Originally Posted by Bearhunter52

I'd advise don't bother hunting bears in bad weather, but be out there when the weather breaks. My first bear safari - Twenty years ago a good friend invited me up to Montana to bear hunt. Never having hunted for bears I wasn't that interested. A couple of years after the first invite he still was wanting me to come up and hunt, so I said OK let's go. When I got there my host had some business that had come up and he told me how to get up to the cabin and to have a good time and he be along when he could. Now, I've successfully hunted deer, elk, antelope, coyotes, bobcats and upland birds, but no experience whatsoever at hunting bears. Well I located the cabin and offloaded my gear and got camp setup; and, thought to myself what's next? Got in the pickup drove around a bit and located a creek that flowed through a meadow that had a clearing on both sides of the creek for about 300 yards. I setup on this clearing and was glassing the meadows on the mountains above and thinking that it's a beautiful day and I was glad to be there, even though the chances of actually seeing a bear seemed pretty slim. Tiring of the binoculars, resting my eyes and snacking on some peanut butter crackers, I caught some movement across the creek or a least I thought I saw something. After some scrutiny with the binoculars, there was something there but couldn't quite make it out. As I moved to the left then to the right to try for a better angle, this bear climbed a tree so he could see me. Right about now things start happening pretty fast, the light is fading and now the bear wasn't in the tree. I moved toward his location and he climbed up the tree again to see what I was doing. Being new to this bear hunting deal, I was cognizant enough to figure out it was time to shoot this bear. Put the crosshairs on his shoulder and let her fly, I had a good sight picture but couldn't tell if the shot connected or if he just jumped out of the tree. Waited about 20 minutes watching and listening without seeing or hearing anything, and now it's getting dark. At this point, although I was a little hesitant, it was time to get in there to see what happened. Well turns out the shot was good, the bear was graveyard dead at the base of that tree and I was one happy camper. Took that bear at 200 yards with a 270, that was a lot of years and a few bears ago. Now I'm 65 this year and I've got my bear tag to try it again this spring. It's like my friend told me all those years ago "Bear hunting is addictive".