A confrontation with a bear in Allegany County is going to cost a Niagara Falls reservist a week’s salary but he hopes, at least, the incident may serve as a cautionary tale to anyone confronting a wild beast in the woods.

Michael Moore, who has done two stints in Iraq with the Army and is now an Air Force reservist, said he could have been fined up to $2,000 and spent time in jail for killing a bear while hunting this past November in Allegany county.

The bear came up upon Moore in the woods in Birdsall on opening day of deer hunting season November 21.

“I sat there for a good thirty seconds, to see if he would go away,” Moore said as he recalled the incident from his Niagara Falls home in Cayuga Village. “I turned to my right and fired a warning shot.”

When the bear stood up on his hind legs, Moore said, “I feared for my life.”

Moore said he fired a second shot and missed the bear because he was so shook by its presence. The third shot hit the bear and the bear fell to the ground.

“I was scared. I had never dealt with or seen a bear in the woods before,” he said. “He stood over me. I’m 5’11 and he was 6’3 or 6’4.”

Moore said the bear was mortally injured but not dead, so he shot at the animal once more to put it out of its misery.

After the incident he called his fellow hunters on his cell phone and was told the group had a permit to take a bear. They suggested he start gutting the bear but as he was doing that, they called again and said they were mistaken and that bear season had not yet begun. They advised him to call the Department of Environmental Conversation, which is the federal agency that oversees hunters and protects wildlife.

When a DEC officer was eventually contacted and met with Moore at the site, the officer asked a number of questions and then issued Moore a citation for killing a bear out of season.

The incident greatly upset both Moore and his wife, Tonya, who said that she had never heard her husband so shaken.

When her husband called after the event, “his voice was shaky and I thought someone had been hurt. My husband was in the Army for over five years and spent a total of three years overseas. He has seen some terrifying things and I have never heard him so frightened before,” she wrote in an e-mail to the Niagara Gazette regarding the incident.

Moore feels as if he acted conscientiously, following his military training and using his best judgment as he had been taught in arms training.

“If there is a perceived threat you follow protocol,” he said. “A lot of people I’ve talked to said they would have never even fired a warning shot.”

While officials from the DEC are unable to comment on the charge of killing a bear out of season until Moore’s case has been closed, a spokesman said the incident was thoroughly investigated.