Beginners Guide to Spring Bear Hunting

followed by the number twenty. My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your host into the world of hunting the icon and the North American wilderness. Prepare. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation. Will also bring you into some of the wildest country off the planet Chasing Bare. We're continuing on

with our giveaway. If you give us a review on iTunes, take a screen capture, send us that screen capture through Instagram, Private Message, Facebook Private Message, or email us at info at Bear Hype and Hunting dot com. We'll send you out some Northwoods bear products. What do you guys have in your hands? Brent? What you got in your hands? Man? Gold Rush bear attracted. It's liquid form, and I got some gold dust all here from Northwoods. You can can't,

can't What is it? What does it smell like? Ryan butterscotch concentrate form. You use that stuff a ton, don't you all the time? What is is that? I've heard you say that the gold Rush mixed with friar grease best stuff you do for attracting bear. Yeah. I mean I would probably use this and not even putting in baiting my barrels. So yeah, yeah, it would bring bears in. That's what you're saying. Good stuff. And the gold dust smells like the gold Rush. It's just empowered form, which

is it's cleaner, it's a little easier. I don't think it's as potent, but it's a it's so it's not as substitute for the gold Rush, but it's just an addition to it that you can sprinkle on any kind of bait that you have. Yeah, so that's some good stuff. So check out our buddies at Northwood's Bear Products. Leave a review and all the guys that have left reviews

in the past are still entered into our contest. You're gonna put that in your coffee yeah, well, I've got some honey in there, but it says right here on the label it's five times sweeter than sugar. Put it in their coffee, Splash a little bit on your neck and your wife met gentlemen, Welcome to the Bear Honey Magazine Global Headquarters. Good morning, Brent Reeves. Good morning, sir. Here we are again. You're reporting in from Central Arkansas.

Central Arkansas. It's a two hour and fifty eight minute drive if you follow them speed recommendation. That's a long walk, it is. Did you ride your mule up here? I did not know Flashy mete for me yet. Mr Ryan Grab, good morning, Good morning. You got me off the lake and got me to come up the mountain. Yes, yes, Ryan's got a freezer full of croppy but uh so

he's been crappie fishing, right. I introduced you last time on the podcast as a guy that was killing bears while my mama was still wiping my nose, and uh, I'm going to continue on with that. So Ryan Grab is uh a good friend of mine. For several years. Ryan's hunted with me all over Canada and and we've hunted together here in Arkansas. And uh Brent has end with me all over Canada as well. And what we're

gonna talk about today is spring bear hunting. What I want to do is I want to take somebody from zero to hero about spring bear hunting and about forty five minutes to an hour. I want to talk about all the relevant issues that revolve around spring bear hunting that have to do with timing, When do you go, where do you go? Because there are there are states.

There are nine states that have spring bear seasons. They're all the Canadian provinces except for some of the northern provinces that you know, like none of it and uh uh Nova Scotia are the only Canadian provinces that don't have spring bear seasons. So I want to talk about that. I want to talk about Canadian bear hunting outfitters and how guys can go up and hunt, and like talk about costs because people are like how much does it cost? Um?

I want to talk about a crossing the Canadian border because you know, there's all these limitations that guys think about. Do you remember that guy's name, do you remember the guy that Marvin or do you do you remember he asked us about I want to tell the story about what he asked us about. Do you not remember his name is right? No, it wasn't markin Pierre, wasn't Pierre. It was about the Canadian border officer. Yeah, it was

something No I remember exactly. Okay, So we're gonna we're gonna talk about a crossing the Canadian border with firearms and Bosner's and what you need to do. Um, We're gonna talk about. What we're trying to do is answer the frequently asked questions, because I get questions all the time from guys that have never been up there, and

they just have questions, Can you eat spring bear meat? Okay, because there's a lot of things that in times past bears have been managed in such a way where sometimes you didn't have to harvest the meat, and it made people think it was bad. But so we're gonna I'm not gonna tell you whether you can or not. You're gonna have to listen, but we're gonna talk about that.

We're gonna talk about, uh frequently asked question, is our spring bear hides rubbed out after a certain point, by rubbed out meaning you know, it is to hide any good. We're gonna talk about that we're gonna talk about how you get hides and meet back from Canada. We're gonna talk about do it yourself options in the Western United States for spotting, stock hunting primarily, and bait hunting. So we're gonna talk about outfit and stuff, but also about

do it yourself stuff timing for that. Um, those are those are some of the big ones that we're gonna talk about. So zero to hero, zero to spring bear hunting hero in fort or five minutes with Brent Reeves Ryan Grab at the Global Headquarters. Um, Brent, first time, first time you ever went with me to Canada was in Saskatchewan. That's right? Is that right? That was on the on the on the trip, the boat trip where I was singing the record the Van fits Gerald when

we finally got off of it. Do you know the words of that song that you can sing now? Uh, Well, it's like a nine minute it's like the Canadian version of Freebird. It's like twelve minutes long. We've got time forever. You're able to lose listeners over that. But I do remember the line that I said when when we stepped out, when I stepped out of the boat finally nobody knows where the love of God goes. When the waves turned

the minutes two hours. I remember saying that to you, and you looked at me and like, I know you've never heard that song. But he looked at me like, did that dude, just make that up? Oh my gosh, I was scared of that. But spring bear hunting, Yeah, that was the That was the first time, and that was the time. It was summertime man far as hunting in Arkansas? Was it? It was? It was the last week of June. So what we're gonna start off with is when do you go? Okay, let's start off with

when do you go? And then we'll talk about where we went the last week of June and on that particular hunt. A little bit of background. We're hunting with outfitting far northern Saskatchewan, and we rode fifty five miles on a boat and a giant Canadian Northern lake which is almost like an with a about a horse crappy boat and uh, we were coming out of the water about six ft a couple to No, no, not that much,

but it felt like it. It felt like it. But all the more, all the more adventure we had because of how far we were back in hundred and sixty three miles south of the Arctic Circle. Yeah, because I plotted it and checked it when we got back home. I thought he was gonna say, a hundred sixty three miles by boat. It was that far off from that. We rode that much in the boat that week, and then every day we wrote, y'all rode as much as twenty miles one way in a day, did you not?

You probably you may have gone. I think they went each day there and back just hunt. So you probably rode three hundred miles in a boat and yeah, there's no telling. Yeah, you know what, I would do that again at the heartbeat. Oh yes, yeah, just probably for

the fishing more than anything. That was a world class We didn't know at the end, but yeah, it was one of the first times that we had had access to just fishing right out from camp, and I mean we were just catching fish like a big pike lake trout. There was h it was and we kind of thought everywhere else we go was gonna be like that, and it was not even in similar waters. I don't say there's fish everywhere, but not there were and they were hungry and it was every third. I mean, you could

have averaged out. I promise you I would take the oath right now. It was every third or fourthcast you were catching colds. Do you remember how well you wouldn't remember, Brent, Do you remember how nervous I was when I lost Ryan Diamond Diamond spinner diamonds wouldn't know what it was. Yeah, I was using his rod without permission. And these these these big old spoons cost like nine dollars a piece.

