Ep. 35: Spot and Stalk Spring Bear with Ryan Lampers

on their spring bear hunts. But he doesn't just stumble into the success. He has put all the information he's gathered over years and years and the experience that's available to him, and this puts him in spots where he will find big bears year in and year out. Welcome to the show, Ryan, Thank you, Jason. Wow, quite an intro there. I appreciate the acknowledgement of making better life choices than you. I don't know if that's true, but on one level it definitely is um As I moved

to Montana and away from the state of Washington. Yeah, I would agree with you there. Yeah, about this point, all of these Washington residents that just realize we're going to talk about spring bear hunting. They've all just like that turned us off. Yeah, because there's no there's no hope for hims. They need more turkey calling probably in their world right now with Washington and where it's at it. Oh, so, how's everything going there in Montana? It's very white, very snowy,

very um. I don't know. It's been a long winter and we're ready for it to be done. It's uh, we are all jacked up and ready to get onto some spring bear. I tell myself, it's the snow is melting, um, but it it doesn't look like it's melting out there. Man, It's the mounds are white. Um. But now we're we're all ready ready for season. It's coming quick or a couple of weeks out from when you could possibly go out and start chasing some bears. But I think that

you little get delayed, a little bit, a little delayed. Yeah, we're not going to jump the gun here, but a lot of our questions. We've got kind of a special podcast here, the way that we put this together, and a lot of it is going to jump into that conversation on finding bears. And then with that, what are you gonna do on a you're like this, So we'll get into that here in a little bit. So, No,

I appreciate having you. Like I said, you've been you know, I would say you even joke with me, which I hope it's a joke that you may even put like spring bearing above archery, running elk, which is it's tough to take. But no, you you've been very successful. The groups you've taken have been very successful. And it's one of those hunts that I kind of I'm jealous of, Like I just want to be out there and see

what you guys do. The country that you guys are in for spring times amazing, and you know, the success kind of speaks for itself, you know, consistent on big boards here for the most part, Man, there's spring bear hunting. You know, I can honestly say, coming from Washington, we didn't get a whole lot of opportunities back there. We had to travel and cross borders in Idaho and Montana. But um fall bear was always very popular with us. We never missed a fall bear season over there in

the high country, chasing them in the barry fields. But um Man this spring bear hunt has in the last ten years has just it's really found a soft spot in my heart because I I wasn't lying Jason. It is my number two um right Rice square behind Meal there which will never be overtaken. But I there's just something about spring bears. I think it's the time of year,

the adventure you can make it right. I think, you know, there's there's there's hunts that you can make somewhat easy, there's hunts that you can make as difficult as you want. So the challenge of a spring bear hunt is incredible. You can you can basically plan a trip around whatever you want to do in the mountains, like we chase these things in mountain goat country half the time. So m I absolutely love the places that bears bring you and the time the year that we're able to get

out there and chase them. Yep. And that's one thing that I've only got the spring bear hunt once living in the state. I was lucky to draw very shortly before it was taken out of the big game rigs, you know. But I love that it can check so many boxes for so many different people in the way that they want to hunt. You know, if you some states if you want to bait, you can bait some

states that allow hounds. And then you know, like you a guy that's looking for adventure wants to go hunt them, you know above the tree line, um at the snow line, like you can check all those boxes and we've been cooped up for you know, it's like your first time out your back backpack in. You know. It's just it's one of those one of those hunts that can check whatever boxes you need it to check. Um and you almost get to make that ring bear hunt your own,

and you can. You can. There's so many tactics and ways to go about spring bear hunting, you know, and different topographies, different terrains you know, you could and they can be vastly different from like a Southwest Montana type more open pines to a North Idaho country type where baiting and hounds and things like that, or just man, it's almost the d way to go in certain places. Um yeah, I I honestly I have settled on the um the glassing, spot and stock type of tactic. I

love it. It keeps you on your feet, it keeps you moving. It's a great way to grab a lot of endurance. And and just glass a ton of country I love. I love that type. I can't sit still. That's why I don't sit and tree stand or anything. But yeah, yeah, spring bear can can be as easy as you want it to be or as difficult as you want it to be. And couple that with the terrain, the drastic differences in terrain that bears in habit. Yeah, there's a lot of challenges there. Yeah, and I loved it.

From another thing I like about spring bear the same things that baiting and hounds give you is the the ability to take certain bears that you're after, you know, And that's why I love spring bears. It gives you

that edge when they're out there doing they're mating. You know, you can it's easy to tell which is a boar where you know, a lot of times fall hunting when you get those kind of tweener bears, Like if you're not very skilled at knowing what you're looking at, like you're you know, for some guys that maybe fifty fifty until you just do a lot of looking and like you know, identifying if you're shooting a boar or you know, a dry sow or something that just doesn't have cubs.

So this gives us like a management tool to make sure we're you know, a guy like you that's specifically after large boars or for somebody that would rather do that. It gives us just another tool to help manage um, you know, the resource. Yeah, I mean there's no question if if you're looking to or a sportsman are looking to take out a certain class bear, you know, those old ancient bores or the old dried up size. You know that that is very manageable and doable with hounds.

You know, you can be picky, you can choose which bears to let live and which bears to take as well as you know on baits and you know, sizing them up you know, um, in opposition to that, that bait barrel and stuff like that much easier. So there's a lot less guesswork in it with those two methods. And you know, I'm sure we'll end up talking about, you know, how we size up bears in the mountains at a distance. It can be difficult. I don't care

who you are, how long you've been doing it. There are times where you you might screw up a little bit in your judgment. But there's definitely some things to look to. But um, yeah, I love those two management tool the hounds and the baiting. It's just definitely not the most adventurous for me personally. I like it the other way. I like the difficult part of it that I can see that, you know, but it's still it's

still hunting. It's still a great, great time to get out there, and you know, we need to take some of these predators, you know, off the landscape. So this is going to be a different podcast than normal. A lot of times we'll take a couple listener questions and then we'll jump into some of my discussion. Today we're going to bring you basically all listener questions, so it's

it's a different format. But if you have any questions of your own for myself or our guests, m feel free to email us at CTD at Phelps Gamecalls dot com, or like we done in this episode, we put a post out there on social media and just to ask people what they want to know about spring bear hunting for and we can see all these up for Ryan.

