Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. Welcome back to the podcast everyone.
Speaker 1: I hope maybe some of you are enjoying some nicer
Speaker 1: spring weather. I think this week we're gonna just shake
Speaker 1: winter off and we're gonna dive into one of the
Speaker 1: West's best springtime hunts in my opinion, we're talking about bears.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cover my early spring season tactics for targeting
Speaker 1: and finding those emerging bars and where to concentrate your
Speaker 1: efforts this spring season. We're also going to go over
Speaker 1: a few of the best times to look for bears,
Speaker 1: specific spots to concentrate on, and why early spring or
Speaker 1: right now can be a great time to target bears
Speaker 1: spot in stock. But first, I want to share the
Speaker 1: story of a persistent bear hunt gone right. This particular
Speaker 1: hunt really is one that I think if I look back,
Speaker 1: it just hunts that I've guided. This is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite trips and one that I definitely will remember
Speaker 1: for a very long time. I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of reasons behind that. But when you think, when I
Speaker 1: think about a hunt, what makes a hunt hunt that
Speaker 1: I remember, and it's it includes that struggle, that persistence
Speaker 1: and then eventually finding success. And I think that this story,
Speaker 1: if I were to just tell this story of the hunt,
Speaker 1: this particular hunt, it actually starts many years before. I
Speaker 1: had a particular client. Him and his daughter would come out,
Speaker 1: and his daughter really wanted to hunt bears. She they
Speaker 1: had hunted elk with us and she was successful getting
Speaker 1: an elk, but a bear hunt was something that she
Speaker 1: really wanted. She wanted to do it spot in stock.
Speaker 1: So he scheduled a spring hunt and the first year, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: something came up and she couldn't make it. So her
Speaker 1: dad came out and he ended up getting a bear
Speaker 1: like kind of right off the bat, and of course
Speaker 1: it was like that was her dream hunt, the one
Speaker 1: that she's supposed to go on, but unfortunately, some some
Speaker 1: stuff came up and she couldn't come. So the following
Speaker 1: year she came out. And spring bear hunting can be
Speaker 1: a lot of boredom mixed and hiking and everything mixed
Speaker 1: in with just sheer excitement. We had some good spots,
Speaker 1: we had some good stocks, but when we got into position,
Speaker 1: the bears kind of disappeared. On the last day of
Speaker 1: the hunt that week, we were going back into this
Speaker 1: one spot where we'd seen quite a bit of sign
Speaker 1: and seen actually a couple of bears earlier in the week.
Speaker 1: It was like mid morning, and um, I look over.
Speaker 1: We're just kind of talking, kind of you know, just bsng,
Speaker 1: and I look around, like there's a bear and it's
Speaker 1: a big bear and it's close, like seventy five yards.
Speaker 1: And Micah the hunter, she was really I mean, she's
Speaker 1: a really good shot. I've seen her shoot. She shoots
Speaker 1: tournaments for skeet and other things like she's she's really
Speaker 1: good under pressure. But when that bear was seventy five
Speaker 1: yards away, I don't know, just something happened. She pulled
Speaker 1: up the gun and missed, missed the shot, and the
Speaker 1: bear ran away, And it was just heartbreaking for me
Speaker 1: as a guy seeing how hard she'd work, how hard
Speaker 1: she'd hiked, you know, she shot, she practiced all for
Speaker 1: that moment, and then I just know that feeling, let's happened,
Speaker 1: Like the best of us have done that, taking a
Speaker 1: bad shot and and just not connected. And it was
Speaker 1: a really big bear. And I actually just to result
Speaker 1: in the window, was like, hey, you know, let's let's
Speaker 1: go back tomorrow morning and see if we can find
Speaker 1: him again. But unfortunately they had to be back for
Speaker 1: a tournament ski shooting. I guess trap, what I know,
Speaker 1: I guess sporting place. There we go one of those
Speaker 1: clay pigeon flying someone shooting at sporting events, and um,
Speaker 1: they're like, now we gotta be back for this tournament.
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, well, I'm gonna go in
Speaker 1: there tomorrow and see if I can find that bear.
Speaker 1: And I ended up actually shooting that bear myself the
Speaker 1: next day after they had to leave, which was pretty
Speaker 1: much I think it was the biggest uh Montana bear
Speaker 1: I've ever shot, so like, of course, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: do I send him a picture of this bear? Is
Speaker 1: that just gonna be like rubbing salt on the wound.
