bear thumpn'

I went on an unguided caribou last year north of Katmai park with my cousin and Grandparents. It was lots of work but we killed 2 decent bou and spent a couple days in camp watching bears and fishing. next to last day in camp a bear came inbetween camp and meat that we had on a hill away from camp about 80yds. he was a young one about 400lb i think. we fired guns yelled and screamed and he pretty much ignored us but continued on. he had definately smelled the meat though and we thought he would be back. right at dusk my grandma looked up to see him on a trail coming into camp about 15 yds away. My cousin and i grabbed our bows with rubber thumper arrows and yelled at Granpa to get a gun for backup. we stood at the edge of camp and drew. The bear had moved off about 35 yds so it was a 40 yd shot. i shot just before my cousin and hit the bear perfect behind the shoulder.
he stood roared and took off running not to be seen again.

what do ya think. . . good idea or bad idea??

I think it's a good idea, especially if it worked, and you had a "back-up".

If you read my post about my unguided solo caribou hunt, you know what happened to my meat! I was really dissapointed.

Next time I'm going to try and build a stiff wire cage to put my meat in. Something that will take down for easy packing. It would have to be pretty stout though to be bear proof! But at least keep the wolverines at bay.

I guess the wardens kinda frown on killing a bear unless it's in defense of your life.

If a sow with cubs gets into your meat, I guess you could kidnap one of the cubs, to teach her a lesson! LOL (some how I don't think that would work)

I hope others with more knowledge respond, as I think you bring up a good point!

Steve