So we're just going to kind of jump into these questions and kind of the first couple are a little uh different, and then a lot of these will start to run in, but they all kind of m segue into each other. So it kind of gets us on a little bit of a role here. So the first question, Ryan, is it realistic to be successful spring bear hunting when

only weekends are available? Okay, yeah, that's a great question, um, And kind of going along the same lines as like I mentioned before, you know, you can make these hunts is as difficult or as easy as as possible. Absolutely, bear hunting, more than almost anything else that I do, can be something that I can grab my daughter after school, run up to the closest range and start glassing. I can glass from the truck and pick up bears and

it's not that difficult to do. So, Um, you know, hitting hitting a logging road and you don't have to go far. You know, it's not always a five to ten mile thing. It's not necessary by any stretch when it comes to bears, um, you know, especially as they're

just coming out. You know, most of these bears, they're in this region, you know, the rocky mountain states in this western front we got i'd say on average, we're finding them den up at about three thousand to fifty five feet up to maybe six thousand feet, so you know, it's not like you're having to get into the eight nine ten thousand foot level or elevation. You know, we're finding these bears on those south slopes, fairly low on

the hill in a lot of these states. So I would say, in short answer, I guess absolutely, you can do it in an evening, you can do it on a weekend. It's bear hunting is one of those things where you know a couple hours is all you need to go out and maybe glass up a bear. Now, I don't know if you're gonna have time to go get him that night, but definitely opportunities to see him and not have to put too many miles on yep.

And you know this applies to all hunting. If that's the only time I have to hunt, I'm still gonna be out there. There's always a chance, you know, there's always a chance that we would be lying if we said that your probability of success doesn't go up the more time you can invest or if you're looking for something specific. But I remember we had to my buddy had to win a haf spring bear take. It went over for like a week and we were kind of

coming back on just a BONDSI weekend trip. You know, for us it was a five and a half six hour drive. We we drove four times longer than the hunt was. We walked down a trail, um you know, two hours in, shot the bear and had him back to the truck, and uh a lot less time than than we it took to even get to the unit. So there's always a chance. But you know, I think we'd be lying to say, if you're your chances of

success don't go down. But um, yeah that's all you've got by by all any means, you know, I would still be out there hunting absolutely, so, UM you know this this next question, a guy's hunting with his dad, who it sounds like maybe can't get around as good as um, you know you or or it maybe even him and get into the back country. How would you

deal with, you know, working around baiting and hounds. So this guy maybe sounds like he doesn't want to take advantage of the baiting or wants to give them space or the hounds. Do you have any you know, this is more front country stuff, but how would you deal with with those two aspects of other guys out in the woods, you know, hunting the same same criter. That's a great question. Um, you know, And I'll be honest, and I don't tend to run into a whole lot

of guys on baits. Now, it is very popular in some of these states. You know, Idaho is there's a lot of guys that do it, and with good reason, great success. But when I go over to that state, I'm just going in too far. But you know, I think, you know, for someone that's not able to put in a lot of miles, most of these guys aren't baiting too far from the road right there. I've heard I've not done it. I've heard to go even a half mile or a mile in is pretty far for a

lot of these base sites. Um, now, there are guys that go above and beyond that. But man again, I think I go back to grabbing a logging road and just hiking in. It doesn't have to be too much exertion to find areas to glass from. And uh, you know, some of these logging roads out here, these gated ones, you just don't have to go far and you're picking up bears. So yeah, and we'll get into it a little bit, but we just have to find that food

that they're on. If they're not on a bait, and they're not you know, if they're not crossing the main road where the hounds can pick them up, they're going to be kind of left alone in those pockets. And that's all you really fine, Absolutely, yea, this will kind of be the last and then we're going to really jump in. We'll start with snow. But this is the last question here, or so earlier in the spring, do you guess more on those up facing slopes or the

north facing den areas. So, I guess it depends on how early in the spring. You know, we always try to time it just on the front end of where we're just starting to see those first bears come out. You know, it's my opinion that the most mature boars are out in the open. It's almost I can't believe I'm saying this, but out in the open first, and they stay there visible more often than not than later

in the season, for sure. So some of the best boars that we've ever taken are on that very front end where the snow is just receded enough and you're not necessarily seeing any green, but it is just starting like it is just on the cusp of starting to green up on the mountains. So you know, some of those north slopes prior to the green up, you know, those bears, they'll generally come out sometime in April, sometimes

front end, sometimes middle, sometimes late. They'll be there, they'll be out and you are able to pick them up. But obviously when that south slope starts greening up, it's at that point when your focus should be turned to the south facers, or at least you know, there's some north facers too that just have topography laid out enough to where it's grabbing some sun. You know, it's still getting some opening enough to to get some light and grow that vegetation. So yeah, I guess very front end.

You know a lot of these bears will den on those north northwest side faces. Um. Generally it's like a could be anywhere from a twenty to a fifty degree pitch slope um on those north slopes. And uh, it's those basins in those areas that have an adjacent south slope with some good green vegetation. Man, those are the those are the money spots. Those are the places that I kind of key into. But um, you know, obviously you're looking on both sides, but at the very very

front end. Um, I'm I'm looking in those north slopes and as soon as that green starts popping though, I'm looking at those, um, those sun filled south facers. Yeah, and it seems like, you know, watching some of you guys's videos, you guys are sometimes looking into north Bass and the bear like crosses the head of the basin and is on the south side. It almost seems like there's no right or wrong spot. You know. Really you're looking at everything. Yep, yep, Yeah, you're looking at everything.

And and the interesting thing, you know, you hear south slope used a lot, and it's yeah, it's where the sun hits. Um, that's where the grass first starts to show. But man, it really doesn't take that long for you to start seeing some growth on a north face too, if if it lays out right, you know, if you've got some sparse timber, you got some beetle kill, or you know, a sparsely logged area for example, where just enough light is getting through there. You know, all slopes

are different. Some north slopes are absolute jam packed with uh you know, deep timber and dark timber. And you're not gonna get much grass in there. But there's other north slopes that are wide open and they'll still offer some good green up and a lot of those bears will do just fine sticking to the north slope. Yep, yep. Um Okay, let's let's jump into snow. We we've talked about right off the bat. It seems like it's a big driving factor on where you're gonna hunt spring bear.

Where the bears are going to be out. You know, we've talked about spring bear usually following the snow line up or right there behind the snow line is where you know you're gonna get that green up you've talked about, like that bright green chartrous color, like you're looking for the vegetation that's that color. So when a year like this where you're you guys have a lot of snow down low, your your your typical spots you'd mentioned, you know, trying to get up into. Will this snow keep you

out of the alpine? Will it force you to come down into that mid range where there's timber or are you just going to wait longer so you can hunt these bears where you want to hunt these bears? Um, so I'm gonna treat it like most years, you know, I love to get these things right out of gates, or at least target them out of the gates. And they're just before that green starts, so still gonna be looking early. Um, definitely going to be on that front end.

