Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Check engine light on? Take the guesswork out of your check engine light with O'Reilly Veriscan. It's free and provides a report with solutions based on over 650 million vehicle scans verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we can recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts.
You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to land.com. They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.
Market House has the cleanest, leanest, juiciest meat and seafood shipped to your home overnight. Expect the service of a local butcher and the convenience of a large supplier. Unlike many online butchers, you can grab just one meal's worth or lock in for a subscription box. Choose from grass-fed and grass-finished beef, American Wagyu, free-range poultry, grass-fed lamb, wild-caught king crab, seafood, and more.
and more. For 15% off your first order, use code COUNTRY at checkout. Just visit markethouse.com. That's M-A-R-K-E-T-H-O-U-S-E dot com. And use the code COUNTRY.
As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. I hope maybe some of you are enjoying some nicer spring weather. I think this week we're going to just shake winter off and we're going to dive into one of the West's best springtime hunts, in my opinion.
we're talking about bears. I'm going to cover my early spring season tactics for targeting and finding those emerging boars and where to concentrate your efforts this spring season. We're also going to go over a few of the best times to look for bears, the specific spots to concentrate on, and why early spring or right now can be a great time to target bears spot and stock. But first, I want to share the story of a persistent bear hunt gone right. This particular hunt is
really is one that I think if I look back, it just hunts that I've guided. This is one of my favorite trips and one that I definitely will remember for a very long time. I think there's a lot of reasons behind that. But when you think, when I think about a hunt, what makes a hunt a hunt that I remember? And it's, it includes that struggle, that persistence, and then eventually finding success. And I think that this story, if I were to just tell this story of the hunt, this particular hunt,
It actually starts many years before. I had a particular client, him and his daughter would come out and his daughter really wanted to hunt bears. They'd hunted elk with us and she was successful getting an elk, but a bear hunt was something that she really wanted and she wanted to do it spot and stalk. So we scheduled a spring hunt and the first year, unfortunately, something came up and she couldn't make it. So her dad came out and he ended up getting a bear, like kind of right off the bat. And of course it was like, that
That was her dream hunt, the one that she's supposed to go on. But unfortunately, some stuff came up and she couldn't come. So the following year, she came out and spring bear hunting can be a lot of boredom mixed in hiking and everything mixed in with just sheer excitement. We had some good spots. We had some good stocks. But when we got into position, the bears kind of disappeared on the last day of the hunt.
that week, we were going back into this one spot where we'd seen quite a bit of sign and seen actually a couple of bears earlier in the week. It was like mid morning. And I look over, we were just kind of talking kind of, you know, just BSing. And I look around like there's a bear and it's a big bear and it's close, like 75 yards. And Micah, the hunter, she's really, I mean, she's a really good shot. I've seen her shoot. She shoots, she's
for skeet and other things. Like she's, she's really good under pressure, but when that bear was 75 yards away, I don't know, just something happened. She pulled up the gun and missed, missed the shot and the bear ran away. And it was just heartbreaking for me as a guide, seeing how hard she'd work, how hard she'd hiked, you know, she'd shot, she'd practiced all for that moment. And then I just know that feeling that's happened. Like the best of us have, have done that, taken a bad shot.
And just not connected. And it was a really big bear. And I actually just rubbed salt in the wound. I was like, hey, let's go back tomorrow morning and see if we can find him again. But unfortunately, they had to be back for a tournament skeet shooting or I guess trap. I guess sporting class. There we go. One of those things.
clay pigeon flying someone shooting at sporting events. And they're like, now we got to be back for this tournament. I was like, all right, well, I'm going to go in there tomorrow and see if I can find that bear. And I ended up actually shooting that bear myself the next day after they had to leave, which was pretty much, I think it was the biggest Montana bear I've ever shot. I was like, of course, I was like, man, do I send him a picture of this bear? Is that just going to be like rubbing salt on the wound?
