November 7, 2024 • 40 mins
In this episode of the Bear Hunting Magazine Huntcast, Kolby is joined by author and BHM columnist @bozeandbears to talk about the things we bring on a bear hunt.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast with me
Koby Moorehead. We're gonna nerd out on bears hunting and
the outdoors. We'll tell stories, talk biology, tactics, gear, and
the fight to protect the pursuits that we hold dear.
So grab your binos, lace up your boots, load up
your barrels, and gather the hounds we venture on this
journey together. Welcome to another episode of the Bear Hunting
(00:42):
Magazine Hunt Cast Man. We've been getting some news this week.
First off, Proposition one twenty seven, the ballot box initiative
up in Colorado has been squashed, so good job hunters.
And then the presidential election went down this week and
we have a new president, so we can just look
(01:04):
forward to the future and see what all plays out
from there. Today I'm joined by Doug Bows. Doug riots
a column in every issue of Bear Hunting Magazine, and
he's a wealth of information. Now his stomping grounds are
up in Washington State, so it doesn't translate to everywhere,
but there's a lot of things that are universal inside
(01:25):
of bear hunting. And today we're talking about what you
bring and what you'll find is half of the conversation.
We're talking about the things you bring that are not
gear related, and it is universal to all of the
pursuits of bear. And then we'll dive into a little
gear and it's going to be leaning a little more
towards what Doug does, but I bring up things concerning
(01:50):
what you would do a little bit more in the south. Now,
this isn't a deep gear dive. We'll do that stuff
at a later point, but this is just kind of
like a general thing. And ultimately the goal of this
particular episode is just to encourage you to figure out
what you like, what works for you, and to understand
that the most important thing you bring with you is
(02:12):
inside of you. This is meant to make it to
where it's a little bit easier for you to get
in the outdoors, especially if you're starting out. Share with
the buddy that's interested, and let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Hey Doug, Hey Golby, how are you, sir? Thanks for
having me on.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, I'm doing good. We're in the thick of waitetail
season here.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well I'm jealous. Our dear season ended well a week
or two ago, and so now the special draw people
will get to go out and hunt a little bit,
but my dear, season's pretty much done with.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So you're actually you're in Washington state, right.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, don't hate me. I'm in Washington. I'm sixty miles
north of Seattle. So when people ask me where I live,
I say the Seattle area, But in reality, I live
in a little town that's got a bar and a
post office, and so I'm pretty backwoods when it comes
to that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, you know, I've fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest,
and I've been there two or three times in the
last year and a half, and I just I love
it out there, and it's so vast, it's so rule
and if you just thought of it from you know,
what you see on the news or whatever, you would
think it was just like cities everywhere. But it's it's
(03:33):
not really the case. It's a beautiful and sometimes treacherous place.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It can't be. I think the North Cascades National Park
is leads the country for people who go missing or
people who have died in it, So it's a dangerous park.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, how many sasquatch sidings?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I get one every time I look in the mirror, Ashley.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I like it, but no like out in the West,
there's a lot of draws. There's a lot of things
you have to put in for years and build up points.
Some of them are pure lottery systems to where it's
just luck of the draw every time, where everybody has
equal opportunity at drawing something. And the one exception to
(04:23):
a lot of those draws are actually bears. There's a
lot of these Western states to where you can get
a bear tag over the counter, And that's one of
the reasons bears are just so special because they can
get you into places where you might have to wait
a really long time to get into a particular unit
or area to hunt anything else. I really love that
(04:44):
about bears, that there's just so much I mean, you
can just go hunt most anywhere with the bear tag.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That's what I love about bear too. Like in Washington
currently it's August first till November fifteenth, that's our bear season.
And so even though like deer and elk is over
for me, I still got till I got another what
ten days of bear season, and I'm gonna go out
and in the next couple of days and give it
a shot. But yeah, I mean, it's a great time.
You can you can start early, and you almost finish
(05:15):
out the year with it. So it's it's a lot
of fun. It's it's different, it's different experience, and it
keeps you out in the woods longer.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So yeah, the thing we're gonna mainly deal with today
is we're gonna be talking about things that we need.
This is a part where I feel like people really
start to get snagged up and start to feel overwhelmed.
And so before we dive into other episodes where we
(05:43):
talk about tactics of actually hunting a bear, finding a bear,
you know, just different tips and tactics, we're gonna start
out with the actual gear because that's a lot of
the pre work that you have to put in. It's
just good to be prepared and not to feel overwhelmed
before you even get started, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So uh.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, and here you I want. One of the things
I wanted to say is like, before you get into
actually like physical things, I call them real number ones
on a kind of a list that I wrote down,
one was having like really good friends or a mentor
to go out there and bear hunter get into hunting.
(06:28):
I think the greatest thing you can have, and I
think this is universal for all things is just a
good attitude and just good positive mental attitude whenever you're
going out there or even thinking about going out there.
