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. As the spring bear season progresses,
Speaker 1: I figured it would be a great time to expand
Speaker 1: on some more bear hunting tactics. While spotting from a
Speaker 1: distance and stalking in is a great way to hunt,
Speaker 1: what about those areas where that's not possible, those vast
Speaker 1: areas of bear country we're having a look, Even maybe
Speaker 1: a hundred yards away would be a tough feat. My
Speaker 1: bear hunting is often split between hunting, timber and glassing.
Speaker 1: This week, we're going to cover all things thick country
Speaker 1: bear hunting by breaking down food, terrain, sign and effectively
Speaker 1: covering country. But before we do that, I want to
Speaker 1: share the story of my best Montana bear. So I
Speaker 1: actually kind of told this story not that long ago
Speaker 1: episode ninety um I briefly mentioned the story of this bear.
Speaker 1: I kind of got into detail. But because the last
Speaker 1: story was predicated on a couple of clients that I
Speaker 1: had and getting her a bear but at the beginning
Speaker 1: of that story, I talked about a bear that I
Speaker 1: ended up shooting, which was my best Montana bear. And
Speaker 1: even though I kind of already told the story, I
Speaker 1: feel like it's skipped out on a lot of details
Speaker 1: because I didn't want to make it too long. So
Speaker 1: I figured, well, today I might as well tell the actual,
Speaker 1: like full full length version, because I think it's pretty good. So,
Speaker 1: like I talked about earlier, I was guiding father and
Speaker 1: a daughter, Jason Mica, and we've been hunting for most
Speaker 1: of the week and and got on some bears, and
Speaker 1: and that week is a little bit later in the season,
Speaker 1: so my tactic kind of switched from you know, actually
Speaker 1: in the mornings, we're going up some big canyons glassing
Speaker 1: and doing that little glassing thing, and it just we
Speaker 1: we spotted some bears, but by the time we got
Speaker 1: there and it just didn't work out, the bears had disappeared.
Speaker 1: As one of those where we're seeing bears but we
Speaker 1: just aren't getting within range to get a shot. So
Speaker 1: I decaid, all right, we're gonna switch our tactics. We're
Speaker 1: gonna go hunt some more covered areas. We're gonna and
Speaker 1: and actually kind of start targeting some places where fawns
Speaker 1: are dropping because it's calving time for elk and fawning
Speaker 1: for deer. So we would go into those kind of
Speaker 1: timbred pockets where I had hunted a lot in the past,
Speaker 1: I knew a lot of bears concentrated in I'd had
Speaker 1: a lot of success there over the years, and so
Speaker 1: just hunting these areas, doing a various different tactics, cruising,
Speaker 1: logging roads and other things, still hunting through timber, picking
Speaker 1: some good ridges and other things, and then just really
Speaker 1: kind of king in on where some of the fawns
Speaker 1: and calves are dropping. And it is later in the season,
Speaker 1: so it's also kind of the rut where the bears
Speaker 1: start mating, so you kind of get that as well,
Speaker 1: where you get higher concentrations of bears and then you
Speaker 1: might get more movement throughout the day. So figured, all right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go hunt this a little bit thicker stuff.
Speaker 1: And towards the end of the hunt, we're in one
Speaker 1: of my favorite areas. We've seen some bears in a
Speaker 1: couple of different places, but just no shots, nothing close,
Speaker 1: nothing great, And so on the last podcast, I said,
Speaker 1: we're just sitting there bs and which is true. We're
Speaker 1: just kind of talking, joking around, and normally, like when
Speaker 1: I'm guiding, you know, I take the deposits, all the fees,
Speaker 1: everything's taken care of before the hunt. But Jason hunted
Speaker 1: with me a lot and good friend by this point,
Speaker 1: and he still had like some of his hunt deposit left,
Speaker 1: and he had it in a check in his pocket.
Speaker 1: So we're sitting there just joking around. He's like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: I said. He's like, this check has been burning a
Speaker 1: hole in my pocket this whole week. I've been meaning
Speaker 1: to give you the rest of the payment for the
Speaker 1: guiding services. And I was like, oh, yeah, whatever, man,
Speaker 1: and sot of just joking back and forth, and so
Speaker 1: he reaches into his wallet and pulls out a check
Speaker 1: that he had for the remaining balance of the hunt
Speaker 1: and hands it to me. And the second it hits
Speaker 1: my hand, I look over and I'm like, there's a bear.