So the following year, she came back. We hunted and had to do a lot of hiking, get into some spots. She had a shot on a really good boar again. But just this time, having missed the last shot, hesitated too long, not feeling comfortable with the shot, didn't take a shot. The bear disappeared and we ended up not finding him. Fast forward to a year later.
We're like, all right, this is the year where it's all going to come together. We had a miss. We had a hesitation that kind of missed opportunity. This year is going to be the year. She's put in a lot of time, a lot of effort. And I really, I mean, I wanted to see her get a bear as much as she wanted to get a bear.
The first night, the first evening, the first day, my wife and I were out with them. And we walk over this little rise and it's just like the wind hit our back. I was looking in there. I'm like, something feels wrong. I just feel like there's a bear in here. And I'm looking, looking, looking. And then the wind swirls and a bear runs out. And it was a nice, nice bear. And everything this particular week, we're like, okay, it was nice, cool weather today.
We wake up the next morning and everything had changed. Things were already a little bit stacked against us because it was a full moon, but it was just the only kind of week that we could hunt. And then, of course, it just gets hot. And two things that do not combine well when it comes to hunting bears is a lot of heat and a full moon, in my opinion, for spot and stock bear hunting.
So we hunted hard all week and that was probably the hardest. I mean, we went into some, some of my best places, some great back country spots, just glassing, doing everything right. And just could not turn up another bear that he really killed us. Now fast forward to the last day of the hunt. That was probably the fewest amount of bears I'd seen in a week of hunting in a very long time. Just that one bear, the first evening of the first day.
And it was, it was a good bear, but man, it was just slim pickings. We couldn't turn up a bear to save our lives. So the last day I'm like, all right, I've got this spot because it's hot. Normally early, I wouldn't be trying to hunt a water hole, but I was like, man, it's so freaking hot this year. Maybe they're going to be hitting some water. So I thought the best is just real tight in there. So I'm like, I'm going to bring in some chairs. We're going to like bring in a blind and we're going to sit there all day and we're
hopefully a bear will come in to cool down, to wallow around in this area where I'd seen a lot of sign, but we just had not been seeing any bears and thought, well, if we sit there all day, maybe something will happen after a morning was just a bust. And it was quite a ways in from the trailhead. So I packed up and my pack was just loaded down. I'm not really set up for back country sitting, but I thought this particular time, I'm going to give it a shot.
Just a random tactic that I normally pull out way later in the season, but just because of the heat and everything, I thought, man, maybe this tactic will work. But I was also thinking, I'm not good at sitting and I really don't want to sit in a blind all day in the heat, but nothing else is really working. The bears aren't moving. So we'll see if this works because it's the only way that we can hunt this really thick timber and maybe a place where they'd concentrate to and maybe be successful.
So I load up, we load up everything. I've got like chairs that are not, not super packable. I don't even know how much my pack weighed. It was a lot. I had a lot of just random stuff in there. I'm like, if I'm going to sit, I need like some waters, some lunch. I need a lot of lunch. Cause I'll probably be snacking all day, like comfortable chair, whatever, just make it so we can sit comfortably and quiet. So I'm hiking up and I'm just thinking to myself, man, this is going to suck sitting all day.
And I'm thinking that about like halfway there, I look up in this clear cut off the trail and I just drop. I'm like, bear. It's like, what? And I put everything down. I still have my spotting scope because I thought this might happen. I might need to glass on the way up.
take out my spotting scope, look at it. And I'm like, that's a big bore. We need to get over there. Right. At this point, he's about 650 yards, 700 yards. I'm like, okay, I'm looking at it. And he goes behind. He's like in this regrowth of kind of like a combination of a burn and a old logged area. So I'm like, all right, sweet. So we move in on this. There's actually off the trail is this like old logging rope is just so overgrown. Um,
So we get in and I, we get to a spot where I, I can see where the bear was and I range it. It's like 200 yards, no bear. I'm like, all right, well,
he's got to be in here. So I get her set up, get some shooting sticks ready. And I've just got to actually like cut down branches so we can even see this little hole. I'm like, all right, he's, he's got to be in here. I don't, I mean, we hustled, we got there quick. He's just got to be in here somewhere. And this is like right around high noon. We were going in thinking maybe we'll see something in the evening. And this bear was just out in the heat is probably 74 degrees that day, just out in the heat at noon feeding around. All right. So we get set up.
