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

the north end of the crazies used to be pretty well stocked. they'd come down to the ranch to eat cholkcherrys in the fall and we would get a pretty good look at the population. the one on my wall squares 6'9" and he wasn't the biggest. the park service (or somebody) used to dump problem bears up the Shields in the '60s and '70s so we had to educate the trainable ones and thin out the ones that wouldn't learn.

you've probably seen a few up there...

When I lived over in Bozeman I never did make it over to the Crazies to spring hunt. Always imagined there were good bears there...Used to see a few good ones in the fall north of the Shields on 16 Mile Creek doing the chokecherry thing...Miss it over there, great country.

I used to do the spring thing in the north end a bit, saw a couple of good boys as well.

Dober

About 10 years ago, IO heard several reports of what was supposed to be a huge bear in the Buck Creek area of the Crazies. Never heard of anyone tagging him.

Fred

Got my best bruin ever in some of that country scenar is talking about....a few years back.. but it was a fall bear...does that count?

I hunted for five days, saw a total of 13 bears, and kept seeing the tracks of one in particular....
As a hunter, always full of hope I kept thinking " geez I'd like to run into HIM ...."

Welllllll. the last five minutes of my last day.......


Ingwe

in July of '06, i watched a BIG blackie make a run at a couple of yearling elk up there. i was on the divide between Buck creek and the American Fork, and the bear/elk were in the American Fork drainage.

anyyway, that was a great little episode to watch. the bear was not successful, and the elk turned around to follow the bear around (from a distance) and harass it. wifey made us move on when the bear started up the slope below us.

Good stuff right there toad...good stuff.

The biggest black bear I've ever seen was in a chokecherry patch east of Clyde Park, on Bracket Creek, below the box canyon..we were about 500 yards from it watching from the county road. He looked like an Angus beef!! We stayed and watched him until dark. A couple weeks later I had heard a bear was shot for killing sheep on a ranch just a few miles down the creek from where we were watching that one...turns out that one weighed 500+ pounds, field dressed!! Had to have been the same one.

Rufous,
glad to hear bear huntin' is your favorite, and even gladder to know that you're my guide, so to speak!
HawHee

Well gents...I royally screwed up tonight. I had a 250(ish) pound chocolate boar in my crosshairs. When I saw it, I dropped my pack, chambered a round, flipped the safety on and belly crawled about 10 yards to get a better look. After confirming it was legal I flipped the safety off and started to squeeze...nothing. It felt like my safety was still on. I looked up to confirm it was off and as I was lining him back up he walked into the trees and out of my life. Damn that heavy trigger! I waited until dark (about 45 minutes) hoping he would reappear but he never did. Hopefully he will be there tomorrow. I am throwing that 25-06 back in the safe until I can get that trigger lightened up. My 340 Wby will get to play tomorrow.

That would of been a model perfect time to try calling him out to play..best of luck in getting back on him.

Dober

Thanks Mark. I thought about that too while waiting. I'll have a snowshoe distress call with me tomorrow.

Get on him again, and if you're really comfy he's working the area maybe try calling for him. If you do give it plenty of time for him to respond, 45 minutes or so.

You'll find him again, just find the greens if there are any in site yet.

Dober

Damn DH! Best of luck tomorrow. Hope you bag him.


Travis

For all you black bear addicts-

On page 18 of this issue ( May issue ) of Field and Stream is one of the most captivating black bear pictues I have seen in a while. It's of a large black bear looking over some bushes at he photographer, every jet black hair is in focus, and there a look of lots of intelligence in the yes- Definitely worth a look on the magazine rack, at least.

Fred

Scenar-
Another Brackett Creek bear story- About three years ago, I had been bear hunting in the Crazies, and got snowed out. I was coming back through Brackett Creek, in the Skunk Creek area, and stopped to take pictures of a sand hill crane- Something caught my eye on the other side of Brakett Creek, and it turned out to be a bear eating a chunk of elk leg. I could see a couiple of cow elk running oround in a frenzy behind him. As I watched the bear, some local residents came by, and they were all excited about the two Sand Hill cranes. I casually mentioned that there was a bear on the other side of the creek eating a chunk of elk. They nonchalantly informed me that yea, they knew that, and that earlier, there had been FIVE bears there, and then proceeded to show me the photos of the five bears on their digital camera. I couldn't quite understand why they were more ecxcited to see two sand hill cranes than 5 bear.

Fred

I figured today I could drink Codiene and road hunt for Bears with pneumonia just as easily as sitting on my ass in front of the Brain Vacuum.

I saw 5 Whitey Does, about a dozen Muleys, 2 Elk, and a guy catching a 3 pound Cutty on a spinning rod...

But no Smokeys

I'd post pics, but I don't have a mini-USB cable to fit my cell phone...

Sometimes it's all about the weather. Today's the day!

You heading out after 'em GH?


Travis

If your thousandth post doesn't have a dead bear in it I'm gonna be bummed.

You weren't wrong Greenhorn.