So my son who just completed his 1st semester of undergrad studies is thinking ahead to the fall semester and his budget. Since he will be living on his own while in university he is very conscious about his available dollars and the money he has to put out for living expenses and food and such. And since he will be a very busy student, he will have very little time for hunting and opportunity to fill the freezer. So he asked me if we could get a bear or two this spring so he will be set meat wise for the coming two semesters. Not one to turn down a hunting opportunity I agreed to his request.
Never having hunted bear in the spring before, I asked a friend who had done plenty of it for a few tips on where to go and what to look for. Our first outing three weekends ago produced about 40+ deer sightings and one scrawny little bear who wandered down a road in front of us. We passed on it cause it was too small. When people asked if we saw any bears on our outing I replied, "I am diametrically opposed to the killing of any animals with milk still on their lips"!
On the next weekend we tried a farm we have permission to hunt. Bears had started to be seen in the farm fields in the valley so I thought we would try an evening hunt. No luck, but we got to view a number of whitetails.
Then the May Long Weekend came. Bear sightings had been up significantly in the last week with the warmer weather and the lush greens, so I was very optimistic we would see something. We left on Saturday late morning and went to an area that offers plenty of great habitat for sightings. We were only about 1 to 2 kms down a logging road and we already had passed by some great grassy/meadowy areas, then as we left one such area we drove into and skirted the left side of a small cut block when my son yells, "BEAR"! I stopped the vehicle and asked "where?". After a few seconds I spotted the bear in the middle of the cut, but he was already fixing to leave. As the bear headed for the tree line directly opposite us my son got out of the vehicle and fumbled with putting the magazine in his gun. Looking through the binos I could tell this was a shooter bear by our standards (standards which may change on a moments notice) and notified my son as such. As the bear neared the tree line it slowed down, put it's front paws on a large stump, and it turned to take a look back at us. My son took a kneeling position to steady himself, readjusted once, and took aim.