But we're gonna be fairly low. You know, we're gonna be, to be specific, when we're gonna be in that three thousand to four thousand foot range. You know that's those are the slopes that I'm gonna be checking out first, and um, you know, it all goes up from there. But it is gonna be a later season, no doubt about it. You know. I think a lot of guys are in a situation where they're trying to figure out

what week of work to take off. That's very important right now, and I'm getting hammered with a lot of people asking that question. Like I had scheduled this for that April fifteenth timeframe, but this year it's looking much different than I thought. And that's true, and I would say if I would probably schedule it another week or two later this year, I don't think you're gonna hurt

yourself by moving your dates. Out a little bit. I'm still gonna be chasing them, but I'll probably be on the front end of it and I'll just hunt through it. But yeah, there's not gonna be a whole lot of green show. And even in that three to four thousand foot range mid April, it's gonna be a little later this year. You know, we've had a crub ton of snow.

Looking at the snow layers and the depth this time of year, we kind of you know, or over those numbers and those and seeing what prior years and historical data has been. Yeah, this year's a little bit deeper than it was last year in several places, some not. But um, yeah, we are definitely above and beyond in the places that I'm looking to go. We have more

snow this year than we did last. So it's going to be a little bit later unless some drastic changes and we have this you know, big heat wave come through and just melt this stuff quick. Yeah, and with with the snow then, so you're you're talking about hunting them maybe in a lower elevation than falling up. Do you feel that they're they're going to hibernate a little bit longer? Will they come out earlier and just maybe head down to find food. Do you feel that like

effects when they're actually going to start showing. I don't think. I don't think they're necessarily going to be sleeping in longer. I guess if you want to call it that, Um, they're still going to be up, but they're probably not going to be moving away from that then much. You know, they'll they'll be there, but it's it's it's very few and far between on the sidings. When we a snow year like this, you know, they just don't show themselves.

They don't move around. Um. You know, we've seen years where you know, they've they've come out, we've actually had some green up, and then we'll get a big snow, a big you know, four or five inch spring snow, and the bears that we've been seeing just disappear. They just disappear. You don't you don't get your eyes on them. It's not like they went back to bed. They're just they're just hunkered up and they're not going to move around much. And that's what I feel they do on

a year like this. You know, they'll be wiping the sleepy out of their eyes and they'll be there, but they're not going to be probably making themselves visible too much. So UM, you know, I don't know that necessarily going extremely low is going to help you. Much like I said, I think most bears are going to be denning in

that three to five fifty five six thousand foot range anyway. Yeah, and then my last question on timing, Um, you know, on the spring bear hunts I've been involved in, I think I've got to go on five or six of

them down there in nor Southeast Corner. I know you've there are seasons, at least the year I had, I don't know what the typical season is, but we ran through like the middle of June, and so I went over there early on the on the COVID year and then went back late May early June and noticed that, like our bears were finally locked down there late. Is

that going to change? I mean, I know you're out there after them kind of ahead of that part of the part of their schedule, but is that going to kind of push for maybe people that want to get out there, why they're more active or kind of lockdown on salsum? Is that gonna get pushed back or is that just based like all the other ruts just kind of on photo period and it's gonna happen at the same time, no matter where the snow is at. That's a great question, and you know, I can just go

on my gut on that. On my opinion, maybe it is. They're probably going to be running about generally the same time. Maybe it pushes it back a little bit, but not much. You know, usually by late May, you know, those bears are starting to travel. You're grabbing bars, running ridges and looking for sALS and then yeah, usually you know, come June they can be lockdown pretty good at times. Yeah. The next question we got is how often can you reliably find bears or bears of kind of the same

caliber in the same area year after year. Yeah, surprisingly quite often. And I'll have disagreements with people. I know guys will say, no, it's not the case, they just moved too much. But I can't tell you how many bears we've been able to relocate and with absolute certainty, you know, year to year, that is the same bear we saw last year. Now it changes, you know, But early in the season, I keep going back to early

in the season, the front end of the season. I've found that a lot of those older mature bars will frequent the same general area as they did the year prior. On multiple occasions, I've gone back and found bears that I've seen I had seen the year prior, and gone back and relocated that bear the following spring. Now everything changes once that green wave just goes from top to bottom. When it's green from two thousand to sixty five feet, you know, number one, it's going to be hard to

pinpoint those bears. They're kind of all over the place. They're really starting to range at that point. You know, they'll hang more into the timber where they're not as visible. You know, the green up is just such that it's kind of everywhere. But absolutely, I've even found fall bears in similar drainages. When I think back to my Washington fall bear days, I've found bears that I could relocate year after year after year in the same small drainage

on Barryfield. So it's definitely it's definitely something that that you can It's not going to happen every year, but we've proven it to be the case that you can go back and relocate year after year. Yeah, And on that same thread, um, do you feel you know, similar to deer and elk. You know, you take a giant buck or a giant bowl or a big buck or big bowl out of it, do you feel that you can like overharvest you know, the more mature bars if you're hunting the same areas or are they just pulling

sALS into an areas out like their home range? Um? Or will the quality eventually go down? Like? What's your opinion on that? I have a theory, Jason, have a theory.

I don't know if it's fright or not, UM, but I will take an area, for example, there's an area that I'd hunted and took some incredibly old bears out of for years, so multiple years UM and took the oldest and baddest mofos up on the mountain and U and then about year five you go back and not seeing those old mature bears, you know, there hadn't been enough time for another one to move in and take

these prime feed locations. You know, generally what you find with the oldest, most mature is they finally these just magical areas out on the mountain. It's got everything, it's got feed, it's got the water, it's got everything. They need now. Eventually that area will get filled in with another old bore. But I've noticed that when you hunt an area out and you've taken the oldest baddish bears on the mountain for multiple years in a row, You're gonna hit a point where there's gonna be a little

gap from what I've seen. And for example, last year, I'd gone back to an area that I'd taken some great bears out of, and all of a sudden, you know, in years past, I hadn't been seeing a whole lot

of cubs. It's rare, you see, Like I don't know, on a trip, you might see a couple of South Cub combos right last year, I can't remember the exact numbers, like eleven, twelve or thirteen different South Cub combos in these areas where now I'm not seeing any old boars, but I'm seeing these young bears and the sALS or like feeling, you know, confident enough to run their cubs

through there. I feel like what happened. And I'm just telling myself this, Maybe it's not true, but those old boars were were annihilating those cubs for years and and I think by taking them all out. It actually caused a boom in bear population in that general region because now there is just most every south cub combo we were seeing had at least two cubs, often three and so. Um, but we were really struggling to pick up the most old mature boars. It was slim pickings on that front.

But man, we saw a lot of bears. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And then you always wonder once there's that high of a population of bears and there is that not allowing like boars to reach that like very high level of maturity or have they just not moved in? Um? Interesting? So I know we've talked a lot about food source or you even said like finding some of those big bares like before the food

even starts to grow there. So we know food's very important. Um. What do you like to see as far as like certain features or a combination of food and features? So if you're to take you know this this prime lush green food. Is that all that matters? Or are there features you like to see, like the ability to go lay in timber? You know where we hunt in the blues.

