SW Colorado Forage

[Bluumoon]

Not sure if there is any predictability to mast crop concentrations/elevations or if oak brush is like other fruits where they produce well every 2nd or 3rd year. I prob need to make some notes from dropped pins and try to see if patterns develop. I’m still on the hunt for an area w more than a minimal amount of acorns this year.

Spent Monday on the lake w family, was able to do some glassing (6.5k-7.5k) and looking over a couple canyons. The lake day wasn’t productive, but would be a good way to access a few canyons that are otherwise difficult to reach. Short day today (8k-9k ft), found where a bear had been in the rose hips, but it wasn’t fresh, oak brush not putting out in the area.

Not being a bow hunter, I’m grateful for a good excuse to be out in September. Hopefully will be free to check another spot tomorrow.

 

[30338]

Hunted some old haunts for the first 3 sits this year. Very little berries and almost no acorns. Saw a sow and 2 cubs. Moved 20 miles south and found loaded berries and acorns. Sat Tues night and saw the largest bear I have seen in CO at 725 yards on the move. Tried to move on him but couldn't pull it off. Also had a 2-3 year old bear at 20 yards during that process.

Sat same spot this am and put son on another overlook. He had a nice 200 poundish bear at 250 yards but could not get a clear shot through the oak brush. Glad he passed as it was a jungle.

Moral of the story, move till you find food. The bears will be there.

 

[wildcat33]

Rolled up in the dark and sat on a rock. As I got a little light, I realized there were 2 bears not 25 yards from me including the one I saw Saturday. I waited until shooting light and took the first broadside shot I had which was the cinnamon bear. While skinning and packing out, I saw the darker bear again 3 different times inside of 30 yards. -had to run him off twice.

This post got me pumped up. I spotted a bear last night (8400ft), it appears to be a decent borar. Im headed back in to the same spot to look for him this afternoon. Hope this consistent behavior that you had for these bears holds true for me.

 

[swede8200]

Yes, no, it depends....

I have some spots where a spotting scope is useful as I'm glassing a long ways out and the scrub oak is thick. I've also spent hard days hauling a tripod and spotting scope around never being able to see more than 80 yards. When you kill a bear in September and the high for the day is 83 degrees, there isn't shade anywhere around, flies and bees are coming on strong, you have 80-100 lbs of meat and 60-80 lbs of hide and skull to deal with, you're going to hate that spotting scope and tripod. Of course, you may also need them. I'd default to not bringing them unless you know that you'll be looking out beyond 600-800 yards. There are areas where that kind of visibility is possible in scrub oak, but they are the exception. Of course there are burnt stumps, shady holes and bedded down black cattle that can sometimes fool you, but bears don't stay still and those objects do.

Pro tip 1: Citric Acid powder and a small spray bottle. This is really effective, works great and will start to form a crust on the meat fairly quickly, changing the PH balance to deter bacterial growth. Will also deter flies and bees. Also, spray it on both sides of the hide.

Pro Tip 2: Tarp for shade. Scrub oak grows in the sun and there is often no available shade.

Pro tip 3: Get a massive game bag for the hide. I used one large enough to accommodate the rolled up hide and skull (2500-3000 CI should accommodate) but I realized that one of these 11,000 CI games bags would be more helpful since you can mostly lay the hide out to cool and have it in a game bag. a rolled up hide will hold a lot of heat. I put a rolled up hide in my freezer, which was -22 degrees, overnight and only the head was frozen the next morning. I was able to unroll the hide and go check it in. You need to get air circulation on that hide asap, but the flies are going to be blowing larvae on it any chance they get.

If you kill one mid to late morning, the situation can get very urgent. Obviously, you can deal with similar circumstances while archery elk hunting, but elk generally aren't out in South and West facing slopes with no trees when its 80+ degrees out.

Thank you! That's a good idea on the tarp and the game bag for the hide. Of all the articles I've read, I've never heard of anyone doing that.

 

[Poser]

Thank you! That's a good idea on the tarp and the game bag for the hide. Of all the articles I've read, I've never heard of anyone doing that.

Not sure if its because there's just a real lack of info out there on Colorado/Western Fall bear hunting, or if the necessity of having a tarp for shade is more specific to bear hunting the Southwest where temps are warmer but, yeah... if you have a dead bear in the sun on a South facing slope at 8,000 feet and it hits 80+ degrees, realistically, you are going to have problems and likely spoilage unless you are so good at skinning bears that you can knock it out in 30-40 minutes. direct sun and 80 degrees will even start melting the fat on a bear which means you'll have grease running everywhere.

