Another hunter fired the fatal shot that finally killed the bear, and the group skinned it
Another hunter fired the fatal shot that finally killed the bear, and the group skinned it
A North Carolina hunter narrowly survived a bear attack - and he's got the scars to prove it.

Mike Wilson was bear hunting with friends and tracking dogs when he turned around and came face to face with a 390lb bear.

Wilson said the bear was coming up a hill as he was going down it. When he saw the animal, his first instinct was to shoot it.

But trouble arose when he tried to get another shell into his gun.

'It just overrun me and knocked me down the hill,' he told WLOS.

The bear scratched at Wilson's face and neck, only just barely missing his jugular vein.

It then injured two of the group's tracking dogs and killed another before it ran into a hole to hide.

Another hunter in Wilson's group then fired the fatal shot to finally put the bear down.

North Carolina hunter Mike Wilson came face to face with a 390lb bear and just narrowly survived the attack
North Carolina hunter Mike Wilson came face to face with a 390lb bear and just narrowly survived the attack
The bear scratched at Wilson's face and neck, only just barely missing his jugular vein
The bear scratched at Wilson's face and neck, only just barely missing his jugular vein

Wilson's friends took him to the hospital about 30 minutes away in Spruce Pine, and he was released after receiving 30 stitches.

The group then hung and skinned the bear, whose pelt went to the man who shot the bear last.

Wilson left the hunting trip empty-handed, but his cousin Calvin Wilson did come up with a song just for him.

'Grandma got run over by a reindeer. Mike got run over by a bear!' he gleefully sang after it was clear his cousin would be alright.

Calvin said he had never seen any such attack happen in his 50 years of bear hunting.

'Never,' he said. 'Never even heard of it.'