It seemed like when it rained, Um, you know when when when it stopped raining, you were going to find them right on the fringes right there coming back out from stand dry or um, you know, holding up. What features are you looking for during a spring hunt to kind of combine with the food source. UM. I'd say the most obvious like UM, Like I mentioned before, my go to areas are steep, nasty, rocky type drainages that

have a lot of water in the bottom. Generally they're a longer drainage and uh, you know, you get that moss covered rock kind of on the bottom end of the drainage and then it kind of goes up from the air and opens up. I'm looking for those type areas. But one thing I've found on these spring spring bears is when you can find and high on the mountain spring like a spring that's up there forty five to six thousand feet and that snow receeds and you gotta you know, you got this ridge and you got a

north slope on the other side with deep timber. Those bears are able to go back and forth, you know, grab that shade on the north slope and then come right back up and over and get that lush green. Oftentimes it's like avalanche lilies that inhabit that area, you know, the very tip top of the hill, and then you know balsam flowers and the leaves that come with them

and all that kind of stuff. But man, when you can find a traditional water source, a spring that just runs and offers some good green up on the top of a mountain, man, that has been money for me. I've really done well in those type places. Now they can be hard to find. There's a lot of boots on the ground to find them. A lot of these don't show up on the map. But but those spots

have been really really good. But like you said, I think having the ability to most often these bears aren't out in the wide wide open, especially the bigger ones. They are on the fringes. They are in an area where they can tuck back in and grab a nap. They're pretty lazy on the front end of spring and then just come on out and and they like that

fringe habitat where the sunlight's grabbing. It's growing grass just inside the timber and just outside the timbers, getting enough shade that it's not getting burnt off and enough sun to allow it to grow. And those little fringe areas that are kind of um, you know, fifty yards inside the timber, fifty yards outside of timber. Those just whole grasses longer, and that stays greener there if you ever

you kind of notice that when you're on glass and yep. Okay, so we've kind of elevation and feed kind of end up going together, especially with the snow. Right we've we've determined all right, there are bears at this elevation throughout a hunt. Will you stick to the elevation or will you start to like diverge from what? Will you go up and see if you're finding bears above it? Or once you see that there are big boars at a certain elevation, Let's say it's a seven day hunt, things

aren't going to change drastically, or maybe they will. Are you going to kind of hone in on that or are you going to still continue to venture out and and you know, go up or down and just continue to look or is it similar to like when you find that dough group meal deer hunting, Like I'm going to stay focused here or do you continue to branch? I guess yeah, so generally with I'm gonna keep hammering on the old mature boars because young bears they travel,

they do all kinds of stuff. I mean, you can't they're not patternable in my and they'll wander all over the place. They'll be on a rock slope one day, and north slope and then south slope. They just kind of wander. Now, the oldest, most mature boars that we're going for, boy, it's really hard to pull them off of that elevation band. When you find them at an

elevation band, say they're at fifty two hundred feet. Now, yeah, they'll dip down there a little bit, but it's rare that they're going all the way down to the bottom. And so once we find multiple bears that, say fifty two hundred feet, we're going to continue to look at those places, and you know, we're going to start going to our maps and really keying into areas if we're in a new place, looking at that elevation exactly, and we're going to keep basically our eyes on that level

as much as possible. You know, they tend to not go back down. Opinion, those older ones, they ride that green wave right up to the top. And once it's to the top and up and over they can absolutely disappear on you, but that that front end, when they're just slowly working their way up that that receding snow line. I would say what I've noticed, and what is seven hundred and fifty feet below the snow line to a thousand It's kind of like a rough estimate as to

where you generally find that green up starting. You know, you're seeing the shoots from the avalanche lilies and whatnot. Sometimes it's a little bit higher than that, but that's kind of a good range to focus in on. Is

seven fifty to one thousand feet below snow line. I've found that that's really where those older bears really like to focus, and they just don't tend to come back down, you know, even though there's a ton of green grass, and I know a lot of guys will get stuck on looking at these shartrusse lime green patches way down on the mountain. But if there's a shar trees patch on the top of the mountain that just popped up, he's going to be there nine times out of ten

versus that spot lower on the mountain. Yeah, and you just mentioned, you know, when green's up to the very top bears getting up and out of there. So my question for you is, do you feel if you spot a bear like in a drainage or in a basin, that you until that snow line gets all the way to talk to the ridge, it kind of walks him in that basin. Or do you feel like if you spot a mature boar in a basin, you should be able to stay there for three or four days and

you're going to turn him back up? Or is there a chance he's gonna leave? Or what happens most of the time there, Most of the time we turn them back up. Now, bears. Bears are like teenagers, man. They sleep a lot, they take naps, and they'll fall behind a log and disappear for you on you for like a half a day, and you'll think he's gone, But

oftentimes they're still there. You know, if you if you see on the front end of that spring within a couple weeks of green up, if you find a big old bore, I'm going to focus on that spot, and you know, I may grab different bandages to look at different angles of the mountain and look at little creases where I may not be able to see from that first glassing point. But oftentimes I've found that they will tend to stick to that area. Now, once calving happens,

once fawns start dropping, you know, things get crazy. Bears go every which way and they disappear. And I wouldn't expect to see that bore in late May in that same drainage when they're keyed into some meat and they've heard some or they've smelled some fawns dropping. Man, there are all over the place changes them like it changes it does. But at that front end, when they're still, you know, they're kicking out the mucous plug and they're keyed into that fibrous grass and and um, they need

that to get their digestive digestive track back. Man, they just don't move that far. So when they're when they're focused on a little green patch. You know, unless it's just a brown mountain and that bear is traveling from his say, his dan to somewhere where there might be some food. Now that could be different. Um, a traveling bear could end up anywhere. But if you witness a bear that is just parked on a green line, Patrick ass An, he's stuff in his face and there's not

a whole lot of green above him. That's that's a bear that I would expect to be able to relocate, gotcha. Yeah, So we've talked a lot about where to find these bears and more specifically these mature bars. Um so somebody's getting ready to go out. They may not be as confident as you. You know, we've talked about a lot of it, but you still get out there. You're unsure. So our next question was how long do you give

an area before you write it off? Do you feel you need to give it an evening, a morning, both multiple days like you know, and this all this is very dependent on your glassing skill right there. There's different there's different levels of people's ability to glass. Where you're very you know, you may be very confident, but but kind of what do you fuel? Um your confidence level is how much how much time you need to give an area before you need to, you know, pull the

anchor and go somewhere else to find a bear? Yeah. Um so bears aren't really just they're not hiding, you know, they don't they don't hide from you. They're just outdoing their thing and feeding that that front end of spring. They are there to feed and put some weight back on. Um. So, like I said, I love traveling and cruising country and all that, but depending on the topography that I'm looking at.