Speaker 1: So the following year she came back, we hunted and
Speaker 1: you had to do a lot of hiking get into
Speaker 1: some spots. She had a shot on a really good
Speaker 1: bore again, um, but just this time, having missed the
Speaker 1: last shot, hesitated too long not feeling comfortable with a shot,
Speaker 1: didn't take a shot, the bear disappeared and we ended
Speaker 1: up not finding him. Fast forward to a year later,
Speaker 1: we're like, all right, this is the year where it's
Speaker 1: all gonna come together. We had a miss, we had
Speaker 1: a hesitation, that kind of missed opportunity. This year is
Speaker 1: gonna be the year. And she's put in a lot
Speaker 1: of time, a lot of effort, and I really, I
Speaker 1: mean I wanted to see her get a bear as
Speaker 1: much as she wanted to get a bear. Uh. The
Speaker 1: first night, the first evening, the first day, my wife
Speaker 1: and I were out with them, and uh, we walk
Speaker 1: over this little rise and it's just like the wind
Speaker 1: hit our back just I was looking in there, like
Speaker 1: something feels wrong. I just feel like there's a bear
Speaker 1: in here, and I'm looking, looking, looking, and then the
Speaker 1: wind swirls and a bear runs out and it's all
Speaker 1: a nice, nice bear and everything. This particular week, we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: it's it was nice, cool weather. We wake up the
Speaker 1: next morning and everything had changed. Things were already a
Speaker 1: little bit stacked against us because it was a full moon.
Speaker 1: But it's just the only kind of week that we
Speaker 1: could hunt and then of course it just gets hot,
Speaker 1: and two things that do not combine well when it
Speaker 1: comes to hunting bears. Is a lot of heat in
Speaker 1: a full moon in my opinion for spot and stock
Speaker 1: bear hunting. So we hunted hard all week and that
Speaker 1: was probably the hardest. I mean, we went into some
Speaker 1: some of my best places, some great backcountry spots, just
Speaker 1: glass and doing everything right, and just could not turn
Speaker 1: up another bear that he really killed us. Now, fast
Speaker 1: forward to the last day of the hunt. That was
Speaker 1: probably the fewest amount of bears I'd seen in a
Speaker 1: week of hunting in a very long time. Just that
Speaker 1: one bear the first evening of the first day, and
Speaker 1: it was it was a good bear, but man, it
Speaker 1: was just slim pickings. We couldn't turn up a bear
Speaker 1: to save our lives. So the last day I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, I've got this spot because it's hot. Normally
Speaker 1: early I wouldn't be trying to hunt a water hole.
Speaker 1: But I was like, man, it's so freaking hot this year,
Speaker 1: maybe they're gonna be hitting some water. So I thought
Speaker 1: the best is just real tighten there. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna bring in some chairs. We're gonna like bring
Speaker 1: in blind, and we're gonna sit there all day and
Speaker 1: hopefully a bear will come in. Did you cool down
Speaker 1: to wallow around in this area where I had seen
Speaker 1: a lot of sign but we just had not been
Speaker 1: seeing any bears, And thought, well, if we sit there
Speaker 1: all day, maybe something will happen. After after a morning
Speaker 1: was just a bust and there's quite a ways in
Speaker 1: from the trailhead. So I packed up and my pack
Speaker 1: was just loaded down. I had, like I did, I'm
Speaker 1: not really set up for backcountry sitting, but I thought,
Speaker 1: this particular time, I'm going to give it a shot.
Speaker 1: Just a random tactic that I normally pull out way
Speaker 1: later in the season, but just because of the heat
Speaker 1: and everything, I thought, man, maybe this tactic will work.
Speaker 1: But I was also thinking I'm not good at sitting,
Speaker 1: and I really don't want to sit in a blind
Speaker 1: all day in the heat. But nothing else is really working.
Speaker 1: The bears aren't moving, so we'll see if this works
Speaker 1: because it's the only way that we can hunt this
Speaker 1: really thick timber and maybe a place where they'd concentrate
Speaker 1: to and and maybe be successful. So I load up,
Speaker 1: We load up everything I've got, like chairs that are
Speaker 1: not not super paccable. I don't even know how much
Speaker 1: my packway it was a lot. I had a lot
Speaker 1: of just random stuff in there. I'm like, if I'm
Speaker 1: gonna sit, I need like some waters, some lunch. I
Speaker 1: need a lot of lunch because I'll probably be snacking
Speaker 1: all day. Like comfortable chair, whatever, Just make it so
Speaker 1: we can sit comfortable and quiet. So I'm hiking up
Speaker 1: and I'm just thinking to myself, Man, this is gonna
Speaker 1: suck sitting all day. And I'm thinking that. About like
Speaker 1: halfway there, I look up in this clear cut off
Speaker 1: the trail and I just dropped, like bear, It's like
Speaker 1: what And I put everything down. I still have my
Speaker 1: spotting scope because I thought this might happen, I might
Speaker 1: need to glass on the way up, take out my
Speaker 1: spotting scope. Look at it, and I'm like that it's
Speaker 1: a big bore. We need to get over there. Right
Speaker 1: At this point, he's about six d and fifty yards
Speaker 1: seven yards. I'm like, okay, I'm looking at it, and
Speaker 1: he goes behind. He's like in this regrowth of kind
Speaker 1: of like a combination of a burn and an old
Speaker 1: logged area. So I'm like, all right, sweet, So we
Speaker 1: move in on this there's actually off the trail as
Speaker 1: this like old logging robe. It's just so overgrown. So
Speaker 1: we get in and I we get to a spot
Speaker 1: where I can see where the bear was and I
Speaker 1: range it's like two hundred yards no bear Like, all right,
Speaker 1: he's got to be in here. So I get her
Speaker 1: set up and get some shooting sticks ready, and I've
Speaker 1: just got to actually like cut down branches so we
Speaker 1: can even see this little hole. I'm like, all right,
Speaker 1: he's he's got to be in here. I don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: we hustled, we got there quick. He's just got to
Speaker 1: be in here somewhere. And this is like right around
Speaker 1: high noon. We're going in thinking maybe we'll see something
Speaker 1: in the evening. And this bear was just out in
Speaker 1: the heat. It's probably seventy four degrees that day, just
Speaker 1: out in the heat at noon, feeding around. All right.
