2014 Spring Montana Bear Hunt - Report

[dihardhunter]

This may seem like a full report, but I can assure you it is abbreviated. Shameless plug right here (if you are interested in doing this hunt as an out-of-state DIYer, consider looking up the full unveiling of every detail on my blog The Outdoor Smorgasbord...day-by-day details progressively forthcoming over the next 2-3 weeks)...no active links, so I hope that doesn't break any forum rules Randy.

First off, thanks to several Hunt Talkers for advice via the Internet over the past 4 months as I've done my research and gathered intel for this hunt. I honestly had this one pushed back to 2015 at the earliest, but my buddy Andrew pulled the trigger on a half-hearted 2014 offer and planning began in earnest only about 4 months ago. Second, thanks to my sweet wife and daughter for understanding that daddy loves the West and occasionally doing a soul and mind cleanse in the great outdoors.

Finally, a HUGE THANKS to Travis Heater and Gerald Martin for being a tremendous help on this hunt. Gerald has an amazing family, a wife that can cook like Paula Dean, and a lent chainsaw that rescued us from a pickle of a deadfall situation. Travis is a great guy as well and we appreciated the use of his mancave for a civilized night's sleep and shower to wash off 7 days of the creeping crud. Really enjoyed hunting with him a couple nights too - easy to see why he enjoys hunting the high country and why he is successful year after year.

 

[dihardhunter]

We flew to Spokane, WA, on the 19th and rented a 4WD vehicle (which will never be the same...) to drive back east into Montana. After 3 hours worth of highway miles, we swung by Gerald's house to pick up a chainsaw and shovel and then headed into the Lolo NF intent on hunting that evening.

Snow, snow, and more snow. Long story short, that evening hunt was cut short but the evening's hike was made long due to post-holing off and on for a solid 3 miles into camp. At 1 AM, we finally pitched tents in an old logging deck and waited for daylight to begin glassing. With a 3 hour time zone difference, it was 24 hours since our last wink of sleep and sleep we did. Rousing to a beautiful Montana sunrise, there was very little bear sign in the timbered area we had hiked to and after a "three-bagger" oatmeal breakfast we made a loop through the clearcuts then trudged the 3+ miles back to the truck. Intel gained. 1) We were too high for optimal greenup conditions. 2) Post-holing sucks! 3) NW Montana is beautiful. 4) Post-holing sucks!

I'll try to update the hunt thread each day. It's easier for me that way as the photos aren't linkable until after they are uploaded elsewhere (see 1st post for shameless plug). Anyone thinking about doing this hunt...DO IT! There is no better way to fill the December-September void IMHO. Not really enjoying turkey hunting or fishing all that much and being too poor to continuously fill my truck with gas for trapping season, there really is no better in-between "fix".

Last thing on this post - I did a bunch of reading in Wilderness and the American Mind on the trip and highlighted a bunch of quotes that really resonated with me during the span of the hunt. I'll conclude each post with one of those...

"If we are to have a culture as resilient and competent in the face of necessity as it needs to be, then it must somehow involve within itself a ceremonious generosity toward the wilderness of natural force and instinct. The farm must yield a place to the forest, not as a wood lot, or even as a necessary agricultural principle but as a sacred grove – a place where the Creation is let alone, to serve as instruction, example, refuge; a place for people to go, free of work and presumption, to let themselves alone.” – Wendell Berry

 

[dihardhunter]

I'm concerned the picture size jacked up on the upload sequence. How is picture size for everyone? I'm zoomed WAAAAYYYY in on my PC, but not sure there is a way to tweak sizing that I see off-hand. It also might just be my display that is monkeyed up?

 

[Nameless Range]

very zoomed in

 

[dihardhunter]

Darn...let me see if I can correct the issue...

 

[dihardhunter]

Much better- smooth sailing from here on out. Thanks 'Nameless Range'.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Good to see you made it back to civilization Gabe. I'll be looking forward to reading the recap. I spent yesterday with Mr. Steve and Yotykiller in one of the drainages that you were going to hunt with Travis and then didn't. We saw a couple medium sized blacks but they were both on the move and the guys weren't able to get on the one they went after.