If I'm looking at a burn, that's that's got some good green growth underneath it, and I know that I'm just not being able to see everything. There's enough timber in there that I just can't pick everything up if it was there, Um, I'll probably stay a little longer in that type place. But if I'm able to see most of everything, and there's a day spent there and I don't pick up a bear, I'm out of there. I'm going to go check something else, you know, off

the list. Um. And that's that's just me. You know. I feel like at some point throughout the day, if there's a bear on an adjacent hillside and I'm glassing it, I should be able to pick that thing up. And you know, as far as timing goes, don't put all your eggs into just glassing in the morning. That may be a time when that bear is just not standing yet. You may be sleeping in a little bit. But I'd say from ten eleven twelve to the end of the days.

That is my opinion, that is your prime glassing time, and it changes as the season progresses. It'll get much more evening dependent. But man, that time for him in April, front half of May. You know that ten o'clock to noon. I can't tell you how many bears we start seeing moving around from ten to noon and then one to two they're just up and on their feet. And that's

a great time. That is not the time for you to take a nap like sleep in, if anything, and grab a little extra coffee in the morning, but focus. You're glassing throughout the day, even if it's sunny and bright, and you know, if you're thinking about if you're a new bear hunter and you're an elk guy or a dear guy, and that's the time that you kind of lay off the glass. It's kind of the opposite when it comes to bears. If you're going to sleep in, sleep in in the morning, and make sure you keep

eyes on the mountain through that throughout the day. Because it's what's funny, Jason, is one thing I've noticed. I'd

be curious if anybody else has noticed this too. But sometimes I'll be looking at a mountain and it'll be dead till about ten o'clock and then all of a sudden, I'll pick up like three or four bears on this open face right and they're all on their feet, and then they're all napping again, you know, and say thirty forty five minutes, they're napping again, and then say like one o'clock at the age almost the exact same time, they're all on their feet again and they're feeding around.

It's like this internal time clock that gets them up and then puts them back down. I've noticed that over and over and over again, like, well, that one's on his feet, I bet if I look hard, I might be able to pick up another one. Um. That's just something that I've always wondered why that is. But it seems like they have these certain times throughout the day. It's almost like the old soul in art chart when you're fishing, you know, you know, a moon phase or whatever.

There's there's something to it. I just haven't quite put my finger on it. Yeah, I'm in the same boat, you know, being originally only hunting blacktails and elk here, it was always, you know, very first half hour of the day, very last half hour of the day were always your best. And then I got to experience CU's deer hunting, and it was kind of the first animal, like, man, I might as well just slept in because I mean,

but you you never miss that. I mean, I would still never miss the you know, first first part of the day, even spring bear hunting. But the same thing on these spring bear hunts I've been on. It's like, man, am I really wasting like my focus and I wit, you know, my but you're still out there. But the same thing, um, you know, ten o'clock on eleven o'clock on,

we've seen a lot more bears. And the one time if I had to, like, you know, if I was to write a spot off, it would be as we talked about, we get a lot of those spring showers in the spring, you know, and ours rain and then it suns up right after that, like in the blues.

Especially like if I didn't see a bear in that like sun up time, when then I was like, all right, there's no bears here, because we could almost set our clocks to it, you know, all right, rain, let's let's let's not glass or let's stay in the dry And then as soon as that sun started hitting those slopes, um, it seemed like everything popped at the same time all

over the mountain. I'll bet you if you would take to take a pole from guys that have spring bear hunted a ton a tony of years over their lifetime, they would all agree with you on that one. Like when you get a storm, even if it's a multi day storm or it's just a half day storm, and then the sun comes out and the grasses start steaming and the mountains warming up. I don't know that there's a better time to be bear hunting than that time

right there. Those are far and away the best days I've ever had and experienced, where I've had the most sightings are those days. And you're right, if you're not seeing a bear after that happens, after that big nasty storm or even like a snow storm and then the sun comes up and it just starts melting everything. If you're not seeing bears at that point, move it along, you know, hike to a different drainage. They're just not there. Yep. Okay,

So these bears in the springtime, I've heard. I've heard things up to thirty to thirty five percent body weight down from where they'll be in August. You know, they're down whatever percentage that is. But they don't necessarily look like they do in the fall, and it may cause

some difficulty on sexeing a bear. But but what are some of the telltell signs or what do you look for specifically when you're trying to tell you know, if it's a mature boar, mature boars or maybe the anomaly right, because they can carry some features that maybe those tweeters don't. But walk us through the features you're looking at. Yes, every time I immediately up a bear in the glass, you know, sometimes and often is the case in the first few seconds, you know, like, wow, that is a

tank of a bear. Like it's just blatantly obvious. There's some features that you always key into. I think with boars, you know, we'll speak to the obvious. The front end of a boar is much blockier, much bulkier than that of a female, you know, the female. The front end, you know, those legs kind of go straight down. It's much more narrow upfront, much wider in the back. It's much fatter back there, complete opposite. You know, bears have

that old man look. It's like they don't have an ass and they've got them, but they've got them big like pitbull shoulders on them, you know, the big rolling shoulders when they walk. And I think, for me, you know, when I'm trying to size up a bear, I'm looking for more of their their mannerisms, like their behavior, how they're feeding, how they're moving through country. It is a

very slow, deliberate movement through the mountains. On those older age class boars, the younger or just sus in general, younger bars, they're gonna have a much faster pace. Their steps are gonna be less deliberate. They're gonna walk with their shoulders a little straighter. You know, there's much more streamline versus that big, rounded, you know, waddle that a

big old boar will do. Now, one thing you got to be careful of because I have seen on multiple occasions young boars try to bear stomp like an older boar. Like you'll see a young bear do the bear stamp and try to act as if but um, it's funny to watch them do that. They just don't have the swagger that a big old boar is gonna have. Now, there's some other things to look at, you know, obviously,

when you're going for size you know. One way I've found to to help in that, because you don't have a barrel or whatever, you know, when you're out glass and to size them up to you know, I'll use just some of the vegetation that's out there. Balsom user

balsom flowers are easy. You can you can kind of get the general idea of the size of them and the and the vegetation that's around there, you know, the trees and whatnot, and they'll give you a good idea of how tall that bear is or how big that bear's head is, you know, because their faces are buried in those flowers like crazy in the springtime. Um, you know obviously the blockiness of the head, but you got

to be careful with that. I mean blocky heads, you know where there's a very defined triangle between the tip of the nose and both ears. Yeah, that's probably a big old headed bear. But there are some skinny headed bears out there that'll fool you and you'll pass on that might be a great bear to take, you know, I've I've taken some bears that are very streamline in their in their features and yet their bodies they're like polar bears. They're just like a polar bear. Some of