Speaker 1: So we get set up and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I see the head of the bear pop up over
Speaker 1: a log, but turn yards away. Tried to direct her
Speaker 1: to where he's at. He's like, I'm like, okay, he's
Speaker 1: right there. He's really hard to see. I can just
Speaker 1: see a piece of him, but you're just gonna get
Speaker 1: the rifle on him and just wait. And he's starting
Speaker 1: to feed. And I see he's starting to feed, and
Speaker 1: then there's this patch of timber maybe yeah, fifty yards
Speaker 1: from it. I'm like, he's gonna start going toward that
Speaker 1: that timber, towards that creek on the other side. He's
Speaker 1: he's going to be moving out of the center at
Speaker 1: some point. I don't think he's just gonna stay right here,
Speaker 1: but there's gonna be very few openings, so just stay
Speaker 1: on him. So she finds him, stays on him. The
Speaker 1: bear starts moving moving, and he just moves behind tree.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh no, that's it. And then he turns
Speaker 1: around and starts feeding back. I'm like, okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: Just pick a spot, nice and easy, squeezes the trigger. Boom,
Speaker 1: perfect shot, bear rolls over. It's done. She was shaking.
Speaker 1: She was crying out of excitement. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I was just out of sheer like excitement.
Speaker 1: For her, it was as close to I have ever come,
Speaker 1: just shedding a tear of just how exciting it was.
Speaker 1: It was awesome because her dad was there as well.
Speaker 1: He got to watch the whole thing and it was
Speaker 1: just as exciting for me and him as it was
Speaker 1: for her. Went up and uh, I actually called my
Speaker 1: wife to help come up and pack out, and her
Speaker 1: and my dad came up and packed out, and we're
Speaker 1: all just celebrating, and it was just an awesome, awesome trip.
Speaker 1: Skin of the bear out, got all the meat, and
Speaker 1: then packed it out in the middle of the day
Speaker 1: on a day when I definitely did it not expect
Speaker 1: to see a bear out in the open, and on
Speaker 1: a day when it was the last day of the hunt,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was probably not going to happen,
Speaker 1: but we were just trying whatever tactics we could and
Speaker 1: ended up seeing one kind of randomly, but keeping persistent
Speaker 1: and not giving up and just pretty much hunting extremely
Speaker 1: hard for this bear. It was a really, really exciting
Speaker 1: experience for everyone. And that right there is just what
Speaker 1: makes spring bear hunting somewhat unpredictable but also extremely exciting.
Speaker 1: When it comes to spring bear hunting, there are some
Speaker 1: things that you can do to kind of consistently find success.
Speaker 1: I found that of of most hunts, spring bears can
Speaker 1: be one of the more difficult hunts to find consistent success.
Speaker 1: But I've found certain times a year. There's certain tactics
Speaker 1: that you can employ that help increase those odds of
Speaker 1: success and finding bears. I think the number one thing
Speaker 1: that most new bear hunters in areas where it's spot
Speaker 1: and stock bear hunting or where it's not allowed to
Speaker 1: use dogs or use bait, find that sometimes the hardest
Speaker 1: part is just finding a bear. And then there's other
Speaker 1: hunters that are out there that are consistently successful to
Speaker 1: and see multiple bears every day, and I want to
Speaker 1: give you the tips on how to be those guys
Speaker 1: to kind of find that consistent success and how to
Speaker 1: really hone in on what those bears want, and the
Speaker 1: time of year and the tactics to employ, because what
Speaker 1: you might do right now, uh, mid April through the
Speaker 1: beginning of May would be different than mid May to
Speaker 1: end of June. And there's a lot of reasons for that.
Speaker 1: So we're going to cover a few things, including the timing,
Speaker 1: some things to think about, and then where to look,
Speaker 1: and why hunting earlier it can be really good. I
Speaker 1: know in the past some people used to shy away
Speaker 1: from hunting early because they say, oh, the bears aren't
Speaker 1: out of hibernation yet, and on really late winters. Sometimes
Speaker 1: that can be the case for most places. Right now,
Speaker 1: most of the bears will probably be out of hibernation.
Speaker 1: So I think it's gonna be kind of important to
Speaker 1: first look at the way that bears hibernate and where
Speaker 1: they're going right after that hibernation, what their first moves are.