While checking in the hide, I asked the biologists about that and she said that probably 50% of the bear hides that come in during Sept are in some state of decay from the heat. That doesn't necessarily mean you are going to lose the hide, but, still, who wants to deal with the smell of a rotting bear?

 

[jcmupar]

Not sure if its because there's just a real lack of info out there on Colorado/Western Fall bear hunting, or if the necessity of having a tarp for shade is more specific to bear hunting the Southwest where temps are warmer but, yeah... if you have a dead bear in the sun on a South facing slope at 8,000 feet and it hits 80+ degrees, realistically, you are going to have problems and likely spoilage unless you are so good at skinning bears that you can knock it out in 30-40 minutes. direct sun and 80 degrees will even start melting the fat on a bear which means you'll have grease running everywhere.

While checking in the hide, I asked the biologists about that and she said that probably 50% of the bear hides that come in during Sept are in some state of decay from the heat. That doesn't necessarily mean you are going to lose the hide, but, still, who wants to deal with the smell of a rotting bear?

If you decide to write the book then you have several people ready to buy already!

 

[CoMtnMike]

I was going to post up some questions for help myself but then found this helpful thread. Not sure if Paonia-Crawford counts as SW - more central west but similar I imagine. I have gotten 2 bears in the past - but both up high in timber (not brush) while elk hunting (archery and 1st) but they are so tasty I want to target them specifically but I seem to be useless at it! I was sticking to the CPW fall concentration map and tried 3 zones in my unit Monday-Thursday. I was finding almost no service berries or acorns, no poop and only a few fresh paw prints. Water was everywhere, found stock ponds where they didnt show up on topo or satellite maps - way too much water to hope a bear chooses this pond vs that one. It was hot and miserable in the 7-8K range. Locals claimed the bears were all much lower but not much public lower and not sure if they were messing with me. I did see one bear about 1.25 miles away outside the "concentration zone" and climbing a open dead grass hill at 6PM. He looked huge and was jogging? loping? up the slope pretty quick, probably changing zip codes. Like an idiot I spent the next day on that ridge in rifle range of those slopes and the stock pond on the other side. nothing.

Should I have climbed higher in the few spots that went up to 8.5k-9.5k? Gone east or south in my unit outside the concentration map to find better food and sign? I want to learn something from my second specific bear hunt with this result... And I want to talk myself into going back out mid month if I can get the time vs just doing OTC archery elk closer to home...

Do you guys recommend all day sits or or just afternoons or evenings? I dont think I could be a tree stand whitetail hunter as i get antsy, wanting to move or doubting my location choice etc. With elk I can go all day and keep trying new things - but in this brush country it is different...

 

[30338]

Before I killed my first bear I was camping on a good friend's ranch. His dad came by camp at 11 am one day and said "Why aren't you on that pond right now?" Told him his son and I figured climbing out for lunch and break before returning at 3 pm would work. He informed me that he had seen 3 bears moving on the short drive up to my camp from his house.

The next day on public, on a small little pond, I was sitting there at 11 am when an elk hunter came walking in. Its public and he had every right to be there and politely he returned the way he came in. I ate a bagel and decided to take a little nap. At around 1 pm I was snoozing only to be awakened by a beautiful reddish/brown bear that was getting a drink. The slurping sounds actually woke me up. That one is on the wall lol. So if you can do it, I'd sit water all day if there are tracks on it.

Oh and about other hunters walking up to ponds while you are there. Killed another bear one day exactly 2 minutes after a guy walked up to me, waved and walked back down the trail. Don't get discouraged by hunting pressure, the bears have to move to eat.

 

[Poser]

I was going to post up some questions for help myself but then found this helpful thread. Not sure if Paonia-Crawford counts as SW - more central west but similar I imagine. I have gotten 2 bears in the past - but both up high in timber (not brush) while elk hunting (archery and 1st) but they are so tasty I want to target them specifically but I seem to be useless at it! I was sticking to the CPW fall concentration map and tried 3 zones in my unit Monday-Thursday. I was finding almost no service berries or acorns, no poop and only a few fresh paw prints. Water was everywhere, found stock ponds where they didnt show up on topo or satellite maps - way too much water to hope a bear chooses this pond vs that one. It was hot and miserable in the 7-8K range. Locals claimed the bears were all much lower but not much public lower and not sure if they were messing with me. I did see one bear about 1.25 miles away outside the "concentration zone" and climbing a open dead grass hill at 6PM. He looked huge and was jogging? loping? up the slope pretty quick, probably changing zip codes. Like an idiot I spent the next day on that ridge in rifle range of those slopes and the stock pond on the other side. nothing.

