On my one and only Maine bear hunt, my rifle wore a Leupold 2-7x Compact with #4. The only bear I saw was on the second evening. It slipped into the bait at 0 DARK:30, as I waited for the guide to come for me. Never heard him coming, just heard munching at the bait barrel. I strained my eyes to see and realized it was a bear, and a rather large one from what little I could tell. I could make out the general form but couldn't see any details. I pulled the rifle up and couldn't see dick in the scope. I raised the rifle to the sky, focused on those bold posts and slowly brought the rifle down towards the bear. As soon as my sight picture met the trees, I lost it. I tried this several times to no avail, while mentally cursing. It was just no use, I couldn't see well enough to shoot and be sure of a good hit, even at 30 yards or whatever it was. If he'd come 5 minutes earlier, I think I'd have been ok but it was just too dark, and probably past legal shooting time anyway. I'm confident I could have hit "bear" and the .375-06 JDJ might have done the trick even with a less than perfect hit, but I couldn't tell his head from his ass and I wasn't going to do that. Finally, I heard the truck in the distance and the bear crashed through the woods sounding like King Kong. Next time, my scope will have more light gathering capability and likely an illuminated reticle. I have a VX-R 2-7x with illuminated #4 and a Meopta 1-6x illuminated that will be strong candidates for my next hunt, Lord willing....