I don't know that was what that was. That was debait that everybody said, you got to have this or you cannot. Look You look at it and you think, I just novelty. You know, you don't catch nothing on that. And no, that was it was. You caught fish up until the point when I lost yours. Yeah, but we had we had more. I remember I was legitimately. I was like a little kid, like, hey dad, remember that Remember that bait that you let me. That's what I felt like, Oh man, okay, when to hunt. We're gonna

get down to business. When to hunt. So if you didn't know anything about springbear hunting, you hunt in May and June. That is that is pretty much when you hunt some of the some places actually opened their bare

seasons in April. Actually, a lot of the Canadian provinces open in April, and some of the western states opened in April, and even as much as April first, Okay, but the bulk of bear hunting is done in May and June because that April hunt is risky or snow when you're hunting in the northern latitudes, and pretty much you can only hunt spring bears up north. There's no southern state that has a spring season. Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia,

West Virginia. I mean, none of those guys have spring seasons. Okay, So you're hunting up north, and so what you're biologically, what's happening is these bears have dinned for the last you know, hundred twenty days or even longer than that. I mean a lot of times bears are up north or going into the dens in October. And uh, you know what, when we hunted Manitoba, Canada, Southern Manitoba, Canada the first week of November, we have seen bears every

year out of their dens first week in November. Ye, But but it's not common and they're not coming out very far from their dens. But let's so let's just say bears are going into their dens around the first November, so November, December, January, February, March, April. They've been in it then for six months. They come out of the den. Their hair is long, at its peak length because they have grown the longest there possible to be insulated. Their

claws are sharp. Their their claws, its claws are just like fingernails. I don't know if it's keratin or whatever it is, but their their their claws have been growing and they have not been walking around without use. Claws are sharp. They come out of the den on favorable days in in most places of the black Bear range, bears will be coming out in April and might even

be coming out in snow. Like you know, if you didn't know much about bear biology, and and I didn't years ago, you would be like, well, does it bear wait till it's just like super warm to come out, or does he come out when there's snow on the ground. They absolutely come out of their den, sometimes in the snow, and it's like a progressive state of awakeness. Like the first time they come out. They they might not go

fifty yards from their den. Yeah, and then a week later they might range out further and it's almost like they're they're going out to try to find if there's food. And basically when the food win there is a legitimate food source, then they will start eet that food source release their fecal plug, which that's a biological process of bear doesn't a bear den to conserve energy, and you know,

they don't urinate or or defecate in general. I've personally seen bear scout outside of a bear den in Arkansas in the middle of the winter. So, but the in general, bears do not urinate or defecate for that entire time in the den. They come out, they've got a they've got a plug that they have to release, and that only comes after they ingest more food. Brent's grinning over there. He's trying to think of a j trying not to say he's grinning like the fifth grade for my whole life.

But let me ask you this, is it more time or temperature that's the trigger for that when they're waking up food source like they a bear does not then because it's cold, it's not like he gets cold and it's like, oh man, it's cold, I want to go it inn He goes to bed because the food source runs out, and so he wakes up when the food source comes back. Maybe their metabolism is so that's what I'm saying. They've taken digested as much as they can go and they need to get up and right. So

that's when they start rambling. Yep. And it probably has to do with you know, daylight period. I mean, all the animals are working off you know, the amount of daylight to understand what time of year it is. In biological processes they're going on and stuff. But it's primarily

driven by food. And so if you have an early spring, and that's why we're talking about timming, if you have a if you have an early spring, win in northern Idaho on April one, it's sunny and getting in the fifties and snow's melting off the top of the mountains, which does happen Bears are gonna be rocking and rolling earlier.

And so you might go to a Northern Idaho on a do it yourself hunt on April the tenth, and I'm pretty sure Idaho opens early and have a great hunt and see bears, and then the next year you go back out there and there's not a bear to be found in the places that you were hunting are covered in snow and the bears are still denned up. So that's the risk inside of April. And that's why most bear hunting takes place later in the spring, because

it's it's a more for sure, guaranteed deal. Percentage is of going mid to late May would be prime time and after that's right pride. If if you were just to say what is prime time for spring bear hunt, I would say from May the tenth to June the tenth, that would be prime time. And here's why. Um well, let me not get too far ahead. Let me describe

what's happening. Most Canadian outfitters start outfitting the first or second week of May, and what you find inside of that time period is that, let's say from May one to May, let's categorize that as early spring, okay, and the big boars are gonna be feeding. They're not They're gonna be keyed in on just getting resource into them. They're not worried about the rut. So you can if you have a board at a bait or if you have a board located on the hillside on a spot

and stock do it yourself hunt. He's gonna be really predictable. It's gonna be close, and he's gonna be close, that's right. Who's gonna stay close to that food source, that's right. And so that is actually why I prefer early spring for a spotting stock hunt, because spot and stock hunt. If I go to Montana and I'm hunting, I might spot a bear from a mile and a half away

on the side of a mountain. If you spot that bear on May the first, there's a pretty darn good chance that tomorrow he's going to be in that exact same spot, or at least on that hillside. If you spot if you're hunting in Montana on some of the seasons in Montana go through the middle of June, you spot that bear on June tenth in Montana could be rutting, the sales are in season. He could be forever away from there, that's right. So that's that's a general idea

of what's happening. So it works the same way with a bait though you go in those first weeks of May on a bated outfitted hunt or do it yourself. Baited hunt in Idaho. Uh, you you're not gonna see as many bears, but if you find a big one, you can probably kill him. So second part of the spring would be, let's say, from May the tenth tell June. I'm gonna call that prime time kind of mid spring. You're not gonna have to worry about weather as much.

There's a less chance that you're just gonna be snowed in. You know, my buddy Brian Strickland hunted last year the first week of May in in Manitoba. He ended up killing a big for the kind year after, but he set through snow. In his video there's snow in the background. He didn't see as many animals as he would have later, but he ended up killing a big bear first week in May, Manitoba. The the So what happens on about the twentye of May, though, is the rut starts to

kick in. Um. There's not a lot of data or general information about the bear rut that I have seen published or media talked about. You know, like the white tail rut is like the most understood breeding process of probably any game animal in the world. Now, is that date that you're talking about when the rut kicks in. Is that for every latitude or is it diminish as

you go. Well, here's the way it works is that bears, boar bears and female bears whenever they get out of the den and they have about a month to feed and build their processes back up, then stuff starts to happen. Because of the bear rut is not like a white tail rut. So a white tail rut is based upon the actual conception date has everything to do with fawn arrival in the spring. So they need those fonds to

be born a certain time. So they've gotta breed at a certain time gestation period of a doe, deers tunter days or something, So they gotta breed tunter days back from the prime time period of that time. In the southern United States, that window would be super wide because our winners aren't that long or hard, and so in the southern US you have a longer rut. But we up in the northern Latin Tunes, like in Manitoba, those fonds have to be born at a certain time. You

got this really fine rut. The bear rut is not like that because of delayed implantation anytime there's a lull. On the podcast, I talked about bear reproductive processes. My

favorite topic, No delayed implantation, head delayed implantation. It's fascinating because basically bears are a low dense the animal, so that means they're a herd animal like a deer that are just everywhere like so a salth bear has to have this elongated period of time when she can be bred so that she'll bump into a boar because there's such a low density. And it doesn't mean that there's not a lot of them, it just means that spatially there's there's gonna not be forty bears per square mile.

