Speaker 1: Today's guest is a Washington native who many may say
Speaker 1: has made better life decisions than I have and moved
Speaker 1: out of our home state to Montana, which has allowed
Speaker 1: him to consistently hunt spring bears year in and year out.
Speaker 1: In addition to being a season spring bear hunter. He
Speaker 1: does pretty dang well with dear l whatever he decides
Speaker 1: to pursue. We're talking about mister Ryan Lampers, also known
Speaker 1: by many as the Stealthy Hunter. Over the past few years,
Speaker 1: Ryan and his crew have had a ton of success
Speaker 1: on their spring bear hunts. But he doesn't just stumble
Speaker 1: into the success. He has put all the information he's
Speaker 1: gathered over years and years and the experience that's available
Speaker 1: to him, and this puts him in spots where he
Speaker 1: will find big bears year in and year out. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show, Ryan, Thank you, Jason. Wow, quite an
Speaker 1: intro there. I appreciate the acknowledgement of making better life
Speaker 1: choices than you. I don't know if that's true, but
Speaker 1: on one level it definitely is um As I moved
Speaker 1: to Montana and away from the state of Washington. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would agree with you there. Yeah, about this point,
Speaker 1: all of these Washington residents that just realize we're going
Speaker 1: to talk about spring bear hunting. They've all just like
Speaker 1: that turned us off. Yeah, because there's no there's no
Speaker 1: hope for hims. They need more turkey calling probably in
Speaker 1: their world right now with Washington and where it's at it. Oh, so,
Speaker 1: how's everything going there in Montana? It's very white, very snowy,
Speaker 1: very um. I don't know. It's been a long winter
Speaker 1: and we're ready for it to be done. It's uh,
Speaker 1: we are all jacked up and ready to get onto
Speaker 1: some spring bear. I tell myself, it's the snow is melting, um,
Speaker 1: but it it doesn't look like it's melting out there. Man,
Speaker 1: It's the mounds are white. Um. But now we're we're
Speaker 1: all ready ready for season. It's coming quick or a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks out from when you could possibly go
Speaker 1: out and start chasing some bears. But I think that
Speaker 1: you little get delayed, a little bit, a little delayed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not going to jump the gun here, but a
Speaker 1: lot of our questions. We've got kind of a special
Speaker 1: podcast here, the way that we put this together, and
Speaker 1: a lot of it is going to jump into that
Speaker 1: conversation on finding bears. And then with that, what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do on a you're like this, So we'll
Speaker 1: get into that here in a little bit. So, No,
Speaker 1: I appreciate having you. Like I said, you've been you know,
Speaker 1: I would say you even joke with me, which I
Speaker 1: hope it's a joke that you may even put like
Speaker 1: spring bearing above archery, running elk, which is it's tough
Speaker 1: to take. But no, you you've been very successful. The
Speaker 1: groups you've taken have been very successful. And it's one
Speaker 1: of those hunts that I kind of I'm jealous of,
Speaker 1: Like I just want to be out there and see
Speaker 1: what you guys do. The country that you guys are
Speaker 1: in for spring times amazing, and you know, the success
Speaker 1: kind of speaks for itself, you know, consistent on big
Speaker 1: boards here for the most part, Man, there's spring bear hunting.
Speaker 1: You know, I can honestly say, coming from Washington, we
Speaker 1: didn't get a whole lot of opportunities back there. We
Speaker 1: had to travel and cross borders in Idaho and Montana.
Speaker 1: But um fall bear was always very popular with us.
Speaker 1: We never missed a fall bear season over there in
Speaker 1: the high country, chasing them in the barry fields. But
Speaker 1: um Man this spring bear hunt has in the last
Speaker 1: ten years has just it's really found a soft spot
Speaker 1: in my heart because I I wasn't lying Jason. It
Speaker 1: is my number two um right Rice square behind Meal
Speaker 1: there which will never be overtaken. But I there's just
Speaker 1: something about spring bears. I think it's the time of year,
Speaker 1: the adventure you can make it right. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's there's hunts that you can make somewhat easy,
Speaker 1: there's hunts that you can make as difficult as you want.
Speaker 1: So the challenge of a spring bear hunt is incredible.
Speaker 1: You can you can basically plan a trip around whatever
Speaker 1: you want to do in the mountains, like we chase
Speaker 1: these things in mountain goat country half the time. So
Speaker 1: m I absolutely love the places that bears bring you
Speaker 1: and the time the year that we're able to get
Speaker 1: out there and chase them. Yep. And that's one thing
Speaker 1: that I've only got the spring bear hunt once living
Speaker 1: in the state. I was lucky to draw very shortly
Speaker 1: before it was taken out of the big game rigs,
Speaker 1: you know. But I love that it can check so
Speaker 1: many boxes for so many different people in the way
Speaker 1: that they want to hunt. You know, if you some
Speaker 1: states if you want to bait, you can bait some
Speaker 1: states that allow hounds. And then you know, like you
Speaker 1: a guy that's looking for adventure wants to go hunt them,
Speaker 1: you know above the tree line, um at the snow line,
Speaker 1: like you can check all those boxes and we've been
Speaker 1: cooped up for you know, it's like your first time
Speaker 1: out your back backpack in. You know. It's just it's
Speaker 1: one of those one of those hunts that can check
Speaker 1: whatever boxes you need it to check. Um and you
Speaker 1: almost get to make that ring bear hunt your own,
Speaker 1: and you can. You can. There's so many tactics and
Speaker 1: ways to go about spring bear hunting, you know, and
Speaker 1: different topographies, different terrains you know, you could and they
Speaker 1: can be vastly different from like a Southwest Montana type
Speaker 1: more open pines to a North Idaho country type where
Speaker 1: baiting and hounds and things like that, or just man,
Speaker 1: it's almost the d way to go in certain places.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I I honestly I have settled on the
Speaker 1: um the glassing, spot and stock type of tactic. I
Speaker 1: love it. It keeps you on your feet, it keeps
Speaker 1: you moving. It's a great way to grab a lot
Speaker 1: of endurance. And and just glass a ton of country
Speaker 1: I love. I love that type. I can't sit still.
Speaker 1: That's why I don't sit and tree stand or anything.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, spring bear can can be as easy
Speaker 1: as you want it to be or as difficult as
Speaker 1: you want it to be. And couple that with the terrain,
Speaker 1: the drastic differences in terrain that bears in habit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of challenges there. Yeah, and I loved it.
Speaker 1: From another thing I like about spring bear the same
Speaker 1: things that baiting and hounds give you is the the
Speaker 1: ability to take certain bears that you're after, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's why I love spring bears. It gives you
Speaker 1: that edge when they're out there doing they're mating. You know,
Speaker 1: you can it's easy to tell which is a boar
Speaker 1: where you know, a lot of times fall hunting when
Speaker 1: you get those kind of tweener bears, Like if you're
Speaker 1: not very skilled at knowing what you're looking at, like
Speaker 1: you're you know, for some guys that maybe fifty fifty
Speaker 1: until you just do a lot of looking and like
Speaker 1: you know, identifying if you're shooting a boar or you know,
Speaker 1: a dry sow or something that just doesn't have cubs.
Speaker 1: So this gives us like a management tool to make
Speaker 1: sure we're you know, a guy like you that's specifically
Speaker 1: after large boars or for somebody that would rather do that.
Speaker 1: It gives us just another tool to help manage um,
Speaker 1: you know, the resource. Yeah, I mean there's no question
Speaker 1: if if you're looking to or a sportsman are looking
Speaker 1: to take out a certain class bear, you know, those
Speaker 1: old ancient bores or the old dried up size. You
Speaker 1: know that that is very manageable and doable with hounds.
Speaker 1: You know, you can be picky, you can choose which
Speaker 1: bears to let live and which bears to take as
Speaker 1: well as you know on baits and you know, sizing
Speaker 1: them up you know, um, in opposition to that, that
Speaker 1: bait barrel and stuff like that much easier. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot less guesswork in it with those two methods.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm sure we'll end up talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, how we size up bears in the mountains
Speaker 1: at a distance. It can be difficult. I don't care
Speaker 1: who you are, how long you've been doing it. There
Speaker 1: are times where you you might screw up a little
Speaker 1: bit in your judgment. But there's definitely some things to
Speaker 1: look to. But um, yeah, I love those two management
Speaker 1: tool the hounds and the baiting. It's just definitely not
Speaker 1: the most adventurous for me personally. I like it the
Speaker 1: other way. I like the difficult part of it that
Speaker 1: I can see that, you know, but it's still it's
Speaker 1: still hunting. It's still a great, great time to get
Speaker 1: out there, and you know, we need to take some
Speaker 1: of these predators, you know, off the landscape. So this
Speaker 1: is going to be a different podcast than normal. A
Speaker 1: lot of times we'll take a couple listener questions and
Speaker 1: then we'll jump into some of my discussion. Today we're
Speaker 1: going to bring you basically all listener questions, so it's
Speaker 1: it's a different format. But if you have any questions
Speaker 1: of your own for myself or our guests, m feel
Speaker 1: free to email us at CTD at Phelps Gamecalls dot com,
Speaker 1: or like we done in this episode, we put a
Speaker 1: post out there on social media and just to ask
Speaker 1: people what they want to know about spring bear hunting
Speaker 1: for and we can see all these up for Ryan.
