Montana Spring Bear advice?

[BHC]

I and a few friends are heading to Montana in May for a black bear hunt. I'm just taking a shot in the dark to see if anyone could shed light on general info (or specific if you feel like it) on productive areas to hunt. I will be in the NW Montana area around Bull River Lake. For natives of the area, or those knowledgeable, I have the opportunity to hunt around Sawtooth Mtn, Spar Lake, Little Spar Lake, Government Mtn and the general Cabinet Mtn Wilderness in that vicinity. Its obviously a large area and I was hoping someone with experience there could shed a bit of light on some general areas that they've seen bears hanging out in the spring. Not asking for any honey holes just some general direction of areas that are more productive than others. Any advice is greatly appreciated and best of luck to all this season.

Beau

 

[FEENIX]

sp6x6 is from that area, hopefully he'll chime. Good luck!

Ed

 

[Catahoula]

My daughter lives in MT & I go hunting up there all the time. My advice is spend ALOT of money on good hiking boots & go hunting. There are bears all over NW Montana. However spot & stalk takes a bit of effort. I wish Idaho would do away with bait & hounds.
Thanks, KJ

 

[MTguy]

I'm right up in that neck of the woods, almost killed one with my bow right around the spots you were talking about in archery elk season. I've had good luck just hunting clear cuts, gated roads. Look for the green areas. Talk to one of the forest service stations up there and see where they have done some recent cuts, as up there on google maps it may look like a good opening but will be ten years old and you can't see five feet. Lots of bears and snow levels are up high already. I'm headed up there in less then a week once my post deployment leave kicks in. If you see a newer maroon Jeep Grand Cherokee don't be afraid to say hello, good luck to you (steep and deep country if you haven't been there btw)

 

[BHC]

MTguy

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Best of luck to you. Have you had the chance to spot some wolves while hunting that area? I heard the is a good taxidermy guy close there. I was told the name was Bear Paw. Does that sound familiar?

 

[MTguy]

BHC. No problem man. If you got any questions on some areas just send me a pm. I had a wolf at fifty yards 2 years ago right up there. I mean the is wolves up there but not like in the other parts of the state. If you are hunting up in the cabinet area beware of the griz. Seen plenty of tracks and the outfitters up in bull river see them quite a bit. That guy I'm not familiar with. My taxidermist is Stan. He's about a mile north of trout creek on the left hand side. Good guy and great work, not the fastest guy out there but I like him. Always remembers who you are and good about updates on the taxidermy progress

 

[rowen99]

Beau

without hijacking your thread - i assume you are out of state montana... just wondering what spring bear tags run a guy out of state. looking at hitting that up next spring and was interested to know what tags cost.

shay

 

[BHC]

$351 I paid plus a conservation fee and some other fee. About $375 in all plus I bought a 10-day fishing license.
You have to take a Bear Identification Test, free, and submit with your application so you know the difference between a black bear and grizzly. I guess a Hunter was killed several years back in the same area I'm hunting. He shot what he thought was a blackie and when he went for the retrieval it ended up a grizzly that subsequently mauled him to death.
BTW, the application is actually called a Miscellaneous Hunting App with bear as one of the choices to select, among othe things like turkey and I forget what else. I submitted hard copies in the mail of my application materials and got the actual license back in 10 days. It was a license, a carcass tag and a hide tag.

 

[sp6x6]

Probably late .I hunted near some of the areas you mentioned. I like to go to avalanche chutes and glass at evening.Lots clear cuts that era too,IM more north my son shot a almost 7 footer and I passed a rubbed one on 24 th and another before that.