Because it's a boy, you get whooped with a frustration
stick real quick.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, there's a lot of non tangible needs in hunting
in general, like abilities that you need, so perseverance, patience, determination,
a strong mental ability, strong physical ability. You know, if
we could go on that's that's a whole episode in itself, really,
(07:06):
but I agree with you, like you gotta have you
gotta have patience and if you don't have a good
mentor kicking back to what you said earlier, that's half
the reason that wrote my book The Ultimate Guide to
Black Bear Hunting is so if you're an adult on
set hunter or somebody who's never hunted bear and stuff
like that, you can check that out and that will
give you an edge, that will that will calm down
(07:29):
that learning curve that kicks a lot of people in
the butt for several years. Yeah, if you burn through
that book.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So, and one thing that I find whenever I'm talking
to people that are just getting into hunting, like it's
not about the tips or the tactics, Like it's not
about how to find this or find that or when
to go. I think the most beneficial thing that I
tell them is just like don't get frustrated, Like you
got to celebrate the fact that you saw something or
(07:57):
that you found sign or that you you know, say
they make a bad shot where they just totally miss
the animal they're shooting at. It's like, how was it
you got on one? Like you had the opportunity, Like, yeah,
you missed, but how was it? You know, Yeah, whether
you're the mentor of the mentee. I think that's something
to really remember, is like you have to you really
(08:20):
have to celebrate the wins, Like find every win to
celebrate because that gives you the momentum. And it also
like builds a really strong, you know, mental game, And
if you don't have a strong mental game, then it's
just not gonna make it, you know, or.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Degree and then you know that's something in life, so
you know, you need to have a strong mental game
to be successful. And then once you're successful, you need
to have that strong mental game to get that animal out.
You know, if you if you give up in life
or give up on things when things get hard, that
ain't gonna help you. I mean, cause it can be
(08:59):
a ground and getting these things out, dear Elk, whatever
it may be, and you just gotta you gotta toughen
it out. Yeah, and along what you said, you know,
I have to remind myself sometimes to just enjoy the moment. Right,
Sometimes something's coming in or something you want to get
it on camera or whatever or on you know, on
(09:20):
your phone, and and I'll stop myself and be like,
just enjoy this, Like you don't have to capture everything
and post everything and compete with other people. Just take
the time to enjoy the moment that has been given
to you. I think that's really important that people stop
and do that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, this year, I haven't really been trying to film
or record much. I've just really am working on becoming
a better woodsman or just seeing what I can learn
and getting rid of some of the distractions. Because one
of the biggest things that goes against us is comparing
ourselves or letting ourselves be shaped by what we see
(09:58):
portrayed to us on you know, whatever outlet, whether it
be social media or you know, some sort of show
we're watching. There's you can't put everything in something that
you do post work on. So there's no sense in
comparing yourself to say that, oh, this is my first
time out, but I need to go for a mature animal.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's like you got to get some reps in at
some point, you know. And I'm not saying go out
there and go after a cub or something, but you know,
you need to go out there and just experience it,
and you need to experience success. And I don't think
that whenever you I mean, we don't expect kids to
(10:43):
be really selective whenever they're going out, you know, like
when you carry a kid out deer hunt, you're like, hey,
there's a spike, shoot.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, And I think we need to do the same
thing with people that are get trying to get into
these things as adults, where it's like, you know, you
have a enough pressures trying to do something the first time.
Just find a win, celebrate a win, and don't worry about,
you know, what other people are going to say or think.
And ultimately, like your first animal, you don't want to
(11:13):
be a big animal because that's a lot of work
all the way through. Like last year in Arkansas, I
killed a bear that we think was around five hundred pounds.
And by the end of that night, when I got
home in the single digits of the morning, I was like,
what am I doing with my life? Like I was,
I was beat up and whooped, you know. And anyways,
(11:39):
don't bite off more than you can get you and
don't take on something that's like two way outside of
your reach or your experience. But anyways, we better jump
into this to this.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, we're going.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
What was kind of the first thing you wrote down
on your list?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay, so I wrote down ten things, but the first
and foremost thing was like a quality weapon with quality
ammo or you know, broadheads, aeroshafts, that type of stuff,
and the skill to use it. So I know that.
I mean that goes for all hunting, right, but don't
give your don't get yourself a decent weapon and then
(12:17):
put in a crap bullet that's that's cheap and will
shatter upon hitting the animal like I have done that before.
I was like, oh this, you know, this box is
five dollars cheaper than the other box or whatever, and
I'm gonna do that. And then it shoots and it
blows apart and it doesn't retain its weight, and you
know it might wound the animal or something like that.