Speaker 1: So we're just going to kind of jump into these
Speaker 1: questions and kind of the first couple are a little
Speaker 1: uh different, and then a lot of these will start
Speaker 1: to run in, but they all kind of m segue
Speaker 1: into each other. So it kind of gets us on
Speaker 1: a little bit of a role here. So the first question, Ryan,
Speaker 1: is it realistic to be successful spring bear hunting when
Speaker 1: only weekends are available? Okay, yeah, that's a great question, um,
Speaker 1: And kind of going along the same lines as like
Speaker 1: I mentioned before, you know, you can make these hunts
Speaker 1: is as difficult or as easy as as possible. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: bear hunting, more than almost anything else that I do,
Speaker 1: can be something that I can grab my daughter after school,
Speaker 1: run up to the closest range and start glassing. I
Speaker 1: can glass from the truck and pick up bears and
Speaker 1: it's not that difficult to do. So, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: hitting hitting a logging road and you don't have to
Speaker 1: go far. You know, it's not always a five to
Speaker 1: ten mile thing. It's not necessary by any stretch when
Speaker 1: it comes to bears, um, you know, especially as they're
Speaker 1: just coming out. You know, most of these bears, they're
Speaker 1: in this region, you know, the rocky mountain states in
Speaker 1: this western front we got i'd say on average, we're
Speaker 1: finding them den up at about three thousand to fifty
Speaker 1: five feet up to maybe six thousand feet, so you know,
Speaker 1: it's not like you're having to get into the eight
Speaker 1: nine ten thousand foot level or elevation. You know, we're
Speaker 1: finding these bears on those south slopes, fairly low on
Speaker 1: the hill in a lot of these states. So I
Speaker 1: would say, in short answer, I guess absolutely, you can
Speaker 1: do it in an evening, you can do it on
Speaker 1: a weekend. It's bear hunting is one of those things
Speaker 1: where you know a couple hours is all you need
Speaker 1: to go out and maybe glass up a bear. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're gonna have time to go
Speaker 1: get him that night, but definitely opportunities to see him
Speaker 1: and not have to put too many miles on yep.
Speaker 1: And you know this applies to all hunting. If that's
Speaker 1: the only time I have to hunt, I'm still gonna
Speaker 1: be out there. There's always a chance, you know, there's
Speaker 1: always a chance that we would be lying if we
Speaker 1: said that your probability of success doesn't go up the
Speaker 1: more time you can invest or if you're looking for
Speaker 1: something specific. But I remember we had to my buddy
Speaker 1: had to win a haf spring bear take. It went
Speaker 1: over for like a week and we were kind of
Speaker 1: coming back on just a BONDSI weekend trip. You know,
Speaker 1: for us it was a five and a half six
Speaker 1: hour drive. We we drove four times longer than the
Speaker 1: hunt was. We walked down a trail, um you know,
Speaker 1: two hours in, shot the bear and had him back
Speaker 1: to the truck, and uh a lot less time than
Speaker 1: than we it took to even get to the unit.
Speaker 1: So there's always a chance. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: we'd be lying to say, if you're your chances of
Speaker 1: success don't go down. But um, yeah that's all you've
Speaker 1: got by by all any means, you know, I would
Speaker 1: still be out there hunting absolutely, so, UM you know
Speaker 1: this this next question, a guy's hunting with his dad,
Speaker 1: who it sounds like maybe can't get around as good
Speaker 1: as um, you know you or or it maybe even
Speaker 1: him and get into the back country. How would you
Speaker 1: deal with, you know, working around baiting and hounds. So
Speaker 1: this guy maybe sounds like he doesn't want to take
Speaker 1: advantage of the baiting or wants to give them space
Speaker 1: or the hounds. Do you have any you know, this
Speaker 1: is more front country stuff, but how would you deal
Speaker 1: with with those two aspects of other guys out in
Speaker 1: the woods, you know, hunting the same same criter. That's
Speaker 1: a great question. Um, you know, And I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: and I don't tend to run into a whole lot
Speaker 1: of guys on baits. Now, it is very popular in
Speaker 1: some of these states. You know, Idaho is there's a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that do it, and with good reason,
Speaker 1: great success. But when I go over to that state,
Speaker 1: I'm just going in too far. But you know, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, for someone that's not able to put in
Speaker 1: a lot of miles, most of these guys aren't baiting
Speaker 1: too far from the road right there. I've heard I've
Speaker 1: not done it. I've heard to go even a half
Speaker 1: mile or a mile in is pretty far for a
Speaker 1: lot of these base sites. Um, now, there are guys
Speaker 1: that go above and beyond that. But man again, I
Speaker 1: think I go back to grabbing a logging road and
Speaker 1: just hiking in. It doesn't have to be too much
Speaker 1: exertion to find areas to glass from. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: some of these logging roads out here, these gated ones,
Speaker 1: you just don't have to go far and you're picking
Speaker 1: up bears. So yeah, and we'll get into it a
Speaker 1: little bit, but we just have to find that food
Speaker 1: that they're on. If they're not on a bait, and
Speaker 1: they're not you know, if they're not crossing the main
Speaker 1: road where the hounds can pick them up, they're going
Speaker 1: to be kind of left alone in those pockets. And
Speaker 1: that's all you really fine, Absolutely, yea, this will kind
Speaker 1: of be the last and then we're going to really
Speaker 1: jump in. We'll start with snow. But this is the
Speaker 1: last question here, or so earlier in the spring, do
Speaker 1: you guess more on those up facing slopes or the
Speaker 1: north facing den areas. So, I guess it depends on
Speaker 1: how early in the spring. You know, we always try
Speaker 1: to time it just on the front end of where
Speaker 1: we're just starting to see those first bears come out.
Speaker 1: You know, it's my opinion that the most mature boars
Speaker 1: are out in the open. It's almost I can't believe
Speaker 1: I'm saying this, but out in the open first, and
Speaker 1: they stay there visible more often than not than later
Speaker 1: in the season, for sure. So some of the best
Speaker 1: boars that we've ever taken are on that very front
Speaker 1: end where the snow is just receded enough and you're
Speaker 1: not necessarily seeing any green, but it is just starting
Speaker 1: like it is just on the cusp of starting to
Speaker 1: green up on the mountains. So you know, some of
Speaker 1: those north slopes prior to the green up, you know,
Speaker 1: those bears, they'll generally come out sometime in April, sometimes
Speaker 1: front end, sometimes middle, sometimes late. They'll be there, they'll
Speaker 1: be out and you are able to pick them up.
Speaker 1: But obviously when that south slope starts greening up, it's
Speaker 1: at that point when your focus should be turned to
Speaker 1: the south facers, or at least you know, there's some
Speaker 1: north facers too that just have topography laid out enough
Speaker 1: to where it's grabbing some sun. You know, it's still
Speaker 1: getting some opening enough to to get some light and
Speaker 1: grow that vegetation. So yeah, I guess very front end.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of these bears will den on
Speaker 1: those north northwest side faces. Um. Generally it's like a
Speaker 1: could be anywhere from a twenty to a fifty degree
Speaker 1: pitch slope um on those north slopes. And uh, it's
Speaker 1: those basins in those areas that have an adjacent south
Speaker 1: slope with some good green vegetation. Man, those are the
Speaker 1: those are the money spots. Those are the places that
Speaker 1: I kind of key into. But um, you know, obviously
Speaker 1: you're looking on both sides, but at the very very
Speaker 1: front end. Um, I'm I'm looking in those north slopes
Speaker 1: and as soon as that green starts popping though, I'm
Speaker 1: looking at those, um, those sun filled south facers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it seems like, you know, watching some of you
Speaker 1: guys's videos, you guys are sometimes looking into north Bass
Speaker 1: and the bear like crosses the head of the basin
Speaker 1: and is on the south side. It almost seems like
Speaker 1: there's no right or wrong spot. You know. Really you're
Speaker 1: looking at everything. Yep, yep, Yeah, you're looking at everything.
Speaker 1: And and the interesting thing, you know, you hear south
Speaker 1: slope used a lot, and it's yeah, it's where the
Speaker 1: sun hits. Um, that's where the grass first starts to show.
Speaker 1: But man, it really doesn't take that long for you
Speaker 1: to start seeing some growth on a north face too,
Speaker 1: if if it lays out right, you know, if you've
Speaker 1: got some sparse timber, you got some beetle kill, or
Speaker 1: you know, a sparsely logged area for example, where just
Speaker 1: enough light is getting through there. You know, all slopes
Speaker 1: are different. Some north slopes are absolute jam packed with
Speaker 1: uh you know, deep timber and dark timber. And you're
Speaker 1: not gonna get much grass in there. But there's other
Speaker 1: north slopes that are wide open and they'll still offer
Speaker 1: some good green up and a lot of those bears
Speaker 1: will do just fine sticking to the north slope. Yep, yep.
Speaker 1: Um Okay, let's let's jump into snow. We we've talked
Speaker 1: about right off the bat. It seems like it's a
Speaker 1: big driving factor on where you're gonna hunt spring bear.
Speaker 1: Where the bears are going to be out. You know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about spring bear usually following the snow line
Speaker 1: up or right there behind the snow line is where
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna get that green up you've talked about,
Speaker 1: like that bright green chartrous color, like you're looking for
Speaker 1: the vegetation that's that color. So when a year like
Speaker 1: this where you're you guys have a lot of snow
Speaker 1: down low, your your your typical spots you'd mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to get up into. Will this snow keep you
Speaker 1: out of the alpine? Will it force you to come
Speaker 1: down into that mid range where there's timber or are
Speaker 1: you just going to wait longer so you can hunt
Speaker 1: these bears where you want to hunt these bears? Um,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna treat it like most years, you know,
Speaker 1: I love to get these things right out of gates,
Speaker 1: or at least target them out of the gates. And
Speaker 1: they're just before that green starts, so still gonna be
Speaker 1: looking early. Um, definitely going to be on that front end.
Speaker 1: But we're gonna be fairly low. You know, we're gonna be,
Speaker 1: to be specific, when we're gonna be in that three
Speaker 1: thousand to four thousand foot range. You know that's those
Speaker 1: are the slopes that I'm gonna be checking out first,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, it all goes up from there.