the longest bears are just like that. They're not those those front heavy blockheads. They're more of a slender, long bodied bear, and some of those are the best bears to go for. So, yeah, there's a lot of different ways. But my favorite way to kind of determine if it's a bear that we really want to target and go for, obviously targeting the mature boars, is just that we watch them for a long period of time. We watch for

that swagger. Yeah, and that when you say swagger, I kind of related it to it's almost like they've got to throw their shoulder out and around in front of them. They got to throw their back leg. They can't just walk in a straight line. They're kind of throwing their arm out in front and then they kind of almost, you know, zig zag as they walk because they're they're not walking in a linear line. They're kind of waddling side to side. One thing we didn't touch on. I'm

curious to get your take on. One thing that we do look at a lot is ears. Earplacement on the head and then how big the ears look like relative to the head. Is that something you look out as well to kind of help determined size, but it is I think ears. Ears also are one of those things that can be They can kind of throw you at times though, too, because I've seen some pretty big eared old boars. But the one thing you won't see is a very small bear with ears on the side of

its head that look like buttons. You know, those are obvious, that's a giant. But I've also taken some big noggin bears that have had fairly larger ears. Now they're not going to be pointed like a younger bear, they're not going to look like a German shepherd, but larger than other older bears. You know, there's a there's definitely a difference,

there's a range there. But yeah, they do help. I think again, though, you might pass on something that may have been worth taking if you only are going by button ears on the side of their head. Yeah, you know, there's a lot of bears that don't have that. Yeah. Yeah, we put a little more weight into location versus like the size of the ear, like when they start to roll over, you know, pass on top seem to seem to be be a better indicator, at least the more

mature boards that we've killed, but yeah, it was. It can still foil you. You You know, anything on a bear can foil you some of the time. But yeah, if you start I think the important thing is if you start to similar to like when I was mountain go hunting, like you should be able to pick up like the dark patch on their rump. You should be able to pick up this. And then when you put three or four of those things together, like you said, they've got

the swagger, they've got the small ears. You know, one of those features may be off, but at least if you can put two or three together, your confidence level of what you're what you're looking at should go up. Yeah, And I think, um, you know, just throw it in there as well. But that crease in the forehead, you know, on a big bear, they get those big cheeks. You know, there's big meat cheeks on the top of their head

there that we like to cook out later. Um, but man, those things they'll throw a pretty mean crease right down the side or out forehead. And that's another way, Like if you see that on a bear that's got some swagger, man, that's gonna be a good bear for sure. All Right. So we've identified a bear. Um. And and before we get going after that, I'm gonna throw another question in there. You know, bears probably their best scent is you know, they can see, okay, not very not great by any means, um,

but they can they can smell well. Um, what in your opinion he closest too close? If you're if you're glassing across like a real steep box canyon. Um, if the wind's not right, like what's your safe distance? Man? If if I'm glassing across canyon, I'm not gonna be as worried about it. Often I find the scent doesn't go from one I do any other. You know, when there's a crick raising through the bottom, I'm much less

concerned about my scent. Just traveling over and even getting five hundred yards to the adjacent side on a on a forty degree or you know, thirty five degree pitched slope, I'm not as worried there. But if he's on the same side as me, you know, and that bear is eight hundred yards away from me, and I got a wind to my back, the bear is probably gonna smell me without hesitation, even if he's a thousand yards out.

If I got wind to my back and he's on the same side as me, and there's no cuts between us. I would put no faith in that. I would bookie and try to eliminate that. Yeah, I was a little taken back. There was an episode with Stephen Clay bear hunting there in Montana, I believe spring bear hunting, and

you know, there's extra guy camera guys and whatnot. But Steve couldn't believe that that bear winded him at eight nine hundred yards and there were a few rolls in the same hillside that they were on, but it was on the same face that they were on, and that thing, you know, it just by its mannerisms, it picked up something that didn't like and got out of there. And it was like, all right, these things are at a different level. Um man nose on those things is unbelieve.

What is it like a hundred times better than humans or whatever. I don't know how many how close it is to a bloodhound. I know it's above and beyond that.

But one thing I've noticed on that front as well, and people may have picked up on this, but when you're hunting an area in the beginning, you know, you tend to see everything but once you've moved through an area, especially with predators, you know, wolves and bears, it seems as if like once they've picked up your scent in that area, all of a sudden, your sightings go way down. Like it's not it's not, it's not just that you're

in front of them at the time. But once you've put a little scent on the mountain, you may have a bear wand or through that spot, but the likelihood of you seeing a bear that's not at heightened at a heightened state is pretty slim. Man. Your scent sticks to the mountain and they will pick it up. If you've ever seen one come across to your scent after a line that you've taken, they stop and they know exactly where you were. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's a great

point and maybe something people should pick up on. Like with a very defined you know, move with a purpose. Don't just you know, walk through a base unless you need to, you know, similar to white tail deer hunt, and you don't go through you know, their betting area, you know, on a on a predator um you know hunt of any hunt, like be very careful on where you're putting your feet, um you know, stay in it,

stay in the kind of a neutral area. I think the best approach is always in those type mountain scenarios is you know, it's always trying to find that great vantage point that doesn't throw your scent into where you're looking obviously, and try to stay there unless you absolutely have a bear to go for and you have to move. Um, yeah, less movement to better in bear country in my opinion, yep,

unless you're moving drainages. So we've taken all this information you know, you've shared, and you finally you've spotted your bear. So now we're gonna, you know, decide on are we gonna stalk this bear? Are we're gonna wait and kind of all the factors that dictate that decision. And then once you do decide, what factors dictate your approach. So I'm I know you're very patient. You say you're impatient,

but you're very patient when you need to be. I think, you know, we talk, we go back to like the big Colorado buck that you killed like at what six seven days until you made your move and you finally slipped up. Um, I'm guessing you're the same way with bears. You're you're impatient until you need to be and then you're very patient. Um, what are some I guess this question kind of all rolls into itself when you decide to stock and when you do what what? What do

you have to think about? Then you know? And there there's all of those things like you know where you're gonna shoot from, bear movement, time of day, all that stuff. But kind of give us, give us your your opinion on all that. I think with patients, you know it. It plays more of a role in bear hunting almost than anything else. Patience and glassing is one thing. You know, your day is consumed with just glassing and not seeing much with another small percentage of it hopefully making a

play on a bear. But even when you pick up a bear, you kind of have to make the call of am I gonna potentially blow this bear out if I go hastily over after him right now? Say the wind isn't perfect or whatever, and it's just my style, Jason, but I will tend to if it's not, it's never gonna be perfect. But if the deck isn't stacked in my favor, like if the cars aren't stacked in my favor, I'm probably gonna sit back and wait for a better play. You know, maybe that bear is just not in the

right spot at the moment. And you know, especially if you pick up a traveling bear, you know, a bear that hasn't been just parked in in a spot for an hour. You know that bear, I feel like I'll probably be able to pick him back up when I get over to this area, and you know, put myself in a place to shoot him. But a traveling bear,

sometimes it's best to sit back. And I can think of multiple areas where I've hunted, you know, steep sided river type drainages where I'll pick up a bear maybe on the other side of the drainage, and probably the worst thing that I could have done is taking my eyes off that bear and change locations because they're moving so much. You know, there are times when they just they grab a bite and they're walking. They grab a

bite and they're walking. You kind of want to sit back and maybe this is a bear that you won't even get a play on. But maybe he's gonna feed right out of the basin, or he's gonna park it, take a little snooze. It's gonna give you time, But you want to know where that bear's going. You want to know where he stops and give yourself the best chance.