It's just not gonna happen anywhere. It's just not natural. So they have this elongated period of time when they can be bred. So when love, when love happens brent uh and they meet perchance Romeo and Juliet in the mountains of Manitoba or the Ozarks, and something in the in conception happens. Okay um. The the egg is fertilized, but it does not attach to the uterine wall until sixty days before gestation in November. That's when gestation starts

after the bear has gone through the fall. Her body is determined if she can rear young egg attaches to the uterine wall, gestation starts. Bear cubs are born sixty days later in the dent. So all that to say that there's not this like pinpoint conception date like a white tail because of delayed implantation. Could you make a diagram of that? Give me the chug boards. When a boy bear loves a girl bear, we're taking up, We're

taking a turn. Uh No, but that makes so there's this bear can be bred any time of the year like she could. She could be bred in early May. But the research that I've done on a couple of different research projects showed that pete conception date was around mid June for at least a couple of these bear populations that they had really tested. So Pete pete conception date, breeding date was like mid June. So I compare the months of May in June to the months of October

and November for white tips. So late October stuff is gonna be happening. Um, have you seen rut activity the last week of May? Or have you hunted? We have? We hunted much in last mostly just June. Okay, you've mainly hunted in June with well, I have seen um, for sure rutting going on in late May, I mean bears, boar bears with sous. I've also seen boar bears following sALS in early May. Uh. But so that last week of May. That's why that's such a hotspot is because

the bears are still fairly predictable. Like if you find a boar in a baby, he's probably gonna be there for a while. But there also might be cruising boards that find you right you get into mid Gin and it's like hunting the white tail rut. That's what I was gonna say. If you know a hunter is on a bait somewhere and they're not getting pictures of what they're considering shooters, it's just like a white tail buff. When that ruts kicked in, any day, there could be

a monster. How many times were we in Saskatchewan in June and getting pictures of bears that nobody had ever seen, brand new? Yeah? Every day it was like a new bear, a new bear. Yeah. And we were hunting the last week of June pretty much twenties of June, and so that was classic rut stuff. Brett and I witnessed a bear. I don't know they ever connected, but you called it frolic the frolic yeah, and and uh, well we saw him breed not that year, but another year another year,

I mean straight the old three wheeler. Mm hmm. Didn't we three wouldn't we see a three legged bear breed? I'm glad you clarified that because three wheeler it was a three legged bear. Yeah, indeed, that was the actually the next year, yeah, after after the frolican bears, which was stam Ass hunt where the bears came in on top of was but that same year where the bear got so close to us, you know the road activity Ryan had that had that encounter with that aggressive sal Yeah. Yeah,

you watched U a boar and a sal fight. She had a cub up tree. Yeah, so I shot the boar. He didn't make it thirty yards. She goes overwhere and pretty much tears his hind quarters off as he's dead malls and yeah, and she was drooling and I don't know if she wins me or sees me, but she finally makes her way towards me. And it's the first time I'd ever carried bear spray, first hunt ever ever, and it was just an afterthought. I thought, you know,

I got this, why not bring it? I've had it sitting at home for years and didn't have it handy. It was buried in my backpack. So as she kept getting closer, Yeah, I'm in the ground blind. So after seeing her do what she did to the bear I'd killed, it's like not to pull this out. And I go to talking to her and try to get her run off, and she would not. And finally when she got within four yards probably I thought I want to let her up and see what happens, and it scared her off.

It works, It worked. Yeah, that was a pretty touchy situation. Um, well, I think that's a pretty good rundown of wind to hunt in the pros and cons of early hunh late hunting. Uh do you all think we've covered it? Y'all have any other comments on wind to hunt or questions? Well, you're probably going to see more bears, you think, probably in that June period when after Yeah, the the mid to late June, you're gonna see more. Okay, now here's

somebody for somebody asking. Here, here's the other thing that I have not personally seen this because my late June hunting has produced a lot of bear shidings. But they say, and this makes sense, as the as the spring progresses and more natural food comes available, bears will spread out and be harder to find, just like in white tail hunting. If food is everywhere, they're hard to find, they don't respond.

Debate as well. That being said in late in Saskatchewan, way up north like we were, that doesn't seem to be an issue. Yeah, where's more conifers and not any egg? Yeah yeah, no berries out, no kind of masked hard or soft. Yeah yeah. But I think in a lot of places late June would be tougher for bears responding because grass is growing up, insects are starting to pop out. You know, they're just in a bare prefers natural food

overbait almost all the time. I think if I was going to go for the first time, anybody was one of the recommendation, I would say, you know, first of June, first week of June would be prime time. Yep, to get both, You'll get you both occurrences. That's right, exactly. Okay. Number two, Where to hunt? Where to hunt? Okay. In the United States, there are nine states at least that's that's what I have figured. Nine states that offer spring

bear hunting here. They are Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona, Alaska, and certain parts of Maine that are in side of these tribal lands. So I had to put Maine in there because you can spring bear hunt in Maine on tribals. Is that the only Eastern state that has spring hunt. Maine used to have a spring bear hunt like statewide and they shut it down. Uh was that from aunt?

Absolutely anti hunting, nothing, no biological but bear. Maine has the largest bear population of any state in the for sure in the eastern US. California and some of those bigger states might potentially have more, but Maine has an estimated bear population of thirty thousand bears. I mean, bears are like just massively increasing. They usually have they usually kill about three thousand bears a year. Maine. Absolutely anti hunting sentiment that shut down the spring bear hunt. But

there's some big Native American tribal lands in Maine. One of these pennob Scott, and we have multiple outfitters in Barony magazine that guy on penob Scott. Um. So let's let's just briefly go through these. Idaho is like the epicenter of bear hunting in the Western US. Idaho has the most liberal seasons, has lots of bears, lots of public land, you can use hounds, you can use bait, or you can spot and stock. Idaho is like, uh, in the movie Lord of the Rings, like, what was

the elvish Rivendale. I've never watched that. You read next wearing a pair of overalls that looked like he bought in nineteen sixty two and he's squirrel hunted in him since then, and they've never actually pretty sharp overall. That's a question about true grit. But Lord of the just watched that the other day. Uh yeah, Rooster, yeah yeah. So I'm like the nerd. I'm like the nerdy. Now, I've never watched witchcraft. Um. In Lord of the Rings,

i think it's called Rivendale. That is the where the elves live, and it's like this like hub of all things good. It's like it's like, you know, that is I I agree. I've been on the only spring bear hunt that I've been on that I didn't go with with you wasn't Ida on it and can you can bait on public ground there. That's right. You can go up there to do it yourself. Bait hunt. You can go up there by hound permit. You there's a couple of things you have to do, but buy hound permit.