Speaker 1: But it is gonna be a later season, no doubt
Speaker 1: about it. You know. I think a lot of guys
Speaker 1: are in a situation where they're trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what week of work to take off. That's very important
Speaker 1: right now, and I'm getting hammered with a lot of
Speaker 1: people asking that question. Like I had scheduled this for
Speaker 1: that April fifteenth timeframe, but this year it's looking much
Speaker 1: different than I thought. And that's true, and I would
Speaker 1: say if I would probably schedule it another week or
Speaker 1: two later this year, I don't think you're gonna hurt
Speaker 1: yourself by moving your dates. Out a little bit. I'm
Speaker 1: still gonna be chasing them, but I'll probably be on
Speaker 1: the front end of it and I'll just hunt through it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, there's not gonna be a whole lot of
Speaker 1: green show. And even in that three to four thousand
Speaker 1: foot range mid April, it's gonna be a little later
Speaker 1: this year. You know, we've had a crub ton of snow.
Speaker 1: Looking at the snow layers and the depth this time
Speaker 1: of year, we kind of you know, or over those
Speaker 1: numbers and those and seeing what prior years and historical
Speaker 1: data has been. Yeah, this year's a little bit deeper
Speaker 1: than it was last year in several places, some not.
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, we are definitely above and beyond in
Speaker 1: the places that I'm looking to go. We have more
Speaker 1: snow this year than we did last. So it's going
Speaker 1: to be a little bit later unless some drastic changes
Speaker 1: and we have this you know, big heat wave come
Speaker 1: through and just melt this stuff quick. Yeah, and with
Speaker 1: with the snow then, so you're you're talking about hunting
Speaker 1: them maybe in a lower elevation than falling up. Do
Speaker 1: you feel that they're they're going to hibernate a little
Speaker 1: bit longer? Will they come out earlier and just maybe
Speaker 1: head down to find food. Do you feel that like
Speaker 1: effects when they're actually going to start showing. I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're necessarily going to be sleeping in longer.
Speaker 1: I guess if you want to call it that, Um,
Speaker 1: they're still going to be up, but they're probably not
Speaker 1: going to be moving away from that then much. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll be there, but it's it's it's very few
Speaker 1: and far between on the sidings. When we a snow
Speaker 1: year like this, you know, they just don't show themselves.
Speaker 1: They don't move around. Um. You know, we've seen years
Speaker 1: where you know, they've they've come out, we've actually had
Speaker 1: some green up, and then we'll get a big snow,
Speaker 1: a big you know, four or five inch spring snow,
Speaker 1: and the bears that we've been seeing just disappear. They
Speaker 1: just disappear. You don't you don't get your eyes on them.
Speaker 1: It's not like they went back to bed. They're just
Speaker 1: they're just hunkered up and they're not going to move
Speaker 1: around much. And that's what I feel they do on
Speaker 1: a year like this. You know, they'll be wiping the
Speaker 1: sleepy out of their eyes and they'll be there, but
Speaker 1: they're not going to be probably making themselves visible too much.
Speaker 1: So UM, you know, I don't know that necessarily going
Speaker 1: extremely low is going to help you. Much like I said,
Speaker 1: I think most bears are going to be denning in
Speaker 1: that three to five fifty five six thousand foot range anyway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then my last question on timing, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: on the spring bear hunts I've been involved in, I
Speaker 1: think I've got to go on five or six of
Speaker 1: them down there in nor Southeast Corner. I know you've
Speaker 1: there are seasons, at least the year I had, I
Speaker 1: don't know what the typical season is, but we ran
Speaker 1: through like the middle of June, and so I went
Speaker 1: over there early on the on the COVID year and
Speaker 1: then went back late May early June and noticed that,
Speaker 1: like our bears were finally locked down there late. Is
Speaker 1: that going to change? I mean, I know you're out
Speaker 1: there after them kind of ahead of that part of
Speaker 1: the part of their schedule, but is that going to
Speaker 1: kind of push for maybe people that want to get
Speaker 1: out there, why they're more active or kind of lockdown
Speaker 1: on salsum? Is that gonna get pushed back or is
Speaker 1: that just based like all the other ruts just kind
Speaker 1: of on photo period and it's gonna happen at the
Speaker 1: same time, no matter where the snow is at. That's
Speaker 1: a great question, and you know, I can just go
Speaker 1: on my gut on that. On my opinion, maybe it is.
Speaker 1: They're probably going to be running about generally the same time.
Speaker 1: Maybe it pushes it back a little bit, but not much.
Speaker 1: You know, usually by late May, you know, those bears
Speaker 1: are starting to travel. You're grabbing bars, running ridges and
Speaker 1: looking for sALS and then yeah, usually you know, come
Speaker 1: June they can be lockdown pretty good at times. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The next question we got is how often can you
Speaker 1: reliably find bears or bears of kind of the same
Speaker 1: caliber in the same area year after year. Yeah, surprisingly
Speaker 1: quite often. And I'll have disagreements with people. I know
Speaker 1: guys will say, no, it's not the case, they just
Speaker 1: moved too much. But I can't tell you how many
Speaker 1: bears we've been able to relocate and with absolute certainty,
Speaker 1: you know, year to year, that is the same bear
Speaker 1: we saw last year. Now it changes, you know, But
Speaker 1: early in the season, I keep going back to early
Speaker 1: in the season, the front end of the season. I've
Speaker 1: found that a lot of those older mature bars will
Speaker 1: frequent the same general area as they did the year prior.
Speaker 1: On multiple occasions, I've gone back and found bears that
Speaker 1: I've seen I had seen the year prior, and gone
Speaker 1: back and relocated that bear the following spring. Now everything
Speaker 1: changes once that green wave just goes from top to bottom.
Speaker 1: When it's green from two thousand to sixty five feet,
Speaker 1: you know, number one, it's going to be hard to
Speaker 1: pinpoint those bears. They're kind of all over the place.
Speaker 1: They're really starting to range at that point. You know,
Speaker 1: they'll hang more into the timber where they're not as visible.
Speaker 1: You know, the green up is just such that it's
Speaker 1: kind of everywhere. But absolutely, I've even found fall bears
Speaker 1: in similar drainages. When I think back to my Washington
Speaker 1: fall bear days, I've found bears that I could relocate
Speaker 1: year after year after year in the same small drainage
Speaker 1: on Barryfield. So it's definitely it's definitely something that that
Speaker 1: you can It's not going to happen every year, but
Speaker 1: we've proven it to be the case that you can
Speaker 1: go back and relocate year after year. Yeah, And on
Speaker 1: that same thread, um, do you feel you know, similar
Speaker 1: to deer and elk. You know, you take a giant
Speaker 1: buck or a giant bowl or a big buck or
Speaker 1: big bowl out of it, do you feel that you
Speaker 1: can like overharvest you know, the more mature bars if
Speaker 1: you're hunting the same areas or are they just pulling
Speaker 1: sALS into an areas out like their home range? Um?
Speaker 1: Or will the quality eventually go down? Like? What's your
Speaker 1: opinion on that? I have a theory, Jason, have a theory.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's fright or not, UM, but
Speaker 1: I will take an area, for example, there's an area
Speaker 1: that I'd hunted and took some incredibly old bears out
Speaker 1: of for years, so multiple years UM and took the
Speaker 1: oldest and baddest mofos up on the mountain and U
Speaker 1: and then about year five you go back and not
Speaker 1: seeing those old mature bears, you know, there hadn't been
Speaker 1: enough time for another one to move in and take
Speaker 1: these prime feed locations. You know, generally what you find
Speaker 1: with the oldest, most mature is they finally these just
Speaker 1: magical areas out on the mountain. It's got everything, it's
Speaker 1: got feed, it's got the water, it's got everything. They
Speaker 1: need now. Eventually that area will get filled in with
Speaker 1: another old bore. But I've noticed that when you hunt
Speaker 1: an area out and you've taken the oldest baddish bears
Speaker 1: on the mountain for multiple years in a row, You're
Speaker 1: gonna hit a point where there's gonna be a little
Speaker 1: gap from what I've seen. And for example, last year,
Speaker 1: I'd gone back to an area that I'd taken some
Speaker 1: great bears out of, and all of a sudden, you know,
Speaker 1: in years past, I hadn't been seeing a whole lot
Speaker 1: of cubs. It's rare, you see, Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: on a trip, you might see a couple of South
Speaker 1: Cub combos right last year, I can't remember the exact numbers,
Speaker 1: like eleven, twelve or thirteen different South Cub combos in
Speaker 1: these areas where now I'm not seeing any old boars,
Speaker 1: but I'm seeing these young bears and the sALS or
Speaker 1: like feeling, you know, confident enough to run their cubs
Speaker 1: through there. I feel like what happened. And I'm just
Speaker 1: telling myself this, Maybe it's not true, but those old
Speaker 1: boars were were annihilating those cubs for years and and
Speaker 1: I think by taking them all out. It actually caused
Speaker 1: a boom in bear population in that general region because
Speaker 1: now there is just most every south cub combo we
Speaker 1: were seeing had at least two cubs, often three and so. Um,
Speaker 1: but we were really struggling to pick up the most
Speaker 1: old mature boars. It was slim pickings on that front.
Speaker 1: But man, we saw a lot of bears. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense. And then you always wonder
Speaker 1: once there's that high of a population of bears and
Speaker 1: there is that not allowing like boars to reach that
Speaker 1: like very high level of maturity or have they just
Speaker 1: not moved in? Um? Interesting? So I know we've talked
Speaker 1: a lot about food source or you even said like
Speaker 1: finding some of those big bares like before the food
Speaker 1: even starts to grow there. So we know food's very important. Um.
