Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Montana Residents - Grizz Question

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?