My 2012 Arizona Bear

Well for several years now i have put a lot of time and money into bear hunting. I never had any breaks until this year, either the season was not open and I saw bears or I forgot it was open and was unprepared. This year I made it a goal and during archery deer I found my self with a rifle, a tag, and a bear in my scope. Well I missed him at 400 yards and after that I thought this is impossible for me. One week before bear season re-opened I was along with my good buddy Logan glassing for bulls when Logan glassed up an awesome bear. He feed on pears below us for an hour, but we still had a week till it opened. Opening weekend came, we hit the hills scouting for an upcoming white tail hunt. No bears were spotted and very few white tails. Monday morning sitting at work talking with my foreman we thought as soon as we were off we had time to rush out to the hills and hike up the knob we last saw this bear and maybe just maybe see him. 3 o'clock found us in my truck flying to the dirt roads, jumping in my ranger and BOOM! flat tire............ Nothing a couple of plugs jammed in the sidewall couldn't fix. We hit the ground running at 430pm headed up our glassing knob. At 530 pm I glassed the bear 3/4 of a mile up the canyon from us, but he was working our way fast. A quick game plan and I was off closing the distance and Todd stayed behind to help keep an eye on him. At 600pm the bear stepped out at 500 yards and with the light fading as well as time I let one rip. After a couple misses and me figuring out just how far he was (forgot my range finder) I hit him in the lungs and the show was over! I always get excited when I hunt but the over whelming feeling I got walking up on this bear in the dark was something else. One more reason I love Arizona for the opportunities we have as outdoorsmen here. The pack out was pretty tough it took us from 630pm to 1030pm to get him back to the ranger, nasty rough country at night with two guys with packs filled to the top made for one rough Tuesday. The pictures didnt turn out how we wanted them, we fought the focus with being at night, but enjoy what i did manage to get! Thanks