MT Spring Bear Success??

[NV_ARCH3R]

Just got home from a week in Montana bear hunting. Kind of a mixed trip. There won't be any photos. Did bring home a small red bear. I was kinda embarrassed by the size, but after dropping him off at the Taxidermist, he showed me some others so its not to bad I guess. Actually harvested him when my hunting hosts were showing me the access road into the area I wanted to hunt, spotted him loping up the hillside and dropped him, Tried to get back out to scout around for the future and just accomplished getting stuck (rained every afternoon) trying to get into the areas. Bottom line I brought home a small bear, but never got to hunt.

 

[FAIR CHASE]

Did your hosts encourage you to shoot the small bear or was it all you?

 

[NV_ARCH3R]

I've read how hard it is to judge bears, I thought he wasn't too big so I asked before I pulled the trigger if he was big enough and all I heard was "SHOOT".

 

[CabinFever]

Nonetheless, congrats on the bear! Spring bear hunting in MT is something I really miss.

 

[The Hedgehog]

Congrats on a bear and I applaud you for not putting a photo on with a raccoon. Bears are hard to judge, especially if you haven't hunted them much, and more so if they are running away with somebody telling you to shoot.

This year has been a tough one for me. I like to think I know what I'm doing, but I've been out around 15 evenings hunting and have only seen 2 smallish bears. Weather and lack of snowpack have made it tough, at least for me. I've heard others are doing a lot better, seeing way more bears.

Tough to show up for a few days to hunt a long ways from home and have to suffer the weather and sometimes crappy luck of just not being in the right place at the right time.

Congrats on the bear.. come back and try again another time.

 

[Big Fin]

Congrats on a bear .....

Bears are hard to judge, especially if you haven't hunted them much, and more so if they are running away with somebody telling you to shoot..........

Tough to show up for a few days to hunt a long ways from home and have to suffer the weather and sometimes crappy luck of just not being in the right place at the right time.

Congrats on the bear.. come back and try again another time.

All of the above is exactly right on. Congrats. I hope next time you have better opportunities to enjoy all spring bear hunting has to offer.

 

[twodot]

I snuck over last week and hunted in the Bridgers a couple of days. Saw one fantastic looking cinnamon bear. Got all excited and in a hurry to make a play on it because it was travelling when we first saw it. Oldest boy and I took off on a round the mountain head em off stalk. We got set up before the bear made it's way out of a patch of timber that we had been hoping he was in. When he came out at a bit over 200 yards I hesitated on firing, (I knew he was not an instant shooter) I eased over to Ben and pointed the bear out. His response when he looked through his binos was, "He's kinda cute." Saved that bears life. Point of all that is, if the other son would have been with me he would have been saying shoot, shoot, shoot!! and really put the pressure on me. After I decided not to shoot and got a good look, I would say it was a bit under 5 ft but nice and round. Looked like it had wintered at Pizza Hut. Younger boy is still shaking his head in disgust and mumbling that he'd a shot that bear full of holes. We all have our individual standards I guess. While we were in the Bridgers we had rainy, foggy, snowy weather and could not have timed it much worse. But in looking back, I think we were going way to high looking for vantage points to glass down on drainages. Probably should have stayed low and walked creeks looking for bear crap and other sign. Took one day and went south to Moose Creek and went for a 12 mile hike and once again never saw so much as a bear turd. All the locals assured me that Moose Creek crawls with bears of both kinds at different times, but I am no proof of it.
If I had it to do again, I would stay as low as possible. Greenhorn, I kinda look forward to seeing what you get for quite a few years now, no pressure, but go kill something, and take plenty of photos.