Speaker 1: What do you like to see as far as like
Speaker 1: certain features or a combination of food and features? So
Speaker 1: if you're to take you know this this prime lush
Speaker 1: green food. Is that all that matters? Or are there
Speaker 1: features you like to see, like the ability to go
Speaker 1: lay in timber? You know where we hunt in the blues.
Speaker 1: It seemed like when it rained, Um, you know when
Speaker 1: when when it stopped raining, you were going to find
Speaker 1: them right on the fringes right there coming back out
Speaker 1: from stand dry or um, you know, holding up. What
Speaker 1: features are you looking for during a spring hunt to
Speaker 1: kind of combine with the food source. UM. I'd say
Speaker 1: the most obvious like UM, Like I mentioned before, my
Speaker 1: go to areas are steep, nasty, rocky type drainages that
Speaker 1: have a lot of water in the bottom. Generally they're
Speaker 1: a longer drainage and uh, you know, you get that
Speaker 1: moss covered rock kind of on the bottom end of
Speaker 1: the drainage and then it kind of goes up from
Speaker 1: the air and opens up. I'm looking for those type areas.
Speaker 1: But one thing I've found on these spring spring bears
Speaker 1: is when you can find and high on the mountain
Speaker 1: spring like a spring that's up there forty five to
Speaker 1: six thousand feet and that snow receeds and you gotta
Speaker 1: you know, you got this ridge and you got a
Speaker 1: north slope on the other side with deep timber. Those
Speaker 1: bears are able to go back and forth, you know,
Speaker 1: grab that shade on the north slope and then come
Speaker 1: right back up and over and get that lush green.
Speaker 1: Oftentimes it's like avalanche lilies that inhabit that area, you know,
Speaker 1: the very tip top of the hill, and then you
Speaker 1: know balsam flowers and the leaves that come with them
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. But man, when you
Speaker 1: can find a traditional water source, a spring that just
Speaker 1: runs and offers some good green up on the top
Speaker 1: of a mountain, man, that has been money for me.
Speaker 1: I've really done well in those type places. Now they
Speaker 1: can be hard to find. There's a lot of boots
Speaker 1: on the ground to find them. A lot of these
Speaker 1: don't show up on the map. But but those spots
Speaker 1: have been really really good. But like you said, I
Speaker 1: think having the ability to most often these bears aren't
Speaker 1: out in the wide wide open, especially the bigger ones.
Speaker 1: They are on the fringes. They are in an area
Speaker 1: where they can tuck back in and grab a nap.
Speaker 1: They're pretty lazy on the front end of spring and
Speaker 1: then just come on out and and they like that
Speaker 1: fringe habitat where the sunlight's grabbing. It's growing grass just
Speaker 1: inside the timber and just outside the timbers, getting enough
Speaker 1: shade that it's not getting burnt off and enough sun
Speaker 1: to allow it to grow. And those little fringe areas
Speaker 1: that are kind of um, you know, fifty yards inside
Speaker 1: the timber, fifty yards outside of timber. Those just whole
Speaker 1: grasses longer, and that stays greener there if you ever
Speaker 1: you kind of notice that when you're on glass and yep. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we've kind of elevation and feed kind of end
Speaker 1: up going together, especially with the snow. Right we've we've
Speaker 1: determined all right, there are bears at this elevation throughout
Speaker 1: a hunt. Will you stick to the elevation or will
Speaker 1: you start to like diverge from what? Will you go
Speaker 1: up and see if you're finding bears above it? Or
Speaker 1: once you see that there are big boars at a
Speaker 1: certain elevation, Let's say it's a seven day hunt, things
Speaker 1: aren't going to change drastically, or maybe they will. Are
Speaker 1: you going to kind of hone in on that or
Speaker 1: are you going to still continue to venture out and
Speaker 1: and you know, go up or down and just continue
Speaker 1: to look or is it similar to like when you
Speaker 1: find that dough group meal deer hunting, Like I'm going
Speaker 1: to stay focused here or do you continue to branch?
Speaker 1: I guess yeah, so generally with I'm gonna keep hammering
Speaker 1: on the old mature boars because young bears they travel,
Speaker 1: they do all kinds of stuff. I mean, you can't
Speaker 1: they're not patternable in my and they'll wander all over
Speaker 1: the place. They'll be on a rock slope one day,
Speaker 1: and north slope and then south slope. They just kind
Speaker 1: of wander. Now, the oldest, most mature boars that we're
Speaker 1: going for, boy, it's really hard to pull them off
Speaker 1: of that elevation band. When you find them at an
Speaker 1: elevation band, say they're at fifty two hundred feet. Now, yeah,
Speaker 1: they'll dip down there a little bit, but it's rare
Speaker 1: that they're going all the way down to the bottom.
Speaker 1: And so once we find multiple bears that, say fifty
Speaker 1: two hundred feet, we're going to continue to look at
Speaker 1: those places, and you know, we're going to start going
Speaker 1: to our maps and really keying into areas if we're
Speaker 1: in a new place, looking at that elevation exactly, and
Speaker 1: we're going to keep basically our eyes on that level
Speaker 1: as much as possible. You know, they tend to not
Speaker 1: go back down. Opinion, those older ones, they ride that
Speaker 1: green wave right up to the top. And once it's
Speaker 1: to the top and up and over they can absolutely
Speaker 1: disappear on you, but that that front end, when they're
Speaker 1: just slowly working their way up that that receding snow line.
Speaker 1: I would say what I've noticed, and what is seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty feet below the snow line to a
Speaker 1: thousand It's kind of like a rough estimate as to
Speaker 1: where you generally find that green up starting. You know,
Speaker 1: you're seeing the shoots from the avalanche lilies and whatnot.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a little bit higher than that, but that's
Speaker 1: kind of a good range to focus in on. Is
Speaker 1: seven fifty to one thousand feet below snow line. I've
Speaker 1: found that that's really where those older bears really like
Speaker 1: to focus, and they just don't tend to come back down,
Speaker 1: you know, even though there's a ton of green grass,
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of guys will get stuck
Speaker 1: on looking at these shartrusse lime green patches way down
Speaker 1: on the mountain. But if there's a shar trees patch
Speaker 1: on the top of the mountain that just popped up,
Speaker 1: he's going to be there nine times out of ten
Speaker 1: versus that spot lower on the mountain. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: just mentioned, you know, when green's up to the very
Speaker 1: top bears getting up and out of there. So my
Speaker 1: question for you is, do you feel if you spot
Speaker 1: a bear like in a drainage or in a basin,
Speaker 1: that you until that snow line gets all the way
Speaker 1: to talk to the ridge, it kind of walks him
Speaker 1: in that basin. Or do you feel like if you
Speaker 1: spot a mature boar in a basin, you should be
Speaker 1: able to stay there for three or four days and
Speaker 1: you're going to turn him back up? Or is there
Speaker 1: a chance he's gonna leave? Or what happens most of
Speaker 1: the time there, Most of the time we turn them
Speaker 1: back up. Now, bears. Bears are like teenagers, man. They
Speaker 1: sleep a lot, they take naps, and they'll fall behind
Speaker 1: a log and disappear for you on you for like
Speaker 1: a half a day, and you'll think he's gone, But
Speaker 1: oftentimes they're still there. You know, if you if you
Speaker 1: see on the front end of that spring within a
Speaker 1: couple weeks of green up, if you find a big
Speaker 1: old bore, I'm going to focus on that spot, and
Speaker 1: you know, I may grab different bandages to look at
Speaker 1: different angles of the mountain and look at little creases
Speaker 1: where I may not be able to see from that
Speaker 1: first glassing point. But oftentimes I've found that they will
Speaker 1: tend to stick to that area. Now, once calving happens,
Speaker 1: once fawns start dropping, you know, things get crazy. Bears
Speaker 1: go every which way and they disappear. And I wouldn't
Speaker 1: expect to see that bore in late May in that
Speaker 1: same drainage when they're keyed into some meat and they've
Speaker 1: heard some or they've smelled some fawns dropping. Man, there
Speaker 1: are all over the place changes them like it changes
Speaker 1: it does. But at that front end, when they're still,
Speaker 1: you know, they're kicking out the mucous plug and they're
Speaker 1: keyed into that fibrous grass and and um, they need
Speaker 1: that to get their digestive digestive track back. Man, they
Speaker 1: just don't move that far. So when they're when they're
Speaker 1: focused on a little green patch. You know, unless it's
Speaker 1: just a brown mountain and that bear is traveling from
Speaker 1: his say, his dan to somewhere where there might be
Speaker 1: some food. Now that could be different. Um, a traveling
Speaker 1: bear could end up anywhere. But if you witness a
Speaker 1: bear that is just parked on a green line, Patrick
Speaker 1: ass An, he's stuff in his face and there's not
Speaker 1: a whole lot of green above him. That's that's a
Speaker 1: bear that I would expect to be able to relocate, gotcha. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So we've talked a lot about where to find these
Speaker 1: bears and more specifically these mature bars. Um so somebody's
Speaker 1: getting ready to go out. They may not be as
Speaker 1: confident as you. You know, we've talked about a lot
Speaker 1: of it, but you still get out there. You're unsure.
Speaker 1: So our next question was how long do you give
Speaker 1: an area before you write it off? Do you feel
Speaker 1: you need to give it an evening, a morning, both
Speaker 1: multiple days like you know, and this all this is
Speaker 1: very dependent on your glassing skill right there. There's different
Speaker 1: there's different levels of people's ability to glass. Where you're
Speaker 1: very you know, you may be very confident, but but
Speaker 1: kind of what do you fuel? Um your confidence level
Speaker 1: is how much how much time you need to give
Speaker 1: an area before you need to, you know, pull the
Speaker 1: anchor and go somewhere else to find a bear? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Um so bears aren't really just they're not hiding, you know,
Speaker 1: they don't they don't hide from you. They're just outdoing
Speaker 1: their thing and feeding that that front end of spring.
