What would YOU do?

[David Mitchell]

Originally posted by Marc B.:
 

Originally posted by forestdweller:
I would of done what you did. Personally I would never carry a gun while bow hunting, makes it bow and gun hunting and it just becomes a crutch.

If you are carrying a sidearm for defense against either 2 or 4 legged predators and the bow is the only weapon you will shoot game with, how are you gun hunting? The only way it could be a crutch is if you don't trust yourself to only take game with the bow. [/b]

I agree totally with Marc B.  And I definitely would carry bear spray if hunting in an area with bears.  Bears with cubs can be nasty and unpredictable.

[calgarychef]

These no right answer dealing wit bears because they are unpredictable.  In your case the right answer was backing out.
In another case it might be making yourself known and backing out.

No matter what a can of bear spray can help, it's not the right answer in all cases but in the ones where it worked it worked.
You can't carry a gun so that's out of the question, so it leaves bear spray as the only alternative.

It takes a good hunter of a lucky one to get dangerously close to a bear,nthey have great senses and are difficult tonget close to, except in the cases where they aren't. Bears are unpredictable  

[YosemiteSam]

What would I do?

#1 - make sure life insurance premiums are paid and current.

#2 - carry bear spray (where legal).

#3 - accept the risk that my life is not certain and that a bear may feel a need to take my life in protection of its own.  Death is part of life.  

#4 - Stand my ground, fight like hell, play dead, play whatever cards I have and accept my fate, just as my quarry must when I make an attempt on its life.  

Personally, I accept that hunting and life in general is one where risk is just part of the deal.  I take life and I put mine at risk.  I hunt and am willing to be hunted.  I offer no invitations to death.  But It's no crime for an bear or mountain lion to feed me to its young any more than it's a crime for me to feed a deer to my young.  None of us have to make ourselves easy prey.  But it's all part of the deal.

I'll not quibble about probabilities since it is not the probability of an attack that is important -- it is the consequences of one.  But I've never heard of a black bear do more than just bluff charge unless really provoked.  Even the ones up in Yosemite tend to book it away from me as soon as they realize I'm there.  I've had some close, scary encounters.  But I've never felt threatened enough to draw a pistol on a bear (I'll sometimes carry a pistol in the parks since we can't carry bear spray) -- they value their life just as much as we do and it would be very strange to experience anything otherwise.

[NY Yankee]

Carry bear spray and a BIG Bowie Knife. If the first arrow doesnt stop her, stab stab stab.