r/canadaguns May 07 '26

Shooting Have you ever had a bear incident?

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Honest question: have you ever had to fend off an aggressive bear in Canada? (hunting or otherwise) What happened,​ and what worked for your response? ​​

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u/Dummy_Wire May 07 '26

I’m a civil engineer, and I once ran into probably a 300lbs+ black bear at the corner of one of the sites my company had designed, when I swung by during construction. I was in my car, but it was a very weird sight.

Normally I get that black bears aren’t too aggressive (unless mamas and cubs come into play), but it was very startling, considering this was a subdivision under construction in Northern Pickering, Ontario. Like, families would be moving into that area in the following months. He/she wasn’t really “aggressive” per se, but was *very* out of place, at the corner of a residential street with houses being built, and a major roadway, in a major city.

I guess the workers had been leaving out enough food to cause buddy to stick around. I called the bear people, warned the construction company and encouraged them to have their guys be more careful with leaving edible garbage around, and that was that. As far as I know, nobody ever saw him again.