Speaker 1: They are there to feed and put some weight back on. Um. So,
Speaker 1: like I said, I love traveling and cruising country and
Speaker 1: all that, but depending on the topography that I'm looking at.
Speaker 1: If I'm looking at a burn, that's that's got some
Speaker 1: good green growth underneath it, and I know that I'm
Speaker 1: just not being able to see everything. There's enough timber
Speaker 1: in there that I just can't pick everything up if
Speaker 1: it was there, Um, I'll probably stay a little longer
Speaker 1: in that type place. But if I'm able to see
Speaker 1: most of everything, and there's a day spent there and
Speaker 1: I don't pick up a bear, I'm out of there.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go check something else, you know, off
Speaker 1: the list. Um. And that's that's just me. You know.
Speaker 1: I feel like at some point throughout the day, if
Speaker 1: there's a bear on an adjacent hillside and I'm glassing it,
Speaker 1: I should be able to pick that thing up. And
Speaker 1: you know, as far as timing goes, don't put all
Speaker 1: your eggs into just glassing in the morning. That may
Speaker 1: be a time when that bear is just not standing yet.
Speaker 1: You may be sleeping in a little bit. But I'd
Speaker 1: say from ten eleven twelve to the end of the days.
Speaker 1: That is my opinion, that is your prime glassing time,
Speaker 1: and it changes as the season progresses. It'll get much
Speaker 1: more evening dependent. But man, that time for him in April,
Speaker 1: front half of May. You know that ten o'clock to noon.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many bears we start seeing
Speaker 1: moving around from ten to noon and then one to
Speaker 1: two they're just up and on their feet. And that's
Speaker 1: a great time. That is not the time for you
Speaker 1: to take a nap like sleep in, if anything, and
Speaker 1: grab a little extra coffee in the morning, but focus.
Speaker 1: You're glassing throughout the day, even if it's sunny and bright,
Speaker 1: and you know, if you're thinking about if you're a
Speaker 1: new bear hunter and you're an elk guy or a
Speaker 1: dear guy, and that's the time that you kind of
Speaker 1: lay off the glass. It's kind of the opposite when
Speaker 1: it comes to bears. If you're going to sleep in,
Speaker 1: sleep in in the morning, and make sure you keep
Speaker 1: eyes on the mountain through that throughout the day. Because
Speaker 1: it's what's funny, Jason, is one thing I've noticed. I'd
Speaker 1: be curious if anybody else has noticed this too. But
Speaker 1: sometimes I'll be looking at a mountain and it'll be
Speaker 1: dead till about ten o'clock and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'll pick up like three or four bears on this
Speaker 1: open face right and they're all on their feet, and
Speaker 1: then they're all napping again, you know, and say thirty
Speaker 1: forty five minutes, they're napping again, and then say like
Speaker 1: one o'clock at the age almost the exact same time,
Speaker 1: they're all on their feet again and they're feeding around.
Speaker 1: It's like this internal time clock that gets them up
Speaker 1: and then puts them back down. I've noticed that over
Speaker 1: and over and over again, like, well, that one's on
Speaker 1: his feet, I bet if I look hard, I might
Speaker 1: be able to pick up another one. Um. That's just
Speaker 1: something that I've always wondered why that is. But it
Speaker 1: seems like they have these certain times throughout the day.
Speaker 1: It's almost like the old soul in art chart when
Speaker 1: you're fishing, you know, you know, a moon phase or whatever.
Speaker 1: There's there's something to it. I just haven't quite put
Speaker 1: my finger on it. Yeah, I'm in the same boat,
Speaker 1: you know, being originally only hunting blacktails and elk here,
Speaker 1: it was always, you know, very first half hour of
Speaker 1: the day, very last half hour of the day were
Speaker 1: always your best. And then I got to experience CU's
Speaker 1: deer hunting, and it was kind of the first animal, like, man,
Speaker 1: I might as well just slept in because I mean,
Speaker 1: but you you never miss that. I mean, I would
Speaker 1: still never miss the you know, first first part of
Speaker 1: the day, even spring bear hunting. But the same thing
Speaker 1: on these spring bear hunts I've been on. It's like, man,
Speaker 1: am I really wasting like my focus and I wit,
Speaker 1: you know, my but you're still out there. But the
Speaker 1: same thing, um, you know, ten o'clock on eleven o'clock on,
Speaker 1: we've seen a lot more bears. And the one time
Speaker 1: if I had to, like, you know, if I was
Speaker 1: to write a spot off, it would be as we
Speaker 1: talked about, we get a lot of those spring showers
Speaker 1: in the spring, you know, and ours rain and then
Speaker 1: it suns up right after that, like in the blues.
Speaker 1: Especially like if I didn't see a bear in that
Speaker 1: like sun up time, when then I was like, all right,
Speaker 1: there's no bears here, because we could almost set our
Speaker 1: clocks to it, you know, all right, rain, let's let's
Speaker 1: let's not glass or let's stay in the dry And
Speaker 1: then as soon as that sun started hitting those slopes, um,
Speaker 1: it seemed like everything popped at the same time all
Speaker 1: over the mountain. I'll bet you if you would take
Speaker 1: to take a pole from guys that have spring bear
Speaker 1: hunted a ton a tony of years over their lifetime,
Speaker 1: they would all agree with you on that one. Like
Speaker 1: when you get a storm, even if it's a multi
Speaker 1: day storm or it's just a half day storm, and
Speaker 1: then the sun comes out and the grasses start steaming
Speaker 1: and the mountains warming up. I don't know that there's
Speaker 1: a better time to be bear hunting than that time
Speaker 1: right there. Those are far and away the best days
Speaker 1: I've ever had and experienced, where I've had the most
Speaker 1: sightings are those days. And you're right, if you're not
Speaker 1: seeing a bear after that happens, after that big nasty
Speaker 1: storm or even like a snow storm and then the
Speaker 1: sun comes up and it just starts melting everything. If
Speaker 1: you're not seeing bears at that point, move it along,
Speaker 1: you know, hike to a different drainage. They're just not there. Yep. Okay,
Speaker 1: So these bears in the springtime, I've heard. I've heard
Speaker 1: things up to thirty to thirty five percent body weight
Speaker 1: down from where they'll be in August. You know, they're
Speaker 1: down whatever percentage that is. But they don't necessarily look
Speaker 1: like they do in the fall, and it may cause
Speaker 1: some difficulty on sexeing a bear. But but what are
Speaker 1: some of the telltell signs or what do you look
Speaker 1: for specifically when you're trying to tell you know, if
Speaker 1: it's a mature boar, mature boars or maybe the anomaly right,
Speaker 1: because they can carry some features that maybe those tweeters don't.
Speaker 1: But walk us through the features you're looking at. Yes,
Speaker 1: every time I immediately up a bear in the glass,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes and often is the case in the
Speaker 1: first few seconds, you know, like, wow, that is a
Speaker 1: tank of a bear. Like it's just blatantly obvious. There's
Speaker 1: some features that you always key into. I think with boars,
Speaker 1: you know, we'll speak to the obvious. The front end
Speaker 1: of a boar is much blockier, much bulkier than that
Speaker 1: of a female, you know, the female. The front end,
Speaker 1: you know, those legs kind of go straight down. It's
Speaker 1: much more narrow upfront, much wider in the back. It's
Speaker 1: much fatter back there, complete opposite. You know, bears have
Speaker 1: that old man look. It's like they don't have an
Speaker 1: ass and they've got them, but they've got them big
Speaker 1: like pitbull shoulders on them, you know, the big rolling
Speaker 1: shoulders when they walk. And I think, for me, you know,
Speaker 1: when I'm trying to size up a bear, I'm looking
Speaker 1: for more of their their mannerisms, like their behavior, how
Speaker 1: they're feeding, how they're moving through country. It is a
Speaker 1: very slow, deliberate movement through the mountains. On those older
Speaker 1: age class boars, the younger or just sus in general,
Speaker 1: younger bars, they're gonna have a much faster pace. Their
Speaker 1: steps are gonna be less deliberate. They're gonna walk with
Speaker 1: their shoulders a little straighter. You know, there's much more
Speaker 1: streamline versus that big, rounded, you know, waddle that a
Speaker 1: big old boar will do. Now, one thing you got
Speaker 1: to be careful of because I have seen on multiple
Speaker 1: occasions young boars try to bear stomp like an older boar.
Speaker 1: Like you'll see a young bear do the bear stamp
Speaker 1: and try to act as if but um, it's funny
Speaker 1: to watch them do that. They just don't have the
Speaker 1: swagger that a big old boar is gonna have. Now,
Speaker 1: there's some other things to look at, you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: when you're going for size you know. One way I've
Speaker 1: found to to help in that, because you don't have
Speaker 1: a barrel or whatever, you know, when you're out glass
Speaker 1: and to size them up to you know, I'll use
Speaker 1: just some of the vegetation that's out there. Balsom user
Speaker 1: balsom flowers are easy. You can you can kind of
Speaker 1: get the general idea of the size of them and
Speaker 1: the and the vegetation that's around there, you know, the
Speaker 1: trees and whatnot, and they'll give you a good idea
Speaker 1: of how tall that bear is or how big that
Speaker 1: bear's head is, you know, because their faces are buried
Speaker 1: in those flowers like crazy in the springtime. Um, you
Speaker 1: know obviously the blockiness of the head, but you got
Speaker 1: to be careful with that. I mean blocky heads, you
Speaker 1: know where there's a very defined triangle between the tip
Speaker 1: of the nose and both ears. Yeah, that's probably a
Speaker 1: big old headed bear. But there are some skinny headed
Speaker 1: bears out there that'll fool you and you'll pass on
Speaker 1: that might be a great bear to take, you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've taken some bears that are very streamline in
Speaker 1: their in their features and yet their bodies they're like
Speaker 1: polar bears. They're just like a polar bear. Some of
Speaker 1: the longest bears are just like that. They're not those
Speaker 1: those front heavy blockheads. They're more of a slender, long
Speaker 1: bodied bear, and some of those are the best bears
Speaker 1: to go for. So, yeah, there's a lot of different ways.
