No I would start taking my new closest frends Simth& Wesson.

I don't live far from where that happened. I hadn't heard anything on the news at all here. First of all, you can't pack a big pistol when you're hunting up here. Pistols can only be fired at a registered firing range and they must be taken directly to and from your house/range in a locked case.

Not getting quite enough details on this to satisfy me. He was moose hunting but shot a bear during "an encounter"? What does that mean? Did he shoot the bear first and then have the "encounter"?

I always hunt alone. Have for nearly fifty years. But I don't bow hunt either. It is a helluva lot riskier just driving to and from my hunting grounds than it is being out there with the odd bear. Just last night I had some idiot transport driver trying to mate his Kenworth's grill to the back of my Jimmy at 10k over the limit on the Trans-Canada as I was returning from an evening grouse hunting. The few times I have found myself in a pinch while huting with other people, they proved to be more of a handicap than help. See my posts in the "Answers" thread about the Idaho hunter attacked by a mule deer.

The week before I shot my first big bull elk (see profile pics) I almost perished in the woods because my hunting companion left with the car when I didn't make it out on time. The doctor who examined me two days later said no normal person could have survived an ordeal with hypothermia like that. Dad said he always suspected I was abnormal. Similarly, when my brother shot a big bull ten years later, his hunting partner drove off and left him when he didn't get back up to the road on time. Mike, however, was diabetic. It was a miracle that he survived till morning!

Bottom line: I'm sure theres a thousand percent more guys who died in the woods because they DIDN'T hunt alone than those who died because they did. That's been my experience anyway.

I've hunted alone all my life and even prefer it that way. That being said, I think it's readily obvious that hunting with a partner, that knows what they are doing, is 99 times safer than hunting alone.

I'm gonna have to agree with shotgunlou on this one. I duck hunt alot and have with many a hunters. When I was guiding back in high school for my friends farm, there were a few guys that I straight told that I would never hunt with or guide them ever again. When you find a great hunting partner...those are people to keep around. If I'm under a bear, I want the guy who is gonna walk up to it and shoot it from pointblank range to ensure that he doesn't hit me on accident. I do not want the guy who is gonna stand 20 yards back and take shots at it.

Too bad this gentleman had to use a bow to do a sidearm or rifles job.

Still so many things to be proud of for living in the USA!