Should I have climbed higher in the few spots that went up to 8.5k-9.5k? Gone east or south in my unit outside the concentration map to find better food and sign? I want to learn something from my second specific bear hunt with this result... And I want to talk myself into going back out mid month if I can get the time vs just doing OTC archery elk closer to home...

Do you guys recommend all day sits or or just afternoons or evenings? I dont think I could be a tree stand whitetail hunter as i get antsy, wanting to move or doubting my location choice etc. With elk I can go all day and keep trying new things - but in this brush country it is different...

I'm not sure I would trust a CPW concentration map for anything other than a meta reference. Berry and mast production will vary a significant amount from year to year. What was producing mast last year may not produce consistent mast again for another 2-3 years in a very localized manner.

This time of year (when bears are in Fall feeding), If you are not seeing immediately fresh sign (as in from the last 8-12 hours), keep moving. Sign that is 2-3 days old means that a bear or bears have already pillaged that area and moved through. If you're not seeing any relevant sign at all, you need to move 10,20,30+ miles and drop 1,2,3000 feet in elevation. In Sept, the solution to not seeing bears is usually going to be to drop elevation, not gaining it. The exception would be if you are hunting pretty low, seeing lots of food, water, cover and 0 sign -they haven't gotten there yet so come back. Generally, The bears are working their way down and may move as much as 50 miles over the course of the month. I killed a bear in 2021 in an area that had it all, ut no sign yet. I hunted there for 5 days seeing nothing before a 14 year old board came lumbering along. Came back to the same spot on the same calendar day in 2022 and saw 8 bears in one day.

According to biologists, bears in their Fall patterns feed around 20 hours a day this time of year. I have yet to see a bear out in the sun eating between, say 1 and 3-4 PM, but I've seen crazy bear activity as late as 11 AM and then again in the evening. They'll stay out as long as they can stand it. A cloudy day would be a good time for an all day sit, but I wouldn't throw in the towel at 10 AM on a sunny day either. I'm going to do an all day sit where I have a good vantage point, otherwise, I'm going to cover cover some ground, glassing when and where I can.

This is a noticeably more difficult endeavor than Sept elk hunting with far more variables at play. I've had seasons where I've beat my head against the wall, trying one high percentage area after another and not finding bear. Last Sept, I hunted 12 days and never saw a single bear. I talked to a guy who claimed to see 36 bears in one day during that same season. You are where they are, when they are there or you're not.

 

[CoMtnMike]

thanks for the responses, I guess I need to spend more time looking for active sign before sitting water - but I am over in Golden so cant really be looking till I get there and there seemed to be many ponds near each other so hard to have confidence they will choose the one I did. Also most I found dont allow much of a glassing opportunity other than the water and maybe hills a long way off.. I was sleeping in the truck though to keep moving to new spots each day.

On my way home I talked to some deer hunters a couple units north and they were seeing bears in all the alpine basins where they were looking for deer so made me think I should go higher because the bears havent come down yet - but where I was there isn't real "alpine". 2 of their friends went into town to get bear tags and go back up as they had had 6 or 7 real close...

And as per harder than September elk - oh boy I am in trouble - I just got my first archery elk last year! Before that I could usually see them but not in bow range or couldnt call them close enough etc... I dont need something HARDER!

 

[hunthikecamp]

I was going to post up some questions for help myself but then found this helpful thread. Not sure if Paonia-Crawford counts as SW - more central west but similar I imagine. I have gotten 2 bears in the past - but both up high in timber (not brush) while elk hunting (archery and 1st) but they are so tasty I want to target them specifically but I seem to be useless at it! I was sticking to the CPW fall concentration map and tried 3 zones in my unit Monday-Thursday. I was finding almost no service berries or acorns, no poop and only a few fresh paw prints. Water was everywhere, found stock ponds where they didnt show up on topo or satellite maps - way too much water to hope a bear chooses this pond vs that one. It was hot and miserable in the 7-8K range. Locals claimed the bears were all much lower but not much public lower and not sure if they were messing with me. I did see one bear about 1.25 miles away outside the "concentration zone" and climbing a open dead grass hill at 6PM. He looked huge and was jogging? loping? up the slope pretty quick, probably changing zip codes. Like an idiot I spent the next day on that ridge in rifle range of those slopes and the stock pond on the other side. nothing.

Should I have climbed higher in the few spots that went up to 8.5k-9.5k? Gone east or south in my unit outside the concentration map to find better food and sign? I want to learn something from my second specific bear hunt with this result... And I want to talk myself into going back out mid month if I can get the time vs just doing OTC archery elk closer to home...

Do you guys recommend all day sits or or just afternoons or evenings? I dont think I could be a tree stand whitetail hunter as i get antsy, wanting to move or doubting my location choice etc. With elk I can go all day and keep trying new things - but in this brush country it is different...