Speaker 1: And this bear is like seventy yards away. So Michael
Speaker 1: lines up, I kind of told this story, already, shoots missus,
Speaker 1: bear gets away, and unfortunately they couldn't stay another day
Speaker 1: to hunt it. So I was like, all right, but
Speaker 1: I actually had, I had some plans. I had to
Speaker 1: be somewhere. I think that was like a Thursday. So
Speaker 1: the next day is a Friday, and I'm thinking to myself.
Speaker 1: I was like, man, that was a big bear I
Speaker 1: gotta get. I gotta get back out there and just
Speaker 1: give it a look. I mean, but I'm thinking about it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Okay, I gotta i gotta be somewhere this weekend, man,
Speaker 1: And if I get a bear, I have to check
Speaker 1: it in and sometimes it can be really hard to
Speaker 1: track someone down and I'm gonna be gone, so I
Speaker 1: was like, I have to get it checked in before
Speaker 1: I leave. So I'm thinking to myself and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: I really have to shoot this bear first thing in
Speaker 1: the morning. I gotta stop hunting by like midmorning because
Speaker 1: I have to pack it out. I have to take
Speaker 1: it in. I have to get checked and I have
Speaker 1: to drive back. So I'm like, man, I don't know
Speaker 1: if I'll be able to track someone down on the weekend.
Speaker 1: So I've got to drive about two hours to a
Speaker 1: regional Fishing Game office to get this bear checked in.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, Okay, this is just before I even
Speaker 1: go out. So I'm just thinking all the like all
Speaker 1: the planning in my head. I'm like, well, I'm just
Speaker 1: I just can't not go. Look in the worst case scenario, Okay,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just like change my flight my trip. I
Speaker 1: think I was flying to the that time of year
Speaker 1: it would have been. I can't remember where I was going,
Speaker 1: probably Rena rodeo, because if it's that time here, that's
Speaker 1: something I generally don't miss. So I go out and
Speaker 1: I just leave super early, like wait before set up
Speaker 1: night go And I'm like, what are the odds that
Speaker 1: I'm actually gonna find this bear again? So I'm I'm
Speaker 1: going through and I'm slowly going around the corner. It's
Speaker 1: like kind of like this logging road and um, there's
Speaker 1: been this like spot where it's kind of cleared out
Speaker 1: a little bit, like a more cleared area, and that's
Speaker 1: where I've been seeing the bears because of the elk
Speaker 1: were just dropping their calves and these little bit more
Speaker 1: open areas. So I come around the corner and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: just thinking like oh, this would be sweet. It's kind
Speaker 1: of foggy, kind of rainy this morning, and I look up,
Speaker 1: I see a bear. I'm like, bear cool, it's not
Speaker 1: the bear that we saw the day before, but I thought, death,
Speaker 1: that doesn't really matter. It's a bear. So it's about
Speaker 1: fifty yards away, and I put the gun up. I'm like, sweet,
Speaker 1: I want to get a good look at it first.
Speaker 1: You don't make sure's you no cubs around. I look
Speaker 1: at it. I'm like, it's definitely a sou It's got
Speaker 1: like a pretty small head on it. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a scrawnier, smaller sound like, not a big bear, not
Speaker 1: a real mature animal. I'm like, I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: see any cubs, but I'm thinking to myself, not a
Speaker 1: bear I want to take I'm like, man, bummer. Well,
Speaker 1: I was like, that was pretty cool. At least I
Speaker 1: saw a bear. And it's pretty close to where that
Speaker 1: bear was the other day, not right in the same place,
Speaker 1: but so I'm looking and just kind of like keep watching,
Speaker 1: and there's this it's it's like in this little dip
Speaker 1: below me, this little dip, and there's like this little
Speaker 1: ridge just past it, maybe fifty yards past it. So
Speaker 1: the bears just below me, and I look up and
Speaker 1: this bear comes just starts to walk over the rise,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yep, that's the bear, a big chocolate
Speaker 1: colored boar, and he gets on that ridge, and the
Speaker 1: smaller bear is actually just right below me. I mean
Speaker 1: probably at this point thirty yards or less. I can't
Speaker 1: actually even see it because it went on the ridge
Speaker 1: right below me. And that board gets on the ridge
Speaker 1: and it must have been following the center that that
Speaker 1: sal to either breeder or whatever. And he gets up
Speaker 1: on that ridge and he just stands up, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if he saw me or if he's just
Speaker 1: now trying to like he smells that other bear in there,
Speaker 1: and he's like, where's where the bear go? But I
Speaker 1: feel like he kind of like pinned on me, like
Speaker 1: what's that and stands up on his two hind legs.