Speaker 1: But my favorite way to kind of determine if it's
Speaker 1: a bear that we really want to target and go for,
Speaker 1: obviously targeting the mature boars, is just that we watch
Speaker 1: them for a long period of time. We watch for
Speaker 1: that swagger. Yeah, and that when you say swagger, I
Speaker 1: kind of related it to it's almost like they've got
Speaker 1: to throw their shoulder out and around in front of them.
Speaker 1: They got to throw their back leg. They can't just
Speaker 1: walk in a straight line. They're kind of throwing their
Speaker 1: arm out in front and then they kind of almost,
Speaker 1: you know, zig zag as they walk because they're they're
Speaker 1: not walking in a linear line. They're kind of waddling
Speaker 1: side to side. One thing we didn't touch on. I'm
Speaker 1: curious to get your take on. One thing that we
Speaker 1: do look at a lot is ears. Earplacement on the
Speaker 1: head and then how big the ears look like relative
Speaker 1: to the head. Is that something you look out as
Speaker 1: well to kind of help determined size, but it is
Speaker 1: I think ears. Ears also are one of those things
Speaker 1: that can be They can kind of throw you at
Speaker 1: times though, too, because I've seen some pretty big eared
Speaker 1: old boars. But the one thing you won't see is
Speaker 1: a very small bear with ears on the side of
Speaker 1: its head that look like buttons. You know, those are obvious,
Speaker 1: that's a giant. But I've also taken some big noggin
Speaker 1: bears that have had fairly larger ears. Now they're not
Speaker 1: going to be pointed like a younger bear, they're not
Speaker 1: going to look like a German shepherd, but larger than
Speaker 1: other older bears. You know, there's a there's definitely a difference,
Speaker 1: there's a range there. But yeah, they do help. I
Speaker 1: think again, though, you might pass on something that may
Speaker 1: have been worth taking if you only are going by
Speaker 1: button ears on the side of their head. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of bears that don't have that. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we put a little more weight into location versus like
Speaker 1: the size of the ear, like when they start to
Speaker 1: roll over, you know, pass on top seem to seem
Speaker 1: to be be a better indicator, at least the more
Speaker 1: mature boards that we've killed, but yeah, it was. It
Speaker 1: can still foil you. You You know, anything on a bear
Speaker 1: can foil you some of the time. But yeah, if
Speaker 1: you start I think the important thing is if you
Speaker 1: start to similar to like when I was mountain go hunting,
Speaker 1: like you should be able to pick up like the
Speaker 1: dark patch on their rump. You should be able to
Speaker 1: pick up this. And then when you put three or
Speaker 1: four of those things together, like you said, they've got
Speaker 1: the swagger, they've got the small ears. You know, one
Speaker 1: of those features may be off, but at least if
Speaker 1: you can put two or three together, your confidence level
Speaker 1: of what you're what you're looking at should go up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think, um, you know, just throw it in
Speaker 1: there as well. But that crease in the forehead, you know,
Speaker 1: on a big bear, they get those big cheeks. You know,
Speaker 1: there's big meat cheeks on the top of their head
Speaker 1: there that we like to cook out later. Um, but man,
Speaker 1: those things they'll throw a pretty mean crease right down
Speaker 1: the side or out forehead. And that's another way, Like
Speaker 1: if you see that on a bear that's got some swagger, man,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a good bear for sure. All Right.
Speaker 1: So we've identified a bear. Um. And and before we
Speaker 1: get going after that, I'm gonna throw another question in there.
Speaker 1: You know, bears probably their best scent is you know,
Speaker 1: they can see, okay, not very not great by any means, um,
Speaker 1: but they can they can smell well. Um, what in
Speaker 1: your opinion he closest too close? If you're if you're
Speaker 1: glassing across like a real steep box canyon. Um, if
Speaker 1: the wind's not right, like what's your safe distance? Man?
Speaker 1: If if I'm glassing across canyon, I'm not gonna be
Speaker 1: as worried about it. Often I find the scent doesn't
Speaker 1: go from one I do any other. You know, when
Speaker 1: there's a crick raising through the bottom, I'm much less
Speaker 1: concerned about my scent. Just traveling over and even getting
Speaker 1: five hundred yards to the adjacent side on a on
Speaker 1: a forty degree or you know, thirty five degree pitched slope,
Speaker 1: I'm not as worried there. But if he's on the
Speaker 1: same side as me, you know, and that bear is
Speaker 1: eight hundred yards away from me, and I got a
Speaker 1: wind to my back, the bear is probably gonna smell
Speaker 1: me without hesitation, even if he's a thousand yards out.
Speaker 1: If I got wind to my back and he's on
Speaker 1: the same side as me, and there's no cuts between us.
Speaker 1: I would put no faith in that. I would bookie
Speaker 1: and try to eliminate that. Yeah, I was a little
Speaker 1: taken back. There was an episode with Stephen Clay bear
Speaker 1: hunting there in Montana, I believe spring bear hunting, and
Speaker 1: you know, there's extra guy camera guys and whatnot. But
Speaker 1: Steve couldn't believe that that bear winded him at eight
Speaker 1: nine hundred yards and there were a few rolls in
Speaker 1: the same hillside that they were on, but it was
Speaker 1: on the same face that they were on, and that thing,
Speaker 1: you know, it just by its mannerisms, it picked up
Speaker 1: something that didn't like and got out of there. And
Speaker 1: it was like, all right, these things are at a
Speaker 1: different level. Um man nose on those things is unbelieve.
Speaker 1: What is it like a hundred times better than humans
Speaker 1: or whatever. I don't know how many how close it
Speaker 1: is to a bloodhound. I know it's above and beyond that.
Speaker 1: But one thing I've noticed on that front as well,
Speaker 1: and people may have picked up on this, but when
Speaker 1: you're hunting an area in the beginning, you know, you
Speaker 1: tend to see everything but once you've moved through an area,
Speaker 1: especially with predators, you know, wolves and bears, it seems
Speaker 1: as if like once they've picked up your scent in
Speaker 1: that area, all of a sudden, your sightings go way down.
Speaker 1: Like it's not it's not, it's not just that you're
Speaker 1: in front of them at the time. But once you've
Speaker 1: put a little scent on the mountain, you may have
Speaker 1: a bear wand or through that spot, but the likelihood
Speaker 1: of you seeing a bear that's not at heightened at
Speaker 1: a heightened state is pretty slim. Man. Your scent sticks
Speaker 1: to the mountain and they will pick it up. If
Speaker 1: you've ever seen one come across to your scent after
Speaker 1: a line that you've taken, they stop and they know
Speaker 1: exactly where you were. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a great
Speaker 1: point and maybe something people should pick up on. Like
Speaker 1: with a very defined you know, move with a purpose.
Speaker 1: Don't just you know, walk through a base unless you
Speaker 1: need to, you know, similar to white tail deer hunt,
Speaker 1: and you don't go through you know, their betting area,
Speaker 1: you know, on a on a predator um you know
Speaker 1: hunt of any hunt, like be very careful on where
Speaker 1: you're putting your feet, um you know, stay in it,
Speaker 1: stay in the kind of a neutral area. I think
Speaker 1: the best approach is always in those type mountain scenarios
Speaker 1: is you know, it's always trying to find that great
Speaker 1: vantage point that doesn't throw your scent into where you're
Speaker 1: looking obviously, and try to stay there unless you absolutely
Speaker 1: have a bear to go for and you have to move. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: less movement to better in bear country in my opinion, yep,
Speaker 1: unless you're moving drainages. So we've taken all this information
Speaker 1: you know, you've shared, and you finally you've spotted your bear.
Speaker 1: So now we're gonna, you know, decide on are we
Speaker 1: gonna stalk this bear? Are we're gonna wait and kind
Speaker 1: of all the factors that dictate that decision. And then
Speaker 1: once you do decide, what factors dictate your approach. So
Speaker 1: I'm I know you're very patient. You say you're impatient,
Speaker 1: but you're very patient when you need to be. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, we talk, we go back to like the
Speaker 1: big Colorado buck that you killed like at what six
Speaker 1: seven days until you made your move and you finally
Speaker 1: slipped up. Um, I'm guessing you're the same way with bears.
Speaker 1: You're you're impatient until you need to be and then
Speaker 1: you're very patient. Um, what are some I guess this
Speaker 1: question kind of all rolls into itself when you decide
Speaker 1: to stock and when you do what what? What do
Speaker 1: you have to think about? Then you know? And there
Speaker 1: there's all of those things like you know where you're
Speaker 1: gonna shoot from, bear movement, time of day, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: But kind of give us, give us your your opinion
Speaker 1: on all that. I think with patients, you know it.
