Thank you! Thank who? Thank when?

[HalfAce]

Poke the grizzly with a stick?

I know a guy who's actually done that!
He was bow hunting brown bear (griz live more inland. Here on the coast they're brown bear. Same species but the coastal critters are better fed & a bit bigger because of it.) anyway, he ran across a sow and her cubs in their den. Actually got down on his hands & knees and crawled part way in there! Had to poke 'mama' with a stick to get himself back outa there.

And yeah, Brian's right. When you go for a stroll in the woods you better be packin' some fairly serious heat. Haven't ever had to plug one yet but I have needed to put one across their bow a time or two. (You don't normally need to kill them, you just gotta change their mind.)

There are cows in the state but they're mostly found in and around the Anchorage area, down in Palmer and the 'Mat-Su' valley where they do a lot of farming & stuff. I have personally seen heads of cabbage that are literally 3' by 3' in size.
As for the cow tipping, I think a few of 'em have tried that but in our area they're limited to tipping cow moose.

Matter of fact, I'll be tipping one myself here in about 3 more weeks.
('Course I'll have the help of a Winchester modle 70 in 30.06) Then we'll have another years worth of meat (and the burger Brian mentioned) that's soooo much better than beef. :wink:

 

[Cbrine]

If you've ever poked a bear with a stick......you might be a redneck.

 

[Greg Truby]

If you've ever poked a bear with a stick......you might be a redneck.
-Cbrine

Or...you might be bear scat...depends on yer luck...

 

[lenze]

Here in Montana, we just take a small dog along to use as a decoy. Just pick one that's a yapper. Really distracts the bear.

lenze

 

[Greg Truby]

You bein' funny? Or serious?

 

[HalfAce]

Bein' serious I 'spect. Bears really don't like dogs. They're quite annoying and too quick for them.

There's a story of two hikers running across a bear.
One hiker sits down, takes off his boots and puts on his tennis shoes.
The second guy says "What are you doing, you can't out run that bear."
The first guys says "Yeah, but all I gotta do is out run you!

With that in mind you can also go hiking with no more than a .22 pistol and someone you don't care much for.
(Shoot him in the leg & run like hell.)

 

[lenze]

You bein' funny? Or serious?

Serious, of course. Mountain lions, however, are a different matter. They fancy small dogs.

lenze

 

[HalfAce]

Yeah, I think mountain lions would scare me more than bears do.

 

[lenze]

Yeah, I think mountain lions would scare me more than bears do.

They can be intimidating, but we really don't have enough around here anymore. We are literally being overrun by the deer population coming out of the hills. They estimate there are over 500 resident deer in Helena proper, ones that have never been outside the city limits.

lenze

 

[HalfAce]

Do they open up a hunting season on all those deer?
Not the ones in city limits, I'm sure, but the ones outside?

Funny you should mention taking the dog as a decoy too.
In my 30 years in Alaska I've known of 3 dogs actually named 'Bait'