If you do itself, do it yourself. Bait per bait hunt you have to buy bait permit and then it's not very expensive. Hows are cheap. It's beautiful. I'm pretty sure. The Idaho bear season, um, I want to say it starts on April one. Check the REGs. It's either April one or April fift Montana starts April fifteen, So let's go from Idaho. Montana is a great spring bear hunting destination. But you can't run hounds, you can't bait. It's all spot and stock hunting. You go up there and buy

a tag for three or fifty bucks. The western side of the state is where the bears are gonna be Idaho pretty much. The eastern side of Idaho is like big plains, you know, like Buffalo Country. The western side of the western one third of Idaho was in the Rocky Mountains basically, um the highest bear densities in Montana are going to be in northwest Montana. Uh. Now, is there only certain units in Montana or is that statewide? Yeah?

Pretty much the western third of the state's gonna have a bear season, from like Bozeman or the Missoula up to Libby and uh Callaspell. I can't remember all that, but like you can, you could essentially say that western third of Montana is gonna for sure percent every place is gonna have a spring bear season. There's lots of wilderness areas, there's big blocks of National forest. Um Man, if you could just get in any of that country on the western side and learn it, you're gonna find bears.

It's not easy, uh, but it's doable. Last year we took our mules to my I've hunted in the spring in Montana three years and had at a rough time two years and and didn't kill bear. The third year we kind of got it figured out and we we killed a bear and and probably I mean, I feel like I kind of know what's going on. But so that's Montana. Montana opens up April, goes to June one, and a lot of units into June fift in some units, so you can hunt their for about two months. Um,

tags about three and fifty bucks. Wyoming, northwest Wyoming is gonna have a bear season. Uh, it's less of the state is open to bear hunting. Um, it's probably not as good as Idaho and Montana in terms of bear densities, even though there's a ton of bears and Wyoming. You just don't when you hear guys talking about going out west there there, if they're traveling, they're usually hunting Idahoa, Idaho or Montana. Is Wyoming spotting stock or is it a bait? You can you can hunt over bait and

Wyoming in the spring. Now, is there are grizzlies? And but I didn't know. Yeah, a lot of that country, Yes you do. And and especially in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem northwest of Montana. I mean, excuse me, northwest Wyoming. Um, for sure, there's gonna be grizz in a lot of that country. So it's for sure. So have you got to think about and southwest Montana you gotta worry about grizz too. Um. Yeah, I never saw griz where I

was at in Montana. Gris we were a little bit north of where they were Um, we were kind of hunting like mm hm central western Montana and we didn't see Griz, but all all of it could have been Grizz country. I mean we were prepared for Griz. We had, Yeah, we did, and I knew we probably wouldn't see him. I mean everybody, everybody that our contacts up there were just like, you're probably not gonna see grizz of bear. And that's good. When you're black bear hunt you don't

have to worry about that. But but uh, okay, uh so Wyoming I have less I have less experience with Wyoming, but good hunting. You can't non residents can't hunt wildern's areas and Wyoming you gotta have a guide to go into wilderness areas. Um we uh anyway, Uh, Oregon and Washington have spring bear seasons. They're a little bit tighter. There's different places you have to apply for. Uh, it's different kind of hunting. It's Oregon and Washington are gonna

have a lot more thickly forested regions. Um. But great hunting, great spring hunting. Um Utah has a very limited hunt in the spring. I mean that like fifty tags or something. But you can hunt over bait. Bryan Strickland kill the bear in Utah a couple of years ago, drew a tag. It's a draw state, and they don't. I want to say, it's a very limited hunt. Uh. Arizona, boy, don't get me talking about Arizona. They have they have a spring bear hunt, and uh, that's right for sure. And it's yeah,

I don't think New Mexico has a spring hunt. I don't think so. Um. I'm not gonna too much about Arizona other than that they have a spring hunt and a lot of it's I'm pretty sure a lot of it's draw or you can buy some leftover tags. Um. Alaska is el primo black bear capital of the you know, it's not the lower forty eight, but Alaska. And uh and then like I said, in Maine, on on tribal lands, so okay, uh, let's talk about let's talk about crossing

the border in Canada. These are things that people like are limiting factors. Like sometimes people are intimidated, like they've never been up there and they're like, how do we cross the border. I'm still thinking about that guy's name. I don't remember. It was Marvin or Melvin Orice. I knew it. I knew it, But that guy on the beatle Juice named Maurice, I saw that one. Uh but Maurice, he was he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. He had on the uniform and he was setting in

the station. But um, being a policeman for the last since n when you wear a uniform, yata, you ought to look I mean, you don't have to look out standing, but you should look decent more recently like he'd been on the job for a while, anybody. The thing that tickled me was that we went through there in Clay's truck and you could not cram another case, and plus we had a dog. You couldn't have fit another water bottle in the cab of the truck, true for real,

in the cabin in the back. We had cases and boxes and camera equipment and a dog box back there. And Maurice said, what's your intentions in Canada? And we told me were on a bear hunt. And he said do you have any firearms? Clay said nope, we're bow hunters. And then he said do you have any fireworks? No? No, no, no, yes he did. He didn't say it like that though,