 

[theat]

It was nice to meet you guys. I wish I would have had more time to join you on a few more hunts. I am looking forward to seeing the pics you took through your scope of the big boar griz.

 

[dihardhunter]

Our second location was a bit lower in elevation and pleasantly green as we were walking in. A little bear crap on the road helped bolster our hopes even more as gained elevation to the logging road intersection that we had scouted on Google Earth.

Some of the local wildlife was trying its best to be camouflaged and other wildlife was doing its best to scare the crap out of us...dang grouse.

When we arrived at our destination, I was thrilled to see our viewshed. Basically unobstructed viewing in 270 degrees. Green meadows rolling down from the highest elevations, a thick creek bottom below us, and 2 giant-sized clearcuts would wear our eyes out for the last 4-5 hours of daylight.

Andrew fired up the stove while we glassed up deer after deer after deer after deer. I lost count somewhere in the 30s with multiple STUD whitetails-in-the-making spotted.

Despite hours of glassing in both evening and morning, we weren't able to turn up any bears. Just oodles and oodles of whitetails. In hindsight, it seemed like we had the elevation right, but the hillsides were so choked with young huckleberry bushes that there was very little other vegetation popping back up in the open areas. Not saying it was a bad spot, but I think bear activity will explode in this drainage come September when the berries are ripening.

One staple of every night was a neatly tended campfire. It made it hard to actually lay down and fall asleep, but we had some good conversations, eats, and laughs around the many campfires of our trip.

Back at the truck the next day at noon, we decided a meal in Kalispell would be a welcome treat, and we drove that direction as we contemplated our next move.

"Wildnis [wilderness] has a twofold emotional tone. On the one hand it is inhospitable, alien, mysterious, and threatening; on the other, beautiful, friendly, and capable of elevating and delighting the beholder." - Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

 

[dihardhunter]

Day 3 began with fishing out a road closure sign from the jingy-weeds and propping it conspicuously on the gate. Last thing we wanted was some ATV or motor vehicle ruining our evening's hunt.

The plan for that night was to cover as many of the clearcuts that pock-marked the surrounding mountains as possible. With 2 roadless drainages connected by a prominent saddle, there was no shortage of country. Andrew ended up focusing the majority of his evening around a massive select cut that fell into the primary creek bottom, while I ran logging roads between smaller clearcuts while periodically glassing a massive cut across the drainage.

Right before dark, we had a pack of wolves pipe up in the drainage right below camp. It was an eerie couple minutes of howling, but it was an experience fulfilled that I had hoped for coming into the hunt. I share neither of the extremist opposing viewpoints about wolves (meaning I fall somewhere in the middle of the love-hate spectrum), and regard it as a privilege to hear them free-ranging in the Lower 48 and a signature conservation success of wildlife management/science.

After a night's sleep, we tip-toed back through 3-4 miles worth of cuts, logging roads, and bushwhacking back to the truck. Overall, the location was mostly devoid of bear sign, but was littered with elk and deer sign. We saw double digit whitetails in the PM and AM including a couple more sizable velvet bucks.

On the way out, we lucked into this cool water pond as we were parched and desperately wanting some drinking water. We were now 3 days in without a bear sighting. I can’t say that our spirits were down, but I was definitely starting to question some of my research. We had seen such little bear sign – tracks, crap, or otherwise – that I was beginning to question FWP’s estimate of nearly a bear per square mile. Then I remembered how big a square mile was. Time would cure all. We just needed to keep putting in the work, absorb the beauty around us, and an opportunity would come. Just keep grinding out miles underfoot and hours behind glass, the bears were there and we would find them eventually. It is one thing to say that now, but there is no doubt that bear hunting is more of a mental grind than mule deer or antelope hunting or even the elk hunting that I had experienced out West in years past.