Speaker 1: So if you think about the way that bears now
Speaker 1: is they'll go up into a big canyon. They generally
Speaker 1: get like let's say you're in an area where the
Speaker 1: highest elevation is ten thousand feet and the valley floors
Speaker 1: maybe three thousand feet. I tend to find that bears
Speaker 1: well kind of hibernate in that maybe seven thousand foot range,
Speaker 1: fairly high up the mountain. There's a few reasons for that,
Speaker 1: and obviously they can do different things everywhere. But what
Speaker 1: they do is they end up like they'll dig their
Speaker 1: den or they'll there's just kind of three ways that
Speaker 1: bears den, so they they'll mostly I I believe that
Speaker 1: most of them actually just dig their own dens, and
Speaker 1: they rarely use the same den twice, but they'll be
Speaker 1: in kind of similar areas, like the same canyon or
Speaker 1: the same kind of elevation and depends on the snow level,
Speaker 1: the type of year, lots of things. So they'll go up,
Speaker 1: they'll dig in, and they pretty much dig it like
Speaker 1: for the most part about the size of their body. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: they might find something to den in like a crack
Speaker 1: between two rocks, maybe a cave, maybe like a big
Speaker 1: stump or things like that. I've I've found dens like
Speaker 1: that as well. Um And then they primarily will like
Speaker 1: they'll dig that den. They kind of want it where
Speaker 1: it's gonna provide a lot of insulations, so it's pretty tight,
Speaker 1: and they want it where there's gonna be snow packed
Speaker 1: because I just think about it, like for us, if
Speaker 1: it's winter time and we're trying to stay warm. If
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever done it, but building
Speaker 1: a snow cave is a great way to stay warm,
Speaker 1: Like snow is a great insulator. So they're generally gonna
Speaker 1: be on those north facing slopes where that snow is
Speaker 1: gonna hold in, it's gonna pack, And you think they
Speaker 1: want to be on that warm, sunny south face, but
Speaker 1: for the longer period of time, they're gonna want that
Speaker 1: snowpack to kind of cover up their den and insulate
Speaker 1: them from whatever winter weather is happening. Now. When it
Speaker 1: comes time to emerge from the den's the big boars
Speaker 1: are generally, in my opinion, the first ones that come out,
Speaker 1: like a lot of seasons, start April fifteenth and on
Speaker 1: late winter years, sometimes the only bears you'll see out
Speaker 1: right away will be males. Um it depends on the winter.
Speaker 1: You know, if you've got a light winter, many of
Speaker 1: the bears might already all be out of hibernation by now.
Speaker 1: If you've got like more of a harsh winter where
Speaker 1: there's still a lot of heavy snowpack and maybe kind
Speaker 1: of a late winter, then you might see, you know,
Speaker 1: mostly just boares early early on. And that's one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that I like to hunt the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season is you tend to find bears emerging in
Speaker 1: this order. It's it's boares, and then it's females without cubs,
Speaker 1: and then females with cubs. I've found that for some
Speaker 1: reason in my experience, it seems like the females with
Speaker 1: cubs tend to den higher up, because I think that
Speaker 1: they're planning on staying in the den longer. The way
Speaker 1: that bears breed, they breed in June, but that egg
Speaker 1: isn't implanted till later, and then they're born in the
Speaker 1: den and I think that gives them a little bit
Speaker 1: more time. That also gives the big boars time to
Speaker 1: hunt for those dens, and I have found that early
Speaker 1: in the season you'll see big boars up high in
Speaker 1: the snow, and I truly believe that what they're doing
Speaker 1: is they're looking for those denning nails with cubs in
Speaker 1: actively hunting them, And that can be kind of a
Speaker 1: good tactic to take early in the season, especially if
Speaker 1: you've got a little bit later winter where you might
Speaker 1: run into those other bears looking for bears to kill
Speaker 1: or bears to eat, because those boards will kill those
Speaker 1: cubs and then they know that, hey, that's that's potentially
Speaker 1: killing their competitors offspring, and it's gonna allow that saw
Speaker 1: to come into heat later on in the season. So
Speaker 1: I think you've got to think about first early season,
Speaker 1: breaking it out. Okay, what's the first moves of bears,
Speaker 1: How are they how are they getting out of hibernation,
Speaker 1: what are they doing? Well, as soon as they get out,
Speaker 1: they're gonna be looking for food. Um An episode thirty
Speaker 1: three I tried to focus on kind of finding those
Speaker 1: food sources, but I want to dive a little bit
Speaker 1: deeper because early is when they're going to primarily be
Speaker 1: targeting UM a couple of things. First off, potential winter
Speaker 1: kill like undulant deer, elk, moose, whatever that didn't survive
Speaker 1: the winter. Those bigger boards will be cruising around for those.
Speaker 1: But the first things that they're probably gonna be eating
Speaker 1: is just regend new growth. And a lot of that
Speaker 1: good new growth is going to be out in the open.