And all of a sudden I see the head of the bear pop up over a log, about 200 yards away. I tried to direct her to where he's at. He's like, I'm like, okay, he's right there. He's really hard to see. I can just see a piece of him, but you're just going to get the rifle on him and just wait. And he's starting to feed. I can see he's starting to feed. And then there's this patch of timber, maybe 50 yards from it. I'm like, he's going to start going toward that, that timber toward that Creek on the other side. He's, he's going to be moving out of the sun at some point. I don't think he's just going to stay right here, but he's,
There's going to be very few openings. So just stay on him. So she finds him, stays on him. The bear starts moving, moving, and he just moves behind tree. I'm like, oh no, that's it. And then he turns around and starts feeding back. I'm like, okay, here we go.
just pick a spot, nice and easy, squeezes the trigger. Boom. Perfect shot. Bear rolls over. It's done. She was shaking. She was crying out of excitement. I mean, I, I, I don't know if I was just out of sheer like excitement for her. It was as close to I've ever come as just shedding a tear of just how exciting it was. It was awesome. Cause her dad was there as well. He got to watch the whole thing and it was just as exciting for me and him as it was for her.
went up and I actually called my wife to help come up and pack out. And her and my dad came up and packed out and we were all just celebrating. And it was just an awesome, awesome trip. Skinned the bear out, got all the meat and then packed it out in the middle of the day on a day when I definitely did not expect to see a bear out in the open. And on a day when it was the last day of the hunt and I thought it was probably
probably not going to happen but we were just trying whatever tactics we could and ended up seeing one kind of randomly but keeping persistent and not giving up and just pretty much hunting extremely hard for this bear it was a really really exciting experience for everyone and that right there is just what makes spring bear hunting somewhat unpredictable but also extremely exciting
When it comes to spring bear hunting, there are some things that you can do to kind of consistently find success. I found that of most hunts,
Spring bears can be one of the more difficult hunts to find consistent success, but I've found certain times a year, there's certain tactics that you can employ that help increase those odds of success in finding bears. I think the number one thing that most new bear hunters, in areas where it's spot and stalk bear hunting, or where it's not allowed to use dogs or use bait, find that sometimes
Sometimes the hardest part is just finding a bear. And then there's other hunters that are out there that are consistently successful at it and see multiple bears every day. And I want to give you the tips on how to be those guys to kind of find that consistent success and how to really hone in on what those bears want and the time of year and the tactics to employ. Because what you might do right now...
mid-April through the beginning of May would be different than mid-May to end of June. And there's a lot of reasons for that. So we're going to cover a few things, including the timing, some things to think about, and then where to look and why hunting earlier can be really good. I know in the past,
Some people used to shy away from hunting early because they would say, oh, the bears aren't out of hibernation yet. And on really late winters, sometimes that can be the case. For most places right now, most of the bears will probably be out of hibernation. So I think it's going to be kind of important to first look at the way that bears hibernate and where they're going right after that hibernation, what their first moves are.