Speaker 1: It plays more of a role in bear hunting almost
Speaker 1: than anything else. Patience and glassing is one thing. You know,
Speaker 1: your day is consumed with just glassing and not seeing
Speaker 1: much with another small percentage of it hopefully making a
Speaker 1: play on a bear. But even when you pick up
Speaker 1: a bear, you kind of have to make the call
Speaker 1: of am I gonna potentially blow this bear out if
Speaker 1: I go hastily over after him right now? Say the
Speaker 1: wind isn't perfect or whatever, and it's just my style, Jason,
Speaker 1: but I will tend to if it's not, it's never
Speaker 1: gonna be perfect. But if the deck isn't stacked in
Speaker 1: my favor, like if the cars aren't stacked in my favor,
Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna sit back and wait for a better play.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe that bear is just not in the
Speaker 1: right spot at the moment. And you know, especially if
Speaker 1: you pick up a traveling bear, you know, a bear
Speaker 1: that hasn't been just parked in in a spot for
Speaker 1: an hour. You know that bear, I feel like I'll
Speaker 1: probably be able to pick him back up when I
Speaker 1: get over to this area, and you know, put myself
Speaker 1: in a place to shoot him. But a traveling bear,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's best to sit back. And I can think
Speaker 1: of multiple areas where I've hunted, you know, steep sided
Speaker 1: river type drainages where I'll pick up a bear maybe
Speaker 1: on the other side of the drainage, and probably the
Speaker 1: worst thing that I could have done is taking my
Speaker 1: eyes off that bear and change locations because they're moving
Speaker 1: so much. You know, there are times when they just
Speaker 1: they grab a bite and they're walking. They grab a
Speaker 1: bite and they're walking. You kind of want to sit
Speaker 1: back and maybe this is a bear that you won't
Speaker 1: even get a play on. But maybe he's gonna feed
Speaker 1: right out of the basin, or he's gonna park it,
Speaker 1: take a little snooze. It's gonna give you time, But
Speaker 1: you want to know where that bear's going. You want
Speaker 1: to know where he stops and give yourself the best chance.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna jeopardize the hunt by moving too
Speaker 1: fast crossing the canyon getting up on the other side
Speaker 1: if I don't have to, Because again we just talked
Speaker 1: about the scent thing. I want to keep that scent
Speaker 1: lockdown as much as possible. Um. You know, I like
Speaker 1: gimmes when it comes to bear hunting. I don't take
Speaker 1: a whole lot of chances. It's just like anything else.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm very patient with you know, trying to
Speaker 1: not put a bear to bed necessarily or really get
Speaker 1: an idea of what that bear's doing. Does it look
Speaker 1: like he's gonna stick to this spot? Can I get
Speaker 1: closer all the things that you know, similar to what
Speaker 1: you do on a on a classic mule deer hunt
Speaker 1: or whatever. Yep, yep. And you know, as you just mentioned,
Speaker 1: you don't want to necessarily go over there and not
Speaker 1: get a shot. Now you've just you know, stunk up
Speaker 1: his favorite area and put your scent there, and yeah,
Speaker 1: so be I like it. Um. Yeah, A lot of
Speaker 1: times we use the phrase like what do we say
Speaker 1: is because we'll see something and media we're like, well,
Speaker 1: he's ours. All we gotta do is not screw it up,
Speaker 1: like it's on us, like we'll get this thing unless
Speaker 1: we screw it up. And that's often the case with bears. Yep.
Speaker 1: And like the bear I killed specifically, we were three
Speaker 1: hours away from where he was at from where we
Speaker 1: spotted him, like in order to go all the way around,
Speaker 1: hike out the ridge, get down on the finger. But
Speaker 1: you know, some of the things we were looking at
Speaker 1: was all right, there's one sow and two bars. There
Speaker 1: is that going to change the equation. And then we
Speaker 1: really monitored like where when we first spotted him to
Speaker 1: where we last seen him, it's been half an hour
Speaker 1: and they've moved fifty yards, so they're not interesting getting
Speaker 1: out of the area. We've got two bears or actually
Speaker 1: three bears to look at instead of two, and so
Speaker 1: we used all of those things. Time of day it was,
Speaker 1: you know, earlier in the morning. I think we picked
Speaker 1: him up at like nine to thirty, so we had
Speaker 1: all day to go over there and try to relocate them.
Speaker 1: They were in a pretty isolated basin, so like you said,
Speaker 1: this is kind of all those stacking the deck features. Right,
Speaker 1: We've now got all of this in our favor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's still a chance they can get out of there,
Speaker 1: but it was worth the time and f for to
Speaker 1: go over there, um, you know because of these things. Now,
Speaker 1: if they would have been moving, if they would have moved,
Speaker 1: you know that that five hundred yards in five minutes,
Speaker 1: then it would have been very we would if we
Speaker 1: would have went over there, would have just been hastily
Speaker 1: you know, we would have stunk the area up, probably
Speaker 1: never relocated them. And so similar to you, um, you know,
Speaker 1: you just you put all those factors together and like
Speaker 1: if the probability of me thinking to have a ninety
Speaker 1: percent chance of killing them, you know, or him on
Speaker 1: this this plan, then let's just sit back and wait
Speaker 1: so we don't screw it up. Yeah, And it's a
Speaker 1: case by case basis, right. I can I can think
Speaker 1: of a time where you know, I I picked up
Speaker 1: a bear and he was over two miles away, you know,
Speaker 1: on an evening and that bear um was coming out
Speaker 1: like he was like three o'clock or something like that,
Speaker 1: and you know we at that time obviously we're not
Speaker 1: going to get get to it. We had a river
Speaker 1: to cross, we had all kinds of stuff to deal with, um,
Speaker 1: so we made the call like it was an area
Speaker 1: where the best feet feature was a play that we
Speaker 1: could get a great shot on if we just got
Speaker 1: within three hundred and fifty yards of this thing. But
Speaker 1: we had to spend the rest of that night and
Speaker 1: next morning to move country to get to this new
Speaker 1: spot where now we're gonna sit there and park it
Speaker 1: and wait for this bear to come out and most
Speaker 1: likely get back on that feeding feature, which is like
Speaker 1: this grassy meadow. And it worked like like a charm,
Speaker 1: you know, we ended up taking a giant bear, but
Speaker 1: it took us a long time to get there. And
Speaker 1: then once we got there, we basically took turns napping,
Speaker 1: and one guy was always on the glass and we
Speaker 1: just waited that bear out, and sure enough that evening
Speaker 1: started rolling by and and out came to bear, and
Speaker 1: we got him exactly where we wanted to. But then
Speaker 1: there's also the other situation where you pick up a
Speaker 1: bear in the evening and I've seen them, you know,
Speaker 1: just feeding in this big basin, and you know, you
Speaker 1: might be getting a little bit low on light, and
Speaker 1: you might be getting a little bit low on days
Speaker 1: at the end, you know, maybe you only have a
Speaker 1: couple of days to do this. You know, that would
Speaker 1: be a scenario where I would say, go for it, like,
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes to get there, hustle your tail off,
Speaker 1: and there's a great chance that you're probably going to
Speaker 1: get a shot at that bear. M It's just it's
Speaker 1: situation by situation, right, yep, yea. So one of my
Speaker 1: favorite parts of hunting is the calling aspect. But I
Speaker 1: feel maybe out of any other animal I go out
Speaker 1: there to call spring bear, I feel like my calling
Speaker 1: is like the very small portion, and I'm curious, um,
Speaker 1: you know, being as we mentioned the whole everything we've
Speaker 1: been talking about mainly has been like a spot in
Speaker 1: stock type hunting, which is exactly how I spring hunt
Speaker 1: for bears. Um, when do you use calling? What calls
Speaker 1: you use? Kind of what's your approach on when you
Speaker 1: pull a call out? And then when you do kind
Speaker 1: of what's your your technique or strategy for calling and
Speaker 1: spring bears. Yeah, so generally we you know, spring bear
Speaker 1: calling is so hit and miss, you know, on the
Speaker 1: front end of it. It's just I've never found it
Speaker 1: to work. I've never found it to work much in April.
Speaker 1: I've not found it to work much the front end
Speaker 1: of May. As you get later and pushing towards the
Speaker 1: calving time, you know, they're digestive, tracks are moving along
Speaker 1: and they're maybe already kicking around some rocks and feeding
Speaker 1: on some grubs and larva, and now they're eating a
Speaker 1: ground scorel on occasion, they're ready for some meat. Man.
Speaker 1: That is the time where calling can be probably the
Speaker 1: most intense, exhilarating way to hunt bears that you'll ever experience.
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't work all the time, but you
Speaker 1: know when you hit that later part of the season,
Speaker 1: just before the rut, oftentimes the bears aren't going to
Speaker 1: be out maybe as long during the day, and that's
Speaker 1: a great opportunity to get yourself on almost like a
Speaker 1: glassing knob type place and just rip on that distress call.
Speaker 1: You know, you've built some incredible distress calls. I've got
Speaker 1: three of them, and those things work great. But man,
Speaker 1: it is a ton of fun just sitting on a
Speaker 1: knob hitting that distress call. Keep on with it. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't want to let off the gas on a
Speaker 1: distress call, and oftentimes those bears will be on you
Speaker 1: in no time, you know, within seconds if they're close.
Speaker 1: And I've also had experiences where I'm looking at a
Speaker 1: bear and I'm hitting with a distress call and he
Speaker 1: may look my direction, but it's just not that time
Speaker 1: for him. It wasn't his day, and he's not going
Speaker 1: to make the decision to come my way. But I've
Speaker 1: also seen the opposite where a bear is, you know,
Speaker 1: five six hundred yards away and he hears that thing
Speaker 1: and he is booking it. I mean he is boogieing
Speaker 1: across that mountain to get to where you are. So
Speaker 1: sometimes they come in slow. Sometimes they come in extremely fast,
Speaker 1: and you better be ready for it. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: to kind of reiterate what you said, bears get they
Speaker 1: get sidetracked very easy. So you said, kind of whale
Speaker 1: on the call and don't let up, which is one thing,
Speaker 1: and then m Yeah, the speed that they approached the
Speaker 1: ones that we've called tom we used a calf distress
Speaker 1: on my buddy Charlie's hunt. You know, it's twelve hundred
Speaker 1: yards away across canyon. We couldn't get any closer. Is
Speaker 1: that we started whaling on just a calf distress, just
Speaker 1: our our normal col call, and that being closed six
Speaker 1: hundred yards within a mere minute, you can see him
Speaker 1: just sprint down through the timber. Of course he never
Speaker 1: came all the way and he had to cross the
Speaker 1: creek and come up. But at that point we had
Speaker 1: no other option, Like it was either gonna work or
Speaker 1: we weren't gonna kill him anyway, so it could only add.
