Spring Bear Secrets:With RYAN LAMPERS

foreign am I looking for when it comes to e-scouting uh number one the first thing that comes to mind is I'm looking for areas to get some separation from folks from people it's kind of typical on all hunts bear deer elk just getting that distance from folks it's always nice hunting unpressured animals to be more specific though when it comes to just bare areas I I really do kind of seek out those those areas where there's a some type of a water in the bottom like Big Creek Big River North Slopes that are pretty nasty and then those Southern slopes that are able to Green up right out of the gates in April those type places excite me and also one of the biggest factors is I'm looking for like say if I'm building my trip around an April time frame mid to late April I'm basically carving out that area between 3 000 and 4 500 feet for the places that I typically hunt I've just noticed that's going to be where I start and that's kind of where the Bears are are going to be and they'll move up you know with time um but that's you know areas where I'm getting I'm getting green I'm getting the ability to get eyes on bears in the open feed zones in that it's got to be in that perfect elevation though bear hunting is all about elevation so that's that's kind of what I'm looking for do you have to go deep to kill big bears you do not have to go deep to kill big bears for sure it's kind of a preference thing you know there's a lot of guys that are really successful running logging roads glassing from roads picking up bears and these there's there's actually in Montana here you know I know a lot of guys that don't get too far off the off the road at all and they have great success you don't have to but we definitely prefer to the distance we cover to where we feel comfortable it really varies Trailhead to Trailhead the mountain range we're just trying to get to where we're not going to have to worry about other people eyeballing the same bears that we're looking at you know getting their scent in areas that we're hunting so some of these places that we go they might be three four miles off you know from the trail or from the truck some places were literally hiking 15 miles in to get to these places to find bears that are um just unmolested and and they're in areas where we tend to see a lot of bears you know we'll see three four five six Bears on a mountain and some of these really remote places um and those are kind of the areas that we prefer to to go after bears preference not needed don't have to do it but it's kind of fun getting out there and adventuring during spring bear season putting a lot of miles on when are we seeing bear movement um and does it vary time of time of year yeah I think out of the gates I keep going back to like when I think of you know first starting Bears uh starting to chase bears in in April mid-april you know depending on the weather there's a lot of factors that go into it oftentimes it's your classic you know midday type situation I've never I wouldn't discourage anybody from getting eyes on the mountain right out of the gates in the morning um but overall just through a lot of experience I feel like those bears are still tucked away and sleeping um in those morning hours it's kind of different than say deer elk so we'll find oftentimes you know middle of the day through the very end of the day that last hour of daylight has consistently been one of the best times to pick up bears on the mountain now we have seen Bears we've picked them up in the morning hours as well it's just not as prevalent a lot of times they're they're curled up somewhere and uh and sleeping it off probably a an all-night jaunt of feeding somewhere and we just don't have the best success in the mornings um now as the season progresses you know it does become um less midday and much more so late evening that last hour of the daylight if not the last half hour of the daylight that we're picking up those bears and then they're feeding all night so when looking for the most ideal glassing point for picking up bears I would say um again it depends on the area you're in if you're in an area where looking at large quantities of country is the goal because most of the country is very similar I'm grabbing those really high bandage points where I can just see a correct ton of country but I'm I can also think of areas like say North Idaho type areas where it's really thick and Brushy and there's just small patches of openings where the Bears are going to come out and feed you know obviously you're not looking at vast amounts of country you're just strategically placing yourself where you can get eyes on that bear and be within Striking Distance of getting to that bear you know in time before light fades in the evening yeah with limited time end of the day what's that Striking Distance I think it's just uh it's all going to depend on what you're capable of you're going to know how you know how long it's going to take you to get to within getting that shot you know if you're a bow hunter obviously you're going to have to get in real tight if you're a rifle guy you know maybe that 300 yard 400 yard range so I think you just have to you know think ahead you know you don't want to be parked two miles away hoping to see a bear in the last hour of daylight that's not a bear you're going to get to that night clearly you're going to be chasing that bear the following day so I just think you got to know what you're capable of so best conditions for finding Bears um boy that's a that's a hot debate right there I I feel like a lot of guys our own have the same