I remember exactly what he said. He said, Okay, So Brent has been law enforcement, and Brent Tutor has tutored me over the years on how to present myself to law enforcement. Should I be stopped number one? Or should I be crossing the border. And he says, they want quick and precise answers. They don't want to see hesitation. They're trying to see if there's inconsistency in your answers and delays or lags or some kind of gesture that makes them think that you're nervous when you ask him

a certain type of question. Yeah, basically tell the truth. But so anyway, so Brent had Brent had instructed me to be very quick and assertive with my answers and to give him nothing more than they asked for, because you know, being from the South, you know, it's just like you're kind of like they're like, so what do you why are you here? Well, you know, my buddy, he had me up here a few years ago to bear hunt and we had a nice time. We killed

some bears. And you know, if you ask somebody what time and he is, don't tell him how the watchers might just tell him what time it wasn't. That's right. Okay, So this is what he said. As he said, he said, do you have firearms? No, what do you have for fireworks? That's what he said. What he said, what do you have for fireworks? And I and I looked at it and I said, I said firearms. And then he said

what do you have for fireworks? He got frustrated with it because I repeat, like and he he asked it so quick as if he were going to trick me into disclosing that we had a truck full of bottle rockets or something. I couldn't imagine. That must be a thing or something. It's it llegally that fireworks in Canada. And why he thought that me and Brent Reids had fireworks, I don't know. It's a thing. They've caught people smuggling some fireworks through there or something as well. What I

later I did a little research. The deal was the wildfires. Oh yeah, okay, okay, that's that's the deal on on on fireworks in Canada. As you know, they have enough trouble with lightning strikes. You know, it's a jillion acres up there that you can't get to by roads. So it was it's fire. Danger was doing his job. Holy cow, we could take over Canada with them. So you got rid of the smoke balls there. Do you remember that we had I had like the day before we left

for Canada. Well, we're back up in May and June. We are really June in Arkansas. I will not pass a watermelon stand without stopping him by a watermelon, Like I just I just can't. Anyway, I had bought this big watermelon the day before and as we were leaving for Canada, I was like, I'm bringing the watermelon. I shoved this watermelon in the truck. And you're not supposed to bring fruits and you have to declare like fruits and vegetables like if you cross the border. Well, we

were trying to keep things simple. We were and uh, out of sight, out of mind, and so anyway, I mean the watermelon was like laying like in the open in the back seat in anyway, you know, I didn't disclose. I didn't I didn't claim the watermelon. And anyway, when we got through there we were it was like it was like smoking in the band that we were like who got a watermelon? But we told him we had a dog in the back we could and he never

even looked. He said, you got the paper work, handing the paperwork, you know, the verification, he had all the shots. He never looked back there. We could have had a dog pin full of babies back there. That It was just no. We were legit with the dog and the fireworks, and we didn't have any firearms. But yeah, we didn't have any tobacco. You were bootleg and watermelon ye yep.

Fireworks man, yep. So okay, crossing the border. You The only thing that you have to have if you're crossing the border is a simple non residents Firearms declaration form that used to intimidate me before I had done it. You go online and you type in in the Google non Resident Firearms Declaration for Canada and to pull up what's called RCMP nine. It's a one page form asked for your just all your information, the make of the gun on, the serial number, the caliber, how many bullets

you're bringing, and that's all it is. And you it's best to print that off before you go and you just hand it to him that in your passport. And you can't take pistols, that's right. No handguns cost twenty five dollars for that firefps declaration for him, you do have to pull over and take an inside, and they have the right to come out and look at your gun.

They've never done it one time. For me, I don't know how many times I've crossed the Canadian border with firearms and they have never one time looked at my gun. Though they have that right, and uh so it's no big deal getting the farms across. You do have to have a valid passport. Um, you can't be you know, if you've got like felonies on your record or something, you probably better do some checking on whether you across the border. Um. I got a question because every time

I've been to Saskatchewan, I've flown head and rode with y'all. Yeah, you know, I got with you at the airport. But when we went to Ontario, we had to have a if you remember, which has been a few years ago, a valid hunting license or a hunting license from the year before. In the States. They wasn't gonna let us through if we didn't have a hunting license for the States. Yeah, you know, I'm glad you brought that up because I

almost forgot about that. You're right, we and and in that particular case with that outfitter, we had to buy our license before we got there, which is not common. Usually the outfitter sells you the license once you're in camp. That was another thing I was gonna cover. Talk to your outfitter and say, do I need to buy a license before I get there or do I buy it from you? Every place except Ontario I had the outfitters

sold me the license. But yeah, we showed up in Ontario said hey, we need to buy nonresident bear tag and they said, okay, show me go ahead, and do you have a license from last year? And I mean, just by chance, both of us had our Arkansas hunting license, but I mean I cleaned out my wallet went up the same thing and just almost their way. So what would have happened? This lady made us believe that we couldn't have bought a tag. Wow, And I don't know if that, you know, it's been so long. I forgot

to research that to see if that was legit. But since then I have carried a hunting license and my hunter's AD card, even though they don't ask for it, like when we buy a license in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. They don't ask for a hunter's a card. Uh So anyway, just bring your hunter's AD card from whatever state you're in. And if you're with an outfit or communication, that's right, that's right. Ask questions. Okay, let's talk now about how to get hides and meet back from Canada. Now, when

you flew you did all the same things. You had to declare. You know, you've never brought a gun though, you've always bow hunted archery, but you had to go through Canadian customs, so you you essentially had the same experience we had. We just had it in the car and while we were smuggling dogs and watermelons. Well coming back your United States customs. So but yeah, each one is a little different. Yeah, you know, uh, I think when we'd come back to where was it Houston that

time when we flew back, that was a pain. Yeah, that was the issue. We got held over and we had no no, no, maybe you're was it out. We went from Saskatoon to Calgary. Calgary had the United States customs because we was flying from there to Houston. That was the one I think was a pain. Yeah, we got what we got held We got held over that, James, I don't remember. We got held over the time and we had to find some place to keep Yeah. Oh

that's right. We had our hides and freezers. Yeah, but pretending to hide, we always stopped by Walmart, got toped, you know, Uh, hides were frozen. So that's you want to talk to your outfitter and say, is there going to be a freezer in camp? Yea in them are gonna say yes. The only time I've not had a freezer in camp was when I was doing like a back country hunt in British Columbia, Canada. In the outfitter, he didn't freeze hides. He fleshed and as salted them.

I mean, just straight up fresh. We gotta we gotta dog. No, that's a little uh, that's a little scooter. I got a four month though pup that just came flying. Was like, um here he comes back. He must be running a cotton tail. Um. Yeah. So it's ideal if you flesh it and salted, because it that need refrigeration. You just roll it up, you know, usually put in a trash bagging. That's not ideal. It could moisture could get into it.

But most times what we've done is just skin the bear left, the paws left the skull in it froze the hide solid. So if you kill the bear on the third day of a five day hunt, you know he's got two days in the freezer. Um, and you can bring that hide home frozen in a tote or in a nice chest and it will stay frozen for probably three days. So that was something I didn't know. We packed dirty clothes around it just for extra or whatever you can find for insulation inside of this tote

duct tape. The tote a good sized bear, skull, hide, fat, everything on it is gonna weigh about fifty pounds, so you're gonna pay fifty pound excess baggage. Fore you're gonna send it home marker and write all your information down on that total YEP YEP, name, phone number, address, and essentially you'll have three days before that thing is gonna

if it's frozen solid. So you're good because I mean usually you get an airport, you're gonna be sleeping in your bed within twelve hours, eighteen hours at most, Uh, So you're totally fine. UM. Meat would be the exact same way if you wanted, however much meat you wanted to bring home, which a lot of Canadian outfitters will

take the meat and handle it for you. Okay, Um, some places you aren't required to salvage meat, but you could take as much of it home anywhere you wanted, and you would just freeze it the same way, bring it home, deal with it. So and it's just gonna cost you. You know, if you Killabaria, it's gonna cost you a little bit. If you're shipping like that, if you're driving, you bring ice chest. That's what we've done. Just brought big ice chest in the back of the truck,

frozen solid, put him in. Okay, here's the other scenario. You killed barrel on the last day and you're leaving the next morning. You don't have time to freeze it.