“Wilderness appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works…Primitivists believed that man’s happiness and well-being decreased in direct proportion to his degree of civilization.” – Roderick Nash

 

[dihardhunter]

After nearly inducing a pizza coma in Eureka, we decided some from-the-bumper glassing was in order for the early afternoon hours. That's when we spotted our first bear of the trip. A beautiful cinnamon boar on the smallish side not 200 yards from the pull-off where I had picked out months earlier. With one eye on the patch of clover that he had been chowing on and with the other pointed cross-drainage on the enormous mountainside before us, we glassed for almost 3 hours. Nothing else was spotted.

Re-locating 2 drainages north for our evening's hunt, we split up and criss-crossed the landscape on the many closed logging roads hitting as many cuts as possible with each spot looking better than the next. The green growth was almost neon in color and the countless deer bore evidence that we were in game-rich country.

For the first time in the entire trip, I was starting to have the feeling of “there will be a bear in this next cut”…”there will be a bear around this next corner”…”there will be a bear chowing on this clover patch sometime this evening”. It just seemed inevitable that one of us would see a bear on this evening.

Then it got dark. Struck out again.

A bear sighted from the truck hardly counted, and it almost felt like an insult at this point. Heck, it kind of pissed me off. 4 days in and my confidence was finally starting to crack a little.

After a night's sleep, we decided to hike back to the sexiest looking clearcut and employ the predator calls. 9 curious mulie does were all that responded. What does that say about our predator calling abilities? Lol.

Mountain bluebirds kept us company too. Just beautiful.

On this hunt, we also saw a varied thrush. I didn't get any pictures, but just a remarkably colored bird that was new to my experiences.

"Vitality is sapped in proportion to the distance a society departs from its wild roots." - Thomas Cole

 

[MT_elk]

Sounds like a great hunt full of neat experiences.

 

[Nameless Range]

Very cool pictures.

 

[Mica Man]

Great pics and I have enjoyed what you have shared thus far.

 

[dihardhunter]

The saga continues - Day 5. We decided to hunt a couple drainages south of our previous day's truck glassing spot, but another truck with out-of-state plates redirected our plans once more. No biggie - I had a stack of maps a mile high to sift through.

Re-loading the food bag was a daily occurrence. We called the 60 pound suitcase our rolling convenience store.

Leaving the truck, we had about a 3 mile sidehill around a mountain face before connecting with some closed roads that would lead us back to a massive south-facing clearcut. It was not a pleasant hike, but it would put us into some very remote country.

With angry looking clouds dumping rain on the Cabinets 15-20 miles to our west, we decided to pitch camp and stow all but our most necessary gear before heading out for our evening's hunt.

As I was laying gear out in my tent, I heard the following conversation start up.

“Hey guys” – 3 hunters from Utah

“Hey” – Andrew

“What the *$#&$#!” – me mumbling under my breath

“You guys planning to hunt here this evening” – 3 hunters from Utah

“Yep” – Andrew

“No, we hiked in 3 miles to practice setting up our tents for practice and carried our rifles just in case Bigfoot jumped us” – me still mumbling under my breath

“Okay, well we’re parked just 1/2 mile down the way and were going to walk some of these closed logging roads tonight” – 3 hunters from Utah

“Well, by you admitting that you just parked 1/2 mile down the road means you definitely pulled through the broken gate onto the closed road which is clearly marked as closed on the Forest Service MVUM map” – me half mumbling, half talking at a volume where they can hear

“So are you guys planning to hunt that clearcut?” – 3 hunters from Utah

“That’s the plan” – Andrew

“Yep” – me

“Well do you guys mind if we walk out there and see it?” – 3 hunters from Utah

“Yep, we are here to hunt that clearcut and I do kind of mind” – me

“Well we’ll just stop at the corner and look around a little bit and then we’ll get out of you guys’ way” – 3 hunters from Utah

“&*#$(#, you sure had better” – me in my head again​

Public land – other hunters are part of it, I readily accept that, trumpet that, even champion that. It’s the beauty of our federal lands system. It’s the every man’s land. But, there is a law. Keep it. And there’s a code. Respect others that are also using it. It just really peeved me that they had illegally accessed country that legally takes a serious hump to reach.

Long story short, despite their illegal access mode, they did respect the code and within 10 minutes were walking back past our camp wishing us luck. HUGE sigh of relief.

