2021 Spring Bear Thread

My 15 yr old got his first bear this week. Shot it right at dark on the third day of his hunt and even though it only went about 50 yards it took us awhile to find it in the thick stuff. Nighttime pictures look like crap but he's happy to get his first bear. He's the chef of the family so he has all sorts of new recipe plans for the meat.

Still have two more tags we'll try to fill later in May. Good luck to everyone chasing bruins this Spring.
Congrats to you and your son! Searching for a potentially wounded bear in thick cover at dusk has got to be just a bit unnerving!
 
Congrats to you and your son! Searching for a potentially wounded bear in thick cover at dusk has got to be just a bit unnerving!
Thanks! Even though I was pretty confident of the shot, when I had to get on hands and knees in one spot, there was some pretty serious pucker factor going on...
 
They're out for sure and this week they're really gonna be coming out. Some higher stuff my be later. I'm gonna take my bow for a walk hopefully.
 
Went up another of my early season spots late yesterday evening and spotted a nice black bear way up at the top. After I got tired of watching him, I moved a few hundred yards to look at some country a little further up the drainage and spotted a sow griz with two cubs. It is sure fun watching griz cubs, from a distance of course. I didn't end up getting any pics of the black bear that do its size justice, but he was a nice one for this area.

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This weekend is my annual time to get after it in my neck of the woods. Hoping for the traditional 30-40 bear sightings in a day and hopefully put one or two on the ground! Heres a pic of a smoker of a spring bear i would have loved to say hello to but he just would not go to some public land and have a meeting!
 

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Should have tagged a bear tonight. He was circling the bait and as I went to shoot my elbow slipped off the corner of the stand and I shot in front of him. I’m sick with myslef right now. Night I want to forget ever happened.was the big black I shared pictures of earlier in the thread.
 
A friend of mine came to visit today and wanted to see some bears, so I took him up to where I had seen the grizzlies yesterday. Sure enough the sow and cubs were in exactly the same spot and the big black bear was only a couple hundred yards away from where he had been the evening before. After we got tired of watching them, we decided to posthole up the drainage a couple miles to look at some different country. There was a lot more snow up there, but there were still bears in the area. Had this decent bear feeding at a bit over 300 yards for an hour. He is missing most of the fur off his ass end. We got some good looks at it through the spotting scope and it didn't really look like an injury. I am guessing mites in the den? If anyone has any other ideas I'd be curious to hear what you think would have caused this.

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Also got to watch a sow with a new cub play in the snow for a bit. The cub was feeling pretty feisty and was play fighting with mom. It would get up on its hind legs and swat at moms face. She would swing back at it, but was obviously missing on purpose. After awhile they disappeared into a cave under the dark rock above them.

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