Most Canadian outfitters have a way to deal with hides, so you could just leave it with the outfitter and the outfitter will take it to a tax dermist that he knows he'll take care of it, and you can and he'll connect you with that tax dermist and you can have the bear fleshed and salted and shipped back, or you can have that text dermist tan the hide. Do whatever you want, but when you do that, you have to fill out a side he's permit and it's

more expensive. Okay, a yeah, it's if you bring the hide back yourself, your tag acts as your side he's permit in almost all the provinces. To explain to the rookie now that that side's permit is to go along with getting stuff back across the border. It's fishing wildlife service, right, Yeah, it has to do with it's an acronym for something side ease um. But yeah, so it's it's just not

a big deal. But if you so, you can leave it with somebody, but you're probably gonna have to pay a little bit more to get back because then you have to have a I don't know, it just costs more so the other steps that you have to go through. But it's totally doable. So don't let that be a limiting factor of going on spring bear hunt. Okay, question number seven, Can you eat spring bear meat? Brent reeves you why not? It's bear meat? Yeah, yeah, it tastes

the same all year long. Yeah. The only thing I've heard actually people say that sometimes the spring meat can taste better because it's not is greasy. Greasy is the wrong word. Clay here slapping the face. I don't think bear meats greazy. It's just it's leaner in the spring because they've gone through this dinning period, their bodies used up with all the fat. But I have not found that really affect the meat, like there'll be less fat on their button. You know, the bear store a lot

of fat outside of their body. I mean, you know, like outside, not outside their body, trailers of fat. Well, I mean, but this this thing about what you just said about them being a leaner, how fat were those bears? The two bears, remember the two the bear that came in on top of us, the bear that you referenced while to go to the big board, that the that

stal jumped him. When we skin those bears next to that lake, how do you remember how fat those bears were, How thick the fat was on I mean, that was it's just spring bears not supposed to have much fatter. He had. They had playing fat. They were rolling fat. I mean they were as fat as almost as fat

as something those I don't know, I don't know. It must have been because they can come out of the the den super lean when you're just when you're skinning one, there's skin touching meat, you know, and when it's when it's good, it's skin touching a big layer of fat, and then you get to the meat. But I mean there was, I mean there was. I mean you could tell the frames those bears that y'all killed up there, the frames, they would have carried another seventy pounds probably

of weight on them absolutely in the fall. So but still, yeah, thatn't necessarily they're not gonna come out looking like, you know, a hostage man. We've been eating more and more bear meat. I mean we've always eaten bear meat, but since the kids have started killing bears every fall, multiple bears, it just seems like we're eating more and more bear beat man. Ground bear meat has become the staple for tacos, chili,

any kind of ground meat stuff. I mean, Misty when I cook deer chili, now, Misty is like, oh it's dear chili. Serious. And if you've heard other stuff on my podcast, my wife is not a big hunter, very supportive and stuff, but I mean she's not. I have a reason to want to eat bear meat and like it. I mean, you know, I got a little bit best in this, So I'm like, man, it's the best step. Misty's like totally unbiased. She ain't gonna eat if she

didn't like it. She loves bear meat for especially for chili, for tacos, for you know, anything that is just using ground meat. You know when when when I kill one and it's it's gone. It doesn't last. Now I can go from we eat a lot of dear meat, but I can go from season to season and like, oh man, there's some I got some dear meat left in here. The bear meat is gone. Yeah, because I got My seven year old daughter would rather eat a bear steak

than she had a beef steak. But a lot we do a lot with the hamburger and chili and burgers and stuff like that. And my wife is very she's you know, she isn't She is a city mouse if there ever was one, and she likes it. So yeah, it's it's good stuff. Man, um question number twelve, Uh, do spring bear hides get rubbed out? I'm sure certain bears. Each one's a little different personally. I've never seen one.

I don't know how many bears we've seen up there, but a lot they're there you know, I remember talking about it when on the way up there, we're like, you're gonna have to, you know, watch for rubbed down bear. Just rubbed out the bear is over real good. It rubbed out bear means that so bears have these long guard hairs which are like up to three four inches long, probably not four, but up to three. And then they have this under fur which is like almost like the down,

really fine finer fur, insulating fur. And uh, what they'll do in the spring, they do molt. They shed their their fur. From the time they come out of the den to the time they go back in, they grow basically a new coat. They shed those guard hairs, and so they'll get on trees and rub their butts and rug. We've seen and filmed a ton of them doing that. But you know they'd get off the tree and walk

away and they wouldn't have a spot on them like that. Yeah, you know we've seen, uh that little blond female that was that that little board was chasing chasing around that day and she was molten or whatever, but she wouldn't or ride wouldn't the inn or bear in any spot. Yeah, So what you said rhyme before we started and it's what I say too, is it just seems to be

a non issue. Yeah, I mean, you know, certain bears, I'm sure, But it also depends if you're looking, say, if you've got a trophy twenty one inch bear come in and rubbed a little bit, I'm shooting that, Barry, Yeah exactly. You know, unless you're oneting the guy that's wanting something to a rugged to put on the wall, you know, check it out. But and more unlikely you're gonna notice it right off the bat. But personally, I've never seen one rubbed out and looked terrible there there.

I just haven't run across. So you know, the odd time, and it's the odd time you'll see a bear that just is straight up rubbed, and you'll be like that bears rubbed, Brent. And I saw a bear that had mange, and I mean it's the whole back half of its body was bear. And I mean you're obviously I'm not gonna shoot that bear. It was bear naked. It still gives me bad dreams thinking about it. Um. Now, and that bear wasn't rubbed, I mean there was something wrong, yeah, um,

but I have seen him. I put a picture action the Marchepile issue of Barony magazine of a rubbed bear that I took a photo of myself, and it was just so obvious. I mean, it just it just looked like a mangy dog. And there wasn't anything wrong with this bear. Its whole body was covered in hair, but it was just you could just tell us. And there may be certain regions where that's more common versus you know,

other places, and that's what I have said. But I've hunted all over Canada and it's never seems to be a big issue anywhere. Yeah, I mean, because I thought the same thing. I thought, well, probably maybe just the places we've gone have have not had many rub bears. But well, last last spring we were in uh, where were we, British Columbia, and those bears coming into camp.