So if you think about the way that bears den up is they'll go up into a big canyon. They generally get like, let's say you're in an area where the highest elevation is 10,000 feet and the valley floor is maybe 3,000 feet. I tend to find that bears will kind of hibernate in that maybe 7,000 foot range, fairly high up the mountain. There's a few reasons for that. And obviously they can do different things everywhere.
what they do is they, they end up like they'll dig their den or they'll, there's kind of three ways that bears den. So they, they'll mostly, I, I, I believe that most of them actually just dig their own dens and they rarely use the same den twice, but there'll be in kind of similar areas, like the same Canyon or the same kind of elevation. And it depends on the snow level, the type of year, lots of things. So they'll go up, they'll dig in and they pretty much dig it like
for the most part, about the size of their body. Now they might find something to dent in like a crack between two rocks, maybe a cave, maybe like a big stump or things like that. I've found dens like that as well. And then they primarily will like, they'll dig that den. They kind of want it where it's going to provide a lot of insulation. So it's pretty tight and
And they want it where there's going to be snowpack because just think about it like for us, if it's wintertime and we're trying to stay warm, I don't know if you've ever done it, but building a snow cave is a great way to stay warm. Like snow is a great insulator. So they're generally going to be on those north facing slopes.
where that snow is going to hold in, it's going to pack in. You'd think they'd want to be on that warm, sunny south face, but for the longer period of time, they're going to want that snowpack to kind of cover up their den and insulate them from whatever winter weather is happening. Now, when it comes time to emerge from the dens, the big boars are generally, in my opinion, the first ones that come out. Like,
A lot of seasons start April 15th and on late winter years, sometimes the only bears you'll see out right away will be males.
It depends on the winter. You know, if you've got a light winter, many of the bears might already all be out of hibernation by now. If you've got like more of a harsh winter where there's still a lot of heavy snow pack and maybe kind of a late winter, then you might see, you know, mostly just boars early, early on. And that's one of the reasons that I like to hunt the beginning of the season is you, you tend to find bears emerging in this order. It's, it's boars and
and then it's females without cubs, and then females with cubs. I've found that for some reason in my experience, it seems like the females with cubs tend to den higher up because I think that they're planning on staying in the den longer.
The way that bears breed, they breed in June, but that egg isn't implanted till later. And then they're born in the den. And I think that gives them a little bit more time. That also gives the big boars time to hunt for those dens. And I have found that early in the season, you'll see big boars up high in the snow. And I truly believe that what they're doing is they're looking for those denning females with cubs.
in actively hunting them. And that can be kind of a good tactic to take early in the season, especially if you've got a little bit later winter where you might run into those other bears looking for bears to kill or bears to eat because those boars will kill those cubs. And then they know that, Hey, that's, that's potentially killing their competitors offspring. And it's going to allow that sow to come into heat later on in the season. So,
O'Reilly auto parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road. I love O'Reilly. In fact, the other day, I'm not kidding you. The other day I went into an O'Reilly auto parts looking for a part. I needed a different thing that wasn't really in there. You know, only like tangentially related to what they carry.
They did not have it, and the dude told me specifically where I would go down the road to find it is how nice they are. They offer friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. Thousands of parts and accessories in stock, in-store, or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam.
They'll test your battery for free. If you need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or quick service, they'll help you find the right part or point you to a local repair shop for help. Whether you're a car aficionado or an auto novice, you'll find the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are knowledgeable, helpful, best of all, friendly. These guys are your one-stop shop for all things auto, do-it-yourself,
You can find what you need in store or online. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit them at OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. That's OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. We've all seen plenty of gadgets and fads come and go, but here's one product that stood the test of time. Seafoam motor treatment. Lots of hunters and anglers know that seafoam helps engines run better and last longer.
It's really simple. When you pour it in your gas tank, sea foam cleans harmful fuel deposits that cause engine problems. I'm talking common stuff like hard starts, rough engine performance, or lost fuel economy. Sea foam is an easy way to prevent or overcome these problems. Just pour a can in your gas tank and let it clean your fuel system. You probably know someone who has used a can of sea foam to get their truck or boat going again. People everywhere rely on sea foam to keep their trucks, boats, and small engines running the way that they should the entire season.