Take the time and the money and lots of times
(12:38):
it's not much money or extra money to buy yourself
a quality weapon and become familiar with it. You know,
don't borrow your buddy's gun for the first time and
then go out. Spend time to get to know your
weapon or bow or whatever, you know, whatever your weapon
of choice is. And you know, like for me, when
I'm hunting, it's it's almost muscle memory, like if it's
(12:59):
time to shoot or something that I don't think about safety,
the safety on the gun, I don't think about anything.
It's it's all muscle memory. It comes up, I click
the safety off, I find a spot. You know, the
same thing with the bow. So quality, quality weapons and skill.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It's it's funny I put that further down the list.
And for me, you know, we don't shoot far here
in the South. We just really don't like especially if
you're if you're hunting bears, they're typically in the You're
not gonna be shooting them in the field here. Like
you you might have one hundred yards that you might
(13:39):
see a bear through the woods, and at that point
they're probably gonna look like just a shadow, and so
we're not having to stretch out like in the West.
And so actually the first buck I ever killed, I
killed with the Mossburg five hundred day twelve gauge with
number four buckshot had he had pellets, he up in
(14:02):
his neck, broke his back leg like it was just
like cloud caught.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
The first buck I ever killed was with a shotgun too,
a buck shot, and it was it was a spike.
And it's similar over here in western Washington as well.
So like most of my shots are probably fifty yards
or less on bear, and sometimes a lot closer. I really,
I mean I could shoot farther obviously, but I even
in eastern Washington, where it's more arid, more open, I
(14:29):
don't take three, four or five hundred yard shots. I
just don't. I like to get close. Even last year
when I got this white tail, I saw him from
like six hundred yards and I crept up to within
one hundred yards of them and then shot him just
because I like to get close. And so, yeah, you
and I are very similar in that respect.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, I've gotten where I'll stretch it out more and
there's guys that's like nothing to him to take a
six hundred yard shot, you know, but that's what they
like to do. Yeah, and so you got to figure
out your method. But for me, you know, it doesn't
take a lot to specifically with a firearm to be
(15:11):
able to be proficient with it, especially at like one
hundred yards or like sub two hundred yards. One thing
I will say about gear when you're talking about a
rifle and scope and ammo, I think the AMMO is
the most important thing in the equation. And then also
I would say, make sure you don't get too powerful
(15:33):
of an optic, like you want to low powered scope
when you're in like a southern forested kind of area,
like you want like a two to ten you know,
would be a good choice. And then but in the South,
your best opportunity is going to be more with archery.
(15:53):
And so if you're not proficient with with a bow,
a lot of times you can use a crossbow and
that that really cuts the learning curve down, you know,
So a lot of things can go wrong if you're
not willing to put in a lot of time shooting
targets with a compound. So if you if you feel
(16:15):
like you're somebody that's not diligent and feel like you're
not gonna get out there and put your reps in. Uh,
you know, I would say crossbow would be the way
to go. My number one was mapping software. I use
Onyx on every single thing that I do.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That was ten.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well. So the reason I put that is I can
go into an area I'm unfamiliar with and navigate it's
easy to get turned around. And I'm thinking about this
from terms of somebody just getting into into hunting that
doesn't have the wismanship, doesn't have like anything any history
(16:58):
to lean on, probably what a boy scout but wants
to get out there and do it, And especially when
you're in areas where there's a lot of public and
private merging, like we don't always have huge tracks in
the South for you know, public land, so you could
easily get on somebody else's property and sometimes it looks
(17:21):
like a checkerboard. And so for me, like a mapping
software is really important.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Totally agree on X has has helped me, you know, enormously,
and it's it's gotten our hunt cap hunt camp. A
couple of deer like you go by and you don't
realize that that piece of property is owned by the
state or something and it is no one's hunting it.
We go in there and ended up getting a deer
and quick story on that. I actually went to our
(17:47):
jeweler in town the other day and a couple of
years ago he was telling me a story. He was
out hiking in this place called Paradise out out in
the mountains Washington. He got turned around and he got lost.
I think it was for like a day. It was.
I think it was overnight. He got way turned around,
but it was in it was in August. It was,
you know, cooler or decent weather. Long story short, he
(18:10):
got turned around, found his way out, but he was
all tore up, beat up. He was an older guy.
And I told him about on X and this this
last week when I went in there, and he said
he had bought that and been using it and he's
he was like, man, this thing's a godsend. It's you know,
I wish it would have had it before. And how you
can save maps so when you're not online. Yeah, it's
a great tool.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Yeah. Another thing that just a little quick tip on
on X. If you're ever looking for an animal and
you're blood trailing or whatever, like, immediately start a new
track and you can see where you've walked and where
you've gritted, and you're not like, you know, going over
the same area over and over and over again. So
(18:52):
it works well, I'm told with when guys are going
and looking for sheds as well to grid out an area.
Oh yeah, my number two. I really put a lot
of thought into my boots. Specifically in a western hunt.
It doesn't matter as much to me here in the South.