Speaker 1: And at this point I'm already ready, so I'm like, oh, yep,
Speaker 1: that's the bear. It's sweet laying up the crosshairs. And
Speaker 1: he actually had like a perfect, i don't know, like
Speaker 1: white chevron on his chest, just centered right there. Squeeze
Speaker 1: the trigger less than hundred yards away. I don't even
Speaker 1: I think it was actually off hand maybe or maybe resting.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can't remember. I think I was standing
Speaker 1: and um because I was trying to look at the
Speaker 1: bear down below me. When that bear popped up, and
Speaker 1: that's probably why he saw me and got a little hinky.
Speaker 1: So I threw the gun up, shot, squeeze the trigger, boom,
Speaker 1: looked good. Bear disappeared, so I'm like, sweet, walk over,
Speaker 1: give it a few seconds, kind of go over to
Speaker 1: the ridge, go down, and sure enough, there he is
Speaker 1: in the bottom. I was like, whoa cool go up
Speaker 1: to him, and it was the biggest bear I had
Speaker 1: taken him Montana. I end up, you know, skinned him out,
Speaker 1: just actually case skinned him because I tanned to the
Speaker 1: hide and then packed out all the meat, and I
Speaker 1: didn't have a super large pack on me. I mean,
Speaker 1: I had like my normal pack, but it wasn't my
Speaker 1: big frame pack. I'm like, you know, because normally spring
Speaker 1: bears aren't that big, even big spring bears. And in
Speaker 1: order to get everything into the pack, I was like,
Speaker 1: I gotta get out one trip because I gotta hustle.
Speaker 1: So I got the hide in there and then all
Speaker 1: the meat. I ended up having to bone out some
Speaker 1: of the meat and pack the bearer back and I
Speaker 1: can't I'd have to. I was trying to look before
Speaker 1: I did this. I took a picture of the scale
Speaker 1: of the boned out meat. I think it was like
Speaker 1: a hundred and seventy hundred and sixty seventy pounds boned
Speaker 1: out meat, some hundred sixty pounds something like that of
Speaker 1: boned out meat on a spring bear. That's a pretty
Speaker 1: substantial size bear for Montana. I mean it was. It
Speaker 1: was a pretty good size bear. A lot of meat
Speaker 1: I ended up making mostly I did have quite a
Speaker 1: few polish is a little bit of summer sausage, and
Speaker 1: then one of my favorites like I like to do
Speaker 1: like slow cooker pulled bear stuff do like brisket style.
Speaker 1: But that was the story of my largest bear, and
Speaker 1: it was it was a kind of a rush hunt,
Speaker 1: the end of another hunt, and probably should have been
Speaker 1: someone else's bear. And it was one of those things
Speaker 1: where I'm like, all right, should I text the picture
Speaker 1: of this bear or not? And then I thought to myself, yep,
Speaker 1: I should definitely text the picture the bear the see
Speaker 1: what you missed out on text. But that is the
Speaker 1: that's the story there of my largest Montana spring black bear.
Speaker 1: When it comes to hunting thicker country in terrain where
Speaker 1: you can't really see, I think that it comes down
Speaker 1: to four main things. So it comes down to food,
Speaker 1: the type of terrain, the ability to detect sign, and
Speaker 1: then the most important covering country. So let's start with
Speaker 1: the first one. Food. I know, in every bearer podcast
Speaker 1: or anything I've talked about, I always say it, you
Speaker 1: got a key in on the food, and it's no
Speaker 1: different whether you are hunting the fall, whether you're hunting
Speaker 1: the spring, whether you're hunting open country, or whether you're
Speaker 1: hunting the timber. Food is going to be the key.
Speaker 1: Actually got quite a few questions after the Last Bear podcast,
Speaker 1: which is what kind of inspired me to continue talking
Speaker 1: about bears. A lot of them were what do we
Speaker 1: do in the fall? And then quite a few like
Speaker 1: I'm from Pennsylvania or areas where it's more thick, more timbered,
Speaker 1: how do I kind of go about locating bears on
Speaker 1: the regular? And you have to remember, like bears, they
Speaker 1: they need that food, especially in the fall they're really
Speaker 1: starting to bulk up, but they're building that weight in
Speaker 1: the springtime as well, So I think that this is
Speaker 1: a good like this podcast is not necessarily for spring bears,
Speaker 1: but this is a lot of my fall bear hunting
Speaker 1: tactics as well. And that food is actually easier to
Speaker 1: hone in on in the fall because you've got different
Speaker 1: kinds of high protein food sources. So I look for
Speaker 1: that food source that's at the top of the list. Um,
Speaker 1: if you're in an area like maybe further east or
Speaker 1: central part of the US, maybe not even out west,
Speaker 1: or like places like New Mexico where you've got mass
Speaker 1: crops of eggcorns, you know you can look at the trees,
Speaker 1: look at the type of terrain and say, like, what
Speaker 1: what's producing right now? A thing in Montana or other
Speaker 1: like more mountain areas, berries are always good. You've got huckleberries,
Speaker 1: You've got blueberries. Some places have like good raspberry growth
Speaker 1: or blackberries. Anything that has just a lot of sugar,
Speaker 1: a lot of protein, a lot of carbohydrates. Bears are
Speaker 1: completely sucked in by so in the springtime. There's a
Speaker 1: couple of different food sources that I would say are
Speaker 1: primarily things you can focus on in that more timbered country.