Help your engine run better and last longer. Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more. This is Brent Reeves from This Country Life. What makes South Dakota the greatest for pheasant hunting? With over 1.2 million pheasants harvested last year, South Dakota boasts the highest population of pheasants in the nation. In fact, you'd have to add up the total harvest from neighboring states just to get that many birds.
There's also millions of wide open acres chock full of different landscapes, meaning the hunt in one county is often completely different from just a few counties over. But what really makes South Dakota the greatest goes way beyond just hunting a colorful bird. It's the pursuit of something more like the camaraderie that awaits all kinds of hunters from all walks of life and partaking in South Dakota tradition over 100 years in the making.
It's about taking the greatest shots and watching your dog work the greatest fields in the greatest lands, carrying on the greatest heritage and making the greatest memories. So what are you waiting for? From the rush of the flush to the stories at the end of the day, experience a thrill like no other. Learn how at HuntTheGreatest.com.
So, I think you got to think about first early season, breaking it out. Okay, what's the first moves of bears? How are they getting out of hibernation? What are they doing? Well, as soon as they get out, they're going to be looking for food. In episode 33, I tried to focus on kind of finding those food sources, but I want to dive a little bit deeper because...
Early is when they're going to primarily be targeting a couple of things. First off, potential winter kill like undulance, deer, elk, moose, whatever that didn't survive the winter. Those bigger boars will be cruising around for those. But the first things that they're probably going to be eating is just regen new growth. And a lot of that good new growth is going to be out in the open, actually.
actually on some of those south-facing slopes in the avalanche shoots, right on the snow line as that snow starts to melt away, that tends to be some really good green grass. One of the first things that I look for, let's say I go into an area and early in the season, I like to pick canyons where I've got
openings that I can glass. And I like to pick a good vantage where I've got a lot of cover. And I look for what I call neon signs. It's just, you look at the mountain and anything that's super green, it really tells you that's where that new growth is. Early is the best time to pick out those
those neon areas, those areas that are just really going to be high productive, new growth, new buds, and things that's going to be really good food for bears to target first. I also like to look for areas where it's a little more open, not that the bears like the open, but because I can actually see one of the benefits to hunting early is a lot of the, the shrub, like the
The alder, the other kinds of plants around may not necessarily have leaves fully formed yet. So you can actually glass into the cover a little bit better. So it allows you to glass a little bit longer. One thing that I have seen with early season bear hunting is that
you know you can set up and it's more you have more option to glass all day it makes longer hunting days but it also kind of allows you more places to look um kind of get bored a little less for me personally i'll zoom in my scope or use i actually really like to use 20 power binoculars get into a good zone and just grid that cover after the like
first part of the morning when I think they might be moving and look in those places where, hey, the leaves have fallen off and I might be able to pick out a bear in there. Or you might see one in the open and you might be able to watch to where it goes and beds down for the day. You may not be able to actually see the bear bedded. I think in my years of bear hunting, I've only spotted a couple bears bedded, but you might be able to kind of get an idea of where that bear is and then get into a shooting position and wait for that bear to come out in the evening.
One thing I like to do when it comes to picking a time for spring bear hunting, I found for spot and stock, I really like to find the times that's not a full moon. I think there's two factors that really, I wouldn't necessarily know if it limits bear movement, but maybe limits bear movement in those mornings and evening times when you're most alert, when you're most concentrating your efforts. And I think that
having a full moon kind of limits their movements to weird times of the day. I also think that heat is a huge factor when it comes to spring bears. So hunting early, you don't necessarily have to worry about it being too hot right away. As the season progresses, it starts to get hot and it kind of throws off. It makes it one hard to kind of hunt, find shade. You're, you're almost looking for shade as much as you're looking for bears. And you often think, well, the bears are probably doing the same.
But I actually haven't found that the case because I have, I was just going back through my photos and notes and looking last year. I mean, I found a couple of different bears. It just random times like noon seemed to be the best time for bear movement during the full moon last year. And actually over the years, like midday, they seem to move in the middle of the day.