opinion that I do those those rainy days that you you hope for on some of the deer hunts and Elk hunts just cloudy overcast days um are some of the worst days that I've seen for Bear hunts I've seen you know I've had days that um I know there's a lot of bears in the area and uh and yet with a slight drizzle they just never seem to come out they never expose themselves and then there's days where it's bright and sunny middle of the day it's like 70 degrees and I'm seeing Bears all over the mountain I think ideally what I look for as far as weather is the days following a nasty rainstorm you know those Bears will be tucked away in those big storms and they're highly likely to be coming out right after that storm to get on the mountain to start feeding those are the days that I look for your favorite month what's the favorite month to pursue bears I really like that uh late April time frame May is can be fantastic but I really feel like some of those bigger older age class boars I see right out of hibernation they're not moving too much when you find one you know you may see them from miles away and they're typically going to be there if it takes you a day to get there they're probably not they won't have moved too far so I really like that time frame where they just come out of the just come out of the den rifle rifle or bow for bear hunting um so I used to chase bears with a bow a lot and it was a ton of fun but that was more I used to do it in these uh on these fall bear trips where bears would get in these you know Berry Fields and they wouldn't move around a whole lot would go in and and um you know grab them with a bow but these days honestly on these spring hunts we're just going in um with the rifles and we're trying to fill oftentimes in a spring more than one Bear Tag and a lot of this is about Adventure it's it's about meat you know we want to make sure we fill that tag I I couldn't imagine not having a spring bear in my freezer so um you know if you're limited on time I'd highly recommend going in with the rifle if you have all the time in the world and you just want a really good challenge you know maybe a bow is is how you'd want to treat that hunt so really 99 of what we do is is spot in stock it's pretty rare that we're sneaking through anything or still hunting unless you know we're in that moment where we're getting close to an animal that we've observed from a distance um kind of you know my game plan is to grab a good bandage try to pick up a bear through the glass through the spotter from a distance really pinpoint where that bear is and try to get on that bear as quick as possible that's just the funnest for me and it's been really really effective versus kind of going through you know certain areas slowly I just I love to see those bears from a distance and get on them quick um so definitely can be really successful hunting the rut um personally I don't really spend a whole lot of time chasing Bears hopefully I've tagged out prior to the rut but my feeling is I keep going back to this April time frame I love it because the Bears are moving slowly they're not covering ground I've been on um you know first week of June type hunts during the rut and sometimes you'll see those Bears running ridges and it's just really hard to catch up to them it can be great if you can find a sow you can find where the sows are you're probably going to have a lot of bores coming to you but if you don't know where the sows are and you're just out there looking for a boar you know you'll see them on a ridge and then by the time it takes you to catch up to him he's just long gone so my preference is I try to avoid the rut I try to notch my tag well ahead of the rut actually happening so what process do I follow when breaking down a bear I guess it's real similar to deer and Elk obviously it doesn't need to be said that keeping all the meat clean is is of utmost importance there's there's bears that are fairly clean and then there's bears that have just got a ton of Filth and dirt through the hair so it's really hard to you know as you're peeling that hot off keep the meat clean um so you kind of have to take your time and just be aware so that you can keep it as clean as you can I think the difference with bears is that uh every once in a while you'll come across the bear that you take and it's just loaded with fat um so one thing we do differently with bears is is we like to remove as much fat as we can at the time of breaking down you know taking those Quarters off and keeping that in its own game bag we just kind of keep it separate I guess but that's really the the main difference for me when I'm when I'm breaking down a bear I'm hoping to get a lot of that fat especially on Fall Bears so that we can render that down later but um yeah keeping the meat clean if you have a tarp laying it out you know if you've got some clean rocks and you're able to get those things set on there I think one thing I should probably talk about is is bear meat needs to be cooled quicker than other type meats that are a lot leaner so there's a lot of ways that we we try to get them you know cooled off obviously if we're taking it and on an you know an evening hunt um you know we got the benefit of of you know that night to kind of cool the meat off and get it home there are times when we have actually used like a really cold Creek we've submerged it in a contractor bag try to keep it dry if possible if not um you know I have taken straight meat dumped it in a creek really let it cool down taking it out if it's the perfect day and then I have the ability to dry out that meat and then get that hung