bear can inflict in just a short time is almost unbelievable.