But that midday can be a very long stretch of sunny, hot weather when it's very hard to like look and stay 100% vigilant. You kind of think in your head, no, nothing's going to move now. Or how do I know if this is a productive area? I've watched it all morning. I watched it all evening. Should I stay here all day? Is this going to be a productive area? So I like to actually hunt when there's like a waning or a growing moon just after a new moon or just before. And those times I find that
I tend to find bears being more crepuscular than like moving out in the open and
those times with those good moons. It's not saying that bears, I mean, I've never tracked bears. It's just saying like they move out of cover at the times that I'm looking more often. I find probably on average full moon weeks because generally when I'm guiding or hunting bears, I hunt the whole season. So I've got a few full moon weeks in there that I have to hunt and we're still successful, but it's a lot harder work than those times when the moon is really good.
My best bear seasons are always when there's a really like a no moon during the beginning of the first few weeks. Cause I tend to find that there's a lot of big boars out and more active then. And then also you kind of get less heat. So they stay out a lot longer in the mornings and they come out a lot sooner in the evenings. In my opinion, that's just over looking at bears for hundreds of days. But I think that if you kind of factor those things into your spring plan, you'll be a lot more successful. Yeah.
Now, when it comes to hunting bears in the early part of the season, so for a lot of places, the season opened April 15th, and I would say, let's call April 15th to May 10th, the early part of the season, and then May 10th to the 30th, the later part of the season, or if it's a season that goes into June, let's say, so April 15th to May 15th would be early season, and then April 15th to June 15th would be kind of that later in the season. One thing you want to think about is,
Depending on, you know, if it's a late winter, if you're hunting in an area, you might be hunting where there's still a lot of snow. And one thing you want to think about is when you're spotting for bears, obviously you don't want to shoot sows with cubs. I tend...
I mean, if you don't really know how to identify a boar and a sow right away, or it's, it can be difficult and it can be difficult for anyone. I've looked over a lot of bears and still every once in a while I make a wrong judgment call. But what I always do is I always make sure to look for cubs.
earlier in the season, it's important to watch the bears longer because what will happen is the sows will actually emerge from the den and kind of leave the cubs behind. There's been times where I've sat and watched the bear for five or 10 minutes. I'm like, well, I know it's a sow, but she doesn't have any cubs. And then here come two little rugrats screaming out of the bushes a little bit later. I think that that tends to happen earlier. I find that later on, and that's not, I'm not saying, you know, make,
rash judgments or whatever later. But I tend to find that that is the case. Like later on, the cubs are generally with her a lot tighter. So you see them sooner, but that's one thing to think about if you're hunting early one way, another thing kind of about early spring hunting is the boars don't have as much weight on them. They've just come out of hibernation. They're a lot smaller, like as far as weight wise, but they can be easier to identify. I really look for that.
barrel chest that the head shape on a boar looks a little bit different. They grow wider. They have larger heads, especially compared to their body size. One thing you'll see like a boar is his head tends to match his body a little bit better. Whereas a sow seems to be like a real big body and a real small head. Another thing I noticed is sows tend to be a little more back end heavy. So bigger rear ends, whereas boars are more like front end heavy. They have larger barrel chest, more weight on that front.
Sometimes you'll see, and this does happen with old sows too, more of like a hump you kind of see on the boars, not necessarily like a grizzly type hump, but just more of a swayed back. It seems like their neck and their front end is a lot more stout as opposed to like a real skinny neck, a real small head, and then even a bigger body that would kind of distinguish a sow.
