Bear attack in AZ

[OldBroad44]

Maybe that's how it is in "the big city", but black bears been roaming around here for years. I'm surprised I haven't seen more in the 50+ years I've lived in Kidnap county.
In the particular case of the video I shot, it ends where it does, because I wanted to get in a better position to continue videoing it, so I paused it and was gonna head out onto the porch.
I turned the door handle very slowly, as I didn't want to spook the bear, but that handle is a bit notchy, and as I turned it, it let the quietest "click" and that's all it took.
It was like a scene out of Bugs Bunny...that bear spun around in a circle 3 times and shot off into the woods, quicker than $h!t!
I tried to get out there to continue the video, but it all happened too fast, so the video ends where it ends.
It's been by a couple more times, but I haven't seen it in quite a few years now.
The moral of this story? Leave the .45 and the bear spray at home. Next time you go into the woods, pack along an old Schlage door handle.
Turns out, bear's more scared of one of those than anything else!

Maybe the door handle sounds like a revolver being cocked?

 

[DeanMk]

Maybe the door handle sounds like a revolver being cocked?

I think he was just surprised.

 

[jrmh]

Wait, someone didn't stand around and take a shaky video of it to circulate on TikTok? WTF people, sleeping on the job.

exactly i want gore not another person alive lol.

 

[Bobbygun]

Let's just say I don't take bears home for the kids.....it's recommended to freeze it for 30 days to kill the trig. Although it's rare I'd still freeze and cook properly

(I'm pretty sure you already know this, but for anyone thinking freezing alone will take care of the trichinosis). According to the Center for Disease Control you're still going to want to cook that meat well even after freezing:

How can I prevent trichinellosis?
Properly handling and cooking meat will prevent trichinellosis. Whole cuts and ground meat from wild game animals should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F. A meat thermometer should be used because color is not a good indicator of doneness for game meat. Some methods of cooking, especially microwave cooking (which is not recommended), do not cook meat evenly. Smoking, freezing, or curing game meat does not kill all Trichinella species. Low –temperature smoking will not kill Trichinella, either.

That last sentence has me wondering about the jerky and pepper stick I've had made by the local meat processor. They must know what they're doing though, since I haven't contracted the disease.

There was an episode of Meat Eater on the Outdoor Channel a year or two back (edit: more like 10 years ago) where Steve Rinella killed a black bear and he and his crew roasted up some bear meat on sticks over a campfire. Not a good idea. They all ended up with trichinosis.

 

[Certaindeaf]

(I'm pretty sure you already know this, but for anyone thinking freezing alone will take care of the trichinosis). According to the Center for Disease Control you're still going to want to cook that meat well even after freezing:

How can I prevent trichinellosis?
Properly handling and cooking meat will prevent trichinellosis. Whole cuts and ground meat from wild game animals should be cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F. A meat thermometer should be used because color is not a good indicator of doneness for game meat. Some methods of cooking, especially microwave cooking (which is not recommended), do not cook meat evenly. Smoking, freezing, or curing game meat does not kill all Trichinella species. Low –temperature smoking will not kill Trichinella, either.

That last sentence has me wondering about the jerky and pepper stick I've had made by the local meat processor. They must know what they're doing though, since I haven't contracted the disease.

There was an episode of Meat Eater on the Outdoor Channel a year or two back (edit: more like 10 years ago) where Steve Rinella killed a black bear and he and his crew roasted up some bear meat on sticks over a campfire. Not a good idea. They all ended up with trichinosis.

I saw that.. they said they could feel the tiny worms in their muscles and that their little dead bodies will remain there forever.

 

[OldBroad44]

Depends. Black bear is usually pretty good. Kind of tastes like venison but a bit sweeter and kinda greasy. Grizzly... it more depends on the season and what it's been feeding on. During the fish runs... it's nasty as all get out. Kind of a rotting fish type flavor that's pretty rough trying to choke down... if you have the stones for it. I think you would have a difficult time even making any kind of palatable sausage out of it.

