Montana Spring Bear 2025 Start to Finish

Lots of turkeys, mostly in lower elevation areas is Western and SW MT. We have typically filled our turkey tags (archery) before the snow melt allows for green-up and prime time for bears.

Generally, turkeys are in the lower elevation areas and bears are following the snow line up eating new grass so you will find them when moving to and from glassing spots.

I noticed the bass in your signature. If you fill tags early, there is some world-class smallmouth (5-8 lb fish are common) fishing on Noxon, CoeurDAlene, Fort Peck, and Dworshak. I can provide information on guides if needed or send me a PM (I might be headed out if not chasing bears or fishing a tournament).
 
That's some great info! We're tentatively planning to head up the last week of May into the first week of June, but we should be able to flex that one way or another depending on snow once we get a little closer. We bass fish in the spring quite a bit, although recently we target walleye more than anything else. I hadn't thought of anything other than trout so I'll look into it for sure
 
In the spirit of keeping this up to date as my strategy and planning changes, went ahead and picked up a SO U turn in the classifieds, not sure how much use we'll get out of it in Montana but really looking forward to our first hot tent and upping our car camping game.
 
GoatPackr said:
I'd scrap the backpack camp idea at least for now. Take that money and put a nice canopy on your truck and put a good thick memory foam pad in the bed. You will have plenty of areas to day hunt and have a nice comfortable DRY place to come back to. Maybe every couple days get a room if you want to shower.

Maybe after getting to know a few areas you can expand the camp and pick up the backpack camp stuff in a few years if you want to continue with that. Most people find that it's not needed for spring bear in the areas you are wanting to hunt.
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I would 100% second this and the logic tracks perfectly. Mentally committing to and planning for a backpack hunt is almost setting yourself up for disappointment. Snow line and road conditions will flip your plan upside down in a hurry. Have plans A, B, C, D and let the conditions make the call
 
What about snow chains this time of year? Nice to have for access or likely not necessary?
 
Man, the past couple of months have flown by.... its hard to believe its just a couple weeks out. I have settled on a timeframe and officially put in the time off 12 days mid may. I have a rough idea of the general area we'll hunt, and we've gotten most of our gear together, I may post a pack dump soon to make sure we have everything covered. I can't wait to see the pictures/stories start rolling in to really get us excited!
 
Well today is the day, hitting the road for Western Montana, only 26 hours to go.... Totally overpacked but it never hurts to be prepared, except maybe gas mileage lol. Looks like beautiful weather, can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store for us. Kinda surprised I haven't seen much for pictures yet this spring season, but maybe that means prime time is just around the corner!
 
bigbassfish said:
Well today is the day, hitting the road for Western Montana, only 26 hours to go.... Totally overpacked but it never hurts to be prepared, except maybe gas mileage lol. Looks like beautiful weather, can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store for us. Kinda surprised I haven't seen much for pictures yet this spring season, but maybe that means prime time is just around the corner!
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Safe travels. I will be on the road soon as well.
 
Made it to Missoula yesterday just in time to do some glassing….haven’t seen much for bears or sign, but there have been so many mule deer out, a few turkeys here and there but all hens. Snowline is about 6k feet and I think we may have been hunting too high around 4700, started heading further north this morning and going to focus on lower elevation, maybe try to walk closed roads more so than glassing. Weather has been perfect so far, a drizzle here and there but nothing too bad. We were able to confirm our zero and I feel confident out to 400 or so, hopefully we’ll have better luck this evening after we settle on somewhere to start!
 
Spent last yesterday in the yaak region, found some wolf tracks which was cool but still no bears, not a sign. Back in Libby now trying to fill turkey tags but chances are we’ll be heading back south soon to more open country. Hoping just to see any sign of life lol.
 
Good luck I am just now pulling into Montana. I got married on Saturday. We are spending our honeymoon chasing turkeys and spring bear. Prolly will spend the first 1.5 days over this way then heading west. I have a go fast camper so we will be sleeping in this although I think I need to stop by the headquarters to get it re adjusted as it moved on me about 3 hrs into the trip. Don’t ask me how I got lucky enough to find a woman who was excited to do a bear/turkey hunt for a honeymoon. lol feel free to pm me and maybe we can compare notes. Thanks
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Congratulations man that’s awesome! Tons of hens around but we haven’t spent much time chasing birds, bears have been a grind so far. Found some scat finally around 4400 feet, but we’ve yet to get our eyes on one yet. It’s been wet and rainy which might be keeping them pinned down but we still have a few days left to hunt….we’ve been glassing clear cuts and open areas but it’s been a struggle to find really good looking grass. Going to try maybe walking some roads instead and see how tonight goes. Just gotta keep telling myself we still have some time…
 
bigbassfish said:
Congratulations man that’s awesome! Tons of hens around but we haven’t spent much time chasing birds, bears have been a grind so far. Found some scat finally around 4400 feet, but we’ve yet to get our eyes on one yet. It’s been wet and rainy which might be keeping them pinned down but we still have a few days left to hunt….we’ve been glassing clear cuts and open areas but it’s been a struggle to find really good looking grass. Going to try maybe walking some roads instead and see how tonight goes. Just gotta keep telling myself we still have some time…
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Depending on where you are, 4400' is pretty low. I usually see them from 6000' to 9000' and have killed most of my bears @ 7k' to 8k' in southwestern Montana.

Jay
 
We’re in Libby area, glassed some good looking country last night but it only topped out at 4600 feet, still haven’t seen one yet, a group we know hunting in the area said they saw three yesterday, so I’m wondering if my we just suck at glassing real bad. Maybe my binos are broken lol. Planning on setting up somewhere tonight we are able to see multiple drainages with the hopes of seeing something we can move on today, or atleast narrow it down to a specific drainage tomorrow and pray he’s still there when we can make it to him. Few days left….gotta keep telling myself there’s still time…
 
bigbassfish said:
We’re in Libby area, glassed some good looking country last night but it only topped out at 4600 feet, still haven’t seen one yet, a group we know hunting in the area said they saw three yesterday, so I’m wondering if my we just suck at glassing real bad. Maybe my binos are broken lol. Planning on setting up somewhere tonight we are able to see multiple drainages with the hopes of seeing something we can move on today, or atleast narrow it down to a specific drainage tomorrow and pray he’s still there when we can make it to him. Few days left….gotta keep telling myself there’s still time…
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Don't get too hung up on the elevation. A guy in our group got one at 4200ft Friday. We saw double digit numbers over the weekend from 4000-5000ft. Focus on the best looking feed and glass hard. Bears do weird things sometimes. They can appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quick so stay on the glass if you're in a decent looking spot.
 
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