Speaker 1: Actually on some of those south facing slopes in the
Speaker 1: avalanche shoots right on the snow line, is that snow
Speaker 1: starts to melt away, that that tends to be some
Speaker 1: really good green grass. One of the first things that
Speaker 1: I look for. Let's say I go into an area
Speaker 1: and early in the season, I like to pick canyons
Speaker 1: where I've got openings that I can glass, and I
Speaker 1: like to pick a good vantage where I've got a
Speaker 1: lot of cover, and I look for what I call
Speaker 1: neon signs. It's just you look at the mountain and
Speaker 1: anything that's super green, it really tells you that's where
Speaker 1: that new growth is. Early is is the best time
Speaker 1: to pick out those those neon areas, those areas that
Speaker 1: are just really gonna be high productive new growth, new buds,
Speaker 1: and things that's gonna be really good food for bears
Speaker 1: to target first. I also like to look for areas
Speaker 1: where it's a little more open, not that the bears
Speaker 1: like the open, but because I can actually see. One
Speaker 1: of the benefits to hunting early is a lot of
Speaker 1: the the like the roughage, the alder, the other kinds
Speaker 1: of plants around may not necessarily have leaves fully formed yet,
Speaker 1: so you can actually glass into the cover a little
Speaker 1: bit better, so it allows you to glass a little
Speaker 1: bit longer. One thing that I have seen with early
Speaker 1: season bear hunting is you know you can you can
Speaker 1: set up, and it's more you have more option to
Speaker 1: glass all day. It makes longer hunting days, but it
Speaker 1: also kind of allows you more places to look um
Speaker 1: kind of get bored a little less. For me personally,
Speaker 1: I'll zoom in my scope or use I actually really
Speaker 1: like to use twenty power binoculars. Get into a good
Speaker 1: zone and just grid that cover after the like first
Speaker 1: part of the morning when I think they might be moving,
Speaker 1: and look in those places where, hey, the leaves have
Speaker 1: fallen and I might be able to pick out a
Speaker 1: bear in there, or you might see one in the
Speaker 1: open and you might be able to watch to where
Speaker 1: it goes and beds down for the day. You may
Speaker 1: not be able to actually see the bear bedded. I
Speaker 1: think in my years of bear hunting, I've only spotted
Speaker 1: a couple of bears bedded. But you might be able
Speaker 1: to kind of get an idea of where that bear
Speaker 1: is and then get into a shooting position and wait
Speaker 1: for that bear to come out in the evening. One
Speaker 1: thing I like to do when it comes to picking
Speaker 1: a time for spring bear hunting I found for spot
Speaker 1: and stock. I really like to find the times that's
Speaker 1: not a full moon. Um. I think there's two factors
Speaker 1: that really I wouldn't necessarily know if it limits bear movement,
Speaker 1: but maybe limits bear movement in those mornings and evening
Speaker 1: times when you're most alert, when you're most concentrating your efforts,
Speaker 1: And I think that having a full moon kind of
Speaker 1: limits their movements to weird times of the day. I
Speaker 1: also think that heat is a huge factor when it
Speaker 1: comes to spring bears, so hunting early you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to worry about it being too hot right away.
Speaker 1: As the season progresses, it starts to get hot and
Speaker 1: it kind of throws off. It makes it one hard
Speaker 1: to kind of hunt fine shade. You're you're almost looking
Speaker 1: for shade as much as you're looking for bears, and
Speaker 1: you often think, well, the bears are probably doing the same.
Speaker 1: But I actually haven't found that the case, because I have.
Speaker 1: I was just going back through my photos and notes
Speaker 1: and looking last year. I mean, I found a couple
Speaker 1: of different bears. It just random times, Like noon seemed
Speaker 1: to be the best time for bear movement during the
Speaker 1: full moon last year, and actually over the years, like
Speaker 1: mid day they seem to move in the middle of
Speaker 1: the day, But that mid day can be a very
Speaker 1: long stretch of sunny, hot weather when it's very hard
Speaker 1: to like look and stay vigilant and kind of think
Speaker 1: in your head, now, nothing's gonna move now, or how
Speaker 1: do I know if this is a productive area. I've
Speaker 1: watched it all morning and watched it all evening. Should
Speaker 1: I stay here all day? Is this gonna be a
Speaker 1: productive area? So I like to actually hunt when there's
Speaker 1: um like a waning or a growing moon, just after
Speaker 1: a new moon or just before in those times, I
Speaker 1: find I tend to find bears being more crepuscular than
Speaker 1: like moving out in the open in those times with
Speaker 1: those good moons. It's not saying that bears I mean,
Speaker 1: I've never tracked bears. It's just saying like they move
Speaker 1: out of cover at the times that I'm looking more often,
Speaker 1: I find, probably on average full moon weeks, because generally
Speaker 1: when I'm guiding or hunting bears, I hunt the whole season,
Speaker 1: so I've got a few full moon weeks in there
Speaker 1: that I have to hunt and we're still successful, but
Speaker 1: it's a lot harder work than those times when the
Speaker 1: moon is really good. My best bear seasons are always
Speaker 1: when there's a really like no moon during the beginning
Speaker 1: of the first few weeks, because I tend to find
Speaker 1: that there's a lot of big bars out and more
Speaker 1: active then. And then also you kind of get less heat,
Speaker 1: so they stay out a lot longer than mornings, and
Speaker 1: they come out a lot sooner in the evenings. In
Speaker 1: my opinion, that's just over looking at bears for hundreds
Speaker 1: of days. But I think that if you kind of
Speaker 1: factor those things into your spring plan, you'll be a
Speaker 1: lot more successful now when it comes to hunting bears
Speaker 1: in the early part of the season. So for a
Speaker 1: lot of places, the season opened April, and I would say,
Speaker 1: let's call April to May tenth the early part of
Speaker 1: the season, and then May tenth to the thirty the
Speaker 1: later part of the season. Or if it's a season
Speaker 1: that goes into June, let's say so April fifteenth to
Speaker 1: May fifteenth the early season, and then April fifty two
Speaker 1: June to be kind of that later in the season.
