Pre season questions

[NewHunter24]

Been looking at onx for a while now and have a place picked out for August!!

The terrain is terrible all mountian terrain and it's so thick you can barely get back in there. No trails / road ill be followin just running off onx. (Hoping this will help get away from the other hunters in the area to a less pressured area)

Plan on following a creek back and checking for tracks along the creek bed along while checking the areas where it thins out a bit for any bear sign. There are a ton of South facing slopes that have no trees and a bit of grassy area I plan on checking.

Is there such thing as being too thick to hunt? Not sure if I'm looking for the correct stuff..

[snake]

in my opinion, yes it can be too thick to hunt.  If you can't see them or see them long enough to get a shot its a waste of time. what side of the state are you hunting?

[NewHunter24]

in my opinion, yes it can be too thick to hunt.  If you can't see them or see them long enough to get a shot its a waste of time. what side of the state are you hunting?

Western wa

[dilleytech]

Southern grassy slopes are not really what you’re looking for in the fall. That’s more a spring thing. I would be looking more for shady north hillsides with berries.

[elksnout]

Couple of thoughts…

1. You want to be where you can see and glass a decent sized area(s).
2. This ties into the above comment. Last thing you want is to shoot a sow with a cub or two. Open areas increase the chances that you can confirm this as opposed to hunting the thick stuff.

All my own opinions of course. I’ve been on three bear kills and all were the results of just sitting and glassing open areas. And we’ve confirmed sows with cubs a couple of times by just watching after someone says, Bear!


elksnout

[Stein]

Walking a dense creek bottom is a pretty good way to jump a bear at close distance.  I agree with the others I would rather glass one up and pursue on my terms.

[Machias]

Consider calling this fall for bear.

[CamoDup]

And remember... it's ALWAYS steeper and thicker in real life then what it looks like on OnX or Google maps   

[okie john]

And remember... it's ALWAYS steeper and thicker in real life then what it looks like on OnX or Google maps   

And the brush is worse than you can possibly imagine.


Okie John

[jrebel]

Most area's in our state are not over ran with hunters when it comes to an August bear hunt.  I wouldn't worry about getting away from other hunters as much as I would worry about finding a bears food source.  Old logging roads that border 3-10 yo clear cuts.  Look for bear sign, berries, and areas you can shoot.  If you find bear sign...specifically scat....make sure the wind in right and sit on it.  Well, don't sit on or in the scat...  ... but rather find a vantage point that you can view that area and wait.  they will be back.   

[cjjcb]

And remember... it's ALWAYS steeper and thicker in real life then what it looks like on OnX or Google maps   

And the brush is worse than you can possibly imagine.


Okie John

Good luck bagin a bruin!
 Never done it myself, but I might be comin around….

[NewHunter24]

Thanks for all the info! I'll look into maybe entering olympic national forest from a different area. Entering from the skokomish side & was planning on hunting near rock peak. I'll look around on onx for some more public land and go check it out over the next few weeks!

[Rhino8541]

I'll echo what most everyone else has suggested!  I haven't had any luck busting thick brush for bears, but had better luck where I could see and knew they had a better chance of wanting to be due to food sources.  Good luck!!

[GASoline71]

Walking a random creek bottom, or a runoff creek is gonna be a tough go.  Ask me how I know.

Don't be suprised whn you get there that it will be impassable.  Have a back up plan, and then a back up plan to that back up plan.   

Gary

[WoodHacker]

Thick brush might have an advantage when calling, but packing out is a real consideration if you're over 25.  LOL