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

Yay, I get to work all damn weekend.

Oh well, I still got that 3rd week of May off Too bad I have to take two hippies from Havre hunting.

Sunday, I'll snoop around a bit in a hidey hole

Just get off work...?

Ingwe

Did anybody give it a try? At 2AM I had my rifles cleaned (from last fall), at 5PM, I fired one round to check my zero, and at 7PM, I was glassing. Didn't see squat and I'm sore today.

It is still way too wintery in the Gallatin..

Hippies eh? I'm not sure Travis has enough hair on his head to qualify for that.

I was planning on it, but the recent snow and a girl who wanted to make me dinner talked me out of it. Sunday will be my first day if the weather holds. I don't give myself high odds of seeing anything, but I need to get in shape for May.

Ya think?! (grin)

Was in the Madison all week... 12" snow Monday evening. LOT's of snow above 6500'.

I figure by the time it gets ripe, I'll be tough enough to pack my better tripod. Was to wimpy to throw it in yesterday, I'm fat and out of shape. Even though the north-facing sides have 2-4 feet of base down low, there's grass facing south. Trouble is, there's a mountains worth of snow above a lot of the dens. Some of the local areas will be 2 weeks later than normal, at least.

But man is has the fishing been good

Saw some elk, lots of sheep deer and antelope yesterday, but no bear. I do feel sorry for anybody that has never seen spring hit the Rockies!

Royce

Good to see I'm not the only one dumb enough to go out early. No bears, but we found a few nice sheds, and got a good bead on where they should be.

Yea, we're real dumb for going out early, when we coulda been home watching reruns of Jerry Springer! LOL

I'd go again tonight if I could. I've had some great early days.

Nothing beats being there.

That came off wrong, should've said I wasn't the only guy out there enjoying it. I'd be back out there tonight in a minute if I could be.

That second bear's the one you killed last year right?
Bears definitely aren't built for going down hill through a snow drift.

nothing beats a wilderness area snowbank.. and being out before the ticks are thick.

Yes, the 2nd bear is from last year, this one. It was 6'10" square and 10 years old.



I think the one from the year before 08, was also 10 yrs old, but 6'5 square, but had a little better skull.
He's also the bear in the photo by the aspen tree above..

Hey, not from Alaska here, and never took a bear in the lower 48 either, but I read something somewhere and was wondering if you guys could confirm it or not.

Spring bear meat tastes MUCH better than fall bear meat???

In my experiences, you've got it backwards.
Fall bears are way fatter and have a lot better meat.

Good to know! Thanks!

Someday.....someday I will get mine....

I wont be heading west until about May 10th....about prime time. Most of the blackies I've killed in the spring have been between the 10th and 20th of May....although I did kill one of my better boars on April 15th, 1986. I first saw him on March 25th that year. It was a very low snow pack year.

Chomping at the bit....grin!

Greenhorn, I've never squared a bear, hows the square normally compare to the nose to tail measurement?

you lay them out flat like a pancake, skinned, and measure from nose to tip of tail, then (WITHOUT streching the hide) measure the front claw to claw. Guy's pulling the hide long, then again wide, will have a square measurement a foot longer than if they'd done it correctly.

Nose to tail before the animal is dressed is another way to get a good measurement to compare sizes. A 6ft nose to tail measurement before skinned is a really big bear (around 7' square). Where I hunt most BIG mature boars will be just under 6' long on the carcass. Biggest I've seen was 6'2" and it was a true 7 foot square bear and a B&C skull as well.