Bear attack during Turkey Hunting

Just last year I had two encounters in August & September. One where I was out for a scouting hike with one of the kids and an average size bear walked out onto the trail 35 yards in front of us. Bear was surprised to see us. Gave us the once over and took off running within 5 seconds. The second time I was working on a tree stand for deer season and a bear was hanging out just out of sight in the woods. I yelled at it to go home (meanwhile I'm the invader) a couple of times and it did. On the way out I noticed it had been turning over rocks looking for grubs.

I didn't have a firearm either of those times but the second I had a bear tag in my pocket I couldn't find a bear. If you are worried about bears just buy a tag and you won't see one ;-).

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Originally Posted by FamilyMan

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. If you are worried about bears just buy a tag and you won't see one ;-).

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Yup best bear defense invented.....actually works for most animals. See more deer during turkey season and see more turkeys during deer season

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Originally Posted by FamilyMan

If you are worried about bears just buy a tag and you won't see one ;-).

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Worked for me too.

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Originally Posted by FamilyMan

Just last year I had two encounters in August & September. One where I was out for a scouting hike with one of the kids and an average size bear walked out onto the trail 35 yards in front of us. Bear was surprised to see us. Gave us the once over and took off running within 5 seconds. The second time I was working on a tree stand for deer season and a bear was hanging out just out of sight in the woods. I yelled at it to go home (meanwhile I'm the invader) a couple of times and it did. On the way out I noticed it had been turning over rocks looking for grubs.

I didn't have a firearm either of those times but the second I had a bear tag in my pocket I couldn't find a bear. If you are worried about bears just buy a tag and you won't see one ;-).

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Originally Posted by finsfurfeathers

Yup best bear defense invented.....actually works for most animals. See more deer during turkey season and see more turkeys during deer season

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Originally Posted by rf2

Worked for me too.

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Absolutely true,every post and if you really want the ultimate protection against Cougars and Big Foot at the same time,always carry a camera. They avoid them like the plague,too LOL

hahahahah yeah I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it will work out lol. I will definitely have a bear tag with me and it will pretty much guarantee me not coming across one lol.

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

Absolutely true,every post and if you really want the ultimate protection against Cougars and Big Foot at the same time,always carry a camera. They avoid them like the plague,too LOL

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hahahah true that

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Originally Posted by Mateo

Hi guys,

Sorry if this has been asked before already. I wasn't able to find much by doing my search on the forum.

I should have all of my paperwork ready to go in time for the Turkey season. It will be me first hunting experience ever. The gun I'm purchasing once my PAL comes through will be Mossberg 535 with the Turkey barrel. I will be going with my dad as a company but he doesn't have gun license or the outdoors card. He will just be there for the company. Not going to be touching the harvest or shooting any guns.

My question now is, how do you make sure you dont have a run in with a bear? How do you prepare for a possibility of it happening? Can I have my dad carrying a side by side with smooth bore and slug shells ready? From what I understand he can carry it if unloaded. Should I have a bear spray with me? Are there areas where I can hunt Turkey but will never come across a bear?

What do you guys think? Thank you guys in advance.

Happy hunting

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Well, you better make sure you are fit and ready to run real fast!
It happens to me every year to have a bear running after me, for real, and the best I found it's either to bring a older, slower friend with you and run fast or to just cry and bent over!

I can tell you right now, the toughest part of turkey hunting aint to shot one and I ran out of friend so if you are looking for someone to take you out, PM me.....
Good luck and get yourself a gym membership.

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Originally Posted by seabast

Well, you better make sure you are fit and ready to run real fast!
It happens to me every year to have a bear running after me, for real, and the best I found it's either to bring a older, slower friend with you and run fast or to just cry and bent over!

I can tell you right now, the toughest part of turkey hunting aint to shot one and I ran out of friend so if you are looking for someone to take you out, PM me.....
Good luck and get yourself a gym membership.

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haha thank you for the advice. It's awesome hahaha

Seabast, if you need a Turkey hunting partner I'd be more than willing to come along and try to learn. hahaha I will just grab someone with us who runs really slow hahaha

I've had three encounters over the years and only one could have gone south and that was because of my actions.

Encounter 1 - sow with three cubs popped out of the bush 150 yards from my set-up. I stood up and walked towards my decoys and they all bolted for the woods.

Encounter 2 - very personal. I was set-up in a fence line and could here something coming. It was a very dry spring and at first I thought it was someone on horseback. Imagine my surprise when a sow with twin cubs stops directly in front of me inside of 10 yards. They were upwind of me thankfully but that sow knew something was there. She stood up and looked around. I was actually reaching for my camera but thought better of that as I didn't want to betray my position and risk the encounter getting nasty. After a few seconds they headed off to a nearby bush. That sow ended up being a nuisance bear and was shot by a farmer a month or so later.

Third encounter. I was travelling between spots and spotted some black blobs in the back of a corn field I had permission to hunt. I parked the truck and made a big circle around popping out right at the field edge. Imagine my surprise when the black blobs I thought may be strutting toms were actually two cubs and mom wasn't in sight. That was unnerving. I backed out and vowed to always use my binoculars before I pulled a stunt like that again.