What if?

[Woody]

What would you do?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yrko7_iB-Y[/youtube]

[MTCOMMER]

I wouldnt have stood there like he did - I would have shot the  out of that thing.

CRAZY VIDEO!   

[Go Big Red!]

No way is that a wild bear.  Probably a game farm animal that eats out of your hand.   

[beeker]

is it me or does that guys voice sound like gentry's from the poaching video?

[Mayfly]

If that was me that bear would not of got that close. As he touched mu ladder I would of been letting him know I was there by drawing back on my bow. Then i'd let him decide the next move.

[FireRanger]

No way is that a wild bear.  Probably a game farm animal that eats out of your hand.   

To me the surroundings look skeptical and the bears reaction as well. However, I have seen this happen first hand (not during hunting season and not in a tree stand) and I have a friend of mine n WI that had to shoot one that had climbed up to him and swatted at him. He ended up having to go to court because the WI DNR didn't believe his story. It was proven self defense and he hasn't hunted in 6 years now.

[deadeye]

Having hunted bears and watched them in action, I think this is real.  Bear are very curious and do climb into tree stands.  I have video of one walking right up to me.  I was watching through the view finder and didn't realize how close he was. 

[HD]

I had a momma and a cub come in one time...the cub came up the tree and I thought momma was gonna too. Thankfully the cub didn't like what it saw and went back down. 

[Mayfly]

I filmed a bear hunt once and there were 3 cubs on the pile when something spooked them. The one ran up a tree about 10 yards from me... Here is the video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmtfTf2cIGk[/youtube]

[22lex]

The couple times I have been in close quarters with bears, one walked right underneath the stand, and the others just came in downwind.

However, both stand locations this guide put me in had bear chit (not coon) on the stands like they had been crawling up there and they had also clawed the tree up there as well.

As for the bear in the first vid, if it didn't have cubs I would have taken it because it looked good size. It would have never even gotten to the ladder stand.

[Go Big Red!]

I'm still not convinced.

[BiggA]

That would be interesting. That guy seemed pretty calm. (hey what u doin there) I think I woulda been a little more amped up. As far as skeptical looks like a bear hunting set up to me.

[whiteoakbuck]

I can honestly say i wouldn't let it get that close but it didn't look like it had intentions of doing harm

[HUNTER2]

That happened to a guy I work with when he was at Camp Ripley bow hunting this year. He didn't say what ya doing.

[corky]

I bear hunted from a ground blind/shack in northern Saskatchewan in the spring of 2009.  I had a sow with 4 cubs that were a year old come in.  She left and the cubs fed for about 30 minutes and then began to get curious and spread out.  Two of them came over to the outhouse sized shack I was in and stood on their hind legs with their front feet on the shooting window sills.  I was getting a little nervous that mom might come back and not be too happy.  After looking in the window for awhile and sniffing, they dropped back down and eventually wandered off.  They were so close I could not get my camera backed off enough for a good picture.  I'll look for a picture later to post that is a blurry nose, ears and claws.

I found a couple of the pictures.  I could not find the one when their claws where hooked over the sill, but these show how close they were.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[kenhuntin]

First off thanks Woody
 That is a pretty good bear. I would not have let it get that close before announcing my presence. And I for sure would not wound it with an arrow that close as it may associate the wound with me. He is lucky that stand held the both of them and the bear did not bolt and bust up the stand.  The guy filming handled that situation perfectly by talking calmly. The bear was concerned but not startled.
 Just last spring in the Ontario bush some bears came into our camp one night and brushed the tent of one of the guys in the party. He was so freaked out that he spent the rest of the night by the campfire only to find out in the morning light that one of the bears was bedded down just 20 feet behind him. That stuff does happen. But the moon landing was filmed in a hollywood studio.

[Outdoors Junkie]

Amazing! 

[Joe@deerhunters]

I was 18 the first time that happened to me in Canada.   Black Bears are very curious and often follow your scent to investigate sometimes to your tree and even higher.  I have since had two other friends have bears come up the tree while hunting very quickley before they could even react.

I do not doubt it at all.

[corky]

I found a couple of pictures from my trip and posted them above with my original posting.