Spring Bear

walkersteelhead · 01-21-2003, 06:59 PM

Who all is puttin for for Spring Bear and what units?

MountainLion84 · 01-21-2003, 07:37 PM

Probably Chesnimus. drew last year, but no bears. Got one during Elk season though.

walkersteelhead · 01-22-2003, 05:03 PM

I probably going to put in for sw coast unit. This mild winter bears might be out earlier.

TheRogue · 01-22-2003, 05:23 PM

Pine Creek/Keating/Catherine Creek...should draw this year. Been bugging my USFS buddy that lives in Halfway already...he'll really be tired of me by the time the season rolls around!! :grin: :grin:

TR

SLEDDER · 01-22-2003, 06:02 PM

BONNER COUNTY IDAHO

Distilled · 01-22-2003, 06:07 PM

I'm hoping to pop one up in the N.Cascade unit. All I really want this year is a Bear and a nice Buck, well a Cat would be nice too but I don't wan to get greedy.... got my fingers crossed... :smile: hehe... is that asking to much!?!?

Fairly new to this Bear hunting so if anyone has some tips and/or tricks to share I'd love to hear them. I usually get a bear tag during Deer/Elk Season, if I haven't gotten one with a sports pac, but I never really set out to find one, just had a tag in case. Now with a new home of my own I need some new wall decorations and a Cat and Bear would go beautifully... :grin:

Depending on snow levels I'm not really sure how I'll go about finding one but I've been told that during the spring bear hunts people typically have the best luck finding a good vantage point and watching clear cuts with any kind of feed. People say 'dat dem bears are hungry when they wake up and that makes them careless so they'll walk out in the openings early and fool about. Any truth to that????

Gotta run, have a good one all, talk to ya soon.....

BJ

Distilled · 01-22-2003, 06:13 PM

I'm hoping to pop one up in the N.Cascade unit. All I really want this year is a Bear and a nice Buck, well a Cat would be nice too but I don't wan to get greedy.... got my fingers crossed... :smile: hehe... is that asking to much!?!?

Fairly new to this Bear hunting so if anyone has some tips and/or tricks to share I'd love to hear them. I usually get a bear tag during Deer/Elk Season, if I haven't gotten one with a sports pac, but I never really set out to find one, just had a tag in case. Now with a new home of my own I need some new wall decorations and a Cat and Bear would go beautifully... :grin:

Depending on snow levels I'm not really sure how I'll go about finding one but I've been told that during the spring bear hunts people typically have the best luck finding a good vantage point and watching clear cuts with any kind of feed. People say 'dat dem bears are hungry when they wake up and that makes them careless so they'll walk out in the openings early and fool about. Any truth to that????

Gotta run, have a good one all, talk to ya soon.....

BJ

walkersteelhead · 01-22-2003, 07:34 PM

Yea N. cascades is my first choice but S.W. coast is my second,I have heard calls work pretty well to. Cabela's had a good kit called Carltons Deluxe Bear kit comes with a video,audio tape and call. The video is pretty good Carlton is crazy in the video. Good Luck to all.

Gun Rod Bow · 01-22-2003, 08:27 PM

Wlaker,

I've seen the video, kind of cool, but...notice what time of year it is..late summer to fall.

I've got no doubt a call would work, in the right set up, later in the season.

Spring bears are mostly looking for forage to get their digestive tracts going. Grasses, dandelions, skunk cabage etc...

By the time they've been out of the hole for a week or so, they get a lot tougher to hunt (and they start to rub). I recommend doing whatever it takes to cover lots and lots of country. Check high and low elevations till you find where things are just starting to bud out..first yellow dandelions, first shoots etc..

Good Luck

GRB

tailchaser · 01-22-2003, 08:31 PM

Hey Distilled, in the spring season look for areas with a lot of grassy knolls and water. They don't start eating berries and meat until a little later out of hybernation. Medium growth clearcuts will probably be the way to go with a creek drainage nearby. Look for sign on the roads and cat roads. Pretty easy to see if they're around. Also, one last bit not too many people pay attention to in the spring is bears will rip up stumps and logs in cuts looking for bugs. If you see a lot around look for the bruin, he won't be far.

tc

tag-a-long · 01-23-2003, 06:18 AM

Hey Distilled,
It is customary for someone new to the boards to post an intro story. How about it... Welcome aboard!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Distilled · 01-23-2003, 03:46 PM

Well thanks for the information all, that all kinds of falls in line with what I have been told by some others so hopefully my hunting partners and myself may be able to get lucky this year and get a Bear or two between us.

