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

Had one I told you about that didnt stop when I got off the call...it got pretty "Western" out there, but nobody, including her, got hurt..

Ingwe

Little different than calling in a 'yote!

Yeah, we were a couple hours late getting back to the ranch cause of the detour we made around her..Grandpa knew we were up to something, so he had summoned the cavalry, and they we mounting up when we got home dripping wet ( there was a creek involved) and grinning like schoolkids....

Ingwe

Thanks Mark, that's sums up about what I figured. I'm still 'green' enough on bear hunting that I'd have a hard time not just getting in range on knocking a good one over, but definitely think it'll be worth trying on some smaller bears this spring.
In your experience, are the younger, smaller bears more hesitant coming in?
Also, not sure if I just missed it, but what brand/model call do you recommend?

Yepper the juvi's many times dont' know what to think of the sound and or are scared of it. The mature boars seem a bit less worried about most anything.

I wrote an article or two about bruin hunting and if you wish I'd email em to you if you pm me your addy.

Dober

47 days.....

I always see alot of bear in the fall hunting seasons, and have even had a tag a couple years, but never shot one. The little woman thinks it sounds fun(true story), so I think we're gonna chase 'em a bit this spring. I've never intentionaly pursued bear as game, so would gladly accept advise frome those who are experienced.

Guys I have never seen a bear in the wild before but after reading this thread I am bound & determined that someday I shall hunt them. you guys are un-friking-beliveable.

FNG, welcome to the 'Fire, from another Kalispell dweller. Three things about hunting Spring Bear in the area...

103, 106 and 107...

Middle May until the end of season are probably the best time. Of course there's the standard NW Montana clause... Expect anything and everything from the weather in the spring... This year might be good earlier, we never did get any snow. If we don't have a wet spring, I fear we'll have half the state on fire in late July.

I'll add on to dan's post that logging roads on steep south facing slopes are good areas to target. Fringe areas along timbered edges are good too. Most bears I run into always like to be pretty close to escape cover. Stay right at snowline (if there'll even be a snowline this year), hunting the areas that have just been melted off, and have new grass coming up.

PM inbound.

And Slides... Also, dandelions popping up...

Did I mention your spotter and binos are going to get a lot of use?

42 days...

41 dayz and counting...grin

Dober

That looks like Scooby-Doo.... And a good looking bear

It was a bruzer that I took, friend in the pic helped me pack it out. At the time I took him he was in the top 30 ever taken in Mt. Just another good old bruin...grin

Dober

Sure feels like spring outside.........

Mark, that sure is a "BLACK" black bear, and BIG too!

What's the story on the hunt, part of MT, time of season, etc.

What do you mean by the top 30 "ever taken" in MT?

That's a picture that'll get a guy excited to go hunting. Maybe I'll clean my rifle tonight.

Kurt, yeah it's a black one, my experience the biggest have always been tip to tip black.

Taken in Montana (if you want more than that we'll have to trade more info...<g> so lets just call it the infamous X creek) end of May and by top 30 ever taken at the time it was taken and measured it was in the top 30 ever taken according to the Mt book. Now I never had any of my bruins entered into the book cause that's just not me. Haven't looked at a record book in a long time. Heck I haven't even scored an animal that I or my wife have taken for a long time, guess for now I'm over that kind of stuff. 4 now...grin

Clean a rifle heck you should no that's bad karma...grin

Dober

I'm certainly not looking for somebody's favorite drainage to hunt and was only hoping to hear how you got him. Something maybe like .. taken after spotting him from a distance feeding on a green mtn chute in mid may in a national forest in northwestern MT. Called for 30 minutes and he ran in and I plugged him. My friend Jim-Bob filled his shorts up because he thought this bear was going to eat him. Had to backpack the parts out 4 miles, thanks to my friend Jim-Bob, all I had to do was carry the hide and supply the beer at the trailhead...

Something like that anyways.

That's a great bear. Like yours, I'd estimate that more than 90% of the big skulled bears ever taken in MT (true 20+) are never measured, much less entered in any book.