We're just Christine And and now that was mid May, though, and you would expect that in mid May when the main data point that I'm using is this late June hunting that we're that we're hunting at Saskatchewan. But anyway, it's just not that big of an issue. You know, it's not a it's not a reason to not go, you know, not Okay, costs. So people are like, what's the spring bearing cost? What are you looking for? What province,

what state you want to go to. I mean it ranges from pretty reasonable to pretty high versus do it yourself or a inclusive watch hunt. So it's what you want to experience and what you want to pay for. Here's the deal. You can hunt. There's places in Quebec that for a thousand dollars you can go on a six day spring bear hunt, stay in a nice camp, cook your own food, outfitter, show you where the bear

baits are. And I'm serious. There there are places we can go for a thousand dollars, especially in Quebec, and hunt and guys kill bears and guys kill some good bears. Some places aren't some places like two. Well, let's talk about the let's talk about the prices and the different provinces. Okay, So Quebec, Quebec would be known for its fishing, it's beauty and it's affordability. A lot of fishing outfitters that

are also bear outfitters in Quebec. It's like a it's a good place to go if you're looking for a bear hunt. Okay, it's a one bear province. Let's move over to Ontario. Ontario has a we're coming well, I guess we we got the other ones. Newfoundland, let's go back east. Newfoundland is a two bear province. New Brunswick is the two bear province. Um, those hunts in New Brunswick and Newfoundland are gonna be from two thousand to three thousand dollars, two thousand to thirty dollars most of

them for a good hunt. Okay, that's the price range for week pretty much for a week fully guided hunt, you can and for that in that range in those places. Most of those places are gonna be fully guided like lodge type hunts. You're gonna be staying with the lives suppost, gonna be cooking your dinner, and you're gonna you're gonna pay between twenty and thirty five dollars in those provinces, if I could put it that way. Ontario is gonna

be similar. Ontario has some economical hunts. The Ontario Spring Hunt, I think is on its last year before they re evaluated again to decide if they're going to renew it. Ontario didn't have a spring hunt for a long time, so Ontario is kind of on the fence. I think is the year they decide if they're going to renew their hunt. So it's it's a political deal. It's a bad deal. But Ontario hunts are usually in the two thousand dollar range. Two thousand We went in August. Yeah,

we follow hunted Ontario. Yeah, and the berries were full, warm, full and ripe yes in late August. But we ended up having a heck of a hunt for a cheap, for cheap hu hunt um Manitoba in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta are gonna be kind of the prime in terms of the cost is going to be more. But that's kind of your prime time places for spring bear hunting if

we're just being honest. Um, costs are gonna be between and and these are gonna be like your uh for hope, I do undefend some other outfitters and other places, but these are your world class beta black bear hunts are going to be in these places, Trophy and there's all kind of different outfitters. There's out you know, you need to you need to talk to multiple outfitters and ask

them what kind of stuff they offer. Uh. Ryan just talked about his buddy that hunted Alberta a few years ago at a great hunt, killed two monster bears, but set in an outfitters house for six days, board out of his mind to tell time to go hunt, killed two awesome bears, but didn't enjoy it because he just felt like it was he just didn't that much to do. Go ahead, We got to each their own, you know. Uh for us where I think we're more adventure bound,

you know, waking up, eat breakfast, that's what we call Brent. Yeah, my middle name. Maybe getting to go fish anytime you want, you know, and different things. That was nice as far as I wanted to sit and indoors till three or four o'clock. Not my thing, but if it's world class bear hunting, it may be worth it. So yeah. But yeah, well,

and that's what every outfitter is gonna offer. Something different, like you know, in places we're going in Saskatchewan or like you know, staying in wall tense and like this remote camp, riding in boats. It's a little bit tougher. It's a little bit more of an adventure based kind of deal. Some people may not want that. Some people may want to stay in the house and have to have somebody cooking their meals every day, and and that's fun. I've been on hunts like that a ton of fun.

You need to just talk to people and see what they see, what they do. I like to talk to somebody three or four times even, and that tests their level of patients and you will. The way I the way I think about it when I talked to somebody is you you really have to be discerned about that outfitter. But what I'm trying to understand is they are they honest? And are they gonna do what they say they're gonna do.

Is this a person that I would feel comfortable sending my best friend and his daughter to hunt with based upon this phone conversation, And if I still have questions about that, then I'm not gonna go hunt with him. You know what I'm saying. I mean, you kind of you get a good feel for somebody on the phone to with multiple conversations, and the people legitimate folks like that, they realize that they are working for you. I mean, yeah, you're you're paying their light bill. Yeah, So that's a

that's a big factor in me. Haven't been in the outfitting bitches myself somewhat for for ducks. Yeah, people want to know where their money is going, and if you're going to be honest about it, you want to tell them where it's going. You know, no surprises on that in Yeah. Well there's all different kind of outfitters. There's good ones and bad ones. Should just are Um it's the scatch. So Manitoban, Saskatchewan or one bear provinces um. Alberta is a two bear province, which Alberta is hard

to beat. You can get you know, the prices are going to be from probably three thousand to five thousand dollars, but a lot of camps you go in and you're hunting two bears in a week. Some some outfitters would charge a trophy fielding the second bear. UM. But Alberta is an awesome place. I've been on a couple of really good hunts in Alberta. UM. So those are the three that I would say for baited spring hunts are

the el primo Canadian baited spring bear hunts. British Columbia can't huntover bait, but they are el primo for Canadian spot and stock hunting, and they're known for big bears. They're known for good camps. They're known for like wall tent type camps. Uh in the mountains. Lot outfitters do that. I've hunted British Columbia. I think three three times and it's it's I'll go back. It's a ton of fun. It's beautiful, man, holy place, big mountains, wolves and grizzly bears.

Not to change your subject is the bugs is bad. They're in spring as versus other provinces. Did we ever even think about bugs in British Columbia last year? No, we were seeing grizzly tracks, That's what I was thinking about. Yeah. We we never even broke out our thermselves. Is that right? That's crazy? Yeah, but it was a spot in stock hunts.