Other things you can kind of look for if you got time and you can glass them while they're doing their thing. You know, if they urinate and it seems to be coming from the middle of their body, it'd be a boar. But if they tend to be in a more squatting position, it'd be a sow. You don't get to see that too often. I have, you know, been able to identify some smaller bears that way.
especially earlier in the spring. But for the most part, that's a, that's a tough way to tell unless you have a really good look at them, but generally just based on their size and outline is a good, is a good beginning. And one thing you want to start doing when you, when you're out there, when you're seeing bears kind of take note mentally on, okay, that's,
How does this bear look? How does he look proportionally to himself? And what time of year is it? You know, if it's earlier and it looks like a really big bear, most bears, when they come out, they're a little bit smaller. So actually those boars look quite a bit bigger than those sows that are really drained out. They've lost a lot of weight.
especially the ones that have cubs. If I see a bear that looks pretty skinny, pretty gaunt, then I'm definitely going to wait and watch for a long time to make sure that there's no cubs or it's a boar. Smaller boars will look like that as well, but especially early, you find that with the sows. The big boars, when they first come out, they tend to look big. You go, that's a big bear. And I think one problem for new bear hunters is all bears look big. So just as a
public service announcement, if you're just getting into bear hunting, maybe this is your first bear trip, do yourself a favor, watch a lot of videos of bears in the field, watch a lot of videos of maybe some bear identification videos. I know I've seen some on most fishing game websites and really kind of analyze that and then spend some time looking at the animal that you're going after. There's not a lot of time sometimes, and it feels like there's not a lot of time, but one thing you'll learn is
You can watch a bear, see where he goes, and they're going to be in that area. So there are times where you think, I've watched a bear go in in the morning, you think, oh, he's going to come out in the evening and never see him come out. But the next day in the morning, they're right back in there. They've got that food source and they're going to, for all intents and purposes, if they've got a good food source, they'll continue to hit it.
You can identify bears as well just by certain markings on the bears. So I like to keep track of bears that I see throughout the week and say, okay, really analyze. I didn't get a good look at this bear, but it's got this white chest blaze. Oh, it's got a big rub on its left side. And then I can start to...
identify those single bears as they come out and kind of start to build out a pattern on how are they feeding? What times are they feeding? Where are they at? If a bear disappears in a smaller area, I'll know that it's probably in there and I will try to get closer and then watch that area later on in the day within range or within shooting range to see if that bear comes out. I think one of the major difficulties with spot and stock bear hunting is you'll see a bear and then it disappears and that happens all
quite often. One tactic that I use, especially if I'm hunting up higher earlier, I like to
earlier in the season, hunt quite a bit higher because I think there's a lot more concentration in the bears higher, but also it's just easier type hunting. It's difficult terrain, but it's easier glassing. I have more ability to see more open area. I might be up near the tree lane. There might be big snow fields that I can cover really quick with my eyes and then focusing on those areas that have like food and cover really close together. So I can scan a lot more area in a
One thing that I found those, you'll see a bear. It goes into that cover and then, okay, now what? I saw that bear two miles away. How do I get over there before that bear disappears? What do I do? Bears kind of feed in very erratic patterns. They'll go one way and sometimes they'll go right back the way that they came. So you get over there, you go, okay, he's feeding this way. He should pop out and you never see him again. What I like to do if I know it's going to be a long ways away and I don't have time to get there for a shot while it's out, I'll just watch where it goes and then I'll make my move and
Get into position and then sit and wait. And I'll, I'll do that kind of like in a similar way that I do with elk, where you see where the bear is, you kind of watch and assess what it does. Then you go into get into position and continue being vigilant throughout the day, hoping for that bear to either feed back in the evening or make a move into the opening.
while you're set up within range. It seems like most bears early season, it's like if you're rifle hunting, it's either going to be shot across the canyon at a long distance or at a really close range because you've got to be on the same hillside and kind of shooting the
right there. One thing I try to avoid is getting on the same hillside. If I'm rifle hunting, I like to get away, get back far enough where I've got a good range where I like, no, I'm going to be super efficient, say two, 300 yards, but I've got a good broad view of where it's going to come out because sometimes they'll pop out lower. Sometimes they'll pop out higher, but there'll be in that general vicinity. And that's a really good way to kind of close the gap and bring it in on a bear that you've spotted earlier, but get to within range and then sit and set up
and be patient and wait for it to come out again. Really, I can't stress enough how much food source is tied into bear hunting success. So early season, really figuring out what are the bears gonna be eating? Where are the food sources? Looking for those neon green patches, anything that looks super bright, super green and doesn't look like everything else.
