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The changing of the leaves in October brings the best bear hunting Arizona has to offer. Last week we set up camp in one of our prime units and went to work. We were able to tree, or see bears everyday. Unfortunately for us the weather was exceptionally warm and while the dogs could get the bear treed. Most of the time the bear would come out or "jump" before we could get a chance at them. The bears were incredibly congregated on feed and at low elevations with high temperatures it turned out to be one TOUGH but exciting hunt. The evening before opening day Daniel and I were able to glass up a nice blacky while we were waiting for our hunter to arrive. http://youtu.be/dsAcmmGzsR8 On the 4th day of the hunt we were able to glass up what looked like a good boar headed for water, we tried to get a shot on him but could not. We put dogs on him where he hit water, they ran him about a mile and half up the mountain and sat down treed. The rest of the story you can see in the video. http://vimeo.com/51361454 We hunted for a bear for Randys' 13 year old son "Hunter" the next 2 days. Tuesday we glassed up at least 4 different bears way up high on the mountain. When they did not cooperate for a shot we walked the dogs in to what we thought was our best shot. The dogs treed in some really nasty bluffs, Hunter and I were 150 yds from the dogs when the bear came down and with the temperature in the high 80's and low 90's the dogs were finished. Wednesday brought more of the same. We glassed up a small bear at about 1000 yds. We watched him work his way up towards the bluffs. Then at 750 yds Paul glassed up a much bigger boar. We watched him feed in the top of the tree for what seemed like an eternity. He came out of the tree looked around and at a dead run went the other way up the mountain. We walked dogs in to where he had been and they screamed out of the country, Paul watched the bear run the dogs through the rocks and bluffs even taking the time to stop, turn around and look and see if the dogs were still coming. We are fairly certain we ran that bear 3 times this week, as he took the dogs to the exact same spot on the mountain everytime. This time 5 of the dogs made it through the bluffs and bluffed him up. It was around noon and very hot before they finally got him caught. Again though, Hunter and I did our best to get up to the dogs as fast as possible but we were 170 yds when we heard him come out and leave the dogs bluffed up. With the heat this was one of the toughest opening weeks I have ever seen. It was 93 degrees when we got Randys' bear back to the truck. We are recuperating and reloading. Next week we will be back at it. Special thanks to Paul, Ben and Jeff for all the help and hard work they put in this week. They really helped make this hunt a success. Thanks guys! Take care and happy hunting. Mike