Free: Contests & Raffles.
There is 0 reason to hunt bears 10 miles in unless that’s the experience you are striving for.
In my experience, hucks tend to be in a bit more shaded spots that make them difficult to glass. I'd focus in on areas that have blueberries, sometimes mixed with mountain ash. There are a lot of places that have those two things, and not all of them have bears... so scouting (and hunting) in August should serve you well. Hopefully the crop this year is better than last - seemed like it was a total failure in the Cascades in places I was hunting. Never seen it that bad. Bears were still cruising around but I think they disappeared from high alpine meadow areas earlier too. Your plan of e-scouting and checking them out in person sounds good. If you're just interested in the meat, you can get away with a decently long pack out early season. Meat + hide = closer.
Unfortunately unless we get lots of rain in the mountains this summer we’ll have another failed berry crop making your quest much harder due to lack of snow pack.I’d be looking for north slope snow fields that could possibly hold long enough to supply a good water source to berry patches.
Quote from: Boss .300 winmag on April 28, 2024, 06:38:19 PMUnfortunately unless we get lots of rain in the mountains this summer we’ll have another failed berry crop making your quest much harder due to lack of snow pack.I’d be looking for north slope snow fields that could possibly hold long enough to supply a good water source to berry patches.Could you explain your reasoning here about the low snow pack leading to bad huckleberries? I don't quite follow. I do know that huckleberries get a lot of water from snow melt, but I also know that they don't really uptake water without leaves. So the way I see it, they're only actually uptaking snow melt during that short period of time between leaf out and the soil going dry from the snow melt. That snow melt hydrated soil period while huckleberry leaves are present should still happen the same regardless of whether the snow was 8 feet deep vs 20. So please explain to me if I'm missing something here. Last year we had a deep snow pack, and a very wet spring/early summer, yet a terrible berry crop. I don't quite have my finger on the pulse of what causes good huckleberry crops.Regardless of the quality of this years crop, I am fairly certain that this year will be an early crop due to the early melt out caused by light snow pack.
Quote from: huntnnw on April 28, 2024, 08:27:00 PMThere is 0 reason to hunt bears 10 miles in unless that’s the experience you are striving for.Mind giving me some of your bear spots, then?
Quote from: knob221 on April 28, 2024, 10:13:56 PMQuote from: huntnnw on April 28, 2024, 08:27:00 PMThere is 0 reason to hunt bears 10 miles in unless that’s the experience you are striving for.Mind giving me some of your bear spots, then? Bears are going to be where the food source is for that time of year. It’s knowing what bears are targeting at the time when you are hunting a given area. There is so many bears in WA and so little pressure that there is 0 reason to have to pack in to hunt them. I’ve shot or helped wife and friends kill around 30-40 bears and none have been over a mile from truck. Most under 1/2 mi from rig. Lotta bears are spotted glassing from truck and then making a plan to get into range.
Quote from: huntnnw on April 29, 2024, 01:36:15 PMQuote from: knob221 on April 28, 2024, 10:13:56 PMQuote from: huntnnw on April 28, 2024, 08:27:00 PMThere is 0 reason to hunt bears 10 miles in unless that’s the experience you are striving for.Mind giving me some of your bear spots, then? Bears are going to be where the food source is for that time of year. It’s knowing what bears are targeting at the time when you are hunting a given area. There is so many bears in WA and so little pressure that there is 0 reason to have to pack in to hunt them. I’ve shot or helped wife and friends kill around 30-40 bears and none have been over a mile from truck. Most under 1/2 mi from rig. Lotta bears are spotted glassing from truck and then making a plan to get into range.In the Cascades or Eastern WA? OP is talking about the Cascades which can be very different, especially the west slope.