Greenhorn goes bear hunting, with pictures.

[Greenhorn]

I have never shot a bear, so to start this spring off I ended up with quite a few bears on my trail cam up in the Little Naches.  I have no idea what I am doing so I pulled out an old cd player/predator call this summer to get me a bear and tried several times with no luck.  The bears had quit visiting my camera by the time bear season rolled around.  I also tried a hand held coyote call and nothing.  So I emailed bearmanric and said I need one of your bear calls and one of your coyote calls.  He was out elk hunting but still mailed them very quickly.  When they showed up I thought man, these are beautiful but do they work?  I don't even know what sounds to make so I just blow in them and whatever comes out comes out.  I had two mornings that I could go hunting near home this past week and the first I didn't see anything other than the deer running away.  So I went out this morning and ended up seeing a sow and two cubs across the canyon 675 yards after I had been blowing on the call but they were walking away from me instead of running towards me.  I decide to head on over the side of the canyon and get close to where I last saw them.  I got down to about 30 yards from the bottom and straight across from a stand of pine trees that went from the top of the other side clear to the bottom of the creek where I last saw the bears enter.  So I start blowing on my call and low and behold the bears are on the upstream side of the stand and start walking back towards straight across from me.  I took the pictures at 120 yds across the creek.  They ended up in the bottom of the creek and then just continued walking downstream away from me to never return.  At what age can you decide to wean the cubs from the mom?  The cubs looked pretty big but they just stayed right on her heals the whole time and they never stopped walking.  Should I have shot the sow and celebrated my first bear?  She looked awfully good to me but I am not one to judge a bears size.  Anyway, I had a great time and there is always next year to get my first bear rug.  I would say that for someone who doesn't have a clue that bearmanric's call worked great and I am going to keep on working to get better at calling.

[xXLojackXx]

Those cubs are border line big enough for me to whack the sow. But I'd probably pass on her

[Greenhorn]

That is about all a guy has to think about for another year, kind of kicking myself now.

[pd]

That is about all a guy has to think about for another year, kind of kicking myself now.

Don't beat yourself up about a hunting decision; hunting is a marathon, not a sprint, and you have a whole lifetime to enjoy it.  For my part, I think you made an honorable decision.

Also, change your nickname.  At 600+ posts, you cannot possibly be a greenhorn.   

[carpsniperg2]

Great pic's. I will help you cut your teeth this year and show you a few things. This year was just to crazy. Don't worry about passing the sow but those cubs would be o.k.

[sebek556]

Man don't be kicking yourself, based on your knowledge you made the call to pass. I always say if your unsure than passing is the proper call. Your already further along then a lot of guys who have never seen a bear. To me the cubs look like yearlings who will be kicked out this spring. In human terms they're that kid that graduated high school and is bumming around on the couch till college 

[BOWHUNTER45]

You made the right decision ...if you have any doubt about your decision do not do it ...Those cubs were probably big enough to make it on their own but you will feel better by letting them have their mom one more year 

[JWhite22]

Way to go greenhorn the fact of the matter is you have gained some good experience and have some awesome pictures! Keep at it, I had a great time on Monday getting out and I didn't see a thing, but got my heart pumping a couple different times.

[saylean]

Great pics!