Spring Bear Reminder- Sows with cubs

[tater]

One of the joys of living where i have lived for as long as i have is that i come to understand some of the rhythms and patterns.
I can glass some great country from my yard, and depending on the time of year i can watch elk, moose, deer and spring bear.

Early last night i caught sight of a decent bear in my binos. Broke out the spotter and thought it might be the decent colour phase boar that i had watched last spring. I had been on the bear for a couple of minutes trying to figure out which bear it was as it fed in an open grass patch when i caught motion in a tree about 60 yards behind and uphill.

I watched and realized it was twin cubs that were about 50 feet up a tree. The sow would swing her head around to look in their direction every few minutes and i'm guessing would "woof" at them to keep them up the tree.

They were up there for almost fifteen minutes before she led them down and to the next grassy spot 200 yards to the North.

Mature sows (she is a nice sized bear) will not always have first year cubs within reach. A buddy of mine that has since passed on was a guide that had a sport shoot a great bear (squared almost 6'7"). He swore it was a good boar, and they watched it for almost 20 minutes before he gave the go ahead.

He always said it was the worst hour of his life as those cubs squealed in a nearby tree while they skinned the "boar" that was a sow.

Be patient and confirm what you are killing. Even if sows with cubs are legal in your area (not in BC), it is still a poor look for hunting and conservation.

 

[Brock A]

This is a really good post. Especially with so many new hunters on the landscape. YouTube videos do not show that part. I have been in three situations where by being patient, we found cubs. Most people without experience would have shot all three of these sows as they were great size bears. If a bear is just grazing, I will try and watch it for an hour.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Don't have to worry about that anymore here in WA.

 

[Brock A]

Don't have to worry about that anymore here in WA.

Well, you still have fall bear and you cannot shoot a sow with a cub for that season.


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[LG1]

I had the same situation last spring. Good post tater.

A bear, across a canyon, at 380 yards, was feeding above a cliff. At first, it looked pretty decent (like many bears do). I watched it for quite sometime, probably 15 minutes or longer. I wasn't planning to shoot because the more I watched through the spotter the less it looked like a boar and not a big one either.

At the base of the cliff, that the bear was feeding above, was a thick red fir tree. The top of the tree was almost level with the feeding bear. I spotted movement in the top of the tree through the edge of view in my spotter. I spied two cubs sitting up there looking at momma who was feeding. I just kept watching and eventually the sow made her way to the base of the cliff and the tree the cubs were in. They scrambled right down to her.

It definitely crossed my mind that it would be real easy for somebody not being patient to shoot and have a dead sow on your hands and two cubs in the tree. I've watch enough awful YT spring bear hunting videos to know that many of those idiots would have been shooting within 20 seconds of sighting what appeared to be a lone bear.

Ya gotta be patient.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Yes

Well, you still have fall bear and you cannot shoot a sow with a cub for that season.


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Yes, everyone knows that. You completely missed my point

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I was a bit irritated when they canned it. I had 4 points I think and that was application money completely wasted. Did I get that back? Nope.

 

[Ron.C]

Good post tater. I spend a pile of time watching bears and all to often I wont/cant see a cub(s) for 10 plus minutes.

Saw this one a couple years back from a distance through the spotter. Watched for a bit, Scarred up face and top of an ear bitten off. Seen that on older boars on several occassions. But I wanted a closer look. Decided to stalk in and when I got to about 70 yards an older cub climbed up from behind.

 

[tater]

Look at the pumpkin head on that old girl!
Thanks for sharing that pic, Ron.

 

[LG1]

Another sow/cub story from yesterday, but it reaffirms my thought to not get hasty with the shot.

A light brownish phase bear walked out into a small opening 260 yards downslope from me. I glassed it for a several minutes and the longer I watched, it didn't appear to be anything boar-ish or large. It looked to be very average size-wise. It did appear to be a lone bear though. and would have been easy to shoot.

The grass and low brush was about 12" tall where the bear was feeding. About 20 feet behind the feeding bear, I caught a very slight movement in the grass. One very tiny cub almost impossible to see was soon followed by a second cub. I only got partial glimpses of them due to the grass and bushes. The sow fed another few minutes and led the cubs into a pocket of thick brush and trees.

She would periodically pop out of the brush pocket to feed for 10-15 minutes in the opening and as if she had a internal timer, she would suddenly stop feeding and walk back into the brush pocket, to check on the cubs. After 10-15 minutes with them she would pop back out to feed again. This went on for a couple hours. At times she would be a 150 yards from where the cubs were stashed and I could not see them at all, but knew they were there.

I'm getting to the point with spring bear hunting anymore, that I'm going to assume they have cubs until it can be proven they don't.

 

[medvedyt]

very important point.

few years ago while spot/ stalking not far from a road along the cleared electric lines my wife and i saw a beautiful cinammon black bear. we took pictures of him observed him for almost 30 min. no other noise, no cubs around, just feeding on roots and yellow flowers and i gave the go after her request. she shot and a good hit but the bear went into deeper forest/wood. less than a minute after a red and blue lights come from the road and i went to check. the CO stated that there is a sow with cubs and that is her we shot. we forced her to wait 30 min before looking for the bear. we went to the shot place full of nice clear blood and of course the bear was found. i turned the bear to put the bear on his back and i stated look a female with a penis sheath ... needless to say she left with not even a word ... and luckily she is not more working as a co ...

when i skinned it it appears that the magic bullet went troughout the ribs without touching bones and destroying both lungs ...nosler partition in 200 gr are a marvel of bullet.

 

[StopMakingSense]

I take more time looking at bears than judging age and curl on sheep

It always kills me to think I'd shoot a female with cubs

 

[KHntr]

He always said it was the worst hour of his life as those cubs squealed in a nearby tree while they skinned the "boar" that was a sow.

Been hunting bears for 4 decades now, and a bunch of those year has been with the same two guys.
I grew up judging bears as my dad was big into hunting grizzlies. I love hunting big bears, always have.
One memory that sticks out like it was yesterday was hunting down near Revelstoke and we drove around a corner and saw a bear feeding on a landing. We were maybe 20 at the time. Stopped and watched the bear for a couple minutes and figured it for maybe at the absolute biggest as a slim 5 footer, and a sow. Might have been 3 years old, maybe.
We left her and drove to the end of the road and turned around (maybe another 3 minutes past her) and turned around and heard a couple shots behind us.

We roll out to find three middle aged guys all excited about the “great big boar” they killed on the edge of the road and they were gearing up to go retrieve. Bear was laying in the ditch.

Dudes started talking about how they look a little bigger when they are alive. My one buddy is looking at her laying there, and I can hear scratching sounds from the trees. My buddy grabs the “great big boar” by the scruff of the neck and the tail and lifts her over the side of the truck into the box. By himself.

One guy got a little testy about him being a dick and being a jerk about their buddies first bear not being a monster bear and trying to make him feel bad about it.
I pointed out that isn’t the part he should feel bad about, the part that was going to make him feel bad was shooting the cub the size of a loaf of bread that he orphaned… poor little bastard was 30’ up a cottonwood tree.

30 years later we still talk about that, and pushing that guy to do the right thing.

Killing a sow with cubs will ruin your afternoon.