(19:14):
There's not a lot of I mean, when you leave
the road, I mean, if you just walk a couple miles,
you'll probably come to another another road. Like, it's just
not as big of a deal. A lot of times
I'm torn between where my mountain boots and and my
knee boots here where I'm at. But having the right
(19:35):
boot for whatever you're doing, Like, you got to take
care of your feet, and I think that that's a
really important thing whenever I'm thinking about where I'm going
or what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, you got to have you got to have healthy feet. Right.
You don't realize how much you use your feet or
your back until you hurt it, and then you're like, oh,
I use this all the freaking time, and it hurts.
Baldy Boots is definitely up there. My number two was
was a good knife or knife set and a sharpener
with and so my knife set, I have kind of
(20:10):
a heavier bladed knife. I have like a skinny knife,
and I actually have a filet knife, and I have
a little sharpener that I bring. And specifically with Bear,
I have noticed that their hide, for whatever reason, seems
to dull knives way faster than elk or deer. I
don't know why it is. I don't know if it's
just more coarse or the fat or what it is,
but it's important to have a sharpener, to take the
(20:32):
time to take a rest, grab a drink of water,
sharpen those blades, and then continue on. I think that's
really important with Bear.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, yeah, I mean we've done a lot with just
simple have lines and so whenever you're thinking about your gear,
I had. I've got some friends in their role of
thumb is whenever I buy a new tool that I've
never used before, I'll go to Harbor Freight and just
buy cheap one, and if I use that enough to
(21:02):
wear it out, then I'll go get a different one,
you know, Like I'll give a nice name Brandwin And
I think that that's a good idea whenever you're coming
into hunting, too, is like on X is kind of universal,
like you know, just get it, but maybe not get
the package for all the states. Just focus on the
state that you're going to be hunting and get that
(21:23):
package with boots. Get a pair of boots that fits you, like,
fit your feet good. You know, it gives you good
ankle support on the left and right roles. And but
you don't have to go and buy the five hundred
dollars mountain boot. You know, you could go and find
a decent hiking boot like I've I've hunted in like
(21:45):
a pair of hiking boots some Solomon's I was actually
in in Washington and the Cascades, and they worked. They
weren't as good as my my kinetrec said it I have,
but they worked just fine. So you can always take breaks,
but you know, you don't want to always break the bank,
like go out there, use the stuff that you can afford,
(22:07):
and just get out there and then start building up
your pack from there. So start cheap and work your
way up into the things that you know, give yourself
time to to hone in your you know, your whole setup.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I would agree with that, Like I don't. I don't
think people need to out and completely break the bank.
And I actually I kind of encourage that. Like, you know,
our grandparents they were out there with blue jeans and
flannel shirts, and they probably didn't stay out there as
long as we do. Necessarily they didn't have as nice
a gear. But there's been a lot of deer killed
in blue jeans and bear too, right, So yeah, just
get what you can afford and get quality stuff as
(22:42):
best you can.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, I mean, especially bears. Bears don't care as much.
And you know, I kind of like I've gotten nowhere.
When I do get new gear, new technical gear, I
typically buy the solid colors, Like I don't go as
much for the cameo anymore. Like sure, there's benefits to it,
but it's like some of these things are becoming so
expensive that I'm just not willing to spend that much
(23:07):
on something that I'm only going to get one use
out of. And so it's like I'm going to use
it when I'm in the woods, but I'm also gonna
wear them to church.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You know, or wherever.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You know, they definitely cost more than dress slacks some
of them. But I mean we can go ahead and
talk about clothes. I mean I grew up hunting in
just a pair of coveralls, and I would wear blue jeans,
a T shirt sometimes pajamas underneath, and I you know,
(23:38):
I just put on a pair of coveralls and that
was good for you know, up to pretty cold temperature
and temperatures. And back then there were you know, one
hundred and something dollars. They're probably not too much more now.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, I mean I kind of look like a collage
of various gear when I go out there. So you know,
I'll have like first light gators on and some you know,
some one hundred and fifty dollars boots, and then I
might have you know, like a wool long sleeve shirt on,
and then you know, I'm just all hopoged together. I'm
(24:13):
not like the Sitka model or the you know, Couu
model or any of that stuff, but I have that stuff
sparkled throughout my sprinkled throughout my outfit.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
But yeah, yeah, no, whenever I first started buying my
own stuff, and you know, I shopped, they used to
have the bargain cave at Cabella's I got a bunch
of stuff from there, and then camofire dot com. I've
got a lot of stuff from there, and you know,
just mix and match. It doesn't matter like you don't.