Same problem with raccoons and possums. Most have been eating a fair amount of fish and/or garbage or dog food and taste awful. Went to HS in Georgia, and learned that in GA a traditional approach for both critters was to trap and cage them and finish and fatten them on windfall apples and other non-fish farm or household food waste. When old time recipes praise coon or possum pie they are probably talking about these farm-finished animals.

Hogs fed fish have a horrible rotten fish flavor and soft pork. The pork is soft because the fatty acids from the oil from the fish are incorporated directly into the oil/fat of the hogs. So you end up with pork fat with a high percent of polyunsaturated fatty acids in them. Such fat is soft or even liquid--an oil rather than a fat--at room temp. Sometimes sharp operators would net carp from their ditches and ponds and use them as free food for their hogs. Then they would sell the hogs to a buyer who was buying from many small producers and selling to distant markets. That way the really foul flavored hogs with the soft pork could not be traced back to the grower.

I'm unsurprised to learn from this thread that berry-finished bear can taste delicious but fish-finished ones taste pretty foul. Some creeks and rivers in the coastal mountains have runs of salmon or steelhead and waterways full of dead and dying fish after the runs. So its likely that some coastal MT bears eat a lot of fish. I lived on a creek with a steelhead run near Alsea at one point and picked up several of the 20-26" dead spent fish to use as garden fertilizer a la Squanto. Never again. If the Squanto story was real he probably used a tiny bit of fish per hill, not whole huge fish throughout the garden. (No NE Indians fertilized with fish. However Squanto had been in Europe and might have learned it there.) Also...if there is some depth at which you can bury the rotten fish so that it is not dug up and rolled in by your dogs, it is deeper than the tiller digs or I ever discovered.

 

[Xaevian]

I wonder what the ones that eat self described environmentalists taste like? Probably really bitter and a little irony.

 

[made in china]

I wonder what the ones that eat self described environmentalists taste like? Probably really bitter and a little irony.

Soy and kombucha

 

[OldBroad44]

Have you ever seen a Black Bear? Ever seen one of the Browns?

Yes. Seen black bears in Oregon twice. Only once in the woods. First time was when I was walking along a dirt road in coastal mountains in Alsea valley. Had been camping and hiking and not seen any humans for weeks. Sudden thrashing around noise in berry patch at edge of small clearing happened. I withdrew to far edge of clearing and drew my 6" Ruger Security 6 .357mag, my favorite woods gun in that era. For some reason I was thinking elk thrashing velvet off his antlers. Had no desire to either shoot or be tromped by a bull elk. My dog, a Chow-Spitz cross female, silently took up a position on the edge of the berry patch directly between me and the noise. Her ears were all the way forward, her body in ready-to-attack mode. There was a stiff cross wind. She clearly had no idea what it was. Suddenly the bear appeared, 12' from dog', 22' from me. Wild black bears usually run from people. But we were well within the attack distance for a black bear surprised suddenly. Normally the dog would have barked as part of her defensive repertoire. She did not. She remained in ready-to-attack mode, ears all the way forward, waiting, totally silent. I, with gun pointed at bear, stood equally still and silent. We stood that way for what seemed like forever but was about 30". Very long seconds. Then bear vanished back into berry patch, very noisily thrashing through. Dog chased bear, baying happily. I yelled "OUT!" Dog broke off attack and returned to my side. I think if dog had moved or barked initially, dog would have been attacked. She would have been unlikely to be able to kill the bear. But very likely to bait it and dodge it and distract it from me until I could get a shot at it.