in a game bag you're going to get a little less crust when you hang that if you do it that way but I've done that in the past where you get these 80 you know push at 90 degree days the most important thing is to get a get that meat chilled so we will use um you know Creeks at times just to make that happen do I always bring the hide out generally yes a lot of states require that you bring the hide out some states are different you don't have to bring the entire height out but then there's states that you do so uh yeah typically we end up bringing a hideout which is a lot more weight and uh you know we're also bringing you know High plus the skull so there's there's a lot of weight there sometimes sometimes comparable to the amount of meat that you're actually hauling off the mountain as well so the best cut of bear meat I think like anything else it's that tenderloin they're not very big on most Bears the back strap is great but I like every cut of meat on Bears whether you're making burger with the trim or your or you're you know taking those high knees and turning them into a a roast or whatever I think all of it's really really good skin and a bear real similar to everything else now obviously you're going to do it in a way that makes sense if you're going to take that hide out and get a rug made out of it a lot of folks are going for that you know they're wanting that rug as well as the meat I've got I've had quite a few rugs made in the past so I'm not really concerned about the beauty of that rug anymore so I'm more for the meat than the hide but if you're you know if you're going to skin out that bear and you have any um you know desire to take that hide later and get it tanned up and make a nice rug out of it obviously there's there's a way that you want to get it so it's right um you know going down the inside of those thighs inside of the arms and trying to make nice clean cuts and uh and then if you are also on an extended trip I would say there's some guys that do like to pack some salt with them maybe if they're not too far into the back country it's not really something we do because we put too many miles on between us and the truck and um but a lot of guys do pack salt and they get that that hide salted down fairly quickly so they don't have to worry about it as much but it's really important to get that hide cooled off we'd hang it in a tree um or in a breathable bag if you got a lot of flies and things like that you try to keep the the blow off it and make sure that you have it in a breathable type bag you put it in a contractor bag the odds are you're going to get that hair to slip and it's going to spoil on you trichinosis do I worry about it um I think when I first started eating bear it was definitely a concern I don't really even think about it anymore it's just um you know obviously some bears have tricks some bears don't you got to treat every bear like it does so you got to cook the meat thoroughly and I know they recommend 160 degree 160 degrees internal temp when you're cooking bear meat you actually kill trichinosis I think it's 137 degrees is what actually kills trick but most people will just say make sure don't risk it get that meat up to 160 internal and then you don't really have to worry about it but um yeah I mean shoot we eat bears in so many different ways even just over a fire like this you know we just make sure that there's no pink left to the inside and you're pretty good so the best cooking method for bear that's a tough question because there's so many ways that it's just really good I think um we do like to can a lot of bear meat um and there's a bunch of reasons for it I think one of those reasons is it definitely kills the trichinosis so canning it is really an effective way and I love canned bear meat but I don't know that there's a bad way um to do bear I mean if you like to smoke you know the ham from from a bear that's pretty hard to beat you know we make about every meal you can imagine with bear meat it's definitely our favorite meat when it comes to Burgers it's it's it's kind of got this fat to it more so than like a lean deer you know any kind of venison so it just makes a real fatty greasy burger it makes great burgers makes great everything in my opinion I just love every every way that you cook bear me we'll trigger it and um you know just get that temp up put a little crisp to the outside it's hard to beat that as well so I'm I'm kind of a fan of always bear meat they're always cooked bear meat so the way I like to can bear meat is um you know yeah I Cube everything I'm doing like one inch cubes um you know after I've got the bear home in the kitchen trimmed it up got most of the fat off it I'm not real concerned about getting all the fat off of a meat that I'm going to can I'm more concerned about getting it off meat that I'm going to put in the freezer so I get most of the fat off the canned meat and then one inch cubes getting that that canner ready it's a 90 minute process once you get it in the canner and um you know you can add pinch of salt to the Mason jar that you're doing I usually do about seven quart jars at a time and just a pinch of salt and that's about it and uh you know just the fatty nature of bear meat just makes for you know it's really hard to beat it when it comes to canned meat it's just got all the flavor packed into that jar when you when you break it open and you know there's so many things you can do with a jar a canned bear meat later sometimes I'll get home into the day and let's just pop that top off and throw that in some red sauce for spaghetti you know put it in a stew make soup