Speaker 1: You know, we've used distressed calls a little bit, like
Speaker 1: we know he's went maybe into a patch of timber,
Speaker 1: we're maybe running out of light, and we're maybe our hunt,
Speaker 1: like maybe that will pull him out so we can
Speaker 1: at least see him. But yeah, a lot of times
Speaker 1: it may actually I don't want to I don't want
Speaker 1: to say, it can screw up, but early in the
Speaker 1: season when they just want to be a little bit
Speaker 1: isolated and left alone, like all you're doing is drawn
Speaker 1: attention to yourself and they may not be that interested
Speaker 1: in it. It may be for nothing anyways. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and oftentimes, you know, if you're a rifle guy, the
Speaker 1: distress call just gets him out of the timber, just
Speaker 1: gets them interested enough to get that clean shot. You know,
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily need to call them within a hundred
Speaker 1: yards or whatever. But you know, many many times, if
Speaker 1: you're in an area with a cut, you know, some
Speaker 1: type of an edge to it, you can at least
Speaker 1: draw those bears to the edge and they're curious and
Speaker 1: they look and you know, maybe not to the point
Speaker 1: of coming all the way in, but just enough time
Speaker 1: to get that shot. And you know, I think I'll
Speaker 1: just say, be careful in Grads country when you're in
Speaker 1: Grays country, which, yeah, calling in Montana is is different
Speaker 1: than a lot of the places we've chased them in
Speaker 1: Idaho where there are no grays, calling can be very effective,
Speaker 1: but it sure brings grizzlies into all right. Uh, so
Speaker 1: we've did everything right. We've either made our stock, we've
Speaker 1: called him in. Um walk us through middle of middle
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um, we're getting ready to shoot this bear.
Speaker 1: And there's a lot of um. I believe it was
Speaker 1: iron Will. Maybe he had made a post here recently
Speaker 1: on where you shoot a bear, and um, there was
Speaker 1: a lot of confusion. There was even a lot of
Speaker 1: arguing on you know, some of us answered middle of
Speaker 1: the body, you know, halfway up, halfway between the legs,
Speaker 1: like literally the center of the body where you wouldn't
Speaker 1: think about being a great shot on a deer. And
Speaker 1: now walk us through that. You guys have killed a
Speaker 1: bunch of bears, and I know on some of your
Speaker 1: videos are you know, people have maybe out it's like,
Speaker 1: why the heck did you shoot him so far back?
Speaker 1: But um explain that to us and maybe a little
Speaker 1: of the anatomy and then why it works so well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going to be controversial every time when you talk
Speaker 1: about shot placement on bears, for sure. But I I
Speaker 1: can confidently say you shoot a bear middle in the middle,
Speaker 1: that bears not going far at all. You shoot a
Speaker 1: bear in the front shoulder, you may be trying to
Speaker 1: track a bear for a very, very long ways. Now
Speaker 1: maybe this changes when you're talking about like a coastal
Speaker 1: brown bear or something in Alaska. You know, I know
Speaker 1: those guys are trying to knock those shoulders out. Number one.
Speaker 1: I think, I don't shoot anything in the shoulder, Jason.
Speaker 1: I don't shoot deer in the shoulder. I don't shoot
Speaker 1: open the shoulder moose. I care about that meat to
Speaker 1: the point that I'm just not gonna risk wasting any
Speaker 1: meat whatsoever. So I'm always a little off the shoulder.
Speaker 1: But with bears, you are so far better off shooting
Speaker 1: middle of middle. If you want to bring it a
Speaker 1: little bit forward, maybe two three inches front of middle
Speaker 1: of middle. Great, But those lungs on a bear, I
Speaker 1: will challenge anybody next time you break a bear down,
Speaker 1: look at how far those lungs go back. Those things
Speaker 1: literally go back to like that second rib back rib
Speaker 1: on a bear. And man, nothing deflates a bear. Bears,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, are softer than even a white tail
Speaker 1: Jason soft. They're soft. You shoot a middle of middle,
Speaker 1: those things deflate and they go down fast and hard.
Speaker 1: But where most people run into trouble is they shoot
Speaker 1: a little too far forward and good love track and
Speaker 1: a wounded bear. And that's where those wounded bears come from.
Speaker 1: This guy shoot them in the shoulders. You're not going
Speaker 1: to track a bear far. If you shoot middle of
Speaker 1: the middle, they're never gonna happen. But I'm sure there's
Speaker 1: guys that will forever and always claim to shoot them
Speaker 1: on the front quarter there. But I have seen, and
Speaker 1: I have heard from, and I have had so many
Speaker 1: people reach out and frustration about hitting them in that
Speaker 1: front shoulder. Now, is a bear that they tried to track,
Speaker 1: and we all know how hard they are to track
Speaker 1: if they're not if they're not down within you know,
Speaker 1: fifty to one hundred yards. Man. You know, they get
Speaker 1: into that timber and they don't leave blood. They tend
Speaker 1: to clog up with the at and the hat and
Speaker 1: the hair. It can be tough. So you want to
Speaker 1: put them down quick and the best way, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: to do that is to take out those lungs. It's
Speaker 1: not to go shoulder. Um. You spend a lifetime of
Speaker 1: hitting shoulders, you're gonna have a good amount of wounded
Speaker 1: bears at the end of it. You shoot middle of
Speaker 1: the middle, you ain't gonna have any ye. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us there, Ryan Um. Inclosing, what is
Speaker 1: one tip you'd give a new spring bear hunters maybe
Speaker 1: somebody hasn't found a bunch of success, just kind of
Speaker 1: that main tip, like, what's what's your voice of encouragement
Speaker 1: for him? Here? Oh man, I think I think bear
Speaker 1: hunting has been overlooked by many. I think it's underrated.
Speaker 1: In my opinion, absolutely love it. I spoke to It's
Speaker 1: overtaken Elk for me as far as like one of
Speaker 1: my most anticipated I'm gonna I'm gonna pretend like I
Speaker 1: didn't hear that. Yeah, but I would encourage people to
Speaker 1: go give it a shot. We got a ton of
Speaker 1: opportunity here in these Western states. It's a great time
Speaker 1: to be out bear meat. We didn't even talk about.
Speaker 1: It's incredible. There's a lot of different ways I've got
Speaker 1: I've got some in the suvied right now from last year.
Speaker 1: Then I'm gonna feed some folks with tonight. But I
Speaker 1: think as anything else, you know, make the hunt however
Speaker 1: it works for you. If you don't have the time,
Speaker 1: you know, look to those areas that aren't too far
Speaker 1: off the beaten path where you're just going to have
Speaker 1: nice you know, feed zones to glass or get yourself
Speaker 1: in wicked ass good shape and treat it like any
Speaker 1: mountain hunt, whether it's like a sheep hunt or a
Speaker 1: goat hunt. You know, you can get yourself into some
Speaker 1: awfully incredible places chasing spring bears if that's the hunt
Speaker 1: that you're looking for. So for adventure, guys, I don't
Speaker 1: know that there is a better time to do it
Speaker 1: than after we've kind of shaken the rust off this
Speaker 1: winter to get out there and start chasing bears. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, take your time, be picky, you know, trying
Speaker 1: to take those older age class bears. Number one, I
Speaker 1: think they're better to pull out of the pool. Number two,
Speaker 1: You get a whole lot more meat off of a
Speaker 1: big bear than you do with some medium size bear.
Speaker 1: So I would just I would just say, um, you know,
Speaker 1: get after it. I encourage anybody to give it a shot.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's not for you, but give it a try. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I spring bear hunting, you know, on those times I've
Speaker 1: got to go. It may not pass oak, but it was.
Speaker 1: It was an absolute blast I had. I loved it.
Speaker 1: I loved the glassing aspect um. And and they're just
Speaker 1: cool critters. And and like you said, we didn't talk
Speaker 1: a lot about it, but my kids, Um, when they
Speaker 1: found out you can kill two of them here in Washington,
Speaker 1: wanted to know why I only brought one home. So
Speaker 1: they eat it really, really well, and they do. We
Speaker 1: love them. So inclosing, Graham, Um, how can people find
Speaker 1: out more about you? Where can they all your adventures
Speaker 1: get a hold of you? Um? Give them give everybody
Speaker 1: a way to contact you or to follow with your adventures. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess the easiest is on the old ig um
Speaker 1: at Stealthy Hunter st el and um. And then yeah,
Speaker 1: we we have put a lot of bear videos out
Speaker 1: over the years. Um, folks can find that over on
Speaker 1: the gritty youtubees. Um. We're about to drop some more
Speaker 1: that we haven't shown in the past. In fact, this
Speaker 1: weekend we're dropping some of the trips from last spring,
Speaker 1: so guys want to kind of see some of the
Speaker 1: country we're hunting and the ways we're doing it, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe tune into some of those, um those YouTube videos. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: like always really appreciate having you here. UM, I'm a
Speaker 1: little bum like we'd kind of semi planned the spring
Speaker 1: bear hunt together and then, um, I let a trip
Speaker 1: to Disneyland get in the way at that, So maybe
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four Sarah alright, alright, yeah, thanks Jess, carry
Speaker 1: and have a good one. H