is a really good place to key in on. You're keying in on that food source, but you're saying, okay, in an area where it's all food source, maybe find that one thing that's going to be a little bit different that they like. So, hey, if it's all pretty green already where you're at, look for that wet spot that's even brighter green, the place with the highest amount of nutrients. That's where the bears are going to focus their energy. They aren't stupid. They're very selective eaters. They know what the good stuff is, and they tend to know that if they
feed, they can feed less amount of time or the same amount of time, but get higher nutrients and help build their body weights up right away. So they're going to focus in on those highest nutrient places. When I'm looking at an area, when I sit down, let's say I hiked up to around five, six, 7,000 feet, whatever. I've got a great view across the canyon and
And I'm going to really concentrate my efforts on those places like, okay, that looks different than everything else. It looks more nutrient rich. It looks like better forage. That's going to be a good spot to focus my attention. And then I kind of figure out where those spots are from distance. And those are a lot of times the spots that I'll concentrate on. There are times as well where I see a good food source. And even if I haven't seen a bear, maybe I choose to hunt closer to that spot. Like I'm going to glass the
300 to 500 yards from this really nutrient rich spot but also I've got a good view of some other places up the canyon because that way if a bear does pop out I may not have to move in I may be ready or have a very short amount of time to stock in and make a shot and those are just a few things to think about when it comes to early spring bear hunting success I think that if you're like me this is a great time to kind of dust off your gear to get out to to
to get into the mountains and have a real mountain hunt on something that you can kind of pick up a tag every year for and hopefully find some success.
I hope for those of you heading out, maybe there's some of you heading out this weekend, maybe next weekend, sometime during the spring season to chase bears. If you use any of these tips and tactics and they work out for you, let me know. I'd love to hear about your success stories. You can always reach out to me at social media at Remy Warren or Remy at the meat eater.com. I generally get to the social media stuff sooner because it's just a little bit easier for me to, to track and see and all that kind of stuff. Um,
or with anything with the podcast. If you enjoy the podcast, tag me in it. Let me know. I appreciate it. I appreciate all the great comments and feedback. And if you don't subscribe to the podcast, wherever you listen, subscribe to it. I know it'll pop in and update you every Thursday when we got new episodes.
And I appreciate you guys listening and all the support. As always, too, feel free to start shooting your questions over for our next Q&A. We're going to go over some more gear stuff, maybe some more hunting tips and tactics. And I like to build these podcasts based on your guys' recommendations. Everyone out there, I want this to be a podcast for the people that listen. So if you have things that you want to hear about, feel free to shoot me a message. And
hopefully we'll add it into the list here shortly. Maybe some of your questions will get answered. Maybe we'll just do a whole podcast topic on it. I thank you guys all for your, your support and, um, just helping build this to be something that I think is, is useful in the hunting space. So thank you guys until next week. Uh, let's see until next week, get out of hibernation, get outside, hopefully get on some bears. See you later.
Hey, we're going to take a little break here and talk about interstate batteries. Now, if you're like me, enjoying the great outdoors, you need gear that is as reliable as it gets. That's why I power my adventures with interstate batteries. I use interstate batteries in my boats. I use interstate batteries in my camper. Great for your truck, too. From Alaska to Montana, they're outrageously dependent.
Battery is essential. With over 150,000 dealer locations, finding one is easy. For all your vehicles, land or sea, choose Interstate. Head to interstatebatteries.com and find your power today. You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to land.com.
They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.