(24:44):
You just need to be able to make it out there,
you know. And the biggest thing in the South is
be still, you know, don't move a lot. And uh
so it's it's a lot more skill. I mean there's
guys that are really like good whitetail hunters, like what's
his name, Cody to Cristio that he just goes out
(25:07):
there in flannels and pants and you know, gets big
old heer, you know. And it's one of those things
to where there's diminished gains whenever you get past a
certain threshold. And I talked to the guys up at
Vortex here a few months back, and there's a big
(25:27):
jump from like a you know, crossfire to a viper
level inside of their line of scopes. But whenever you
go from a viper to a razor, the margin of
gain is a lot less like dollar for gain, you know.
And so you don't always have to go and get
the most expensive You just get something that works and
(25:51):
the thing that you're gonna gain and I think we're
just gonna get off the list and just talk about
different things now, but just for the sake of time,
because we're we're kind of there. But in terms of glass,
as far as binos and stuff, we don't use a
lot of buyos down here because you know, they just
they're nice to have, but you don't have to have them.
(26:14):
We've used rifle scopes, I use my I use my
range finder all the time just to give me a
little bit of extra clarity to what I'm looking at.
And so here in the South you don't have to
worry as much about wait and stuff, but out west,
you know, And the more that we talk about this,
the more it's like, man, we're gonna have to do
(26:35):
specific talks at some point of what it looks like
hunting in the South versus the West, because you know,
it can be really simple in those areas for people
that grew up there and lived there and know their areas.
The main thing about this podcast is I just want
people not to feel like they have to go and
buy the most expensive thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
No, I tell a lot of people that to like,
just go out with what you have right, gather what
you can get equality stuff when you can and just
go out there and have fun and a lot of
just especially when you're a beginner, a lot of it
is just getting boots on the ground, getting to know
your hunting areas, getting to know sign of bear and scat,
(27:20):
and you know mark or trees and the trails that
they use and stuff like that, so that can pay
dividends down the road. You get a good knowledge of
a hunting area, and your odds of success increase with
your knowledge, and so that that'll pay out regardless of
the gear that you have.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So for me, one of the things that has changed
the game when I'm out west specifically, or when I'm
baiting bears and I'm packing bait in down here in
the South, just anytime I'm carrying load or going up
and down some steeper terrain, trekking polls have been a
game changer for me. I I didn't grow up in
(28:00):
the mountains. I grew up as a flat lander. You know,
there were some hills there here and there, and I
grew up in East Texas. Whenever I went up on
my first hunt in Montana, I was so like I
wouldn't have made it without trekking poles. Uh and uh,
I'm glad I was listening to Randy Newberg back then.
(28:22):
That was back when he started using them.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
They help, Like my dad has two faake knees and
he's seventy eight and you know Marine Corvette Vietnam VET
and the Trekking poles he uses. You know, they helped
him quite a bit. And he you know, he still
gets after it, you know. Game sack. That was my
number four. I skipped number three. Number three was quality.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Pack pack for me too. I was up there.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
But I use those Caribou game bags and I had
found those to be very beneficial. You know, like the
flies they can't they can't lay in them like uh,
you know, put blow on their their a. You can
wash them, you know. Uh, they have the nice dross
ring on there. They're sturdy. So I I have used
Caribou game bags for years. I'm not sponsored by them,
(29:10):
but I do recommend them, and i've you know, I
just wash them and bleach and and and keep you
reusing them.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got some Moregali ones I like,
and uh, I've used some qu ones and but even
those basic ones from from Kabela's like I've used them,
and they do. They do fine too. They're they seem
to have a little bit more access, like the gaps
are wider in the in the weave, gotcha. Yeah. And
(29:40):
one of the things like trekking polls, I like the
Argalli's uh because they have a thing you can screw
in the top of one of them that h makes
it a rifle rest, uh too, And so that could
be beneficial for because whenever I'm thinking about shooting some
sort of firearm, one of the most important things to
(30:02):
me over everything else is just being stable whenever I shoot,
you know, like I could use the cheapest rifle and
the cheapest scope, and a lot of times if I'm
just if I can get stable and steady and somebody
else can't, I'm probably gonna shoot better, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, it's so, but a steady rest is definitely worth
the effort to get that in your setup, whether it's
a tree limb or you know, your pack or something.
