This is what I do - 1oz of the 10% and 19oz water, it’s like $1 a bottle equivalent and I spray everything - clothes, socks, inners, outers, shoes, backpacks, crazy creeks and decoy backpack for turkeys etc. Previous list is basically correct but I would add disease transmission times are slightly variable from 6-24hrs attachment- alpha gal, rocky, Lyme, etc. I know ppl that have had them all and they’re all miserable to outright debilitating and for a LONG time. Lint rollers are a cheap tool to get a bunch off you before you get back in the truck, tick keys are also cheap for pulling attached ticks and getting them all the way off. I do not know but suspect disease transmission is nill if you pull one and leave the head, but I do know the head-in can get infected and I’m not carrying a bunch of antiseptic stuff into backcountry. Tucking things in helps I guess, but I’d rather them fall off before they ever get to my cuffs, waist band, etc. permethrin also helps with skeeters. I’ve not had an issue with ticks in ID hunting 3-7k feet late may and sept but all my stuff is treated. I hose it all down then keep it in a tub to let the vapors disperse and pull items out night before to dry completely before use. I’d drink that crap if I thought it would help.
For spot and stalk bear hunting, most shots are going to be across canyon. Because of the topography, it's hard to spot bears on the same ridge you are on. For the most part, bears don't stay in one spot long enough to stalk in closer. Not only that, but to climb down one ridge and climb another takes a lot of time.
Make sure you're staying til dark. Come June if you're where the elk are calving your odds are good to see one. Most people start hiking back way to early. Lots of bears can be killed in the last 30 min of shooting time.
Thanks! Just got back from an overnight with my 2 boys, 13 and 14. We spent the night so we closed it out and I was behind the binos this morning at 4:30. They were pretty pumped seeing the elk. I just gotta find em a bear to keep the excitement up! I have a period free from work this week so I'm probably going to go out for a few days to try and teach myself something before they come with me again next week.
- 30+ pulled off me over 7 days.
Not too late of course there are bears to be had, but it seems like we missed the golden week of them waking up and being most active. It was just an odd window of cold wet weather between early season and full on warm spring.
No, I hear you for sure. Just exper
yes exactly. As someone who has a set amount of days off, getting out there and not seeing a snow cap with no green is definitely a bummer. I'm sure, naturally, this week will be lush green with all of that rain haha.
I would love to hunt 7 days and only find 30 ticks……. That’s only a little more to an 4 a day and I’d say I definitely average seeing more than that crawling on me a day.Ticks were hellacious too
Haha. They were tough for sure this year.
We were in a unit with heavy dogs and actually ran into a guide, he said they were mainly running the river bottoms. We kind of switched up our glassing and were around the 3k foot mark after that, still didn't see anything other than moose haha.
Psshh jealous. You're going to get that fresh rain green up. We were in 28/21/19/17. 17 still has a ton of snow, couldn't move around much, the remaining units just had snow packed roads up above 7k and everything else was like burnt/non green, kinda crunchy. 0 sign to speak of, literally anywhere. We drove as much as we could after going deep for a few days and then transitioned to the logging roads up in the panhandle.
Shoot me a PM. I frequent Unit 4, I might be able to help. Theres a lot of places that look good but are deceivingly too thick to find bears in. You'll have better luck in natural openings than cuts and most burns since typically they don't leave a lot of cover nearby.
