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The spear keeps you from having to close with a bear if all you have is a knife. Most bears will turn and run with such a spear, and if they stand on their hind legs to fight, you have a very good target. Frontiersmen in the old days could close with a bear because they wore leather and/or heavy wool coats and shirts, even in summer at night. People these days do not wear such heavy clothing, because synthetic fiber keeps us warm without the weight.

If the spear would not work for whatever reason, my camp axe would be the second thing I would pick up, the belt knife would be the last resort.I know several men who have killed black bears with a camp axe, Dona Hache of Bathurst, New Brunswick being one, who killed one with his first blow right on top of the head as it came at him on all fours outside a cook tent in the Gaspe. The boys actually blew a bear up with dynamite that summer ( it's a long story) and they had to move camp because of it. Rotting bear guts attract more bears, so blowing one up doesn't work well.

I really like bears and they have rarely bothered me, but have gotten close enough to spook me over and over. I guess Kanawa must smell better! I have a bear that visits my land every spring, even looked in my windows, but has never attacked or made a nuisance of himself.LOL.

Of course , if Canada would change its gun laws, there is nothing better than the Ruger Super Black Hawk in .44 magnum cal., 7.5 inch barrel, which I have hanging in my bedroom closet here in Vermont, in a cross draw fast break holster. Perhaps my bear friend knows I have it.

Going postal in such a situation is an appropriate behavior. IF you're going to fight, hand to claw, fight berserk! (even if you have a knife)

Sam is both blessed, and a blessing. Kanawa is likewise, both blessed, and a blessing. They bless each other.

I had my daughters read this story as soon as I finished it. Bears aren't common here in Oklahoma, but they may not live here all their lives. I'll have my son read it when he gets home from church.

I think I'm buying them all a good knife and a camp ax. When they're a little bigger, that Ruger Super Black Hawk sounds like a good idea, too.

We have a cage full of Grizzly Bears in our local zoo, and I've pointed out such things as the size of their teeth and claws, and how muscular they are, to my kids. We have our own hero-dog story in the family, as well, although her opponent was another dog, two or three times her weight.

I myself had a close encounter grouse hunting some years ago. I only had a single shot 16 ga when I noticed some shadows out of the corner of my eye in the woods to my left. Those shadows were going to cross the two-track in front of me, so I decided to stop--thinking they were coyotes and I could get a poke at one of them.
Well, lo and behold--out onto the road, about 30 feet in front ambles this fairly sizeable sow (black bear). She didn't notice me at first. But then she glanced and saw me standing there. Needless to say, that single shot 16 wasn't gonna do jack squat, so I just got ready, if necessary, to fill her face with lead and run if she came after me, hoping that I could blind her. Instead, she snorted and ran into the woods to my right ( I could hear the crashing for a bit ). Next, two cubs come tumbling out onto the road and ran after momma.
I took a step forward, heard some rustling, then decided to step back and wait, only to see a third cub tumble out the road and take a good long look at me before resuming its chase after momma. That was something else.
And that's about as close as I want to get unless I was packing something heavier.
Idiots like that Treadwell fellow I linked to in another post fail to realize that you don't mess with bears--they aren't cuddly, friendly, or particularly kind if they decide they don't like you. They are good eating, though.