Thought's on Black Bear

Living in western Maryland and more specifically hunting in Washington County there is a increase in black bear sightings. I have in recent days encountered two bear on separate occasion, the first ran immediately the second not so much, it could have cared less if I was there and took its time leaving the area. Both encounter,s I was approaching my hunting destination and was on the ground. Since this is a relatively new experience for me, I was wondering. Do you carry on hunting as normal, carry bear spray, proceed with caution? Is entering and exiting you're stand site before and after darker a problem since its is harder to see farther distances? Your thought and experiences please.

Living in Maine my hole life, I've had numerous encounters with black bears. From hunting, fishing remote rivers & streams, and nuisance bears. My advice; continue hunting as normal (buy a bear tag if possible). Most encounters will end like the 1st one you had with the bear running off. For your 2nd encounter, you were probably down wind and it didn't think of you as danger.
A can of bear spray wouldn't hurt, might help keep the hairs down on your neck. Its fairly inexpensive, when sprayed covers a lot of area. I use Fronteirsman Black Bear Deterrent (amazon $35) comes with a holster and can be fired from the hip. Also works good on coyotes.
We hunt these guys over bait. Going to and from a stand (bait sight) in the dark is a must. I don't use a sidearm so having spray on one hip & spotlight hanging from the other, keeps my mind at ease.

Bears in my neck of the woods (PA) tend to be pretty timid. I've had several bears around my treestand just before dark and even got between a sow and a small cub once. Result has always been the same, they run like their tails are on fire when they see me. Maybe I've just been really lucky so far, but I don't see a need to carry anything with me specifically for the bears.

I've had a few experiences with bears here in the NW corner of CT, they are really overpopulated here and there is no season or hunting of them, even nuisance bears. What I have found is that the ones that hang around near, or sometimes in, the suburbs are vary used to human contact and they tend to have a live and let live attitude when it comes to people, and that scares the living crap out of me. But the bears who have been lucky enough to hold territories in the state forests and general wilderness seem to run once they figure out your there (this may explain the different nature of your 2 encounters). This current season I have only had 2 sighings of bears but both were vary comfortable having me "in their space" and I encountered them vary near to the parking lot of one of my favorite state forest hunting areas. Needless to say I was happy I had my bear spray also, I use Counter Assault in a chest holster, its a little bit more expensive than the option posted above by: north woods archer; Ive never had to use it, but Ive had a buddy who used it on a charging sow up in Main and he came away without a scratch! So I figured I might as well pick up a can since here in CT your not allowed to cary a side arm while bow or gun hunting -_- Have a good day guys, and good luck to everybody! From the new guy out of CT, Chris (meet&greet posted last night)

Black Bear have just been moved from endangered to threatened status down here. I think I see two or three bear to one deer. There is almost always a report on the news about a bear in a nice Orlando neighborhood. Ive been to close for my comfort a couple of times, they always tear out when they realized what I am. except for the largest one Ive seen. They say Florida black bears are small, this one wasn't. was out getting a game camera with the woman one evening and walked up on it while it was lightly raining. figured the weather is why He didn't notice us. He was right by My camera and I drove a hour, and walked twenty minutes to get it. So I made some human noises. He looked at Me and didn't care at all. That made me nervous, I suppose He was captured and released. I don't have any bear mace, Ive been all around this forest with nothing but bad language and a pocket knife, and never felt I needed any. But that bear had thinking about some. By the way, I got the camera. After He eased off.