Almost Bear season here in Montana

[muley]

WooHoo! Spring bear season opens April 15 here in big sky country. I got the Honda foreman in the shop getting tuned and new tires as I type. Opening weekend I climb as high as possible and look for sign. I should have my current remodels wrapped up in about three weeks, then is a couple weeks off for me. I'll cram my tent and bags with water and MRE's and drop them off high, after a couple of trips camp will be set up. I will be cruising the high country glassing the southern slopes in the evenings, then back to camp for some cold ones fresh out of the snow. In the morning I'll get up at the crack of dawn, fire up some camp coffee and back at it. Nothing like a high country camp fire, bright shining stars and cold air. Hopefully, the stupid wolves out here won't be howling all night, man they give me the creeps, hate the dang things.

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[jjwq8]

Maybe if you brewed better coffee they'd have less to complain about:D
Did it ever occur to you that they are simply the stewards in beasties closed shop advising their bear brethren that a non union worker is out to mess with them?

[flatfloor]

I will be cruising the high country glassing the southern slopes in the evenings
Fine, you do that. Meanwhile CX will be glassing the high country. Trouble is his ol eyes don't differentiate between an Ibex and a Muley. Him and his cronies just let fly and holler "FORE". :goodluck:

[cx]

Naaa, CX'll be owlin' by then. Some glassin' the high trees for nests, but not on the southern slopes. Well, that's presuming we can get to where we need to work. Last report the roads were still closed by snow, but that was a couple weeks ago. Hopin' it's gettin' better out there.

Onliest bear shootin' for us will be self-defense. :shades:

Good huntin' to ya, Muley. :)

[John K]

Muley,

I don't know much about bear hunting. Do ya shoot them from a distance? Sniper style? I saw a special on Grizzlys and Black bears on Discovery. Pretty scary animals.

I forgot what their names were, but it was a couple who were in the Alaskan wild trying to protect the bear population. Long story short, the bears they were trying to protect, ate them. Hate when that happens.

So if we see a bear riding a Foreman. We will know it was a failed up close shoot. :lol2:

[flatfloor]

CX, you leaving in a copuple of weeks?

[cx]

Next week for sure, Jim.

[John Bridge]

That means you must have the new hovel shipshape. I'll be tacking along your southern quarter about mid-May. :)

[cx]

Well, gimme a holler and I'll show you a Spotted Owl if we can find any. Well, any that old people can get to. :D

Something to tell the grandkids about. :)

[muley]

John, the story you saw I'm going to guess was on Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend, "Grizzly In The Maze." TT was frankly, not playing with a full deck. He, like many green -whackos tried to assign humanistic qualities to a wild animal, and they killed and ate him. He considered the bears his friends, and they considered him lunch. The black bear is a relatively peaceful critter. I have accidentally bumped into them while hunting elk off of old logging roads, I usually just yell "git" and they take off. A few years ago I had my pistol in my backpack and came around the bend of an old logging road, and sitting right in the middle of it was a full grown mountain lion. The cat and I saw each other about the same time, and in three quick bounds he was 40 feet up the side of the mountain. It dawned on me then, that if I had my pistol in its holster, I still would not have cleared leather before his fangs would buried in my neck, those things can move fast and powerful. They say by the time you see them it's too late, and I believe it. Wolves on the other hand I simply despise. I have no fear or respect for them at all, and will shoot at them on site, ESA be damned.

[flatfloor]

Muley, why the dislike of wolves? :)

[muley]

I hate wolves because the feds shoved them down our throats. They don't belong here anymore, just like they don't belong in Central Park. They are decimating the elk herds and their tracks are everywhere. I have come across several half eaten critters, they kill for sport, and leave half the kill lying there. I know most of the public believes wolves only take out the sick and weak, and eat whatever they kill. I can tell you from first hand expierence that is total bull. The native animals have long lived w/o fear of a predator like the wolf, and they are not adapting well. The Yellowstone ecosystem has expierenced ten consecutive years of decline in the elk population, declines in muley, antelope, and big horn ram, the wolf was reintroduced there ten years ago. I was in the bush 5 years ago listening to them bastards howl, meanwhile local biologist were denying the wolf existed in that area. It has been one lie after another from the feds, all the while we pay the price out here so a bunch of metro folks from back east can smile about the wolf running wild in Montana. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[jjwq8]

"The native animals have long lived w/o fear of a predator......"