If you can steady yourself, that's definitely beneficial. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And I know you get a call somewhere on your list.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, call is number five, so that you know that's
one of the that's one of the things that kind
of varies from my deer season. Although I bring a
call with me when I go deer hunting, but I
definitely don't. I don't leave the door bear hunting without
a predator call around my neck or or and or
in my pack. So I usually have one or two
with me, but I usually always have one around my
(31:06):
neck in case I see a bear, you know, maybe
in the brush or darting it out of a clear
cut into the tree line or something. I will use
that to try to coax that animal out to get
a shot. And a lot of people, especially new predator
callers or people who read my book or whatever, they're
you know, oh, I don't I don't sound right. I
sound horrible, you know, I don't sound like an alk
(31:28):
or this or that. And I'm like, hey, man or lady,
you don't have to sound perfect, right. Your whole goal
is to just sound raspy, annoying, wounded, scared to kick
that predator response. And so that adds that adds an
advantage to those who don't carry it necessarily.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
So yeah, well, also, whenever you're walking through the woods
and you make a loud sound or something, if you
have a call, that sounds like an animal. Well, if
you make that sound, they're not going to be thinking,
oh person, They'll be like, oh whatever.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, no, elk hunters will be able to relate to
that because you know, I hunt up too. And if
you're in a herd and you're making noise and you
do a couple of cow calls or something, they and
the wind is right, they don't care at all. Like
you can be noisy in an elk herd. In fact,
I think they almost prefer it because if you're sneaking
around and then you kind of call there, eh, they're
kind of iffy. But I've walked in herds with the
(32:28):
right wind plenty noisy, and they just they think you're
an elk unless they see you, obviously, But if it's
super thick brush or something, you can get away with
a lot as long as they think you're something.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, I think this is a good start. I mean,
I wish we could dive deeper into them, and I
think we're going to have to, but I think it's
a good start to just you know, a list a
few things that people need. I mean, here's the thing,
like I whenever I came on that hunt in Washington,
there was some locals that came out and T shirts
and just blue jeans in a Nissan Frontier. That bed
(33:04):
was only held on by a ratchet strap. All three
of them piled out in tennis shoes, and they went
further than we went when we hacked back with our
with all of our gear. You know, they were just
I mean they went back miles just like one rifle.
Three guys I don't even remember if they had backpacks
(33:26):
on and tennis shoes, and so you just got to
get out there.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You know, gotta get after it.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean here's the thing. You go out
there and do the best you can with what you have,
and then you upgrade after that. And in the grand
scheme of things, if you talk to a lot of people,
the first scene to upgrade would be like boots and glass,
particularly in the West, like having really good glass to
(33:55):
be able to see out further, maybe out of tripods
so you're stable whenever your glass and just just you know,
stuff like that. But those are things that you if
you went and got the best from the get go,
you have ten grand fast just out the door. You know.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Glass is a good thing to spend money on, right
because you don't want, especially in the in the West
where it rains, foggy, whatever, we have a lot of moisture,
and so if you go out to go deer hunting
and your scopes flogged up, right, you can't shoot your scope,
you can't shoot your rifle. So that's that's no good.
So you know, like loo loophold, they have, you know,
(34:33):
the gold Ring standard, so if something happens, they have
that lifetime warranty. I have loopholed scopes on all my
guns that have scopes on them. Anyway, and as far
as bear hunting goes, like, I rarely ever bring a
spotter scope with me if I'm if I'm bear hunting,
I'll do that maybe in eastern Washington as a as
(34:54):
you know, if I'm gonna go l hunting, I'll bring
that for for bear for fun. But bino's I in
the West, I always have binos with me because similar
to you, it's a lot of it's very close, right,
I mean, it might be a couple hundred yards that
you're looking, but a lot of a lot of the
areas I hunt are Northwest jungles, like they're thick, so
(35:16):
you don't really need a spotter scope, but quality glass,
quality binos, that's important.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, there's a there's a lot of places in southern
Oregon where you need to glass further because of the
way that the topography is, you really can't glass close,
so you're going to be glassing cross canyon. And uh,
whenever I was there last, I really wish that I
had had a little bit more power behind my binos.
(35:45):
So I usually run a ten by forty two. I
was wishing I had at least some twelves if not,
you know a little more, And it all depends on
the area that you're in. But you can get by
with ten by forty two is just about anywhere. It
just you know, might be limiting at times to not
be able to see a little further out, but a
(36:06):
good tripod will stretch that. So like a tripod or
something steady that you can look through takes all that
extra movement that gets taken out is a game changer
whenever you're going. I didn't own buy those before I
started hunting the West, Like we just never used them
(36:29):
growing up, And so these are things that I've had
to learn as I've you know, started getting further and
further out inside of the things that I do, and
so I don't think that you need everything. But because
like whenever I take my spoder, I just I hardly
use it. I like to have it, especially now that
(36:52):
they've gotten lighter. I've got one of those really light
razors that Vortex makes, and it's all awesome, and but
I end up I end up on those hunts looking
at Elka mule deer. I don't know that I've looked
at too many bears through that.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You know, I like spotters, but it's almost a form
of entertainment for me because I'll find myself where I
go deer hunting, I'll be looking at mountain goats and
I'll be like, oh man, these mountain goats are so cool,
and I'll just watch them for hours, or you know,
if I'm if I find a good glass knob. I
just enjoy picking things apart with those spotter scopes. They
(37:33):
are a lot of fun. But again, like I don't
really use it for bear necessarily because most, like I said,
most of my hunting's thick in western Washington. Eastern Washington
is open, like you were you were talking about in Oregon.
