Wild and Wooly

Four years ago I walked up on a bear on stream in Crawford County. The bear took off running like its tail was on fire. It was a stressful encounter for me. I guess the bear at 300 pounds. I went home and told the story to my wife with wide eyes. She was so taken aback by the story I ordered Bear Spray the same day. I have carried bear spray since then. I have seen 5 more bears in Richland and Crawford County. That makes the total 6 bears seen in the last 4 years.

I have talked to other anglers from other states and many have been running in to bears where there none in prior years. Some of the anglers out west scoffed at bear spray. They called it seasoning for the bear's next meal. Most guides in Alaska carry magnum hand guns to thwart bear attacks. The most dangerous bear in Wisconsin could be a female bear separated from her cubs.

Last Spring I was fishing near Bloom City in Richland County and walked up to within 20 yards of a wolf bedding in the tall grass. It stood up and assessed me and then slithered away. Needless to say my heart was in my throat. All of the big bad wolf stories from my youth flooded my thoughts. I immediately had my LARGE pepper spray canister out and ready. This encounter happened so quickly and I still had the where with all to have my spray out. I was rattled after this and decided to go directly back to my vehicle. I didn't want to turn my back to the wolf as I left to my vehicle, so I backed up a ways through the talk grass and then walked out diagonally. As I turned sideways to walked out I realized the wind was in my face when I encountered the wolf. If I had sprayed the pepper spray, the wind would have pushed it right back in my face and blinded me not the wolf. I decided to NOT share this story with my wife.

The 2012 trout fishing season was a wild and wooly one. I had three long distant encounters with bears and two cougars were sighted in Richland County. One month ago I was driving from Boaz to Rolling Ground and I saw a large black wolf stalking calves just 30 yards from the road. I honked the horn excessively and spooked the wolf. I drove to the farmer's house and he told me that the wolf had already killed some of his calves.

I have been relaying my story with many hunters and other anglers from the area. I am not the only one to see wolves and bears. One guy told me he has seen two cougars and one had a tracking collar on in Vernon County. Anglers in Wisconsin should consider purchasing pepper spray for fishing or maybe even stepping up to carrying a hand gun while trout fishing.

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I was in Law Enforcement for 25 years and my wife has a degree in Social Work. It took lots of thought and weighing the options before I purchased my handgun.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and their counterpart State agencies ( Fish and Game, Fish and Wildlife, Fish, Wildlife, and Parks, whatever name a particular State designates ) in the Western states all recommend Bear Spray over firearms for dealing with bears, black and grizzly, in the Western States.

Statistically, in something like 92% of human / bear encounters where bear spray is used, no one gets injured.

In something close to 50% of human / bear encounters where a firearm is used, the human ends up injured.

Also, the "muzzle velocity" of bear spray, as I recall, is over 70 mph. You can fire it effectively into a pretty good headwind.

Blowback from bear spray fired upwind is really nasty. I was testing a can a few years ago pointing downwind. Just as I fired off a one second blast, there was a wind shift - right into my face. Nasty for sure, but I really don't think it would blind a person, just be very irritating for a short time.

Follow the link for a write up about the National Park Service position -

http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com...inst-grizzlies

Just above the "Comments" section of the above article, there is a link to a USF&W article on the subject.

Here's another true story to consider - from Montana within the past year. A couple guys from out of state were bear hunting up in the Cabinet Mountains. One of them shot what he thought was a black bear. They waited about fifteen minutes before following it into some cover. Bad idea. It was a wounded grizzly that wasn't very happy. One guy was killed before the other succeeded in shooting the bear dead with multiple rounds. Turns out the dead guy died not from being mauled but from a through and through rifle shot. Live with that if you want to.

John

For some reason I have never really feared wild animals. I do have a healthy respect for them. I have fished in Alaska with browns in the vicinity and never had a problem. Of course we kept an eye out for them and if they wanted to fish where we were, we moved on. The most scared I have ever been with an animal encounter was being chased off a stream by a bull moose and believe me I was scared. Those things are far more dangerous then a bear in my opinion. Here in Washington we have blacks and I have seen them many times while out taking pictures. Most have a healthy fear of people. I still carry a .357 when I know I will be in an area where blacks might be feeding mostly as a noise maker to scare them off if I feel the need. There are griz in the North Cascades and yesterday I spent the morning taking pictures up there. I wasn't worried about bears really.
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I feel the biggest danger in the woods comes from two legged critters and I believe that threat to be slight but if I were to arm up to protect myself from other people I would carry a 12 guage shotgun loaded with #4 buck.

Hope you can read the wording on this bear warning sign taken a few years ago. You need to read all of it. If you click the picture, it will be large enough to read. On a FF trip to Kodiak our guide served as bear watchman and carried a large bore pistol. He said it was only for making noise to scar them off.

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Craig