Very true but they're not hunched over a gut pile cutting up an Elk.
This midwesterner is hunting alone in grizzly country
- Thread starter flanneldude
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In grizzly country definitely hang your food. That helps with rodents too. I always hang down wind of camp and at least 100 yards away. I’d rather that if they catch the scent of food, they get to my food or cook area before they get to my tent if that makes sense.
I will say that you never eat or cook in camp just as a rule of thumb. I have no problem shooting a grizzly if I need to but I want to be able to tell whatever investigating agency shows up that I did everything right as far as food management. I feel that is one aspect we have some control over.
Fetty Wapiti
Lil-Rokslider
One of the worst recommendations I have heard is to ditch the bear spray, bring bear spray and a gun. The spray is far more likely to save your life if you actually need it................................ Also, buy a lotto ticket if you get attacked, your odds are very slim. Go hunt and have fun. Two pointers. If you kill a bull in the afternoon get it out right away. Leaving it over night exponentially increases your odds of a negative encounter. Second, if a bear beats you to your kill leave it! At that point you have only yourself to blame and pushing a bear off a kill is probably the easiest path to getting mauled or investigated by the feds!
Fair, though there are an awful lot of deer, elk, moose etc killed in grizzly habitat every year.
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In my limited experience, I'd say more than 50% of negative encounters occur on or on the vicinity of a carcass.
Just talk to any of the guides in the NW corner of the state about grizzly encounters, almost all of them occur around a kill.
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There’s also pretty frequent encounters around established camps that are there every year. Fact is, it’s still a very small number of bad encounters compared to the amount of t of game killed in grizzly country. I think a lot of folks consider pretty much any sighting of a bear as an “encounter”.
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I agree with everything you are saying, but I also think for the sake of what this thread is, it's important to bring to light that a high percentage of dangerous encounters with grizzly bears occur around carcasses.
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I hunt in Grizzly county. I’ve killed elk at last shooting light and walked out in the dark with bloody hands and tenderloins in my hunting pack. Then gone back the next day and packed meat. I’ve never had a bear encounter when hunting, working over the carcass, or packing out. But my experience has been fortunate. Guide Mark Uptain was mauled at a kill site and died in 2018. It could happen to me. I’ve accepted that.
I don’t believe I’m cavalier or reckless, but I do take calculated risks. I try to take nothing for granted; I carry bear spray, a 10mm in a chest holster, and when I go back to pack out, my German Shepherd is with me.
It’s all a calculated risk, but I live in Northwest Wyoming and I intend to enjoy the backcountry to the fullest for the years I have left. For me, calculated risks are part of enjoying the Wyoming backcountry.
I don’t believe I’m cavalier or reckless, but I do take calculated risks. I try to take nothing for granted; I carry bear spray, a 10mm in a chest holster, and when I go back to pack out, my German Shepherd is with me.
It’s all a calculated risk, but I live in Northwest Wyoming and I intend to enjoy the backcountry to the fullest for the years I have left. For me, calculated risks are part of enjoying the Wyoming backcountry.
I agree a lot with a comment you made that I think we overlook sometimes; your 10 in a chest rig. I’ve always carried on my pack hip-belt but then we glass and set the pack down then wander over here or there away from our pack. Then at camp we do the same. That’s a big change I made this year because it dawned on me that time of vulnerability.
packing in a couple mouse traps is worth the weight penalty!
Im curious to know where in NW Wyoming you live and have never had a bear encounter while hunting. Ive only been here 5 years, have been charged twice and have seen over 2 dozen bears while hunting.
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Neverenoughhntn
Lil-Rokslider
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Some good advice posted here already. As mentioned the day to day hunting / camping is the least of my concerns, and pretty easy to manage/mitigate risk if you utilize common sense. However, everything changes once you have an animal on the ground. I hunt grizz dense country every year, and both times I’ve hunted solo, I’ve had run-ins with grizz over my elk carcass.
1st time I got bluffed in the dark. Killed my bull at 5:00 in the evening, and had already moved all meat and head 100 yds from the carcass, then proceeded to shuttle meat an additional 500 yds further for the night. It had just gotten dark enough to turn on the headlamp as I was grabbing the last load, when I got bluffed. Managed to get the bear turned around, thankfully, and that last load shuttled down without incident, but made for a LONG 4 mile hike back to camp in the dark that night.
2nd incident, again killed my bull at 5:00 in the evening. By the time I got to it 15 minutes later, I had a big boar standing on my carcass already. He was pretty huffy, but managed to run him off without incident. However, as I started to break down my bull, I had another grizz come in to 40 yds. Turns out there was an old carcass next to where my bull died, and that bear wasn’t leaving no matter what I did. I ended up breaking down that bull with that bear at 40 yds the whole time. I got the meat shuttled off the carcass, but ended up leaving the head behind, as I ran out of daylight.
Moral of the story, just be prepared, and realize that once an animal hits the ground, you lose the ability control the situation as far as risk mitigation. I’ll still hunt solo in grizz country, but it’s not my preference. Having someone else with you to keep watch while you’re breaking down an animal brings a lot of peace of mind, and allows me to capitalize on opportunities that I might otherwise pass on if hunting by myself. For me, if I’m hunting solo in grizz country, I try like hell to kill with enough daylight to get things broke down and the meat shuttled off the carcass. I’ve passed on quite a few opportunities due to not having enough daylight and the animal being in too thick of timber for me to be able to keep watch while breaking down the animal by myself….. Also, after my first incident, I promptly upgraded my headlamp. I want a BRIGHT headlamp, with good battery life (and also pack a spare). That sucked being bluffed, and having maybe 20 yd visibility due to a dim headlamp.
