A Reddit user said the encounter happened in British Columbia and that it was only his fifth day hunting, which makes the whole story feel even crazier. He and his hunting partner were set up separately watching an open field near some bush for whitetail. According to the post, they had been there about an hour when he glassed the field and spotted what he called an “absolute unit” of a grizzly sow with cubs. She started out roughly 250 yards away. Then things started getting uncomfortable fast. The cubs began closing the distance on him while he stayed tucked into some brush, unsure whether they had actually seen him or were just drifting his way. Eventually, the cubs stopped at around 100 yards and started feeding on what he thought might have been leftover field dressings from another hunter’s animal.
He wrote that his first instinct was to get his bear spray ready, but almost immediately he realized that was not going to help much because the wind was strong and blowing right into his face. So he sat there and waited, hoping the bears would feed and move on. Then the sow stopped eating, looked directly at him, and took a step toward him. That was the moment he decided sitting low in the brush was no longer helping. He said he could not back out through the brush because it was too thick and he was afraid he would trip or fall, so instead he stood up and moved out into the field so the bear would know exactly where he was and so he could at least start backing away slowly in the open. From the way he told it, he thought she was more curious than aggressive at that point, but that did not make it feel safe. His hunting partner finally fired off a bear banger, and that was enough to scare the sow and cubs off.
If the story had ended there, it still would have been wild. But it got worse on the way out.
He said the two of them decided the hunt was over and started heading back to the truck. While they were on their way out, they saw the sow and cubs again — this time running down the road straight toward them. He believed a truck behind the bears had spooked them and pushed them in his direction. He wrote that they were moving quickly enough that he and his partner dropped to one knee and readied their rifles. The geography made it even tighter. There was a small bridge they needed to cross to get back to their vehicle, and they knew that if the bears crossed that bridge too, they would be within about 50 yards. He added that bear spray was still not a real option because of the wind, and the whole time there was still a vehicle directly behind the bears, which made the whole decision-making process even worse. His partner used one last bear banger, and that finally broke the bears’ line. They changed direction and ran past the truck instead of over the bridge toward the hunters.
After that, he said they wasted no time. They got to the truck, loaded their gear, and took off. But the actual encounter was not the end of the story for him. He admitted in the post that he was still dealing with fear and anxiety afterward and was trying to get his mind right enough to go back into the bush. In the comments, he said he had been vibrating with adrenaline for hours after it happened, and that a few days later the seriousness of it hit him hard enough that he got emotional. He also said that once he had a few days to calm down, he started to appreciate the experience more, even though in the moment it had felt like he could easily have been mauled or killed. He later added that he had already gone back out once, just to set a tree stand and work through the nerves, and that it had been stressful but still worth doing. He also made it clear he was grateful nobody had to shoot the sow and that, from his perspective, the best possible outcome had happened: the hunters stayed alive, the bears stayed alive, and the story ended with everybody leaving under their own power.
What do you think — if a grizzly sow with cubs first closed to 100 yards while you were hidden in brush and then came running back toward you on the road while you were trying to get out, would you ever feel calm walking back into that same country again?
Original Reddit post: Novice hunter encounters grizzly bear (with cubs) on fifth day of hunting ever
