Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Spring bear hunting

I’m in the early stages of getting my head wrapped around an ID spring bear hunt. I’m a non resident and have 0 experience with backpack or even western big game hunting. I’m from the SE and I am a deer Hunter.
I don’t have any expectations other than to spend 3-4 days in the woods and enjoy myself. That being said, can some of you with experience in that country help guide me by way of must haves?

Good stiff hiking shoes and really good binoculars. Be able to shoot your rifle 400 yards, average distance across a canyon.

Spring bear hunting weather and snow-melt can vary widely. Some days it can seem more like February and others days your getting sunburned. Bring clothes for wet conditions. Have plans A,B, and C depending on snowpack.

Good boots and clothes you can hike in that will keep you relatively dry in case of snow or rain. Be is decent shape and don't let the big country intimidate you, but don't be foolish either. Two guys from NY, just got rescued the other day because they got "cliffed out" and didn't know how to get back.

A backpack so you can have what you need to stay out until dark or longer. Plan on staying out until dark if you want to get the best time of the day to see a decent bear. If you don't like ticks, bring repellent.

Good binos that should used a lot. A spotting scope is nice for better evaluation of bear size.

Don't be surprised if you look over extensive amounts of country but see little game. Just keep moving to vantage points that allow a view. Spring is generally a good time to see other animals besides bears.

You can look over the same drainage for hours and suddenly a bear appears out of the timber to feed in the open. Watch the timber edges and areas that seem to be a deeper green with better feed. Listen for rolling rocks. Bears flip them for bugs when bugs are active.

Where in Idaho?

Spend the extra money on a full priced tag so you can hunt the units that dont allow bait and hounds for a better hunting experience. Soak your clothes and pack in permethrin. I forgot to this spring and you wouldnt believe how many ticks i got. Make sure you can differentiate between a color phase blackie and a grizz. And buy a wolf tag just in case. Dont go too early or youll be dealing with a lot of snow and or mud, with slow bear activity.

Thanks y’all.

I am still in the early process of figuring this out. I have not narrowed it down to where in the state I want to hunt. Adding to this challenge, I intend to bring my 10yo son. He hunts with me all the time.

I do not have any hopes of shooting a bear, I really just want a back County camping experience with the intention of scouting and looking for bears.

We are from the south so elevation scares me as I spend all my time at sea level. We have a lot to learn but I think if we keep our expectations around enjoying scenery and spending time together it will be a good trip. I just want to be geared for it.

Being from Florida, I'd plan to spend a couple days in town at a lower altitude than the actual hunting area. Plenty to do with your son as far as sight seeing ect. Makes a huge difference when you actually start hunting/hiking the hills. Be prepared to skin and quarter your bear. The meat is excellent. Trekking poles are invaluable.

If you get back in a ways, a good GPS is invaluable. Mark camp as a waypoint and be able to get back etc......

Joey;
Good evening to you sir, I trust when you read this it finds you well.

In my view and experience hunting in the BC mountains sometimes north of Idaho, but mostly north of Washington, I'd say you've been given some very good pointers and none of the responses from Fireball, Lonny or Westman had anything I'd add. Good stuff gentlemen.

Not being from the coast, I can't comment on getting used to the altitude, but that makes sense too.

If it was me telling someone how to chase black bears here, I'd suggest perhaps for their first mountain hunting experience, especially with a youngster, to consider shorter day hikes and hunts, returning to the rig and camping out of that.

As Lonny said, we can look at a lot of real estate here without seeing much of anything moving in spring. We'll typically drive to a spot where we can glass the south facing slopes of a drainage, glass for awhile and then try to get to another drainage or at least a different section of one.

Bears here are pretty much head down and eating when they get up, so again looking for clover patches is a good start.

Watch for wood ticks in spring, they were worse than usual this spring here.

If you spot a bear, look at the ears. If they look all leggy with ears a donkey would be happy with, it's a young one.



This one is likely at least a year and probably two years older than the top one. Notice how the ears look shorter and the face more filled out.



A bit of a lousy photo, but we can see this guy has clearance issues - not leggy - and the ears barely stick out. He's still not huge, but he's a mature Okanagan boar.



This I believe is the same bear 4 years later and he's even more of a blocky shape in this one.



In summary, for sure a GPS - maybe maps too - there's a lot of ground to get turned around in when we're up in the mountains. Try to pay attention to which way the drainages and feeder creeks run too.

Good gear is tough to know without testing, so get what you believe to be good gear and test it with shorter runs so both you and the gear get used to the steep places together perhaps?

Hopefully that all made some sense and was useful.

Good hunting and all the best.

Dwayne

So how important would y’all say a spotting scope is for this type of hunt? We don’t use them down here and I somewhat assumed that I could glass with binos for “black moving objects”. I’m not expecting to be shooting/studying a giant, just figured I would spot and stalk. Is that an irrational consideration?

JoeyWommack;
Morning again sir, I trust this last Friday of October treats you acceptably and you're all well.

Regarding a spotting scope, I'd suggest again that if you were inclined to do shorter hunts from vehicle spike camp, then the extra weight of a spotter isn't such a big thing.

When we're looking at new country or even going on vacation here in BC or most anywhere really, we'll always throw the spotter in because we really enjoy wildlife viewing of all kinds. For instance this summer on a trip up to the Yukon we watched a bald eagle in a nest for a bit with the spotter which was cool. Without the spotting scope we could have seen it since we travel with binos always too, but the spotter does what it does better.

For me then, the answer would be that if the family budget can absorb the cost of a spotting scope and tripod, then I'd definitely have one along.

Awhile back we had a pretty good discussion on straight vs angled spotting scopes here.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...spotters-straight-or-angled#Post17642196

There was also some good info on tripods in this one.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...ight-tripod-recommendations#Post17626310

Again to put it into perspective, I'm no spring chicken and have attained at least "semi-geezer" status, so I don't really have to shoot anything anymore to make a hunt. I'm happy watching stuff or if I can get a bull elk, moose or even a coyote to answer back to a call and I don't see it, I'm fine with that too. I'll note that I stay cleaner and am less tired when they just want to talk, you know?

Hopefully that all made sense and was useful.

All the best and good hunting.

Dwayne

In Idaho northern Idaho has the largest bear population . Be careful calling. Wolves, cougars and grizzly also live here. Call the forest service in the area you're going to be hunting.

Spring bear hunts in Idaho are not necessarily high altitude. Unless you are a trophy black bear hunter, leave the spotting scope at home. Enjoy the hunt and kill whatever bear you can.

Don't worry about elevation issues if there's decent snowpack. Most likely you won't be getting all that high unless your in the Lemhi and SE Idaho. The middle of Idaho is all steep and as you head north it gets thicker and more like PNW type forest cover.

You really need to decide on a region and that would help determine when to go as well. You'll be sharing many areas with houndsmen and bear hunting has gotten more popular so I see a lot of folks from WA state here as well. It's a cheap hunt and some units allow allow 2 bear tags.

Do you need a spotting scope? Not really. A good pair of binos is enough unless you really want to analyze an creature. Really all you need is good boots a rifle and some binos to go for it. Have fun

I second the advice to use permethrin. Some areas the ticks are really bad.

If this is a once in a lifetime trip and if you can afford it might be worth your time to hire a guide. A spring guided hunt should be about 3000. Or a drop hunt would be less.