if this was a griz... we would have been toast (video)

[Montanawidower]

let me start by saying this has been a lousy elk season for us.   We have been weathered out and flat crowded out of nearly every hunt.   Its  blowing 30ish and snowing as I write this from the valley floor.    Maybe next weekend it will come together.  

Anyway we were sleeping on a flat ridge last weekend waiting out a storm when we were awoken to a sow black bear standing over us at 20 yards popping her jaws and woofing at us.  

We scrambled to our feet and drove the bear off when we realized she sent her cub up the tree....  I grabbed my camera and filmed the  encounter.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg8Bs8zxLOo

[centaur]

Cool vid. I feel your pain on elk season, I got snowed out last week,but at least I got close a couple of times. The bears were a nice diversion for you, though.

[Rick Richard]

We were in Wyoming a couple of weeks ago on an elk hunt and had an encounter with a full size Griz.

The details of this hunt and I am sure of our bear encounter will be forthcoming in the near future.

[huntsman247]

Pretty awesome vid

[Josh Perdue]

That's some cool footage but it appeared you were between the momma and her cub. I would have backed out of there a lot sooner. Your a brave guy. Haha

[medic77]

Our season's weather was pretty rough also.  I guess it is the way it goes though.  Just got a letter from the DOW to refund our tag price because of the flooding though.

[straitera]

Thanks Jeff for this great vid! Texans don't see many bear. If I was there, that noise you heard would not have come from the bear.

[elkken]

Bear spray should not be buried in your pack ...

Great video ...

[Montanawidower]

Josh,

The sow started out on the upwind side with the cub.  She literally just stumbled into us while we were asleep. By the time I grabbed my camera the tense stand off was over.  The sow had begun circling around downwind to get a better read on our scent.  

Regarding bravery... not really but thanks.   We have alot of black bear experience and read them pretty well.  She never laid her ears back and gave us the "oh s**" feeling.  

Like I said, if that had been a grizzly, we would have been jumped in our sleep most likely.  I think in the future, we are going to sleep in shifts.  

[Montanawidower]

Ken,

Amen....  Jason and I had ours on our hip.  We confronted the sow with it drawn.   I holstered mine to film while Jason covered me.  Brett, on the other had did have his buried and we gave him some crap about it.  

Its funny, we usually carry pistols.  This is the first year we carried spray.   I'm glad we did.  I would have hated to shoot that bear it had charged.