Speaker 1: One of them is just that early grass. And that
Speaker 1: early grass if you think about in an area that's
Speaker 1: really forested, you've got really good grass that actually grows
Speaker 1: on roads that aren't being used to like abandoned logging roads,
Speaker 1: gated roads. Um, maybe there's some areas that are a
Speaker 1: little bit thinner timber that actually have more grass. Most
Speaker 1: of the forest canopy blocks out a lot of that grass.
Speaker 1: But any of those open areas, it's not open where
Speaker 1: you could glass it from a distance, but it's open
Speaker 1: enough where the sun is gonna get in. It's gonna
Speaker 1: hit the ground, and you're gonna get some of that
Speaker 1: green up. That is what you're looking for in those
Speaker 1: more spot and stock type things. Some great stuff to
Speaker 1: look for. I mean, I look for clover, dandelions, those
Speaker 1: kind of things. Those start to pop up. That's a
Speaker 1: really good favored food source of early spring bears. So
Speaker 1: walking those gated logging roads that can get a little
Speaker 1: bit of sun, you start seeing that green up in
Speaker 1: that green grass. That's a place to key on on.
Speaker 1: Start to look for. Other things that I look for
Speaker 1: in the springtime are elk calving areas. Deer calving areas
Speaker 1: areas where you're like, okay, the animals are dropping, they
Speaker 1: might be closer together. It's like a safety and numbers
Speaker 1: thing you can smell, Like where elk have calves, It's
Speaker 1: just like it's this area that reeks. Think about how
Speaker 1: good a bears noses. It takes not very much for
Speaker 1: a bear to stroll in and munch on some some elk, calves,
Speaker 1: some deer calves, whatever. Every year I find multiple I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I could count the number
Speaker 1: of chewed up carcasses from calves, fawns, even those that
Speaker 1: have tried to protect their young from bears that time
Speaker 1: of year. It's like taking candy from a baby. They're
Speaker 1: laying there, they're defenseless, and while their scent isn't as strong,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of part of their defense. A bear
Speaker 1: can easily detect a young deer, a young elk, So
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty much a pretty steady, easy to find
Speaker 1: food source. And me personally, in areas that I hunt
Speaker 1: elk a lot, it's like, hey, if I'm going to
Speaker 1: hunt the spring, I might as well hunt in areas
Speaker 1: that bears are targeting future crops of mule dearer elk.
Speaker 1: Kind of balance out the equation a little bit, But
Speaker 1: you've got to kind of think of those food sources
Speaker 1: and then the other thing to think about, like, well,
Speaker 1: even fall or springtime winter kills areas where it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: this is a winter range, this is where the elk winter.
Speaker 1: But think about that, there's a lot of animals that
Speaker 1: aren't going to survive the winter, especially in harsher winters.
Speaker 1: I'll kind of go in those areas where it's like
Speaker 1: animals were wintering there because I know that there will
Speaker 1: be winter kill. A lot of that will freeze over.
Speaker 1: It might not have been eaten by coyotes or other things,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it will. And there are quite
Speaker 1: a few winter kills that actually happened later in the spring.
