Anyone want to go bear hunting in Idaho the last week of April

JASON LEE

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As some of you know I do a fly in spring bear hunt in the wilderness of Idaho.

Th fist year I went I paid for a guide...money wll spent, but I figured I could do it my self.

last year I went with a family memeber a little late,(may 15th) the bears were all ready done eating the grass. We didnt see alot of bears last year becaue of our timing. So this year I am going earlier

Right now I have one guy that is a close friend going with me.

I figured that a couple more guys would make the nights around the fire more fun.

So heres the price break down

Spokane washington was the cheapest place to fly into last year. so we rented a car and drove the 3 hours to grangeville Idaho.

I looked on the net yesterday and it was just as cheap to fly to lewiston Id. Grangeville is about an hour away.

If you fly to LWS you could get a taxi instead of renting a car for a week.

anyways for example

Idianapolis to Lewiston Id 350.00
taxi from LWS to grangeville, 30.00
hunting license 100.00
Bear tag #1 250.00 #2 30.00
back country flight Im working on that now. Last year we went thru a company, trying to work out a deal with a friend out there for a cheaper price.will probably be around 150.00 to 200.00 a person.
Food for week 50.00 person.

So for less than 1000.00 you can go in the wilderness of Idaho and bear hunt.

We hunt around moose creek. There is an outfitter there but he can only hunt south of moose creek in an area that is abou a 2 hour horseback ride.

We saw tons of elk, mule deer,and white tails ever time that I have been there. Even have few sheds that I found there.

my dates that we are shootig for are April going in on the 21st out on th 27th.

If anyone would like to go shoot me an email.

[email protected]

JasonLee
 
Man, that sounds like a heck of a trip!!! I'd love to go, but school is still in then. I will be chasing bears either the first or second week of May. Good luck and hope you shoot Smokey!!! :D
 
Jason, I can't make it that far north in the spring..... Wish ya luck though man !!!

After yourt trip last year I think YOU got the bear thing figured out ?!?! I would bet on it.....

Keep me informed. If anyone wants to know MORE about JASON... Fire me an E-mail. He's ranked TOP in my book..... and you WILL have a fun time !!!!!!!

Jason, good luck to ya agian this year !!!!!
 
Jason, I'd love to do something like that, but, just like 1-pointer, I'll be in school until the second week of May. Good luck! Sounds like a heck of a trip!

Oak
 
Jason.. That sounds like a blast.. I will plan on it as long as I have the work/money to support it... Thanks for the invite.


Delw
 
Cali, When we are there we are at the lowest elevation around. The elk and deer are concentrated there because that is their wintering ground. they disperse into the hills in the summer. That is atleast my understanding from talking to the few people that have elk hunted there. Also they had a elk kill off from a bad winter their that they are still trying to recover from.

This is just my take on the area....I am wrong most of the time and probably a wrong about this too:D
 
I kinda thought that might be the case (winter feeding grounds). But it sounded like a good plan if the place got practically no pressure. Would it possible to fly into another (higher) location? The remote nature of the place sure sounds cool.
In any case, Good Luck on your hunt! I wish I wasn't so new on this job so I could take the time off and join you. The price sounds right and the place sounds fantastic!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The elk and deer are concentrated there because that is their wintering ground. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

JAson, if there is Elk there May 15th.... they'll be elk there come hunting time... At least a few...most elk in my area at least is shitting and getting by the time MAY 15th comes around..... COOL to see all the Elk and deer in Velvet durring the MAY-MAY15 period though.... I'm usually not out after that much becasue BEar closes then, but the elk are thinning out bigtime by MAy 15th.....

Just My thoughts though.. I think the locals just didn't want ya getting thier elk ;)
 
Last winter was a drought yr, I can't speak for the nothern part of the state (moose creek) but around here we are way over are normal precip. at the end of april you might be faced with a ton of snow, take snowshoes you might need them, I would;nt go until May-June depending on what the hunt dates are.
 
Moosie the person that told me the elkhunting sucked there was the guide that took me bear hunting there the first year. He had guided for elk there the previous two years. All the hunters that the outfitter took there were very pissed abot the elk that they were seeing and some flue out sooner than they had planned.