After thoughts: Amazing how fast bear could move. Especially through berry thickets. Bear was about 250 lbs. judging by livestock . I thought that was small for a black bear but a game warden later told me that was average for an adult in that area. I was carrying Winchester .357 mag 158gr silver tips in the revolver, a good jhp load for deer hunting and SD against humans. Not a good load for SD against black bears. I had figured SD against bad humans in the woods more an issue than SD against bears. After this experience I reflected that while I had needed a gun for SD against bad humans on a number of occasions, it was always in cities. And the few humans I ran into in the woods were not dangerous to me, though some were poachers. So I switched to bear loads for woods carry. I figured I was very unlikely to need to defend myself against either bad humans or bears in the woods. However I felt lots more confident in my ability to stop a bad human with a bear load than to stop a bear with a jhp.

 

[OldBroad44]

The other black bear I've seen close up showed up in my back yard one night. House is in semi-residential area on the edge of McDonald Forest. My laying duck flock gave their alarm calls. I went to the living room window with the screen off that overlooks duck night pen carrying a flashlight and Buddy, my edc, a 686 snubby. Shined flash out window. About 25 yards away was the bear walking briskly and purposefully toward duck pen. I spotlighted bear and shouted at it. (From the safety of the second floor window) Bear paid no attention whatsoever. Kept coming. I put a shot in ground next to bear. It ran. Never to return.

My guess is that this bear had been eating dog food or pets or even been fed by people, so was unafraid of humans. And unafraid of getting spotlighted or yelled at by them. But getting shot at was another thing entirely.

Amazing how fast bears can move. It turned and ran away so fast it was hard to actually see which way it went. It was like it just vanished.

 

[Tlock]

The other black bear I've seen close up showed up in my back yard one night. House is in semi-residential area on the edge of McDonald Forest. My laying duck flock gave their alarm calls. I went to the living room window with the screen off that overlooks duck night pen carrying a flashlight and Buddy, my edc, a 686 snubby. Shined flash out window. About 25 yards away was the bear walking briskly and purposefully toward duck pen. I spotlighted bear and shouted at it. (From the safety of the second floor window) Bear paid no attention whatsoever. Kept coming. I put a shot in ground next to bear. It ran. Never to return.

My guess is that this bear had been eating dog food or pets or even been fed by people, so was unafraid of humans. And unafraid of getting spotlighted or yelled at by them. But getting shot at was another thing entirely.

Amazing how fast bears can move. It turned and ran away so fast it was hard to actually see which way it went. It was like it just vanished.

The semi residential bears can be some of the biggest just because of the easy food sorce that people leave for them. I took one in a similar setting that went 560#

 

[Tlock]

Just found the old pic, This was him. 560 on a certified scale

 

[OldBroad44]

The semi residential bears can be some of the biggest just because of the easy food sorce that people leave for them. I took one in a similar setting that went 560#

I think my backyard bear was no more than 200 lbs. If that. I'm guessing he was a young male looking for a territory. And got pushed out of McDonald Forest.

Our neighborhood had a residential cougar for years. She came out only at night, and never stalked or bothered anyone. She did scream occasionally. And leave huge footprints in people's gardens. And she ate all the yappy little dogs people left out at night. Most of us far preferred the cougar screams to the yappy dogs, if truth be told. People learned to keep small or old dogs indoors at night. We also had a huge overpopulation of deer. And she took care of that too. Judging by the carcass remains, we think she removed about one deer per week from the neighborhood.

Nearly every household here has guns. I think that's part of why we felt so comfortable having her around. We could take care of it if she became a problem. As it was, we laughed at the signs from McDonald Forest warning us about the presence of cougars in our area and giving a number for reporting her. We reported her to no one. We simply gossiped about her and appreciated her ecosystem services. This was more than a decade ago, and I assume she's gone to the great forest in the sky. She raised at least two cubs at least one year. They escaped from her and were seen playing in broad daylight occassionally. We looked the other way. Nobody's offspring are perfect.

 

[Alexx1401]

Yes. Seen black bears in Oregon twice. Only once in the woods.

The poster I was asking that seemed confused with me calling them the "small bears". We have lots of the Black Bear family up this way and they have a lot of them where this guy in AZ got killed. When you see one from the Brown family there is a big difference. The small bears can and do kill but nothing like the ones from the Brown family of bears.