Let my 11 yr old stay home yesterday to head to the stands for a day just to the two of us. A.M. hunt brought no sightings and amounted to taking the bow for a walk in the rain. After breakfast and a siesta waitin for the rain to let up, we headed out for the pm hunt. We decided to hit a little honeyhole stand that usually produces atleast sightings. The stand choice was his by the way. Get on stand and setup and 1/2 hour later, some slight noise behind me and in front of Ryan, and he says " Cool, Dad look a bear!!" . I was kinda in disbelief, but sure enough, there he was all 250-300lbs of him. We had seen him earlier in the season, about a mile and a half away, at that time he had a coyote set on his rf paw. Well he got that off and now has a limp, but to make a long story short ole blackie played around for about 45 mins. Then realized we were ther and mosied off. On the way out , Ryan says " That was the best time, can' t wait to do that again!!! Can we come back tomorrow?" Of course I had to be the party pooper and deny the request ,but we' ll see him again I' m sure. That was his fisrt up close bear (less than 5 yds) and he handled it like a pro with a grin from ear to ear the whole time. Well thanks for the time, hope you enjoy the story half as much as we did. Get those kids out even before they can actually hunt, it makes it 100% more fun!!!!!!!!!!

11 years old and already he' s got braggin' rights - cool !

I can only imagine the pride you felt sharing that experience with him.