So what kind of intro story am I supposed to post?? Suppose I could tell the story about the time I saw this 300 lb Bigfoot in the foothills of the coast range..... :smile: heheh.... nah, for real, I'll post a little intro thing later on when I've got some more time, maybe later this evening....

In the mean time, thanks again and we'll be chattin' with ya soon........

BJ

Boedy · 01-23-2003, 04:11 PM

Dont think you can get away with not posted a story BJ.

alwyze fishin · 01-23-2003, 04:44 PM

Same as sledder
sledder we need to get together on this

Distilled · 01-25-2003, 08:57 PM

OK, so story time I guess......... herm......

I think that one of the most enjoyable hunting experiences I've ever had would be a hunt of which I killed nothing but rather my Uncle killed the biggest bull in our families history.

It was the second to last day of our hunt over in Eastern Oregon and out of 13 tags only one had been filled. The frustration was getting worse and worse by the minute beings our family rarely has less than a 75% success rate. It was only my second year out elk hunting and being a little green yet I often stepped on that twig that Dad went out of his way to miss and often swung my head around at mach 2 when I heard so much as rain drop hit the ground so needless to say us young bucks got traded off to other members of the family for a day or two of most hunting seasons. This day I got pawned off to hunt with my Uncle and both he and I got a
surprise that we will never forget.

It was about 8:30 in the morning and we had just started our descent off in to the hell hole that we only hunt once a season. I was having a hell of a time keeping my footing and I could feel the frustration beginning to mount in my uncle but he kept cool and joked it off. As we got down in a little further and things opened up and flattened off for a bit we got some good quality hunting in jumped a couple different sets of both Deer and Elk, unfortunately, as much as we staired we couldn't grow horns on any of them.

We made our way through the timber and as we came up to the second steep descent my uncle makes a comment that he; "best find a log for we start the side hill gouging" so I wandered off to do some exploring.

Since it was 18�F out running over and taking care of business wasn't going to be a real quick thing when having to peel off layers of clothes so I expected a wait. Trying to keep warm I continued my jont on over this little hill for a bit and then turned back to meet up with the unc. I came through some thick timber enough to open up my view just in time to see my Uncle half crouched down with his gun to his shoulder and pants down around his ankles. I knew that this was a serious moment and that he had to have seen bone to bring him off his log in mid stride but I couldn't help but laugh inside. I dropped to a knee and tried to keep quiet and keep my composure bringing my 7 Mag to my shoulder and keeping watch in the direction he was pointing, but god help me if I'd had to make the shot because my gun barrel had to have been jumping 6 inches up and down with every laugh.

A few moments passed and then there he was, a magnificant 6 x 7 Rocky trying to quietly make his way through some lodge pole thickets. I waited and waited for a clear shot but as he poked in and out of site I tried to hold fast to the general rule of 'not taking bad shots' for any reason. He had just gone out of site when >>> BANG <<< the .300 Win. Mag. let out a roar of thunder on top of the hill in front of me. I took off up the hill to offer fire support in case he was on the run but it wasn't needed as my uncle had waddled is way almost up to him by the time I crested the hill. Seemed he had broken out of the thicket he was working through and quartered up the hill right in front of my uncle when the .300 bullet entered just forward of his right shoulder and straight through his heart, suprisingly dropping the large animal right in his tracks.

I remembered thinking, as I walked up to this HUGE pile of animal and horn that; "someday I would down a trophy like this". That day rings clear every Elk season and has influenced me to hold off on a couple young Elk in hopes of running in to them again when they had matured, unfortunately my day has not come yet but I can easily laugh off an unsuccessful season by reminding myself of my Uncle's kill and the events leading up to it.

Needless to say the camp has been a-roar many of nights as jokes dance around the fire and imaginations run free. To only put yourself on a log in 18� weather trying to get through with your business before you man hood get's frost bite and have a trophy Elk step out in front you..... jeez, imagine the thoughts going through YOUR head... :smile:

Well that pretty much does it.. :smile: Hope you all got a chuckle out of it, I know I do. Have a good one, talk to ya soon....

Robert · 01-26-2003, 12:08 AM

Now thats a great story.

SLEDDER · 01-26-2003, 07:51 AM

ALWAYZ, I will contact Clint Gray when I am up in the Spokane area for the boat show.