We gathered the last of our gear, I asked forgiveness for my murderous thoughts, and we set off for the clearcut that awaited us. It's a big 'un! One mile from point to point.

Andrew was left to patrol the west side and I hiked around the top road to hunt the east side. We'd have visual contact through binoculars and it was now 4 hours until dark. With a light mist blowing through, the evening had all the right ingredients coming together.

The first critter to show up was this lone elk.

I was getting weary of it having me pinned down when it finally fed back into the timber and let me side-hill around to get a different angle into the back of the clearcut.

“How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof. In such places, standing alone on the mountaintop, it is easy to realize that whatever special nests we make — leaves and moss like the marmots and the birds, or tents or piled stone — we all dwell in a house of one room — the world with the firmament for its roof — and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving track.” – John Muir

Day 5 to be continued...

 

[dihardhunter]

Pretty predictable the way I left the last post hanging that good things were about to happen...indeed.

I looked up to see this bear descending to the same logging road I was standing on. Before I zapped him with the rangefinder, I ran through the mental checklist. Big ears - no. Stout forearms - yes. Big gut - not really, but not a deal breaker since this is spring bear hunting. Huge butt - no. Cubs - definitely not. Hmmm...believe me has a shooter bear in range!

The rangefinder showed he was in the 250 yard neighborhood and given I was toting my sweet shooting .270, I'm really not sure why I didn't just prop up and dump him right away, but I didn't. Every time he would walk away from me, I would close the distance at a brisk duck walk. I had more than whittled the distance in half, when I decided it was time to take the shot. Looking around for a stump to prop off, the bear inexplicably took off back uphill at a dead run. WHAT!!!

I was just praying he had some mule deer blood in him, and thankfully he did. At 225 yards, he stopped facing straight away. One round straight down between his shoulder blades dropped him where he stood.

I hiked back to my hunting buddy before I even went up and admired my first bear. After emptying our packs and arming ourselves with only knives, game bags, and cameras, we hiked back to the bear. It took us somewhere around 2 hours to complete the picture-taking, skinning, and quartering chores with about a 30-minute hump back to camp with packs burdened with hide, head, and meat.

We found the bullet mushroomed and resting in his Adam’s apple (if a bear had one). It had penetrated perfectly through one scapula, shattered the spine, and traveled downwards through all the vitals before coming to a stop. Teeth weren’t overly worn, but I’d guess he was in the 4-6 year old range. Complete guess though as I’m no bear expert. We estimated weight between 170-190 pounds and squared his hide somewhere between 5’5″ and 5’8″. Not a monster bruin, but surely a great first bear and perfect representative of what a Montana spring bear should look like. Frankly, I couldn't have been happier!

We sat around the campfire a looonnngggg time that night. Enjoying the success of the hunt, reminiscing about past memories, and planning out the rest of current trip. Before loading down our packs for the hike out, we spread the hide out in camp and took a couple parting shots.

It was 3.97 miles back to the truck and downhill 90% of the way. Other than some sore shoulders and tender knees, it was just the right kind of hurt for a packout. You know you earned it, but you'll also be able to function the next day.

With one bear under our belts, it was time to head for town, pop some Ibuprofen, and find a place to store our meat and hide for the remainder of the hunt. The halfway point had been reached and one tag had been punched. Needless to say, we had shaken the feelings of slipped confidence and were walking with a new sense of purpose and drive.

A Fred Bear quote seems fitting at this point in the story.

“A downed animal is most certainly the object of a hunting trip, but it becomes an anticlimax when compared to the many other pleasures of the hunt.”

 

[LCH]

Congratulations on a fine bear! Looking forward to the rest of the story.

 

[kansasdad]

Enjoying the (after the fact) play by play.

Just wondering.......do people ask if you are related to Steve Rinella?

 

[Festus]

Congratulations!
Keep the story and pics coming!

 

[dihardhunter]

Enjoying the (after the fact) play by play.

Just wondering.......do people ask if you are related to Steve Rinella?

Can't say that I've gotten that one before. I do respect his style of hunting and appreciate his perspective on things though. He's one of our better ambassadors for sure.