How To Find The BEST Bear Hunting Spot

[@codycollins5763]

I wish there was more information out there for fall black bear hunts for states like Colorado where this isn’t a spring hunt offered!

[@working_to_hunt]

How do you change your tactics for fall bear seasons?

[@GOHUNT]

Hey Konrad. This is Brady responding to you. I honestly have never actually just gone out on a fall hunt for a black bear. I might put a tag in my pocket on some fall hunts, but for the most part, I'm focused on deer. Sorry, I don't have the best answer for this. I've seen a lot of bears hunting in the fall, but I've never focused on trying to key in on where they might be for a hunt.

[@ricflair5956]

Enjoy it while it lasts. OTC bear hunting will be done in a few years.

[@muggz3570]

Ha ha two years later and you wrong 😂

[@eddiekane1202]

Wrong lol

[@polygman]

Just a thought, but what is different than this and if you were e-scouting for deer? Isolation, Cover, Feed, Water...and evaluating roads/pressure, access, trails, etc? Just wondering.

[@GOHUNT]

Hey Garrett. This is Brady responding back to you. That is definitely a great question - most animals need similar things but you can approach it from very different ways. Hope you're ready for a long answer :) There are definitely similarities, but an absolute ton of differences. When e-scouting for deer I take way more things into consideration. Let's take a late October to the first week of November mule deer hunt into consideration. When scouting for deer during this time I need to figure out what elevation they will be at, so I'll look at migration layers and really hone in on possible spots deer might funnel into. Next, I'll look at public land. And to go a step further I'll want to overlay migration layers on top of public land to ensure the place I'm going to hunt has "the potential" to hold bucks on public and the later in the year conditions won't push all the does (which then means bucks will follow, all onto private land where I can't hunt). I'll also start taking note of different vegetation types. I want to know what areas are aspens, what areas are dark timber, where are thick stands of pines, and even sagebrush flats, oak brush and pinyon juniper. I'll start to draw polygons on my maps and record this information down. This also leads me to look at areas that are higher up in elevation. I even research backwards by evaluating terrain from the alpine where deer summer and try to get a big picture view of how they will move through the terrain as the season progresses. So me... I'm looking at the summer alpine zone, subalpine zone, dark timber, pine and aspen zone, transitional zone, and finally the lower sagebrush winter range zone - all to try to piece together the puzzle of where deer might be during certain times of the year. If I can see food sources (when you have super high quality imagery) or even better, I’ll use vegetation layers at this stage, I'll hone in on those and figure that out because I want to know where the deer are getting their feed from and I’ll run through my list of different feed types that deer typically like to feed on during the time of year I’ll be hunting. From here I'll start to dive into access. I'll try to think about where all the pressure is coming from. This pressure is not only from other deer hunters, but it can come in the form of elk hunters. So I'll need to really take note of where I might expect to see elk hunters as those hunters could push deer out. So, now with that said, I'm starting to look at escape routes and places deer might go for security (once again this is where vegetation types and tree cover comes into play). Now once I'm at this level, I'll start trying to find small areas to glass these little hidden pockets as well as finding areas where I can do some long distance glassing. Keep in mind, what looks like a good opening on a ridge to glass from, most likely is choked with small trees making glassing nearly impossible. So I try to really dive in and mark lots of potential glassing spots. One other step in my process is I'll actually go in and mark every single access point for how to get into an area, as no matter if I'm backpack hunting or having a central camp spot and moving around with a vehicle or atv, I will want to know where I can access other spots in the unit if I need to move and check out new areas. I'll also trace a lot of the roads and write down how many miles they are, so once I'm there in person, I will know pretty quick how rough the road is and then I can start to get a feel for how long some of these roads will take to travel. One other thing I do is try to figure out if there are areas that just might not hold any deer. That can be tough to deer as deer can be everywhere, but I'll mark several of these down and will probably check them out if I'm able to summer scout in person. I've even take the proximity to towns into account when e-scouting as if there is a town nearby, I can bet that most people will not travel more than one hour every day to hunt if they are staying in a hotel each night. So that can leave other areas untouched and unpressured. So I'll search out those areas on our 3D maps. When I do my deer e-scouting I want to put together every piece of the puzzle and leave nothing to chance. Hopefully that helps a bit. There are a lot of other things I’ll do in my e-scouting for deer, and a ton of those I’ve covered in articles over the years. But I wanted to take the time and reply to you here. Best of luck this fall.

[@polygman]

Man thanks for really taking the time to reply like that, I really appreciate it. Makes a lot of sense and I’ll dig up those other videos. Thank you

[@trevinjacobson6655]

@@GOHUNTholy crap I’m laminating this playbook, awesome of you to share your knowledge

[@michaeltubbs2493]

Great Info thank you for sharing!

[@GOHUNT]

Glad you enjoyed it! Find the groceries and nasty terrain and put the legs and glass to work. - Brady

[@yosefyaakov6502]

Hi I didn't quite understand with bears im looking for alot of lumber and water. How do I see their food source? Do they like top, bottom, or middle, of the mountains? Where do I stand when I hunt? on top of the mountain or on bottom? Are there any spots i should set camp, or should I keep moving around? If I want to find coyote, bobcats, and fox how do I find them? How do I call them? Have you ever hunted a bear with 9mm honeybadger bullets? Does bear spray work? How do I make sure that a bear, or coyote doesn't spot me first? Are there any cheap thermal cameras, or monoculars? How many mags should I bring with me?

[@idahotrophyhuntplanners]

Nice Dundie award Brady!

[@GOHUNT]

Haha!! Thanks, Chris. I'm a HUGE Office fan. My wife gave that to me a few years ago. Not sure if you can see it on the video, but below on the award it even says, "DUNDIE AWARD" on it. Brady Miller goHUNT Digital Content Manager

[@johnwaw6363]

Hey all. Wondering if you had some thoughts on behaviour of bears that live where there is no snow. I’m in the costal pacific north west. But I am sure there is a bunch of folks wondering down to the Mexican border about warm state bears.

[@sheerwillsurvival2064]

Bearing it all😁

[@jero1918]

Thanx

[@perryknetter8577]

Great Job on sharing your hunting information. You are a very talented person Brady. I feel this going be the year you both shoot a Bear. I just feel God's going to Bless your hunts. Shoot straight Chris and Brady

[@GOHUNT]

Thank you for the kind words, Perry! Can't wait to see what the mountain has in store for us this year on our bear hunt. Best of luck on your hunts this season! - Brady

[@Karol_Korus_]

I’m not gonna shoot bears cause it’s like killing a teddy bear but good info

[@eddiekane1202]

Life isn’t a Disney movie