Speaker 1: They make it all the way through the winter, and
Speaker 1: then if you get a really wet spring and then
Speaker 1: cold nights, that kills probably more ungilous than just the
Speaker 1: winter itself. They they've got kind of that prepared for winter,
Speaker 1: but it's those really wet, cold springs that do a
Speaker 1: lot of the killing. So those times a year you
Speaker 1: can actually find where maybe some animals that die off
Speaker 1: from harshness severity of weather, and the bears will hone
Speaker 1: in on that and that will be another good food source,
Speaker 1: especially in the fall as well. Anything where you've got
Speaker 1: a good protein source like salmon streams or those like
Speaker 1: some kind of kill, whether it's a wolf kill that
Speaker 1: a bear is moved in on something maybe a hunter
Speaker 1: shot and couldn't find. You never know. That's always a
Speaker 1: good food source for bears as well. Now, one thing
Speaker 1: to think about in this step is when you find
Speaker 1: the food. Bears aren't like other animals where they need
Speaker 1: to move a lot once they've got their food. If
Speaker 1: they've got a good food source, they're gonna keep hitting
Speaker 1: it till it's no longer good food source. So depending
Speaker 1: on the type of food source you find, if you're
Speaker 1: finding some kind of sign, then you're gonna know, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: this is a food source that they're hitting. And those
Speaker 1: are the kind of places that you want to keep
Speaker 1: going back to and keep keeping track of. And as
Speaker 1: you kind of look at it through a broader scope,
Speaker 1: you go, this is an area that's heavily timbered. There's
Speaker 1: not a lot of food here. Where is the food?
Speaker 1: So it might be in more creek bottom areas with
Speaker 1: more water later in the year, and it maybe it
Speaker 1: will be in areas that are just like the first
Speaker 1: places to get some sun and get some green up
Speaker 1: earlier in the year. So that brings us to our
Speaker 1: next point. Kind of looking for that sign. So one
Speaker 1: thing I think about. You know, bears are very solitary there.
Speaker 1: Population densities are probably a little higher than you think.
Speaker 1: But also it's not like there isn't a herd of
Speaker 1: bears walking through the woods generally. I mean, I think
Speaker 1: the most I've seen in one like little group is
Speaker 1: probably three or four. And that's not like not cubs.
Speaker 1: That was just like a couple of breeding. It was
Speaker 1: actually a salad walked across the meadow, then a boar
Speaker 1: walked across the meadow behind her, and then another boar,
Speaker 1: and then a third boar, and then the second boar
Speaker 1: turned around and actually ran toward the first board and
Speaker 1: they start fighting. It's pretty cool, um back up on
Speaker 1: their hind legs, hair flying everywhere. It's like claws and
Speaker 1: teeth and hair. It's a pretty sweet thing to witness.
Speaker 1: But one thing I try to hone in on, especially
Speaker 1: in more timbered areas, is starting to look for that sign.
Speaker 1: So sign can be very difficult to find. What I'm
Speaker 1: talking about is either scat tree markings like sometimes bears
Speaker 1: will like, especially later in the spring, the kind of
Speaker 1: mark their territory just like any other animal, um rubbing
Speaker 1: where they kind of like rub some of that. Maybe
Speaker 1: they've got their growing out there, they're losing some of
Speaker 1: their winter coat for the summer. They're preparing for summertime,
Speaker 1: so they're rubbing on the trees to try to get
Speaker 1: some of that hair off. They get a little bit
Speaker 1: itchy seeing that hair in places and then tracks. One
Speaker 1: thing that I do like to do is you go, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a huge forest. Now I gotta see if a
Speaker 1: bear actually ships in it. And that can be hard
Speaker 1: to do. So what I like to do is I
Speaker 1: like to target places where it's easier to find sign
Speaker 1: for me. Generally that is some kind of like non
Speaker 1: driving logging road or areas that hold good dirt where
Speaker 1: I can find tracks. Other places that I look for
Speaker 1: signing around watering areas, so where it's like maybe something
Speaker 1: that's limiting that they need. So maybe there's a limiting
Speaker 1: food source that I'm gonna really kind of scan those
Speaker 1: areas where the food sources are. Maybe there's a good
Speaker 1: calving area where it's like really reeks of elk in here.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to kind of treat it like I'm
Speaker 1: looking for shed antlers. And half the time I do
Speaker 1: pick up sheds doing this, I'll kind of grid that
Speaker 1: area out on foot and say, okay, look here's some
Speaker 1: bear sign. I know bears are using it. I know
Speaker 1: it's fresh. This is an area that I need to
Speaker 1: keep checking because once you found that sign, you can
Speaker 1: go okay, I'm checking things off the list. I've got
Speaker 1: the food source, I've got the sign. I know there's
Speaker 1: bears here. Now I just have to intersect that. I
Speaker 1: have to intersect when the animals are going to be
Speaker 1: in this spot. And that's what you're doing when you're
Speaker 1: um as opposed to like glass and where you're sitting
Speaker 1: and letting your eyes do the walking. In the timber,
Speaker 1: you really have to let your feet do the walking.
Speaker 1: And that's what comes to our third kind of main
Speaker 1: thing here, and that is going to be covering country.
Speaker 1: And the way that I cover country in thick terrain
Speaker 1: is what I like to call cruise. The more ground
Speaker 1: that I'm covering physically, the more effective I'm gonna be.