Speaker 1: One thing you want to think about depending on you know,
Speaker 1: if it's a late winner, if you're hunting in an area,
Speaker 1: you might be hunting where there's still a lot of snow.
Speaker 1: And one thing you want to think about is when
Speaker 1: you're spotting for bears. Obviously you don't want to shoot
Speaker 1: stals with cubs I ten. I mean, if you don't
Speaker 1: really know how to identify bore in a sow right away,
Speaker 1: or it's it can be difficult, and it can be
Speaker 1: difficult for anyone. I've looked over a lot of bears
Speaker 1: and still every once in a while I make a
Speaker 1: wrong judgment call. But what I always do is, I oh,
Speaker 1: is to make sure to look for cubs earlier in
Speaker 1: the season, it's important to watch the bears longer because
Speaker 1: what will happen is the sal's will actually emerge from
Speaker 1: the den and kind of leave the cubs behind. There's
Speaker 1: been times where I've sat and watched the bear for
Speaker 1: five or ten minutes. I'm like, well, I know it's
Speaker 1: a sal but she doesn't have any cubs, And then
Speaker 1: here come two little rug rats screaming out of the
Speaker 1: bushes A little bit later. I think that that tends
Speaker 1: to happen earlier. I find that later on, And that's
Speaker 1: not I'm not saying, you know, make rash judgments or whatever, later,
Speaker 1: but I tend to find that that is the case.
Speaker 1: Like later on, the cubs are generally with her a
Speaker 1: lot tighter, so you see them sooner. But that's one
Speaker 1: thing to think about if you're hunting early. One way.
Speaker 1: Another thing kind of about early spring hunting is the
Speaker 1: boars don't have as much weight on them. They've just
Speaker 1: come out of hibernation. They're a lot smaller like as
Speaker 1: far as weight wise, but they can be easier to identify.
Speaker 1: I really look for that barrel chest that the head
Speaker 1: shape on a board looks a little bit different. They
Speaker 1: grow wide, they have larger heads, especially compared to their
Speaker 1: body size. One thing you'll see like a boar, his
Speaker 1: his head tends to match his body a little bit better,
Speaker 1: whereas a sow seems to be like a real big
Speaker 1: body and a real small head. Another thing I notice
Speaker 1: is sous tend to be a little more back end heavy,
Speaker 1: so bigger rear ends, whereas boars are more like front
Speaker 1: end heavy. They have larger barrel chests, more weight on
Speaker 1: that front. Sometimes you'll see, and this does happen with
Speaker 1: old sows too, more of like a hump you kind
Speaker 1: of see on the boar is not necessarily like a
Speaker 1: grizzly type hump, but just more of a swede back.
Speaker 1: It seems like their neck and their front end is
Speaker 1: a lot more stout as opposed to like a real
Speaker 1: skinny neck, a real small head, and then even a
Speaker 1: bigger body. That would kind of distinguish a sou. Other
Speaker 1: things you can kind of look for if you've got
Speaker 1: time and you can glossom while they're doing their thing.
Speaker 1: You know, if they urinate and it seems to be
Speaker 1: coming from the middle of their body, it would be
Speaker 1: a boar. But if they tend to be in a
Speaker 1: more squatting position, it would be a sou You don't
Speaker 1: get to see that too often. I have, you know,
Speaker 1: been able to id to fy some smaller bears that way,
Speaker 1: especially earlier in the spring, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a tough way to tell unless you
Speaker 1: have a really good look at them. But generally, just
Speaker 1: based on their size and outline is a good is
Speaker 1: a good beginning and one thing you want to start
Speaker 1: doing when you when you're out there, when you're seeing bears,
Speaker 1: kind of take note mentally on Okay, that's how does
Speaker 1: this bear look, how does he look proportionately to himself,
Speaker 1: and what time of year is it. You know, if
Speaker 1: it's earlier and it looks like a really big bear,
Speaker 1: most bears when they come out there a little bit smaller.