But I'm not gonna jeopardize the hunt by moving too fast crossing the canyon getting up on the other side if I don't have to, Because again we just talked about the scent thing. I want to keep that scent lockdown as much as possible. Um. You know, I like gimmes when it comes to bear hunting. I don't take a whole lot of chances. It's just like anything else. So yeah, I'm very patient with you know, trying to not put a bear to bed necessarily or really get

an idea of what that bear's doing. Does it look like he's gonna stick to this spot? Can I get closer all the things that you know, similar to what you do on a on a classic mule deer hunt or whatever. Yep, yep. And you know, as you just mentioned, you don't want to necessarily go over there and not get a shot. Now you've just you know, stunk up his favorite area and put your scent there, and yeah,

so be I like it. Um. Yeah, A lot of times we use the phrase like what do we say is because we'll see something and media we're like, well, he's ours. All we gotta do is not screw it up, like it's on us, like we'll get this thing unless we screw it up. And that's often the case with bears. Yep. And like the bear I killed specifically, we were three hours away from where he was at from where we spotted him, like in order to go all the way around,

hike out the ridge, get down on the finger. But you know, some of the things we were looking at was all right, there's one sow and two bars. There is that going to change the equation. And then we really monitored like where when we first spotted him to where we last seen him, it's been half an hour and they've moved fifty yards, so they're not interesting getting out of the area. We've got two bears or actually three bears to look at instead of two, and so

we used all of those things. Time of day it was, you know, earlier in the morning. I think we picked him up at like nine to thirty, so we had all day to go over there and try to relocate them. They were in a pretty isolated basin, so like you said, this is kind of all those stacking the deck features. Right, We've now got all of this in our favor. Yeah, there's still a chance they can get out of there, but it was worth the time and f for to

go over there, um, you know because of these things. Now, if they would have been moving, if they would have moved, you know that that five hundred yards in five minutes, then it would have been very we would if we would have went over there, would have just been hastily you know, we would have stunk the area up, probably

never relocated them. And so similar to you, um, you know, you just you put all those factors together and like if the probability of me thinking to have a ninety percent chance of killing them, you know, or him on this this plan, then let's just sit back and wait so we don't screw it up. Yeah, And it's a

case by case basis, right. I can I can think of a time where you know, I I picked up a bear and he was over two miles away, you know, on an evening and that bear um was coming out like he was like three o'clock or something like that, and you know we at that time obviously we're not

going to get get to it. We had a river to cross, we had all kinds of stuff to deal with, um, so we made the call like it was an area where the best feet feature was a play that we could get a great shot on if we just got

within three hundred and fifty yards of this thing. But we had to spend the rest of that night and next morning to move country to get to this new spot where now we're gonna sit there and park it and wait for this bear to come out and most likely get back on that feeding feature, which is like this grassy meadow. And it worked like like a charm, you know, we ended up taking a giant bear, but

it took us a long time to get there. And then once we got there, we basically took turns napping, and one guy was always on the glass and we just waited that bear out, and sure enough that evening started rolling by and and out came to bear, and

we got him exactly where we wanted to. But then there's also the other situation where you pick up a bear in the evening and I've seen them, you know, just feeding in this big basin, and you know, you might be getting a little bit low on light, and you might be getting a little bit low on days at the end, you know, maybe you only have a

couple of days to do this. You know, that would be a scenario where I would say, go for it, like, do whatever it takes to get there, hustle your tail off, and there's a great chance that you're probably going to get a shot at that bear. M It's just it's situation by situation, right, yep, yea. So one of my

favorite parts of hunting is the calling aspect. But I feel maybe out of any other animal I go out there to call spring bear, I feel like my calling is like the very small portion, and I'm curious, um, you know, being as we mentioned the whole everything we've been talking about mainly has been like a spot in stock type hunting, which is exactly how I spring hunt for bears. Um, when do you use calling? What calls you use? Kind of what's your approach on when you

pull a call out? And then when you do kind of what's your your technique or strategy for calling and spring bears. Yeah, so generally we you know, spring bear calling is so hit and miss, you know, on the front end of it. It's just I've never found it to work. I've never found it to work much in April. I've not found it to work much the front end

of May. As you get later and pushing towards the calving time, you know, they're digestive, tracks are moving along and they're maybe already kicking around some rocks and feeding on some grubs and larva, and now they're eating a ground scorel on occasion, they're ready for some meat. Man. That is the time where calling can be probably the most intense, exhilarating way to hunt bears that you'll ever experience.

You know, it doesn't work all the time, but you know when you hit that later part of the season, just before the rut, oftentimes the bears aren't going to be out maybe as long during the day, and that's a great opportunity to get yourself on almost like a glassing knob type place and just rip on that distress call. You know, you've built some incredible distress calls. I've got three of them, and those things work great. But man, it is a ton of fun just sitting on a

knob hitting that distress call. Keep on with it. You know, you don't want to let off the gas on a distress call, and oftentimes those bears will be on you in no time, you know, within seconds if they're close. And I've also had experiences where I'm looking at a bear and I'm hitting with a distress call and he may look my direction, but it's just not that time for him. It wasn't his day, and he's not going

to make the decision to come my way. But I've also seen the opposite where a bear is, you know, five six hundred yards away and he hears that thing and he is booking it. I mean he is boogieing across that mountain to get to where you are. So sometimes they come in slow. Sometimes they come in extremely fast, and you better be ready for it. Yeah, you know, to kind of reiterate what you said, bears get they

get sidetracked very easy. So you said, kind of whale on the call and don't let up, which is one thing, and then m Yeah, the speed that they approached the ones that we've called tom we used a calf distress on my buddy Charlie's hunt. You know, it's twelve hundred yards away across canyon. We couldn't get any closer. Is that we started whaling on just a calf distress, just our our normal col call, and that being closed six hundred yards within a mere minute, you can see him

