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SW Montana Bears

mconway951

Active member
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
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736
Location
St Paul MN
Was looking at my schedule and am thinking I want to come out to SW Montana and see if I can find a bear I only have the last 5 days of the season that I could hunt. I have never hunted them in the spring spot and stalk just baited them here in MN in the fall. Just wondering what it would be like that late in the season or if it is better to just wait until I could find a year to be ther earlier. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mike
 
Last year I heard of bears being shot from about April 20th, to the end of May. Some are out early in season, just a matter of how hard you want to work to get back to them earlier in the year, when the snow is deeper.

Took a scouting trip last year during the first part of May and saw five bears on that day trip. And that is about all I am qualified to report when it comes to spring bear hunting.

Greenie, Carl, Lawnboy, Breaks Runner, and others would be the guys who can give you the best input on SW MT. If NW MT is in your sights, Randy11, Draht, SS, and a few others could be of great help.
 
Last year I heard of bears being shot from about April 20th, to the end of May. Some are out early in season, just a matter of how hard you want to work to get back to them earlier in the year, when the snow is deeper.

Took a scouting trip last year during the first part of May and saw five bears on that day trip. And that is about all I am qualified to report when it comes to spring bear hunting.

Greenie, Carl, Lawnboy, Breaks Runner, and others would be the guys who can give you the best input on SW MT. If NW MT is in your sights, Randy11, Draht, SS, and a few others could be of great help.

Thanks Randy
Good luck up in AK on your hunt sounds like an adventure for sure
 
Typically they start breeding around the end of May to first part of June. June can still be a great time to find a big boar looking for some action. The down side is they can be rubbed by then. The nice thing about breeding season is that they are on the move and can become a bit more visible. The down side is wondering if they are going to be in the same opening by the time you reach them. All this talk is getting me excited.

Now the experts can chime in and give you some real advice.:D
 
You say the last five days of the season, what season? depending on where you're looking that's either leading up to May 31 or June 15th.
If you're looking at May 31, then it should still be great hunting. June 15th I'm not so sure, I've only hunted bears that late once and couldn't figure out where they were, but was in a new area for me.
 
You say the last five days of the season, what season? depending on where you're looking that's either leading up to May 31 or June 15th.
If you're looking at May 31, then it should still be great hunting. June 15th I'm not so sure, I've only hunted bears that late once and couldn't figure out where they were, but was in a new area for me.

Sorry hadnt finshed doing all of the research i can hunt the last 5 days of may looking at the 300's zones like 341 316 317 was looking at the lee metcalf but looks like with the quota it can close at anytime so not sure what to do there. When you buy a tag I am guessing it is for on specific zone correct?
Anybody try calling theym? Or using those bear bombs with sow in heat scent?
 
Your tag is good for almost the entire state, apart from a couple units up by glacier. NO bear bombs or scent of any type, it's considered baiting and is illegal.
Last five days of May should be great. They'll be fairly high in elevation but pretty accessible by then, especially with the low snow pack this year.
 
Your tag is good for almost the entire state, apart from a couple units up by glacier. NO bear bombs or scent of any type, it's considered baiting and is illegal.
Last five days of May should be great. They'll be fairly high in elevation but pretty accessible by then, especially with the low snow pack this year.

Great thanks for the advice anything else? Anybody else?
 
Last week of May should be great almost everywhere. Like Randy11 said look for them up high. Green grass is the key, the newer the better.

I wish our local units were open until May 31. Most years our season closes when its just getting good. This year should be great though because we have very little snowpack.
 
One more question when you guys hunt bears do you try to get out before day break and find them feeding in the morning or do you head out mid day and hunt just evening or do you chase them all day sunrise to sunset?
Thanks again
 
I hunt the evenings the majority of the time, especially if it is mid-week and I can get out after work. A couple of years ago a college buddy of mine came out for 5 days and we hunted all day, starting at sunrise. I had never hunted bears like that before, but it was a blast. We saw probably 15 bears that week and quite a few in the mornings and even some mid-day. Probably the biggest black I have ever seen was around 10am.

I see most of my bears early season to late May, but that is just because of the areas I hunt are better early. I am trying to find some better late season (June) areas.
 
Sunrise to sunset would wear mortals out pretty quickly, though it certainly can be done. I do a lot of my hunting in the evenings after work, but even on weekends I don't bother to try and hunt the morning. If I was coming for just a handful of days from out of state I'd probably suck it up and hunt both.
 
Birds are a give away of carrion. If your lucky enough to find a dead animal that a bears hitting, you can utilize it. That's OK here. If you have a mountain bike, some of the locked gate roads will get you into bear county that others are too lazy to venture into. Those roads will have sign from bears if their in the area. Big poop = big bear.
 
thanks guys. If i am in gallatin national forest do I need to camp at specific camp grunds or can we backpack in and stay anywhere up in there? Also is there camping permit fees? Excuse my ignorance i just normally stay at desigated campgrounds and think it would be fun to backpack it.
 
Randy11 I believe this year the districts around Glacier are general area tags, but now for spring season you pick the Troy Yaak area that is the only area you can spring hunt. You have to validate your tag for that area. I might check out the polebridge hungry horse area. Any advise??
 
Randy11 I believe this year the districts around Glacier are general area tags, but now for spring season you pick the Troy Yaak area that is the only area you can spring hunt. You have to validate your tag for that area. I might check out the polebridge hungry horse area. Any advise??

Yeah you're right, forgot they changed that up. That's way north of me, I hunt the very south end of region 1. Drahthaar might have a good idea though. I know another guy that killed a bear in polebridge at one point, I'll see if he has any tips.
 
Is anyone else getting as excited about spring bear as I am?
 

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I always like to wait for the end of May. Late part of the spring season has always been good for us. Last year my wife and I both nailed 19" bears squaring close to 7' on the same weekend. Both were big boars looking for a mate. I think the video is still up on youtube if you care to check it out. Just search layinitdown100 to find my videos. I think it's called "Spring bear Teaser". These were also taken in SW Montana.
 
I really like the early season. For me, the less green there is the easier it is to figure out where yogi's going to be. If the weather keeps up, we should have pretty good tracking snow the first bit of the season, which is always fun.
 
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