I bumped into this guy at about 9k in the Paonia/Crawford area yesterday, not a bruiser by any means but im stoked for it being my first bear. Was hiking in for archery elk but had a bear tag in my pocket, couldn't pass that up! He was browsing a SW slope at about 9am munching on berries (serviceberry/choke cherries) my berry identification is lacking...haha.

Fwiw, he was in an area highlighted by CPW as fall concentration.

 

[CoMtnMike]

woohoo - Congratulations! Real pretty black/brown mix!

 

[CoMtnMike]

So, I am curious - how soft the coats of your bears are, hunthikecamp and Poser? I gave both of my hides to a friend who could afford the processing. The black one turned out super soft but the cinnamon is a bit more course or rough. I cant remember if that was the case when I first touched them, but I think so. Which makes me wonder if that is a general case for softness of fur by color or if it is random...? If I manage to get another bear this year or next or whenever I was going to try and have it garment tanned to use as a throw on the couch (no claws or head), but cant be sure until I touch it and it is soft... Which is thinking way ahead of actually being within range of a bear with clear view of the vitals...

 

[30338]

We have I think 6 brown hides and 2 black hides. I can't tell any difference by color.

 

[Bluumoon]

So, I am curious - how soft the coats of your bears are, hunthikecamp and Poser? I gave both of my hides to a friend who could afford the processing. The black one turned out super soft but the cinnamon is a bit more course or rough. I cant remember if that was the case when I first touched them, but I think so. Which makes me wonder if that is a general case for softness of fur by color or if it is random...? If I manage to get another bear this year or next or whenever I was going to try and have it garment tanned to use as a throw on the couch (no claws or head), but cant be sure until I touch it and it is soft... Which is thinking way ahead of actually being within range of a bear with clear view of the vitals...

Mink and Moyle is very affordable for tanning. Montana Rug company is reasonable on rugs, can’t personally speak to quality, but good reviews.

 

[hunthikecamp]

So, I am curious - how soft the coats of your bears are, hunthikecamp and Poser? I gave both of my hides to a friend who could afford the processing. The black one turned out super soft but the cinnamon is a bit more course or rough. I cant remember if that was the case when I first touched them, but I think so. Which makes me wonder if that is a general case for softness of fur by color or if it is random...? If I manage to get another bear this year or next or whenever I was going to try and have it garment tanned to use as a throw on the couch (no claws or head), but cant be sure until I touch it and it is soft... Which is thinking way ahead of actually being within range of a bear with clear view of the vitals...

Being my first bear I don't have much of a reference but it's kinda coarse? I'd say if you find the bear you like, don't hesitate.

 

[CoMtnMike]

if I find a legal bear I wont hesitate! So tasty and I want one in my freezer again!

 

[Poser]

So, I am curious - how soft the coats of your bears are, hunthikecamp and Poser? I gave both of my hides to a friend who could afford the processing. The black one turned out super soft but the cinnamon is a bit more course or rough. I cant remember if that was the case when I first touched them, but I think so. Which makes me wonder if that is a general case for softness of fur by color or if it is random...? If I manage to get another bear this year or next or whenever I was going to try and have it garment tanned to use as a throw on the couch (no claws or head), but cant be sure until I touch it and it is soft... Which is thinking way ahead of actually being within range of a bear with clear view of the vitals...

Seems as soft as you'd expect for a dirty-ass bear that's never used shampoo.

 

[benclimbing]

Pro Tip 2: Tarp for shade. Scrub oak grows in the sun and there is often no available shade.

An ultralight solution for this is to use your tent footprint. Each day I slide it out from underneath my tent and stuff it in my bag along with four 6' pieces of paracord. When in the sun/rain you can tie off two of the corners to bushes/rocks/ground and tie off some extended trekking poles in the other two corners to prop up a mini shade/rain tent.

 

[Poser]

An ultralight solution for this is to use your tent footprint. Each day I slide it out from underneath my tent and stuff it in my bag along with four 6' pieces of paracord. When in the sun/rain you can tie off two of the corners to bushes/rocks/ground and tie off some extended trekking poles in the other two corners to prop up a mini shade/rain tent.

View attachment 761959

I've had to get a little creative with this for creating shade over a bear carcass that I can actually work under. I've found carrying quite a bit more cord so that you can tie a tarp off to trees that may not be close to wherever the bear ended up to be helpful. You may also have to put the tarp up vertically to create a "wall" for the sun. Almost any type of tarp or tarp tent can work, but you may need to get creative in some situations to keep the sun off a dead bear.