So we're moving around a lot. Yeah. But now, bugs weren't bad there even when we set up, Like when Gary and I set up and filmed you when you went up, try to put the stock on that or did put the stock on that black bear? Across that field where we were at that we didn't have bug problems at all. Yeah, that's how they do. But definitely to think about wherever you're traveling is bugs. Yeah, logistics on that like uh, flying you know you can't fly

with the beautane cart. Yeah, that's a good that's a good topic to bring. Ontario was if you remember, Oh my gosh, yeah, but Saskatchewan. I'd rather had grizzly bears in our camp than the excute as we had. But yeah, bugsuits deterrent. The way that I described it is that some people say I'm not gonna spring bear it because of the bugs to either non issue if you have thermo cells, and they truly are, and when you're hunting click on thermocells. I've heard people be like, well, what

about the smell? And I when they do that, I say, come here a little closer, and I slap him in the face. At the same time I'm picking him in the shin, because if that bear smells your thermo cell and runs away, he is also smelling a big human and running away. So I'm not worried about the scent of a thermocell on a bear bait. In Canada, we run two at a time, Like when I'm hunting me and Brent, he'll have one setting back by him and

I have one right here, and it's just a non issue. Now, when you're skinning, you better bring that thermocell everywhere you go though, because if you trail that bear and you start skinning that bear out there, they'll carry you away. But you cook on your thermo cell and it's a non issue. And I've always I found out that you know, if the it's just like here, if the wind gets up big enough that it's blowing your thermosill away, it's

blowing the skeeters away to that. Yeah, yeah, Um. What we've done in the past to have been mailed either mailed all our thermal sale stuff to the outfitter before the hunt. What you can do, or you buy it once you get into Canada, like if you fly into Winnipeg or Saskatoon or somewhere in Canada, usually you can go buy it. Uh. Here's the truth too, is that I've accidentally packed it in my luggage and never had any problem. You the watermelons, cartridges and the mountains are

probably come down here. The days are gonna come down here. Um, the Canadian Mounted Police, wouldn't it be funny if we saw him trotting up the driveway on their horses, say, we heard your podcast, We heard you smuggled in watermelons and cartridges, bututane cartridges. Now it was an accident, it would be like get the Canada and be like dang. But when you can carry him in if you're driving, it's not a problem. They're not illegal, you just can't put them on airplane. Yeah. So, um, and what I

just said was actually a lot that never happened. I have never smuggled watermelon or thermal cells into Canada. Just for the record, that was all a joke. Um, but really, folks, Question number twenty, Question number twenty. No, we were talking about the provinces and that that kind of dissects just in short, the Canadian provinces and kind of how they operate. Uh. You can hound hunt in British Columbia in the spring for bear if you want to. None of the others

provinces are are bear hunting with hounds. Um, yeah, I don't think any of them. Actually, well no, no, no, you can you can you can hunt. You can hunt in the spring in in Ontario with hounds. Does it have to be with an outfit or can as? Yeah, any US person hunting in candidate it's either family. There is a a for direct family to hunt Canada without an outfitter, like if your dad lived in Canada, you could. I can't remember what they call it. It's been so long. Uh,

there's a way for family to hunt Canada. But otherwise, you in Ontario, you can. I've never heard anybody in British Columbia doing that, but I'm pretty sure you can. Yeah. So, man, Hey, that's a pretty fairly comprehensive conversation we've had here boys about spring bear hunt. Can y'all think of any other you know, the thing that I'm trying to talk to people about, its limiting factors, and frequently ask questions, you know, like I don't want to go to Canada because of

the bugs. I don't want to go to Canada because they can't bring back the meat. I don't want to go to Canada because I'm a sissy. What Your sissiness is your problem, and you're gonna have to take personal responsibility for it, right brand exactly, or I will lay the blame on you. What about weapons? Like, what's legal? Yeah, spring bear hunting in Canada? Okay? Are all three types? Shotguns, rifles, and archery? I would assume, Okay, you caught me off guard.

Archery and firearms could be legal everywhere, you know, Like, so if you're going to spring bear hunt, it's not like you're just going on a spring bow hunt. Like you could carry any of the mainstream cartridges, muzzleloaders, uh, shotguns, anything like that. The only thing I don't know a hund percent about is crossbows. I believe there are a few provinces that don't allow crossbows and something else to

ask you. Yeah, but most of them do, I want to say, of them allow crossbows, regular archery, traditional archery, muzzloaders, shotguns, rifles. There's nothing that you can't do, I mean, you know, um except handguns. You cannot bring handguns in Canada. Um let me get listen, No, listen to this, listen to this. Last year I bought Shephard Nucom one of these little pistol BB guns on a trip and uh he, for whatever reason, when we left can here, that gun was

in my truck, that pistol BB gun. Last year. No, I don't remember when it was. Well, you know, it's like a forty dollar be begun and we stayed the night in North Dakota. Okay, there's probably they are probably like one of those unsolved mystery shows about this about someone that saw me dispose of a handgun in a trash can at a roadside hotel in North Dakota, because

that's what I did. We got to North Dakota and I found that pistol and I didn't It probably was legal to bring a BB gun, but I just didn't want the hassle off. Maurice was there. Uh, same with a Mota. I remember like pulling up to this trash can, like looking around. Stefanboy was looking and putting that BB gun in that. In that tonight on Unsolved Mysteries, somebody was probably up in like the tenth floor videoing like sun. You know, sweetie, that guy just threw a handgun in

the trash can, peeled out. Duke's a hazard did out of the parking lot. Okay, sorry, I guess, uh so anything else I don't guess. Okay, weather weather from here, it's cold up there. What would you how would you describe it? Uh? Well, you can't just grab Arkansas because I've week before last I ran my air conditioning one day in the heat the next. So but we um the first year we went up there, we built to fire every night. Was in May. In late June, I don't think we ever. Uh. I think I had a

fire most nights. There was. Some of the days though, it was like that day the horse fly. We come out and we get warm. It's eighties or nineties or something like that. I would say, I tell people to be prepared from for thirty to seventy degree weather into eighty. I mean that's a good average. So bring your jacket, bring your coat, bring your rain gear everywhere you go, but be prepared to for it to maybe be warm.

You know, rain gear for sure, Bring your rain gear everywhere you go in in anywhere in Canada in the spring, you can leave camp and it be a bright, sunny, beautiful day and about the time you get to the bear Bait it may just come a gully washer out of nowhere. Yeah. I remember the first day we got there. I asked the outfitter. He said, all right, y'all, when y'all get your stuff together, said I need to take my rain done in think my raincoat with me or whatever.

He said, Dude, this is Canada. You didn't take it with you where you go unless you want to get wet. You know what, though, I've never been just totally rained out in a week of Canadian hunting. When I first started hunting in Canada, I thought you might get a week where it just rain NonStop for six days. I have never experienced that. That that day or yeah, a matter of fact, it rained that day was one of the first day. We said, like forty five minutes and

then it was gone. Remember the thunderstorm coming back through Compulsion Bay. I wasn't there. You guys were. Yeah, we went to the bank, got out of the boat. It was thunder lightning. It was bad. Yeah, were you okay? Me and Brent we're back. Yeah, y'all were hunting by yourself or we weren't there. Our guide was you know, Native Josh, and you know he's pretty rugged as they come, but he's like, guys, we're gonna make a pit stop. Went to the bank. Yeah, yeah, yep. Well, hey, excellent,

Thank you guys. Time and um, what do we say, Brent? Keep the wild places wild? That's where the bears did say it again a little tighter compacted with Mark. I was sitting around tea and round up and I'll take it. Okay, you're gonna help me out right, keep the wild places wild, because that's where the bears lived in the springtime