1st time I got bluffed in the dark. Killed my bull at 5:00 in the evening, and had already moved all meat and head 100 yds from the carcass, then proceeded to shuttle meat an additional 500 yds further for the night. It had just gotten dark enough to turn on the headlamp as I was grabbing the last load, when I got bluffed. Managed to get the bear turned around, thankfully, and that last load shuttled down without incident, but made for a LONG 4 mile hike back to camp in the dark that night.
2nd incident, again killed my bull at 5:00 in the evening. By the time I got to it 15 minutes later, I had a big boar standing on my carcass already. He was pretty huffy, but managed to run him off without incident. However, as I started to break down my bull, I had another grizz come in to 40 yds. Turns out there was an old carcass next to where my bull died, and that bear wasn’t leaving no matter what I did. I ended up breaking down that bull with that bear at 40 yds the whole time. I got the meat shuttled off the carcass, but ended up leaving the head behind, as I ran out of daylight.
Moral of the story, just be prepared, and realize that once an animal hits the ground, you lose the ability control the situation as far as risk mitigation. I’ll still hunt solo in grizz country, but it’s not my preference. Having someone else with you to keep watch while you’re breaking down an animal brings a lot of peace of mind, and allows me to capitalize on opportunities that I might otherwise pass on if hunting by myself. For me, if I’m hunting solo in grizz country, I try like hell to kill with enough daylight to get things broke down and the meat shuttled off the carcass. I’ve passed on quite a few opportunities due to not having enough daylight and the animal being in too thick of timber for me to be able to keep watch while breaking down the animal by myself….. Also, after my first incident, I promptly upgraded my headlamp. I want a BRIGHT headlamp, with good battery life (and also pack a spare). That sucked being bluffed, and having maybe 20 yd visibility due to a dim headlamp.
I spent the better part of the last 30 years in and around the Jackson Hole area. Of that time I’ve probably hunted about 20 seasons (missed a few for school, injuries, family, etc).
In about 20 seasons, I’ve 13 elk, including two nice bulls that were last light shots and next day packouts. But most of the cows I’ve killed were next day packouts too, plus helping others packout. So I haven’t packed out a hundred times without a Grizzly encounter but it’s been a lot more than a time or two.
I’ve seen a lot of bears out and about but never had one on meat or encountered one when packing meat.
I now live in Dubois.
This is not meant to a slight or anything, but this is what I've mentioned many times on this forum about, "There is grizzly country, and then there is GRIZZLY COUNTRY "
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You said in your OP that you have been scouting. Have you been seeing bear tracks and scat?Hey fellas,
Always read this forum, but it wasn’t until I moved out to Bozeman for work and diving into western big game hunting when I felt the need to pose this question.
I have been scouting for archery elk—solo, and I can’t help but to admit that I have nervousness being in these mountains by myself—especially at dark hours where it will matter the most to play the thermals for this upcoming archery elk season.
I’m hunting a heavily dense grizzly area, and even with a 10mm, bear spray, Garmin and acute senses of what’s going around me stemming from the Marine Corps, this first season is going to be interesting.
I understand that this question has likely been posed quite a bit on this forum, but looking for a fresh and respectful perspective to ease the nervousness of this midwesterner.
I do have precautions that I will likely set in place, such as: walking in when the light starts to break, not hunting last light and not going 10 miles back for the sake of my wife’s sanity.
But because of these precautions, I’m now limiting my chances to harvest an elk, whether it be a cow or bull, by 50%.
I understand that this is mostly a mental game, but having been through a few nervous moments in my life in the dark—whether it was humans or predators, was enough to keep me on my toes for the foreseeable future.
Anyone have any tips they could provide that helped them in this scenario?
Thanks in advance
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Like the wilderness areas around North Buffalo Fork and Pacific Creek? I’ve not limited my hunting to south of Jackson.
Im talking about the greater Cody area. I can take you to places where I can guarantee to see bears every day. One buddy of mine attempted spring bear this year and saw 11 different Grizzlies from one glassing knob in 8 hours.
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WoolyBugger
WKR
How much do you practice with your pistol? I’ve only spent a few weeks in grizz country but I do have a lot of time spent shooting pistols with people and most aren’t as good as they think they are especially when you add in a shot timer.
I ditched the bear spray this past season and went exclusively to a pistol. After doing some shooting in the last couple weeks I have decided 2 things.
1. Im carrying bear spray going forward as my primary. I SUCK at pistols.
2. Im buying a Glock in .22lr so I can spend way more time perfecting my pistol game and be confident in my abilites.
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Then it looks like in my pack trip guiding, dude wrangling, and packing days, when I was leading pack strings through the Two Ocean Pass and upper Yellowstone River areas, I wasn’t really camped in GRIZZLY COUNTRY, I was only camped in Grizzly country. And here’s me thinking I was. Ah well, such it is.
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