Hardcore survival skills: Hunting down black bears or grizzlies

Sevelx | November 23, 2015 | Hunting

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Did you know that American pioneers considered bear meat to be a delicacy? Bear meat isn’t on the menu in most places anymore but bears make a proven survival food for a wilderness emergency.

Black bears and especially grizzly bears are dangerous animals that can kill you and eat you. The first few hours you head into the wild, bears could be an immediate threat. Here’s how to bag a bear safely, why you should consider hunting bears first in a survival emergency, and ways to prepare a bear.

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2. Hunting Bears as a Survival Food

In a survival emergency, consider hunting for bears first

Here’s something that might surprise you. Before you start hunting for deer or elk, start hunting for bear instead. It’s because of the danger from bears that in a survival emergency you should strongly consider hunting bears first. The reason is this: Not only are bears a threat to your safety, including while you sleep in your tent, they make great eating and an adult grizzly bear can have a few hundred pounds of meat and even a smaller adult black bear can still have 60 – 100 pounds of meat or more on it. That’s enough meat to feed several people over several days or even weeks (when properly preserved and stored).

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3. Survival Game Plan

Survival game plan for those first days living off the land

A strategy to quickly procure food could go something like this: You and others you’re with can set several snare traps for small game like squirrel, possum, rabbit, or raccoon, and while waiting several hours for a trap to catch something, you can during that time begin the chore of hunting for bear meat a short distance out of the area (don’t hunt in the same area you are trapping as your presence could scare away small critters). Trap and hunt in separate areas.

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Hunt downwind — don’t let a bear smell you

No matter how much scent concealer you try to wear (sold by hunting suppliers), or that you choose to wear clothing that have been sitting in the woods for several days so as not to have any smell of home or laundry detergent, when it comes to bears, a bear’s nose is said to be 7 times stronger than a bloodhound’s.

To successfully spot and stalk bears, it’s important to hunt downwind. One way to ensure you are downwind is to hang a thin piece of frayed string from your rifle or bow (yes, some people hunt bears with bows) and then check it periodically to see which way the wind is blowing.

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Dangers when tracking a wounded bear — a bear can circle around behind you

Let’s say that your shot misses the vital heart or lung area by a few inches and leaves a bear wounded. The bear may escape into the brush but be aware that it can try to circle around you and attack from behind. Since it’s a good idea to hunt with a partner(s), you and your partner should have a game plan for this scenario, where your partner (his or her weapon ready) can keep an eye on the brush around you and behind you while you track a trail of blood leading to what is hopefully a deceased bear.

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