You know you're probably an Eastern Oregon or something of
that effect, and that's pretty open yet.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, people at the
end of this episode might be thinking, I don't know
that I really know what gear to go for I
learned anything in this And you know, it's like, well,
that's kind of the point that gear doesn't matter. You're
the thing that matters, you know, like it's all the
other things that really truly matter. You know, these are
(38:11):
just a few things on a list that could help
you add to the things that you're bringing yourself into
the equation.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
The one other thing that I would mention before we
probably end this is like, at least where I hunt,
leather gloves And that might sound kind of silly or
whatever to some people, but some of the places I've
killed bears, like it's an eight foot wall of BlackBerry
thorn brush that you have to like either crawl through
(38:40):
through a bear tunnel or cut your way through to
get to the animal. So it can be pretty brutal
on your hands. But leather gloves, you can just grab
those thorns vines and just you know, move them out
of your way. It's no big deal. Those are very
handy for me, so and they help keep flies and
mosquitoes and crap like that off your hands too.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
So yeah, Trekking pulls up with with briars and stuff too. Yeah,
I use those a lot. No, I usually keep a
pair of leather gloves inside of my packs all the time.
You just never know when you're gonna need them. So
next time we talk, well, we'll dive into you know,
what you look for whenever we are scouting for bears.
(39:23):
We'll start talking about sign and just some of the
things that you've written about inside of inside of the magazine.
You know, we'll dive into sizing them, judging them, and
we'll talk about some shot placement and stuff too. So cool.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Well, thanks Doug, thank you for having me anytime, happy
to help.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Awesome, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
The Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast is recorded by Bear
Hunting Magazine and produced by Mountain Gravity Media.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Be sure leave us a five star review on iTunes
and keep guarding
Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast with me
Koby Moorehead. We're gonna nerd out on bears hunting and
the outdoors. We'll tell stories, talk biology, tactics, gear, and
the fight to protect the pursuits that we hold dear.
So grab your binos, lace up your boots, load up
your barrels, and gather the hounds we venture on this
journey together. Welcome to another episode of the Bear Hunting
(00:42):
Magazine Hunt Cast Man. We've been getting some news this week.
First off, Proposition one twenty seven, the ballot box initiative
up in Colorado has been squashed, so good job hunters.
And then the presidential election went down this week and
we have a new president, so we can just look
(01:04):
forward to the future and see what all plays out
from there. Today I'm joined by Doug Bows. Doug riots
a column in every issue of Bear Hunting Magazine, and
he's a wealth of information. Now his stomping grounds are
up in Washington State, so it doesn't translate to everywhere,
but there's a lot of things that are universal inside
(01:25):
of bear hunting. And today we're talking about what you
bring and what you'll find is half of the conversation.
We're talking about the things you bring that are not
gear related, and it is universal to all of the
pursuits of bear. And then we'll dive into a little
gear and it's going to be leaning a little more
towards what Doug does, but I bring up things concerning
(01:50):
what you would do a little bit more in the south. Now,
this isn't a deep gear dive. We'll do that stuff
at a later point, but this is just kind of
like a general thing. And ultimately the goal of this
particular episode is just to encourage you to figure out
what you like, what works for you, and to understand
that the most important thing you bring with you is
(02:12):
inside of you. This is meant to make it to
where it's a little bit easier for you to get
in the outdoors, especially if you're starting out. Share with
the buddy that's interested, and let's get into it.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Hey Doug, Hey Golby, how are you, sir? Thanks for
having me on.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Yeah, I'm doing good. We're in the thick of waitetail
season here.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well I'm jealous. Our dear season ended well a week
or two ago, and so now the special draw people
will get to go out and hunt a little bit,
but my dear, season's pretty much done with.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So you're actually you're in Washington state, right.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, don't hate me. I'm in Washington. I'm sixty miles
north of Seattle. So when people ask me where I live,
I say the Seattle area, But in reality, I live
in a little town that's got a bar and a
post office, and so I'm pretty backwoods when it comes
to that.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, you know, I've fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest,
and I've been there two or three times in the
last year and a half, and I just I love
it out there, and it's so vast, it's so rule
and if you just thought of it from you know,
what you see on the news or whatever, you would
think it was just like cities everywhere. But it's it's
(03:33):
not really the case. It's a beautiful and sometimes treacherous place.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It can't be. I think the North Cascades National Park
is leads the country for people who go missing or
people who have died in it, So it's a dangerous park.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, how many sasquatch sidings?
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I get one every time I look in the mirror, Ashley.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I like it, but no like out in the West,
there's a lot of draws. There's a lot of things
you have to put in for years and build up points.
Some of them are pure lottery systems to where it's
just luck of the draw every time, where everybody has
equal opportunity at drawing something. And the one exception to
(04:23):
a lot of those draws are actually bears. There's a
lot of these Western states to where you can get
a bear tag over the counter, And that's one of
the reasons bears are just so special because they can
get you into places where you might have to wait
a really long time to get into a particular unit
or area to hunt anything else. I really love that
(04:44):
about bears, that there's just so much I mean, you
can just go hunt most anywhere with the bear tag.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That's what I love about bear too. Like in Washington
currently it's August first till November fifteenth, that's our bear season.
