MI Shed Hunter Kills Black Bear in Self Defense

Twenty-three-year-old Kyle Nelson from Norway, Michigan killed a black bear in
self defense while looking for shed antlers on April 12, 2024. He shot the bear with a
CPX2 9 mm handgun made by SCCY that he has with him every time he goes in the
woods.
“I was walking along a swamp bottom where I got a buck last fall to try to find
antlers from bucks that made it through hunting season,” Nelson said. “At one point
I heard a noise by a big pine tree. When I looked toward the sound, a bear stuck its
head around the tree about 10 yards away.
“The bear started running away from me, but then went in a circle and came back
toward me while making threatening sounds. I thought it was going to attack me. I
started shooting when the bear was 14 or 15 steps away. I fired five or six shots and
I think four of them hit the bear.
“One of my last shots broke the bear’s spine. It was still alive, so I walked up to it and
shot it in the head, so it wouldn’t suffer.”
The handgun was loaded with 115 grain FMJ Blazer Bullets, according to Nelson.
The bear acted defensively. It may have been bedded by the base of the pine tree
when Nelson surprised it at close range. The bruin’s initial reaction was to flee, but
it may have simply been trying to size up what surprised it and then decided to
retaliate for being disturbed.
It’s not clear what was responsible for the attack. The bear’s behavior is typical of a
female protecting cubs, but Kyle said he did not see or hear any cubs.
After killing the bear, Nelson called the DNR Report All Poaching (RAP) Hotline to
report what happened. He then used his cell phone to take video of the scene.
“I wanted to make sure I had evidence that I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.
After videotaping where he was standing when he shot the bear in proximity to the
dead animal, to show how close it was to him, he walked out to a road to wait for the
arrival of DNR personnel. Two conservation officers arrived to investigate and they
determined the shooting was justified.
The bear proved to be a female that Nelson estimated would have weighed 150 to
170 pounds. Kyle said he felt bad about shooting the bear, but didn’t think he had a
choice under the circumstances.

Michigan DNR Upper Peninsula law supervisor Ryan Ahofirmed that no charges
were filed in this case. The DNR confiscated the bear. No information is available
about the condition of the bear.
Bears are common in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and so are wolves. That’s why
Nelson said he always carries a handgun with him.
“If I didn’t have a gun, the encounter with that bear probably would have had a
different outcome,” he commented.
The day before the bear incident, Kyle found the skull of a nice 8-point buck. He only
found the deer’s head, so it was impossible to determine how the buck died. The
whitetail could have been wounded by a hunter and not recovered, but the deer
could have been killed by wolves. Nelson also found antlers shed by a pair of 6-
pointers. He’s been deer hunting since he was 12 years old.