Speaker 1: So I cover ground in various different ways. Um it
Speaker 1: could be walking, riding, driving, I've done a combination of
Speaker 1: all of them. Some of the more effective ones are
Speaker 1: ones where you're going to be able to You've got
Speaker 1: to think about like it's thick cover, and so the
Speaker 1: bear is probably gonna be in very close proximity when
Speaker 1: you are like able to even actually physically see the animal.
Speaker 1: So I think that the two most effective ways would
Speaker 1: be like the walking or riding. But sometimes it's like
Speaker 1: really good to just cover country and understand, like, okay,
Speaker 1: where is bear sign? Maybe by driving an area that
Speaker 1: doesn't really get a lot of traffic. You could drive
Speaker 1: that road. You could look for tracks, just kind of
Speaker 1: like you would if you were hunting with hounds. You're
Speaker 1: just the hound. You you can drive, you can look
Speaker 1: for tracks, you can look for sign you can cover
Speaker 1: country and get areas where it's like, oh here, this
Speaker 1: is a good hillside. This might have a good orientation
Speaker 1: to the sun. There's maybe not as much snow right here.
Speaker 1: Let's go walk out this way, Let's go check this out.
Speaker 1: I think one of the probably best additions I've added
Speaker 1: to my spring Bear setup is an e bike. I
Speaker 1: guess I got it last year. I got a back
Speaker 1: to um. I think it's the Mules e bike. And
Speaker 1: what I'll do is also I'll have my truck. I'll
Speaker 1: cover ground like in the timber in a vehicle to
Speaker 1: get to a different logging road that's like a gated
Speaker 1: logging road, and these were Now I will preface this
Speaker 1: because I think one of the things with e bikes
Speaker 1: is people think that it's like, oh, you're using a
Speaker 1: motorized vehicle in it on motorized area. But what I
Speaker 1: do is I use them on motorized like areas where
Speaker 1: you can use a four wheeler UTV whatever, but I
Speaker 1: just don't have to bring a trailer, so I can
Speaker 1: have a bike in the back of my truck. I
Speaker 1: can drive my truck on a logging road to a
Speaker 1: logging road that really gets zero traffic vehicular traffic unless
Speaker 1: somebody wants to bring a four wheeler there. But it's
Speaker 1: way easier because it's not like I can get a
Speaker 1: trailer there, and it's super quiet. So I'll get on
Speaker 1: my ebike on a road that I could drive any
Speaker 1: other kind of motorcycle whatever, but it's a lot more silent,
Speaker 1: so I can cruise that logging road out and I
Speaker 1: just pick. When I go to pick a road that
Speaker 1: I'm gonna walk or an area that I'm going to cover,
Speaker 1: I always base it off of the wind. I want
Speaker 1: to be walking into the wind. Bears have such a
Speaker 1: good sense of smell. I don't want them to smell
Speaker 1: me two miles away and be that extra. I mean,
Speaker 1: even if they run off fifty to a hundred yards
Speaker 1: from where I'm cruising through and checking areas, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be enough for me to not see them. So I
Speaker 1: pick an area. I'll use my truck to drive to
Speaker 1: the other side of the mountain to get to a
Speaker 1: like an old gated logging road, a road that's not
Speaker 1: used um by like regular traffic, and then I'll get out,
Speaker 1: I'll get my ebike, I'll jump on that trail whatever
Speaker 1: that I'm allowed to drive, and then I cruise that
Speaker 1: into the wind. And sometimes although ten plus miles and
Speaker 1: what I'm doing is I'm just looking for those spots
Speaker 1: that I think have that food source, and then I'm
Speaker 1: also obviously looking for bears. M One thing that I've
Speaker 1: liked about that e bike or just like walking, is
Speaker 1: instead of like if you're cruising it on a four
Speaker 1: wheel or something, you're scaring everything, whereas if you're a
Speaker 1: little bit more stealthy, I'm not blowing out, Dear, I'm
Speaker 1: not blowing out elks, so I kind of get a
Speaker 1: good picture of this is where something's halving, this is
Speaker 1: where these animals are. Then I go and I cover
Speaker 1: that ground. And then if I see something like let's
Speaker 1: say I see some sign, let's see I maybe I
Speaker 1: see it get lucky and see a bear or whatever, um,
Speaker 1: then I kind of make note of that area. And
Speaker 1: those are the areas that I then start to still
Speaker 1: hunt on foot. So I'll pick an area, I'll focus
Speaker 1: on it, stalking into the wind and then just glassing
Speaker 1: and moving, glassing and moving and really honing in on
Speaker 1: those areas. There's places that I hunt like consistently, and
Speaker 1: I find that let's say it's a ten mile long route,
Speaker 1: I probably only see bears in three spots every time,
Speaker 1: and it's like those same three spots, there's something about
Speaker 1: those particular areas that the bears like. Whether it's food,
Speaker 1: whether it's it's something else, but there's something about those
Speaker 1: areas that they like. So every time after then I
Speaker 1: can kind of hone in on. Okay, I get to
Speaker 1: that spot, and instead of just going past that spot,
Speaker 1: I effectively hunt that small area or that area by
Speaker 1: still hunting one thing that I think gets overlooked when
Speaker 1: it comes to hunting covered country is analyzing the terrain.
