I've a new friend that is a life long resident, avid hunter, wildlife photographer, and outdoorsman in the Glacier National Park area. Very well versed on the area and the Grizz. I've a back country elk hunt planned in mid September with him in a unit just east of GNP. Being a life long resident of Alabama, I am clueless. Should I be concerned? (I am, very much so). Any tips?

Just smile pretty and talk sweet....grin brother....

I've got a few hunts worth of experience outside the park, Wyoming side. follow some basic rules and you should be fine. Pm or text, happy to talk specifics.

No food, chapstick, toothpaste, Copenhagen etc in the tent at night. Hang or lock food. Bear spray or rifle by your side.

Wyoming just green lit grizz hunts for this fall. Should be good interesting...

Jason

Good info here. You will be in bears,so plan on it. I hunt for the same time, a little farther south, and bears are a constant. If you use bear spray,practice with a can, so you know how to use it. Same with a pistol. If you kill an elk , get it boned out, and up a tree,preferably away from the gut pile. Pay attention while gutting the elk. One person works on the elk, the other keeps a look out with a rifle. You will be fine. Enjoy the hunt,it's a great time of year.

There are a lot of bears in that area.

And what atse said. Be aware after the shot/kill because the bears associate the gunshot with the dinner bell. Bears like to hang out and guard "their kill" i.e. your gut pile, even after they've eaten to full capacity so if you need to come back for a second trip of meat hauling, take your time and rubberneck the area before closing in on the meat stash and loading up.

All of the above. In (holy chit!) 50 years in Alaska, I've only ever had two problems with bears on a kill. One black (added to meat pile), and one brown - but it was a young and dumb 2or3 year old , and I talked it off the gut pile, 70 yards or so down-slope from the carcass, which it had chewed a bit on overnight. Once, I overnighted on a couple frozen caribou that i had killed a week before, 8 feet down in snow cave (long story involving overflow, snowdrift, and under-drift "found" drowned/abandoned/salvaged dead snowmachine, and 12 mile walk back to village). On exiting the tunnel next morning I found polar bear tracks 5 feet outside the tunnel entrance. Better than a cup of coffee to wake one up! Besides, I had no coffee.

I don't do that stuff no more - I always have coffee makings... beside- we hunt bears in Alaska. They ain't dumb.

On moose kills, I try to move the meat a minimum of 100 yards from the gut pile before nightfall. More is better!!! Go in locked and cocked, eyeballs out. Bears almost always prefer the gut pile to the meat pile , at least for the first day. By that time you should have the meat gone or moved far away.

Studies have shown that Yellowstone bears LEAVE the park come hunting season for the gut piles.

Good luck. Remember, bear paranoia is over-rated, but just because you are bear-paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
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And to think I use to be concerned about illegals. LOL.

Great insight guys. Thanks and keep it coming. I got to say, there's a reason why the hunting pressure is light in that area. Its a bit unnerving for a greenhorn.

Clint, in case something unfortunate should happen, if you have any spare LRHS's you won't need, send 'em my way.

I've already got dibs on his Fieldcrafts JG - sorry......grin...

Dayum.......

JG & Greg, cut it out, this is some serious shat. I'm thinking of leaving the bow at home and running security duty for the hunting party.

I'd at least have a firearm handy after making a kill. Odds are one will probably never even see one.

Hunt with folks slower than yourself.

Thinking about "conditioning" my partners boots with honey

I've lived in Montana since 1998 and have come across Grizz several times and most of the time I could smell them well before I saw them.Mostly males.
The sows may or may not smell.Do not totally depend on smell but be aware of smells.
You can't outrun any Grizz male or female so don't try.
Do not approach anything dead!
I heard a story where a young male Grizz right out of hibernation climbed a tree to get a small Black bear that was hiding up there so while they don't like climbing a tree they can!
Be aware of surroundings and glass often and you should be ok.
We are getting Grizz in places where they never were before.
Blackies can be mean too so beware.

This.

And, if you do decide to have a handgun with you, it doesn't have to be very powerful. Just enough that a leg shot will make the other person....slower than you.

"We are getting Grizz in places where they never were before."

Yes they were. But maybe not since several decades past Lewis and Clark.

Deal with it - we got more people than bears anyway......

And bears are more predictable and honest.

Archery hunt?

Nothing will make the hunt more memorable than a good, tense, bear encounter. You know, the first thing people are going to ask when you get home is if you had any bear trouble!

Hope for it!

Yes, Archery, and we will be backpacking in.

You can't outrun any Grizz male or female so don't try.
Do not approach anything dead!

Very good advise!

And if you get in trouble on an archery hunt, just fire 3 shots in the air....

If those two were thinking of helping they would consider that it's much easier on the family not to have to move things out of state.....

las our favorite hiking trail between Helena and Boulder was closed due to increased sightings and paw prints down to a lake where Moose like to go in the evenings.
Due to health problems I can't hike anymore so it won't be a problem for me.
They are voting on Grizz hunting season here in Montana and many are saying it may well pass.
Where you live you have BIG Grizzly's,ours are a little smaller but we have had so many bear attacks/encounters here since the 90's that I always bring a handgun when hiking.
Stay safe.

Archery brown bear hunting always brings me back to the cook at McCarthy that asked someone else from the kitchen to back him up. He stuck a bear with an arrow in very close cover. The bear started mauling the cook and the back-up did exactly that... backed up all the way to the road! Went back to town without saying a word.

A few days later a very mangled cook made it out to the road and survived...

Wonder if he sends Christmas cards to the back-up?

Not interested in your guns or your hunting partners ( he has none that are really his anyway ) ....just want to up ya'lls life Insurance and change the beneficiary's...….

I've hunted the back country near Glacier and Yellowstone Parks for over 40 years. We used to be able to buy a Montana OTC Grizz tag every year for $25. I'd buy the tag, just hoping to find a bear on my elk's gut pile. I never had a grizz in camp until after they closed the season. I fired a couple of shots over his head with my .44 mag, but he didn't run off until I bounced a rock off of him. The only trouble that I've seen with either Black or Grizzly bears was when someone got between a sow and her cubs.

Like others have posted, keep a clean camp, and hang your food and game away from your tent.

Can’t live your life scared Clint!😂😂😂

John