Speaker 1: So actually those boars look quite a bit bigger than
Speaker 1: those sows that are really drained out. They they've lost
Speaker 1: a lot of weight, um, especially the ones that have cubs.
Speaker 1: You know, if I see a bear that looks pretty skinny,
Speaker 1: pretty gaunt, then I'm definitely gonna wait and watch for
Speaker 1: a long time to make sure that there's no cubs,
Speaker 1: or it's a or it's a boar. Smaller boars will
Speaker 1: look like that as well, but especially early, you find
Speaker 1: that with the sows, uh, the big boars, when they
Speaker 1: first come out, they tend to look big. You go,
Speaker 1: it's a big bear, And I think one problem for
Speaker 1: new bear hunters is all bears look big. So, just
Speaker 1: as a public service announcement, if you're just getting into
Speaker 1: bear hunting, maybe this is your first bear trip, do
Speaker 1: yourself a favor. Watch a lot of videos of bears
Speaker 1: in the field, Watch a lot of videos of maybe
Speaker 1: some bear identification videos. I know I've seen someone most
Speaker 1: phishing game websites, and really kind of analyze that, and
Speaker 1: then spend some time looking at the animal that you're
Speaker 1: going after. There's not a lot of times sometimes and
Speaker 1: it feels like there's not a lot of time. But
Speaker 1: one thing you'll learn is you can watch a bear,
Speaker 1: see where he goes, and they're going to be in
Speaker 1: that area. So there are times where you think I've
Speaker 1: watched the bear going in the morning, I think, oh,
Speaker 1: he's gonna come out in the evening and never see
Speaker 1: him come out. Um, But the next day in the
Speaker 1: morning they're right back in there. They've got that food
Speaker 1: source and they're gonna for all intents and purposes. If
Speaker 1: they've got a good food source, they'll continue to hit it.
Speaker 1: You can identify bears as well, just by certain markings
Speaker 1: on the bears. So I like to keep track of
Speaker 1: bears that I see throughout the week and say, okay,
Speaker 1: really analyze a I didn't get a good look at
Speaker 1: this beer, but it's got it's got this white chest blaze. Oh,
Speaker 1: it's got a big rub on its left side. And
Speaker 1: then I can start to identify those single bears as
Speaker 1: they come out and kind of start to build out
Speaker 1: a pattern on how are they feeding, what times are
Speaker 1: they feeding, where they at. If a bear disappears in
Speaker 1: a smaller area, I'll know that it's probably in there,
Speaker 1: and I will try to get closer and then watch
Speaker 1: that area later on in the day within range or
Speaker 1: within shooting range to see if that bear comes out.
Speaker 1: I think one of the major difficulties with spot and
Speaker 1: stock of bear hunting is you'll see a bear and
Speaker 1: then it disappears, and that happens quite often. One thing,
Speaker 1: one tactic that I use, especially if I'm hunting up
Speaker 1: higher earlier, I like to earlier in the season hunt
Speaker 1: quite a bit higher because I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: more concentration in the bears higher. But also it's just
Speaker 1: easier type hunting. It's difficult to rain, but it's easier glassing.
Speaker 1: I have more ability to see more open area. I
Speaker 1: might be up near the tree lane, there might be
Speaker 1: big snowfields that I can cover really quick with my eyes,
Speaker 1: and then focusing on those areas that have like food
Speaker 1: and cover really close together, so I can scan a
Speaker 1: lot more area in a shorter amount of time and
Speaker 1: be more effective in it. One thing that I found
Speaker 1: those you'll see a bear, it goes into that cover
Speaker 1: and then okay, now what I saw that bear two
Speaker 1: miles away? How do I get over there before that
Speaker 1: bear disappears? What do I do? Bears kind of feed
Speaker 1: in very erratic patterns. They'll go one way and sometimes
Speaker 1: I'll go right back the way that they came. So
Speaker 1: you get over there, you go, okay, was feeding this way?
Speaker 1: He should pop out and you never see him again.
Speaker 1: What I like to do if I know it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a long ways away and I don't have time
Speaker 1: to get there for a shot. While it's out, I'll
Speaker 1: just watch where it goes and then I'll make my move,
Speaker 1: get into position, and then sit and wait, and I'll
Speaker 1: do that kind of like in a similar way that
Speaker 1: I do with elk, where you see where the bear is,
Speaker 1: you kind of watch and assess what it does. Then
Speaker 1: you go in to get into position and continue being
Speaker 1: vigilant throughout the day, hoping for that bear to either
Speaker 1: feedback in the evening or make a move into the
Speaker 1: opening um while you're set up within range. It seems
Speaker 1: like most bears early season, it's like if you're rifle hunting,
Speaker 1: it's either going to be shot across the canyon at
Speaker 1: a long distance or a really close range because you've
Speaker 1: got to be on the same hillside and kind of
Speaker 1: shooting right there. One thing I try to avoid is
Speaker 1: getting on the same hillside if I'm rifle hunting, I
Speaker 1: like to get away, get back far enough where I've
Speaker 1: got a good range right Like, no, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: super efficient, say to three yards, but I've got a
Speaker 1: good broad view of where it's going to come out,
Speaker 1: because sometimes they'll pop out lower, sometimes I'll pop out higher,
Speaker 1: but they'll be in that general vicinity and that's a
Speaker 1: really good way to kind of close the gap and
Speaker 1: bring it in on a bear that you've spotted earlier,
Speaker 1: but get to within range and then sit and set
Speaker 1: up and be patient and wait for it to come
Speaker 1: out again. Really, I can't stress enough how much food
Speaker 1: source is tied into bear hunting success. So early season
Speaker 1: and really figuring out what are the bears gonna be eating,
Speaker 1: where are the food sources? Looking for those neon green patches,
Speaker 1: anything that looks super bright, super green and doesn't look
Speaker 1: like everything else, uh, is a really good place to
Speaker 1: key in on your keen in on that food source.
