I can't imagine living in bear country and not owning a gun.
I have hiked in British Columbia, camped in Alberta, and the Northwest Territories where I was the only person in the camp ground. I have done the same in Idaho, Washington, Montana, Wyoming, and Oregon. Very seldom had a gun with me. In fact, usually the only time I was packing was when we were near a city.
However, having said all of that, I have actually pulled and pointed a gun at a bear that was just getting too friendly. Wanted to come into the camper with my wife, four year old son, and me. We were camped in the woods totally by ourselves, a very peaceful place, with a river in a canyon just east of us. First time my wife had been there.
We saw elk, deer, and antelope driving in. Went to John Day to pick up my cousin who flew his plane in from Montana for a couple of days, had a porcupine in camp when we came back. Deer and antelope through camp every day. Took him back to John Day, and a day later Mr. Bear came to visit. He was not at all aggressive, just curious. Walked right up to me as I worked on attaching the power cord to the camper. Never heard him, just turned around, and there was this blond bear with a black face, black feet, cute little round Mickey Mouse ears, and a small hump on his back. As I walked around the camper to check on where the wife and son were, he walked beside me as if we were old freinds. His back was higher than my waist.
My wife observed us walking around the camper, and said to herself, "I don't care how tame he says the bear is, he isn't bringing it in the camper". My son heard me yelling for him, and came around the side of the camper, I grabbed the back of his shirt, and with one motion, pitched him into the camper. Then I got in, and closed the door. Grabbed a camera, and took a picture of the bear. I was so calm that the picture was all blurred from my hands shaking.
The bear then stood up on his hind legs and looked into the camper as if he wished to come in. I pulled a .50 TC Hawken out of the closet, capped it, and pointed it at the bear, thinking to myself, "Mr. Bear, I really don't want to do this!". My wife at that point decided to close the window in the door, and stepped in front of the gun. One of the few really dumb moves I have ever seen her do. Anyway, the bear decided not to come in, and eventually wander off. And I spent some time lecturing the wife concerning guns and tight situations.
For years I thought that bear was a grizzly, even had a taxidermist identify it as such from some pictures of him I took after my hands stopped shaking from the wifes and bears actions. However, Oregon Outback had a program on the Blue Mountain Black Bear, a sub-species of black bear that has been isolated from most other populations, and that is what it was.
Wife later complimented me on the variety of wildlife that we saw, but said the bear was just one crittur too many. About four years ago, we were at that spot again, and the wife briefly glimped a couger. She wasn't sure what she saw, until I found some tracks. Really love that place.
Yeah it does...