Speaker 1: So I've found that in covered country, and it's very
Speaker 1: similar for other animal movements, other animal patterns. But they
Speaker 1: like the ridges and then they like the the valleys,
Speaker 1: like they like to be in those creek bottoms, and
Speaker 1: they also like to be kind of on those ridges.
Speaker 1: And what I found is it's it's actually more or
Speaker 1: less they like more level terrain. Um bears, Yes, they
Speaker 1: will absolutely be in some steep, gnarly, nasty stuff, but
Speaker 1: they're also trying to pack on a lot of weight
Speaker 1: if they've got food, and they don't have to like
Speaker 1: strenuously walk up something all the time, they're gonna do it.
Speaker 1: They like those easy like long wide um long wide ridges.
Speaker 1: I mean, elk do the same thing a lot of
Speaker 1: animals do. And maybe it's because that time of year
Speaker 1: I'm focusing on on elk and those are the places
Speaker 1: that elk like to have. So that's something to think about.
Speaker 1: But when I'm looking at terrain, I generally find most
Speaker 1: bears like if I'll go into an area, I'll pick
Speaker 1: a nice, good grassy ridge in the timber. It's a
Speaker 1: little bit higher, it sometimes grows that that gets that
Speaker 1: good green up because the sun can hit a little
Speaker 1: bit and I'll like walk that ridge down and then
Speaker 1: walk the next ridge up, or in that valley like
Speaker 1: a little bit wider valley areas where it kind of
Speaker 1: flattens out, maybe you get some wallows or some other things.
Speaker 1: Some areas where water sits. That's always good too, because
Speaker 1: you get that water. If it gets hotter later in
Speaker 1: the season, they're gonna be hitting that water. Also. It's
Speaker 1: kind of that area where you might get some more
Speaker 1: flat areas where the sun can get in, you can
Speaker 1: get that grass, and it's easy for the bears. Yeah,
Speaker 1: bears can be in some like the most crazy steep
Speaker 1: cliffs imaginable. But when I'm hunting the timber, it's really
Speaker 1: hard to effectively kind of like target those areas. You're
Speaker 1: covering ground, and yeah, you gotta walk up and down them.
Speaker 1: But it seems to be that I find the majority
Speaker 1: of I would say maybe the bears that I spot
Speaker 1: in Timber are probably like just up off a small
Speaker 1: creek in a more gradual like area, or up on
Speaker 1: a ridge is I'm like going up, so you've got
Speaker 1: like steep on both sides, but they're on that easier
Speaker 1: to travel ridge and that seems to be kind of
Speaker 1: universal in places that I've hunted bears across the country.
Speaker 1: With all that in mind, I would say that one
Speaker 1: thing to think about over the years is bears in
Speaker 1: many ways can be very patternable, and it's because of
Speaker 1: that ability of you know, they aren't going to get
Speaker 1: far from that food source if you find that good
Speaker 1: food source, once you find that sign, and you find
Speaker 1: that type of topography and terrain that they like, then
Speaker 1: you can keep focusing in and hunting that. And the
Speaker 1: way that I hunted is through still hunting. It's getting
Speaker 1: the wind right, it's going quiet, it's moving slow, and
Speaker 1: just constantly head on a swivel, looking, taking a few
Speaker 1: steps looking. I'll even throw my binoculars up and when
Speaker 1: I'm in that timber and i will like scan with
Speaker 1: my binoculars and then I'll actually even just roll the focus.