Other than those armed with rifles of course.

[muley]

If your going to quote, than quote accurately, I said preadator like the wolf. I assure you the local elk population is well adapted to the local hunting community. Elk season is open 365 days a year, including the calving season for the federal wolves, hunting season is open 35 days a year for humans, with a 5% success ratio, and we eat what we kill. :shake:

[flatfloor]

Muley, how did the different species survive before we screwed up the Ecosystem. Let's go back to a period when there were only Indians, wolves, elk and other assorted beasties?

I'm not asking a rhetorical question here just trying to understand. :)

[muley]

Honestly flatfloor, what difference does it make? The reality is here and now. The demographics of the region have changed dramatically, different time, different place, that why I said the wolf doesn't belong here ANYMORE. It's time has come and passed. BTW, what makes you think we screwed up the ecology? Throughout the history of the planet there have been apex predators, we have evolved to sit firmly atop the food change, a product of mother earth herself, and for now, we are top dog, the way it should be, why would you assume that this age old natural order of things is screwed up?

[flatfloor]

I don't know, just wondering while I prepare to slaughter the Easter Bunny. :D

[RedRockTile]

Here's some interesting pictures of what a pack of wolves can do. I heard these pictures were taken recently in the Bitterroots - that up in your country Muley?

Multiply this scene times the hundreds of packs in the rockies times one or two kills per per week. Then add in the kills taken by lions. I side with Muley.

[Marge]

Ouch.

[dgunnels]

My 2 cents.....ALL of our ecological problems can be traced to the fact that there are too many humans on the earth. It can't support us now and we just keep making more of us.

[flatfloor]

And the Lord saith...be fruitful and multiply. Didn't say when or who should stop. :D

[jjwq8]

Problem is Jim it's the head bangers that appear to have the most fruitfull loins. Fanaticism seems to do wonders for your sperm count:shrug:

[muley]

RedRock, I live, hunt, and play in the Bitterroots. The wolf issue has gotten out of hand. Three years ago I would hear 5-10 bulls bugeling in one little canyon during the same hunt, last year I heard 5 bugles all season. Last summer Montana FWP had to erradicate a pack that was preying on cattle, it took several officers using helicopters and ATV's a week to get them all. The federal government mandates that they be reintroduced, while the people of the great state of Montana blow 60K erridicating a pack, what a joke. They don't belong here anymore, and our brethren before got it right be killing them off. Poisen, bullets, traps, whatever it takes, get them worthless SOBs out of here. :mad:

[flatfloor]

Geez, we get along with the coyotes that are invading the suburbs. Why can't we all just get along? :twitch:

[dgunnels]

All things in moderation gentleman.

[muley]

Well wolves aside, bear season opens today. I had confidently correlated the conclusion and completion of the current construction remodel to coincide with opening weekend. (the C's are called consononce my friends.) As luck would have it, the log rail guys are a week behind, and our over all schedule is two weeks behind. My ATV is still in the shop, my little ranger is also in the shop, my f250 is full of job site waste, and my diesel sucks in the snow. Yours truly has worked nearly 6 months w/o a real break. Vacation time will becoming fast and heavy shortly. Can't wait to take a cpouple weeks off.

[RedRockTile]

Muley, Hope you post pictures of your bear. In Idaho, I always bought a bear and lion tag during the deer and elk hunts - just in case - but never took the opportunity to fill the tag. Always heard bear and lion hunting was a real kick in the pants - guess I better try it sometime.

Good luck to ya. :goodluck: