Whats the closest you ever got to a bear?

[1911crazy]

I was on my first blackbear hunt in VT. and i was in the woods for my first 30minutes overlooking an old apple orchard but sitting along the woodline there was 5' tall grass and I had a blackbear within 10' feet of me in the grass comming at me when all of a sudden a little bird got in the apple tree near me and sang to the tune of "danger go back  RETREAT !!!"   The bear did the quickest 180 I ever seen and ran back down to the bottom of the apple orchard across the bottom staying out of site in the woods the whole time and up the opposite side and up behind me.  My only thoughts were how nature sticks together.  

This past fall I had a bear come to my camp at 9pm we were repairing my camp floor in the dark and it came within 20yds of us while making a ruckus and hooting looking for a friend. It was quite a distance away as we finished up our work on the floor near the door so I deceided to give it a few hoots in about 20 minutes it was backat my camp hootin again.

On some nights I can hear a bear up on the ridge hootin and then I hear another one across the valley hoot back.  I actually heard one on the other end of my valley hootin and I hooted back.
                                                                                    BigBill

When I first bought my camp I told a co-worker who lived up there about the many owls I hear at my camp at night.  He told me its blackbears hootin to each other its the way they talk to each other when their a distance apart.

[The Silver Fox]

I was hunting with a buddy in fresh snow

my buddy realised he dropped his sunglasses and we decided to turn back and go look for them.
about 25 yards from where we turned back we noticed fresh grizzly tracks
that were not there when we walked there the first time ...the paw print was about 12 inches long and the claws were 4" away from the paw print .

Lets just say we went back to the truck without finding the glasses.

[bearblade]

My grandfather had a bear cub living in his basement for a few days before we turned it over to the DNR.  He had killed the mother.  The DNR came to get the bear with cages and ropes and leather gloves; so my grandfather removed the bear from the cardboard box with his bare hands (no pun intended),  and handed it to them.

[Buford]

I have been nose to nose to about a 500 pound black bear in Alaska and I have been within touching distance of several large bear when I was fishing.  I figured that if they were interested in eating me, they would have - they were just curious. Neat animals!

[Siskiyou]

This is another man's story, and he had the pictures(black&White) and the scars to prove how foolish he was.  He sold a homestead to a friend outside of Sexsmith, Alberta and I spent sometime up there.

Anyway this guy brought the pictures out to show us one day and he showed us his bear bite scars.  He was hunting along the Smokey River with a group of friends from drift boats.  He shot and wounded a fair size black bear, thinking the bear was about done he went over and set down next to the bear and lifted the head by putting an arm lock around the bear neck.  It made a nice picture.  But the bear took exception to this treatment and put a jawlock on his upper thigh.  A hunting partner put the bears lights out.

During the 50's this was a remote area.  He was bleeding a great deal.  He was bandaged up, put in a river boat and taken to a location where he could be given medical care.  After that he was hospitalized in Edmonton for an extend period.

I suspect that he has been dead over 40 years, so I hope he does not mind me passing along his story.  I rather doubt that he ever saw a color tv, or sure never heard of computers, or the internet.  But he was blessed to live during a time when there was a lot of hunting opportunities for the common man.

[Sourdough]

Buford:  That's what Treadwell thought too!  Before he and his girlfriend got eat!

[toecutter]

Since this happened I've had the chance to get close (stumble) on quite a few bears, but nothing has been as amusing as this...
I was about 12 years old, sitting with two of my best buddies, three across the base of an old white pine. We were in a depression at its base with the actual ground level at about shoulder height.   As we were discussing whatever 12yo boys will, my friend on my right side screams BEAR, turns white, and runs! I don't rightly recall if that was the correct order of events, but needless to say we ( the two remaining) turned our heads just enough to make out a huge black head panting just inches from our faces.  Mind numbing panic ensues, and in the scramble to be anywhere but there, I catch glimpses of the "bear" running after my friends and myself, kinda like he's not sure who to go after. Around this time, someone, I'm not sure who , realizes that it's just a big goofy newfoundland! and quite a nice one at that. Like all newfies, the only thing he was dangerous to was a bowl of icecream. The only damage done was from running headlong into a whole mess of pricker bushes.
THat reminds me, I should go call those guys

[DeerMeadowFarm]

I stood on top of a 204 pound black bear in Maine. He was under the roots of an overturned tree and I was standing on the roots. The whole story is in another thread "Anyone kill a bear in defence" or something like that, in the Bear Hunting Forum.

[HogFan]

My closest encounter to a bear was yesterday. I was out scouting for a place to elk/bear hunt next year, and was on the way back to the truck when I heard a loud noise. I stopped on the trail, to see a large blackie about 40 yards from me. He was wreaking havoc on a tree, and I coughed and he came towards me and got about 32 yards from me. That's when I started making more noise, and found an alternate route out. I would probably estimate the blackie at about 400 lbs.

HogFan