Speaker 1: But you're saying, okay, in an area where it's all
Speaker 1: food source, maybe find that one thing that's gonna be
Speaker 1: a little bit different that they like. So hey, if
Speaker 1: it's all pretty green already where you're at, look for
Speaker 1: that wet spot that's even brighter green. That the place
Speaker 1: with the highest amount of nutrients. That's where the bears
Speaker 1: are going to focus their energy. They aren't stupid, They're
Speaker 1: very selective eaters. They know what the good stuff is,
Speaker 1: and they tend to know that if they feed, they
Speaker 1: can feed less amount of time or the same amount
Speaker 1: of time, but get higher nutrients and help build their
Speaker 1: body weights up right away. So they're gonna focus in
Speaker 1: on those highest nutrient places. When I'm looking in an area,
Speaker 1: when I sit down, let's say I hiked up to
Speaker 1: around five six, seven thousand feet whatever, I've got a
Speaker 1: great view across the canyon, and I'm gonna really concentrate
Speaker 1: my efforts on those places, Like, Okay, that looks different
Speaker 1: than everything else. It looks more nutrient rich, it looks
Speaker 1: like better forage. That's gonna be a good spot to
Speaker 1: focus my attention. And then I kind of figure out
Speaker 1: where those spots are from distance, and those are a
Speaker 1: lot of times with spots that will concentrate on. There
Speaker 1: are times as well, where I see a good food source,
Speaker 1: and even if I haven't seen a bear, maybe I
Speaker 1: choose to hunt closer to that spot, Like I'm gonna glass, uh,
Speaker 1: three yards from this really nutrient rich spot. But also
Speaker 1: I've got a good view of some other places up
Speaker 1: the canyon, because that way, if a bear does pop out,
Speaker 1: I may not have to move in. I may be
Speaker 1: ready or have a very short amount of time to
Speaker 1: stalk in and make a shot. And those are just
Speaker 1: a few things to think about when it comes to
Speaker 1: early spring bear hunting success. I think that if you're
Speaker 1: like me, this is a great time to kind of
Speaker 1: dust off your gear to get out to to get
Speaker 1: into the mountains and have a real mountain hunt on
Speaker 1: something that you can kind of pick up a tag
Speaker 1: every year for and hopefully find some success. I hope
Speaker 1: for those of you heading out, maybe there's some of
Speaker 1: you heading out this weekend, maybe next weekend, sometime during
Speaker 1: the spring season to chase bears. If you use any
Speaker 1: of these tips and tactics in their work out for you,
Speaker 1: let me know. I'd love to hear about your success stories.
Speaker 1: You can always reach out to me social media at
Speaker 1: Remy Warrant or Remy at the meat Eater dot com.
Speaker 1: I generally get to the social media stuff sooner because
Speaker 1: it's just a little bit easier for me to to
Speaker 1: track and see and all that kind of stuff, or
Speaker 1: with anything with the podcast. If you enjoy the podcast,
Speaker 1: tag me in it. Let me know I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: appreciate all the great comments and feedback. And if you
Speaker 1: don't subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen, subscribe to it.
Speaker 1: I know it'll pop in and update you every Thursday
Speaker 1: when we got new episodes, and I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: listening and all the support as always to feel free
Speaker 1: to start shooting your questions over for our next Q
Speaker 1: and A, we're gonna go over some more gear stuff,
Speaker 1: maybe some more hunting tipps and tactics. And I like
Speaker 1: to build these podcasts based on your guys recommendations everyone
Speaker 1: out there. I want this to be a podcast for
Speaker 1: the people that listen, So if you have things that
Speaker 1: you want to hear about, feel free to shoot me
Speaker 1: a message and hopefully we'll add it into the list
Speaker 1: here shortly. Maybe some of your questions will get answered.
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll just do a whole podcast topic on it.
Speaker 1: I thank you guys all for your your support and
Speaker 1: um just helping build this to be something that I
Speaker 1: think is is useful in the hunting space. So thank
Speaker 1: you guys. Until next week, uh, let's see until next week,
Speaker 1: get out of hibernation, get outside, hopefully get on some bears.
Speaker 1: See you later,