Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 76 dayz till....spring bruins in Big Sky country

Now thats funny.. Did you pass your Bare Identification test??



Its spring in Kalispell. If I have tomorrow off, I'll take a spin up the N Fork and see what the snow's like.

Don't forget your fly-rod, and I was thinking we should teach you how to shoot a recurve while you're here too

Then you should be able to apply for you official Montana Resident card.

I do need that card...

Report back on the snow.


Travis

I was up there on Wednesday afternoon shooting under the awning. Not much snow - and a suprising shortage of mud. I'm starting to second-guess my decision to book a flight to see the folks back East over the cusp of opening week...

Personally with the exception of a couple parts of the state I'd not be too concerned about missing the opener for bruins in our fine state. Sure some will be seen and a few taken in the first couple weeks but for the most part this year will be no different than any other year and things will be slow till May and about may 13th things will really begin to perk.

I'd go and visit the fam and not worry one bit about the opener.

Dober

Yeah, but its an excuse to be hunting



FNG, you talking about Big Creek?

Im ready for spring bear. Need to get out and shoot my 270 again to see if its still good to go and need to sight in my 300WSM since it got knocked off sometime after shooting a cow elk season before last. Should be a good spring with as warm as its been and from seeing how much snow has already melted around here

24 and counting.......

Almost 4-got to mention but last Friday I saw my first bruin of the year(a blackie)..thinking he woke up a tish bit early and is probably doing some sack time right now..

Dober

Do ya'll still have a bunch of snow down there? There isnt hardly any around Missoula except way up on the tops of the mountains. It didnt look like this till about the end of may last year.

IMO-yes we still have quite a bit of white even though our snow pack level is rumored to be fairly low I believe.

Dober

Artilce in todays paper says a grizz has been seen in Sims this year, quite a walk from their normal habit, though two were seen there last year. Also, one has been seen up on the Marias river. If the Griz are out, I would guess the blacks aren't far behind. There doesn't seem to be much snow in the mountains east of Augusta this year.

Fred

Not much snow here either, but last time el nino gave us wacky(winter) weather like this it snowed 5 or 6 feet in April up high

I heard on the radio last night that the yearly total snow pack for this year is at like 62-66% of what it usually is. Going to be alot of fires this summer boys.

I'd think spring and summer rains have a lot more to do with fires than the snow pack. Here's to a wet and sloppy spring.

Agreed, and AGREED!!!

Bads fire year means woods shut down... Woods shut down means no logs... No logs means unemployment...

I many areas I'd think this is very true. Precip timing (growing season) can be very important. In the sagebrush/desert areas, wet years can be big fire years due to all the grass to carry the fire.

Here is a nice Virginia bear that one of my Hunt Club pards shot during archery season a couple of years ago....


Took it out whole...485lbs live weight, over 20" noggin. Thinking he said it was 6'8" nose to tail. Pard is a pretty big dude, gives you an idea how big the SOB was.

Wish we could hunt bears in the spring......

I've killed 4, 2 with a bow, two with a gun...all 5' to almost 6'.

Tony

Here is one I called in 2 years ago....

Tony

One snacking on my trail camera.....

Tony

Looked for this one all season last year, never caught up with him......he'll do.....

Tony