Well, people used to hunt bears with spears y'know. You can still do that! And people have killed bears with knives. Hey, maybe it'd be risky as fuck but you're a real man aren't you so don't pussy out brah. Plus, if you're leet you could kill deer with knives.
You forgot to include the fact that this was coordinated GROUP hunting, not just 1-2 guys challenging a bear to a fight with a spear. Sure if I felt like organizing some hunting PARTY to go after a bear with a spear that'd have a better chance for success, but one or two guys... Nah, I stand by the fact that individually humans are sub-part physical specimens of the animal kingdom, thus the necessity for the lame usage of ranged weaponry in hunting larger game. Still within the realm of ranged weaponry there are still various tiers of gay which one can decide to avoid.
Show me a man that says he killed a deer with nothing more than a hunting knife and I'll show you an intolerable liar.
IE:
Hunting moose with a slingshot = badass (if completely impractical and ineffective. More likely to get yourself gored by an angry moose than kill one barring some freaky perfect through the eye shot or something)
Hunting moose with a surface to surface guided missile = pretty damned gay