just sprint down through the timber. Of course he never came all the way and he had to cross the creek and come up. But at that point we had no other option, Like it was either gonna work or we weren't gonna kill him anyway, so it could only add. You know, we've used distressed calls a little bit, like we know he's went maybe into a patch of timber, we're maybe running out of light, and we're maybe our hunt, like maybe that will pull him out so we can

at least see him. But yeah, a lot of times it may actually I don't want to I don't want to say, it can screw up, but early in the season when they just want to be a little bit isolated and left alone, like all you're doing is drawn attention to yourself and they may not be that interested in it. It may be for nothing anyways. So yeah, yeah, and oftentimes, you know, if you're a rifle guy, the distress call just gets him out of the timber, just

gets them interested enough to get that clean shot. You know, you don't necessarily need to call them within a hundred yards or whatever. But you know, many many times, if you're in an area with a cut, you know, some type of an edge to it, you can at least draw those bears to the edge and they're curious and they look and you know, maybe not to the point of coming all the way in, but just enough time

to get that shot. And you know, I think I'll just say, be careful in Grads country when you're in Grays country, which, yeah, calling in Montana is is different than a lot of the places we've chased them in Idaho where there are no grays, calling can be very effective, but it sure brings grizzlies into all right. Uh, so we've did everything right. We've either made our stock, we've called him in. Um walk us through middle of middle a little bit. Um, we're getting ready to shoot this bear.

And there's a lot of um. I believe it was iron Will. Maybe he had made a post here recently on where you shoot a bear, and um, there was a lot of confusion. There was even a lot of arguing on you know, some of us answered middle of the body, you know, halfway up, halfway between the legs, like literally the center of the body where you wouldn't think about being a great shot on a deer. And

now walk us through that. You guys have killed a bunch of bears, and I know on some of your videos are you know, people have maybe out it's like, why the heck did you shoot him so far back? But um explain that to us and maybe a little of the anatomy and then why it works so well. Yeah, it's going to be controversial every time when you talk about shot placement on bears, for sure. But I I can confidently say you shoot a bear middle in the middle,

that bears not going far at all. You shoot a bear in the front shoulder, you may be trying to track a bear for a very, very long ways. Now maybe this changes when you're talking about like a coastal brown bear or something in Alaska. You know, I know those guys are trying to knock those shoulders out. Number one. I think, I don't shoot anything in the shoulder, Jason. I don't shoot deer in the shoulder. I don't shoot

open the shoulder moose. I care about that meat to the point that I'm just not gonna risk wasting any meat whatsoever. So I'm always a little off the shoulder. But with bears, you are so far better off shooting middle of middle. If you want to bring it a little bit forward, maybe two three inches front of middle of middle. Great, But those lungs on a bear, I will challenge anybody next time you break a bear down,

look at how far those lungs go back. Those things literally go back to like that second rib back rib on a bear. And man, nothing deflates a bear. Bears, in my opinion, are softer than even a white tail Jason soft. They're soft. You shoot a middle of middle, those things deflate and they go down fast and hard. But where most people run into trouble is they shoot a little too far forward and good love track and a wounded bear. And that's where those wounded bears come from.

This guy shoot them in the shoulders. You're not going to track a bear far. If you shoot middle of the middle, they're never gonna happen. But I'm sure there's guys that will forever and always claim to shoot them on the front quarter there. But I have seen, and I have heard from, and I have had so many people reach out and frustration about hitting them in that

front shoulder. Now, is a bear that they tried to track, and we all know how hard they are to track if they're not if they're not down within you know, fifty to one hundred yards. Man. You know, they get into that timber and they don't leave blood. They tend to clog up with the at and the hat and the hair. It can be tough. So you want to put them down quick and the best way, in my opinion, to do that is to take out those lungs. It's

not to go shoulder. Um. You spend a lifetime of hitting shoulders, you're gonna have a good amount of wounded bears at the end of it. You shoot middle of the middle, you ain't gonna have any ye. Yeah, Well, thanks for joining us there, Ryan Um. Inclosing, what is one tip you'd give a new spring bear hunters maybe somebody hasn't found a bunch of success, just kind of that main tip, like, what's what's your voice of encouragement for him? Here? Oh man, I think I think bear

hunting has been overlooked by many. I think it's underrated. In my opinion, absolutely love it. I spoke to It's overtaken Elk for me as far as like one of my most anticipated I'm gonna I'm gonna pretend like I didn't hear that. Yeah, but I would encourage people to go give it a shot. We got a ton of opportunity here in these Western states. It's a great time to be out bear meat. We didn't even talk about.

It's incredible. There's a lot of different ways I've got I've got some in the suvied right now from last year. Then I'm gonna feed some folks with tonight. But I think as anything else, you know, make the hunt however

it works for you. If you don't have the time, you know, look to those areas that aren't too far off the beaten path where you're just going to have nice you know, feed zones to glass or get yourself in wicked ass good shape and treat it like any mountain hunt, whether it's like a sheep hunt or a goat hunt. You know, you can get yourself into some awfully incredible places chasing spring bears if that's the hunt

that you're looking for. So for adventure, guys, I don't know that there is a better time to do it than after we've kind of shaken the rust off this winter to get out there and start chasing bears. Um, you know, take your time, be picky, you know, trying to take those older age class bears. Number one, I think they're better to pull out of the pool. Number two, You get a whole lot more meat off of a big bear than you do with some medium size bear. So I would just I would just say, um, you know,

get after it. I encourage anybody to give it a shot. Maybe it's not for you, but give it a try. Yeah, I spring bear hunting, you know, on those times I've got to go. It may not pass oak, but it was. It was an absolute blast I had. I loved it. I loved the glassing aspect um. And and they're just cool critters. And and like you said, we didn't talk a lot about it, but my kids, Um, when they found out you can kill two of them here in Washington, wanted to know why I only brought one home. So

they eat it really, really well, and they do. We love them. So inclosing, Graham, Um, how can people find out more about you? Where can they all your adventures get a hold of you? Um? Give them give everybody a way to contact you or to follow with your adventures. Yeah, I guess the easiest is on the old ig um at Stealthy Hunter st el and um. And then yeah, we we have put a lot of bear videos out over the years. Um, folks can find that over on

the gritty youtubees. Um. We're about to drop some more that we haven't shown in the past. In fact, this weekend we're dropping some of the trips from last spring, so guys want to kind of see some of the country we're hunting and the ways we're doing it, you know, maybe tune into some of those, um those YouTube videos. Yeah, well,

like always really appreciate having you here. UM, I'm a little bum like we'd kind of semi planned the spring bear hunt together and then, um, I let a trip to Disneyland get in the way at that, So maybe twenty twenty four Sarah alright, alright, yeah, thanks Jess, carry and have a good one. H