Gato 2 years ago I went there the 15th of april and there was only snow at the 8000 feet elevation, and most of that was only on the north sides of the hills.

Last year the same hing only at the higer elevations. Which all the bears were around the 2700 ft mark.

From talking to the guides and other hunters and my own observations by early may the bears have already blown theplug out and are looking for elk chops to dine on.

I also know that alot of bears are killed in that area the first two weeks of season, then the numbers start to decline.

On the elk hunting, I know the outfitter sd his camp to another guy. So that has to tell you how bad the elk hunting is.
 
Hey i know Jack Shiit about Idaho elk but i have been invited to hunt there `02 Oct. and after talking to my buddy on the phone in ID for near three hours last week he assures me that he knows the general whereabouts of three big bulls,this guy has the score on the board with 17-18 elk with his best at 57IN and others over the 50 in mark as well.He also has a couple of dozen bears to his credit and has painted a great picture for me oh yeah and he paid for the phone call and we will be hunting on public land, just thought i would post this as some of the elk comments above had me thinking.
 
Big M its Post Falls ID mate and i`m coming to piiss in your backyard lol.Is that near your place at all.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-29-2001 20:26: Message edited by: sambar ]</font>
 
Jason, Although there are many Moose Creeks in Idaho http://www.topozone.com/findresults.asp?place=moose+creek&statefips=16&placesearch=Search

if you are hunting one of them within an hour or so of Grangeville you could be slightly early on the dates you chose, especially if we keep getting as much snow as we've been seeing so far this winter.

The peak of the bear mating season in that area is May 12. The best time for seeing large boars is May 5-12. That's because that's when they're doing the most traveling and are most exposed. There are plenty of areas within 75 miles of Grangeville you can drive to and have very good bear hunting and turkey hunting at the same time. Prime time for calling turkeys is dawn to 1 PM and prime time for seeing bears is 4PM to dark, so it makes for a pretty long day of hunting if you do both. There were times when we got both turkeys and bears the same day within 20 miles of Grangeville.
I know you think I'm not a hunter, but someday when I get time maybe I'll ask Moosie to post a picture of me with a bear that was number 31 in the Idaho record book when I got him 17 years ago about 15 miles from Grangeville.
 
Ithaca I never said you weren't a hunter after a litle birdy told me who you really were. Moose creek is the ranger staton/landingstip by grangeville that you are talking about. We actualy fly out of grangeville on our puddle jumper to get us to moose creek.

I thought the best time to hunt bear was when they first came out of hibernation and were eating he grass that happens to be growing out in the open?

Would you be willng to show a coupl of flat landrs good bear areas aroun grangeville?

I dont realy care about the turkeys, we have a billion of them around here,and they never really interested me.
 
Jason, When they first come out their feet aren't very tough so they don't move around a lot. After a week or two they start getting a little more active and that makes them more visible. They'll keep grazing right into June. After all, there's not much else for them to eat. Their favorite early food is wild onions so look for wild onion patches on South facing slopes.

Email me and I'll give you a place to start. You'll have to take it from there. Get familiar with this site:

http://www.topozone.com/


The best way to see bears is to be able to look at the open areas closest to the bottoms of the draws. So you usually have to climb down the side of the ridge to see into the bottom. If you stay on top of the ridge where the walking is relatively easy and look across the draws at the top half of the opposite ridges you won't see nearly as many bears.

The biggest problem is scent. Bears have a great sense of smell. I've been watching bears four hundred to six hundred yards away across a draw and had them pick up my scent and take off running. The other problem with hunting from near a road is hound hunters. After they start chasing bears in an area the bears will be a lot more secretive.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 12-30-2001 10:59: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>
 
Ithica.. I believe that they cuaght your SENT.... I've smelt ya :D :D

HOW far is grangeville ?!?!?! MAYBE We could take a quick weekend trip up there (3 dayer) and hook up with Jason and whoever else is going...

I know Wylee would go and I might too.. BUT it would be closer to the date til I could decide.... KIND of a last min deal...
 
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