Wow, Harold those are some crazy encounters. With protection I believe some wild large predator numbers are increasing albeit slowly but have not heard of too many statistics. Carrying capacity of landscape and terrain are still there in off the somewhat beaten areas and these animals are adapting. Its possible I guess to not be more surprised of these encounters as time goes on.

I have been reluctant to mention that my late Wirehair, Eva, would make any average sized black bear sorry he ever messed with her. When you Google "prey instinct", Eva's picture is the first entry. She was almost an embarrassment in some of her encounters in the field, and in the neighborhood. She is gone now, but will be remembered by many.

About 8 years ago while hunting in Michigan's UP I saw what I believe was a Wolf. My friends setter ran over to me with its tail between it's legs and stayed with me for a while.

Same thing happened to my dad in Minnesota with his setter. I think I mentioned here before, but he was working a on an old timber cut area and setter was acting birdie and hunting close. Out of corner of his eye he sees something moving and from about a distance and he sees this animal with a long face and wondered what the heck is that big old goat doing out here and he wondered if he was hunting close to someone's farm. Next thing he looks back and that goat was making a beeline thru the brush for his dog and it got within 5 yards of him and the dog but it was no goat but a big old wolf wanting a setter for lunch.

Wolf was so focused on the dog he never saw my dad standing there, and he raised his gun thinking he was going to have to shoot it but yelled first. The wolf froze looking startled and then the setter looked up saw the wolf standing there and then ran next to my dad. He said it was a pretty tense moment for a good 15 to 20 seconds and nobody moved inch until wolf sized up the scene and then just casually ambled off. Wolfs were/are protected so not to afraid of man too much in the area we hunted, but that is only one we saw.

We also never saw one but on more than one occasion came across some steaming bear scat in draw where we always found some grouse and woodcock. We called it the bear den but never had any run ins the several years we hunted that area.

There are a great many bears where I hunt in Vermont. Lots of old apple groves at the edges of the woods where Grace and I concentrate our grouse and woodcock shooting, and the 50-acre cornfield right below camp are big draws for bears. We hear guys running bear hounds almost on a daily basis in the area. There are loads of coyotes around too. I'm really glad we haven't had an encounter with either bear or coyote and I sure hope it stays that way. But just in case the need ever arises I always carry a side arm when I'm hunting, either a Ruger .357 revolver or a S&W 5906. And if it isn't legal to shoot a bear during bird season, I'm real sorry but Grace comes first on that short list of priorities.





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Bill, I've known a few wirehairs and yes Eva probably would have lit into a bear knowing the breed.

Not trying to go off on a tangent but just looked up on the wall to see the picture of relatives in front of the old family cabin up in the hills of Kentucky that was taken back in late 1800's. Forgot all about it. We still own the property but cabin is gone. My great grandfather was just a boy in the picture but when I was a boy of about his age in photo he told me about the time his grandmother killed a bear with an ax. Papa Reed was a great storyteller. Seems my great, great, great grandad was off somewhere I think part of the homeguard for Kentucky militia during Civil War or something.

Seems in the middle of the night a bear had gotten into the pig pen and she had an old mutt dog that was a lot like old yellar, so told. She let him out the door to go bark and run off the bear, but dog jumped in after the bear in the pen and then it was an awful racket of pigs squealing with dog and bear growling barking going at each other. Granny did not have a gun but runs out there with an ax and bear does not see her but just as the bear stands up and his facing the dog she sinks that ax right in the back of the neck of the bear and gets lucky and breaks the spine we all guessed. Bear goes down like a sack of potatoes and the dog just latches in and finishes off the bear.

Seems Granny also was pretty handy with a knife but that bear was too big to move by herself and that dog knew what to do and helped her drag the bear back to the cabin where she cleaned it. I don't have any pictures of her but she was described to be just like little old Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies.

Uncle of mine recorded that story and whole bunch of others ones like the shooting after a school board meeting and the ensuing trial. Seems even back then even during the trial everybody had a gun hidden somewhere on them in case someone got out of line.

Several years ago, there was a report of wolves killing a pack of 7-8 rabbit dogs in the eastern UP