real fast it's just hard to beat it's real easy way to utilize that meat later so how do I like to render the bare fat and use it so the rendering process is actually pretty easy we're trying to take you know as much clean fat off those things as possible spring Bears it's kind of tough you know every once in a while we'll get some bear that actually gives us enough to get some rendered fat off of it but those fall Bears shine when it comes to trying to you know pull a lot of fat off and actually you know you can fill probably five six quart jars full of rendered good clean rendered bare fat off of a fall bear at times um so we target those fall bears for that but basically you're just taking the fat off you're cubing it up uh put it in in a stock pot slowly heat it until most of the fat has kind of separated from or the liquid is separated and then you get these little crispy nuggets you basically strain those out run all that fat through a strainer or a cloth of some sort to get all the impurities out dump it right into a mason jar and that bare fat will be sitting there stable for years and years and years to come it just really doesn't go bad it's pretty unique in that regard and then you know if you're looking to utilize the bare fat later you know you there's so many ways you can use it from waterproofing up a set of boots to cooking with it you know we we cook with it quite a bit it's really good for like baking you know baking pies things like that great for that and just using it as a pretty dang clean fat to cook in and uh we've we we've used a lot of it over the years and it's it's great for all that so this bear had nutritional benefits over other animals it does um you know when you look at protein content on a bear versus most ungulates you're looking at similar as far as protein I think what is it about five to six grams of protein per ounce or so with most of them where bear shines is fat content you're getting I think Eightfold when you're looking at fat content I think bear meat I think it's about eight times more fat than say like your average elk and then it also has a ton of iron in it so um it's good if you're iron deficient or you take iron Subs it's really high in iron which is a good thing but yeah it's pretty pretty comparable in the other parts like protein wise you know to deer and Elk top three mistakes most bear hunters probably make when they're just getting started oh man I would say number one is um not paying attention to the elevation you know a lot of folks will start scouting these spots online if they're traveling to a bare spot and they just don't know where that snow line is Snow Line is crucial you got to know where the snow line is if you don't and you've scouted this place that look looks magical online and you get there and it's covered in snow um or you're too low you know those bears are going to be several thousand feet above you snow line is is very key I think one of the probably the biggest mistakes is not giving yourself and not giving yourself enough time to spend on the mountain bear hunting can be a ton of time glassing can be really slow with short bursts of excitement like you uh you can literally spend all day glassing waiting and then oftentimes you're coming out that last half hour and then it's an all-out Sprint to get to your bear so I think giving yourself the days trying to carve out enough of them to where you can spend those times on the mountain and then seeking out those um those weather systems where if you can follow up a day of bear hunting right after a big storm system has come through I wouldn't necessarily say take the time and get yourself in the mountains at the time of storm but immediately after that storm if you can hop up there Sun comes out those are the days that you're going to see a lot of bears what's the best way to cook bear meat on the mountain all right that's an easy one for me usually what we like to do is take some of that fat spring Bears you kind of have to work to get some fat you might have to go inside the cavity to pull some of that fat out fall bears are easy but probably the best way to do it is have yourself some type of a cooker that's got a slow simmer to it it's got a like a jet boil is great if it's not the one that just torches everything or if you have like a little stove you're packing a stove system you know some to heat up the TP that works great as well but we like to just take some of that bare fat chop it up Cube it up slowly simmer it to get a couple inches of bare fat in the bottom of that cup and then we're basically pulling those uh crispy pieces of fat out taking the mayor meat dropping it in and just deep frying it very well done and I don't know that you can get a better way to cook bear on the mountain it's about as good as it gets surprise me I thought you're going to say the stick over the fire technique that's a good one too but it it's just not as greasy and dripping of bear fat

Channel: PEAX Equipment Co.

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Keywords: Backcountry, Tipi, Teepee, Ultralight, Hunting, Tent, PEAX, Brian call tent, Gritty, Ryan lampers, Corey Jacobson, Hot tent, Stove tent, Elk hunting, Bear hunting, Mule deer hunting, Western big game, Seek outside, Backpacking, Black diamond, 2023 hunt expo, stealthy hunter, spring bear, fall bear, how to hunt bear, escouting for bear, Ryan lampers gear dump, how to cook bear, kuiu, sitka, stone glacier, Gohunt, gear dump, backcountry hunting, spring bear hunt, Ron spomer outdoors

Id: yOvFC_uqA8w

Length: 26min 3sec (1563 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 21 2023