My Black Bear Hunt

Black Bear Hunt- May 2012
I decided this spring I would try to go after a black bear. Now, I have had a horrible phobia of bears. When Kyle and I first started dating he didn't understand exactly how bad it was. Living in bear country we basically see a bear every time we head out hunting. The first time he got to witness this phobia was when we went hiking through the bush up behind my parents place, there was a black bear heading into the clearing we were heading to for elk hunting that evening. We stopped to let it go on its business.....the whole while I'm hyperventilating and clinging to Kyles arm. Now as the years have gone by (this was 7yrs ago by the way) my fear of them has turned into curiosity. So I decided this was the year I would try to get one...with my rifle, not bow lol. I wasn't brave enough to do it with my bow. I have a Remington .270 for those wondering what I shoot. We drove up the valley deciding to do a 2 night hunt, unfortunately by the time we were able to get up there it was 1:00 in the morning so it turned into a 1 night camp out. We set out early in the morning and within the first half hour we came up to our first bear . He was lounging in a field of tall green grass. Once he seen the truck he took off, we followed on foot but he wasn't interested in what we were. So we headed back to the truck to head to our original destination. It was a good couple hours until we seen another bear and it was a sow with cubs, so we just watched her and her cubs for a little bit until they disappeared. As the day dragged on and without another sighting of a bear we decided we would start to head back to town to get some dinner. As we are heading out we come around the corner and standing in the middle of the road was a black bear. So we pulled over and he went running up a huge hill. We bailed out of the truck and followed suit.  By the time we got to the top he was at the bottom on the other side, not caring we were watching him. So I put my rifle up, settled my cross hairs on him, and pulled the trigger. He ran 20 yards up the hill opposite of us and collapsed on a ledge. I was ecstatic! I conquered my fear and harvested my first bear. He wasn't the prettiest bear, having had frost bite on his entire face so he had no hair. I didn't care, I was happy with my bear!

Nikita