are YOUUUUUUUUU REEAAADDDYYYYY!?!?!?!?!?!

[lethe]

i don't know though.. scary night...

the demonic ones are the most ticklish

[fastwin]

So in the topic of the thread.........how could you have been ready for said bear encounter trying to jack your stock Delco stereo?

OK, so in the spirit of the thread and your bear encounter question here's my solution. This is one of the few times my wife wants me armed like a C-130 Spectre gunship. While we are out and about fishing and away from people and the Suburban I have a 5" 1911 .45acp (this time a hopped up Springfield Armory) with three 8 round Wilson mags with 230 grn Cor-Bon in a good sized fanny bag. At the cabin I had a class III 14" barrel 12 gauge Mossberg 590 (w/factory ghost rings) with a Surefire lighted forearm loaded with Federal H-132 low recoil/tactical 2 3/4" 00 buck and 1oz Brenneke slugs in the receiver mounted side shell holder. The whole rig fits nicely in the bottom of my big ass LL Bean duffel. It and and it's paperwork were never even taken out. Thankfully. On a non lethal level (much more preferred!) if pots and pans/yelling doesn't run them off out comes the wrist rocket slingshot and the bag of cheap dime store marbles. Hit me in the ass with that across the drive and I would damn sure leave!! Lastly I gave the kiddos and wife those small compressed air horns that people deafen you with at sporting events! They are the smaller ones that could fit in your cargo pants pocket and they are loud as shit! It hopefully would scare the bear off and alert me to possible trouble and where they were. No one ever gets too far out of view... ever.

Thankfully none of this has ever been needed and the last thing I want to do is shoot a black bear who really only wanted a picknic basket full of goodies. But there has been trouble before and after our trips. The bears have ripped off the door to an outdoor storage bldg. to get to some deer corn someone foolishly left inside it. There are awesome claw marks through the back screen door where a bear obviously stood on his hind legs with his front paws on the door while looking in through the door window. He lowered himself down leaving the great claw marks in the screen. Pretty cool, we'll never fix it... it's too cool looking. And a good reminder not to make the beast with two backs around and forget they might be out there.

A year or two ago some family friends were there the week before we went. The little kids were watching a DVD on TV in the front room right next to the big plate glass window with the door open to the front porch. Dad heard them scream and ran in only to see a 250lb black bear on the front porch and only a closed screen door between him, his kids and the bear! In the middle of the day no less! He quickly slammed the front door in the bear's face and that apparently scared him off the porch. Dad followed up with lots of pan banging once he saw the bear was clear of the driveway area. They never saw it again.

We are right on the edge of the Philmont Boy Scout ranch and they always have some interesting stories and bear problems. So much so that my wife is worried about her son ever going! He's a Scout in DC right now at Jamboree and he really wants to do Philmont. Mom will probably pack the .45 in his backpack when he's not looking!!

[DesmoDiva]

Funny you mention Philmont...

A coworker of mine is there now, hopefully the bears won't fine him tasty. 

[fastwin]

Tell him to leave the marshmellows at home. We are actually watching a live feed on channel 374 (I think!) on Directv of the Boy Scout Jamboree in the DC area. My wife keeps hoping to see our son. Apparently that umbilical chord goes half way across the country!

[fastwin]

Just finished watching the Jamboree feed on Directv and it ended with a great short set from Switchfoot. Really cool that a popular well known band closed the Scout show. Apparently the lead singer and his younger brother in the band were once Boy Scouts in the Boston area. What a neat way to give back to Scouting on it's 100th anniversary at the Jamboree. Cool shit for the kids for sure! Makes me appraicate the band even more! Sweeeeet!