Speaker 1: What that's doing is just saying like, okay, it's changing
Speaker 1: that depth that that focus is. So I'm looking at
Speaker 1: everything from fifty yards and then I'm zooming in out
Speaker 1: to a hundred yards or as far as I can see,
Speaker 1: and then I'm moving again, you know, you've got to
Speaker 1: cover a lot of country when you're chasing bears. So
Speaker 1: if you're doing it by glassing, you're covering a lot
Speaker 1: of country with your eyes. If you can't glass, so
Speaker 1: you've gotta cover a lot of that country with your
Speaker 1: feet or some other way if your mobility impaired. Maybe
Speaker 1: that way is in a vehicle, or maybe that way
Speaker 1: is on a horse. I've actually done quite a bit
Speaker 1: of spring bear hunting on horseback. It's actually pretty fun
Speaker 1: um or on a mule or whatever going up canyons
Speaker 1: and then you know, I've seen quite a few just
Speaker 1: like cruising up the trail on a horse, especially in
Speaker 1: the summertime after the season's closing, that happens a lot more.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, being able to cover country effectively
Speaker 1: is going to be the us the way that you
Speaker 1: can be successful in that thicker timber, but also covering
Speaker 1: country that's the most efficient. So figuring out where the
Speaker 1: bears are, what food they're hitting, and then still hunting
Speaker 1: through that is going to be a really good way
Speaker 1: to find consistent success in the timber. I hope you
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed this week's podcast, and I hope that it
Speaker 1: kind of answered a few questions. I did get a
Speaker 1: lot of questions after last The Last Bear podcast. I
Speaker 1: think the bear hunting is one of the things that
Speaker 1: people ask a lot about because it is very difficult
Speaker 1: and there's so many different tactics and ways to hunt
Speaker 1: different times a year in different types of terrain. But
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the things are universal. So
Speaker 1: I hope that this helps answer some of the questions
Speaker 1: for the people talking about or wondering about fall bear hunting,
Speaker 1: as well as a lot of people saying, hey, I
Speaker 1: don't live in an area where glassing is possible. What
Speaker 1: can I do? And how can I be consistently successful?
Speaker 1: So by focusing in on these key things, I think
Speaker 1: that you'll find a lot more success next week. Um,
Speaker 1: anytime I talk about bears, this question also comes up,
Speaker 1: and like I always, I say it every time, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, I always kind of want to tailor a
Speaker 1: lot of what the podcast topics are based on the
Speaker 1: kind of feedback I'm getting. So if you're like, this
Speaker 1: is not the feed this is not things I want
Speaker 1: to hear, then start sending me more messages. Uh, mostly
Speaker 1: via Instagram at Remy Warren m or You can also
Speaker 1: email Remy at the mediator dot com, but to be honest,
Speaker 1: I don't check email that often. So next week it's
Speaker 1: going to be I think it'd be cool because I
Speaker 1: got a lot of questions on this as well, to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about large predator awareness and defense. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a recent story probably most of you heard of
Speaker 1: a lady in Colorado getting killed by a black bear.
Speaker 1: That's a horrible I mean, I hate to hear any
Speaker 1: kind of bear attacks. You know, one in Montana this
Speaker 1: year from a grizzly bear. I think he was actually
Speaker 1: a guide. I don't know, hunting guide or just a
Speaker 1: mountain guide. But um, of course I'm not actually sure,
Speaker 1: but god, man, that sucks, and my heart goes out
Speaker 1: to their families, and I know that that's something that
Speaker 1: people that maybe aren't familiar with hunting the West, or
Speaker 1: even people that are. It's it can be a real
Speaker 1: concern what what should I expect out there? Or it's
Speaker 1: a fear of a lot of people. It's something that
Speaker 1: holds a lot of people back. So I think we
Speaker 1: did talk about I think it was even an episode
Speaker 1: two of the podcast Bear Defense. Bear Best Practices for
Speaker 1: large bears, mostly grizzly bears, but what about those other
Speaker 1: things mountains, black bears. Um, I mean I've actually I've
Speaker 1: been charged by a coyote. I've been like when I
Speaker 1: was a kid, a bobcat actually stalk to me. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, like, there are other things out there.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's something that, um, you need to
Speaker 1: be afraid of, but I also think it's something that
Speaker 1: you know, maybe you should you should think about. So
Speaker 1: I'll give you kind of a whole rundown of what
Speaker 1: to look out for, things to think about, and then
Speaker 1: possible ways to just keep yourself a little bit safer
Speaker 1: out there in this country where you're you're just recreating,
Speaker 1: you're doing something else, but there are other large predators
Speaker 1: out there that who knows things can happen. So until
Speaker 1: next week, keep I don't know what we gotta we
Speaker 1: gotta find where. That's like we're in almost an episode
Speaker 1: podcast one. We still haven't even come up with a
Speaker 1: sign off yet. I need help. No, So until next week,
Speaker 1: keep stalking that timber God. Pet you guys later,