A bowhunter on the search for a deer got more than he bargained for during a rest stop when a rampaging bear charged and attacked.

The shocked bowhunter reacted by quickly grabbing his bow to fight off the snarling bruin. But he knew he wouldn’t have time to get off a shot, so he started climbing a tree.

The bear climbed it right behind him and bit him on the left leg between the knee and ankle. Jerry Hause said he was stunned at how quickly the bear was able to charge and attack. In all his years of hunting in the Longview, Wash., area, he said he’d never seen a black bear. State wildlife officials estimate 25,000 to 30,000 to live in Washington.

Hause and his 26-year old son were bowhunting. His son was in another area. After the attack, Hause was able to contact his wife and son, then get medical help. He said the bear, which he believes might have been a sow protecting a cub, tried to grab his leg and left claw marks.

He couldn’t climb higher so he held tightly to a branch with the angry bear below him. Hause eventually kicked the bruin in the face and after that, it left.

“I was thinking, ‘If it gets me out of this tree I’m a dead man.’ It was mad, it was growling. It was serious about what it was going to do,” Hause told TDN.com.

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