And so even though like deer and elk is over
for me, I still got till I got another what
ten days of bear season, and I'm gonna go out
and in the next couple of days and give it
a shot. But yeah, I mean, it's a great time.
You can you can start early, and you almost finish
(05:15):
out the year with it. So it's it's a lot
of fun. It's it's different, it's different experience, and it
keeps you out in the woods longer.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
So yeah, the thing we're gonna mainly deal with today
is we're gonna be talking about things that we need.
This is a part where I feel like people really
start to get snagged up and start to feel overwhelmed.
And so before we dive into other episodes where we
(05:43):
talk about tactics of actually hunting a bear, finding a bear,
you know, just different tips and tactics, we're gonna start
out with the actual gear because that's a lot of
the pre work that you have to put in. It's
just good to be prepared and not to feel overwhelmed
before you even get started, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
So uh.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, and here you I want. One of the things
I wanted to say is like, before you get into
actually like physical things, I call them real number ones
on a kind of a list that I wrote down,
one was having like really good friends or a mentor
to go out there and bear hunter get into hunting.
(06:28):
I think the greatest thing you can have, and I
think this is universal for all things is just a
good attitude and just good positive mental attitude whenever you're
going out there or even thinking about going out there.
Because it's a boy, you get whooped with a frustration
stick real quick.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, there's a lot of non tangible needs in hunting
in general, like abilities that you need, so perseverance, patience, determination,
a strong mental ability, strong physical ability. You know, if
we could go on that's that's a whole episode in itself, really,
(07:06):
but I agree with you, like you gotta have you
gotta have patience and if you don't have a good
mentor kicking back to what you said earlier, that's half
the reason that wrote my book The Ultimate Guide to
Black Bear Hunting is so if you're an adult on
set hunter or somebody who's never hunted bear and stuff
like that, you can check that out and that will
give you an edge, that will that will calm down
(07:29):
that learning curve that kicks a lot of people in
the butt for several years. Yeah, if you burn through
that book.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
So, and one thing that I find whenever I'm talking
to people that are just getting into hunting, like it's
not about the tips or the tactics, Like it's not
about how to find this or find that or when
to go. I think the most beneficial thing that I
tell them is just like don't get frustrated, Like you
got to celebrate the fact that you saw something or
(07:57):
that you found sign or that you you know, say
they make a bad shot where they just totally miss
the animal they're shooting at. It's like, how was it
you got on one? Like you had the opportunity, Like, yeah,
you missed, but how was it? You know, Yeah, whether
you're the mentor of the mentee. I think that's something
to really remember, is like you have to you really
(08:20):
have to celebrate the wins, Like find every win to
celebrate because that gives you the momentum. And it also
like builds a really strong, you know, mental game, And
if you don't have a strong mental game, then it's
just not gonna make it, you know, or.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Degree and then you know that's something in life, so
you know, you need to have a strong mental game
to be successful. And then once you're successful, you need
to have that strong mental game to get that animal out.
You know, if you if you give up in life
or give up on things when things get hard, that
ain't gonna help you. I mean, cause it can be
(08:59):
a ground and getting these things out, dear Elk, whatever
it may be, and you just gotta you gotta toughen
it out. Yeah, and along what you said, you know,
I have to remind myself sometimes to just enjoy the moment. Right,
Sometimes something's coming in or something you want to get
it on camera or whatever or on you know, on
(09:20):
your phone, and and I'll stop myself and be like,
just enjoy this, Like you don't have to capture everything
and post everything and compete with other people. Just take
the time to enjoy the moment that has been given
to you. I think that's really important that people stop
and do that.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, this year, I haven't really been trying to film
or record much. I've just really am working on becoming
a better woodsman or just seeing what I can learn
and getting rid of some of the distractions. Because one
of the biggest things that goes against us is comparing
ourselves or letting ourselves be shaped by what we see
(09:58):
portrayed to us on you know, whatever outlet, whether it
be social media or you know, some sort of show
we're watching. There's you can't put everything in something that
you do post work on. So there's no sense in
comparing yourself to say that, oh, this is my first
time out, but I need to go for a mature animal.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's like you got to get some reps in at
some point, you know. And I'm not saying go out
there and go after a cub or something, but you know,
you need to go out there and just experience it,
and you need to experience success. And I don't think
that whenever you I mean, we don't expect kids to
(10:43):
be really selective whenever they're going out, you know, like
when you carry a kid out deer hunt, you're like, hey,
there's a spike, shoot.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
It, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, And I think we need to do the same
thing with people that are get trying to get into
these things as adults, where it's like, you know, you
have a enough pressures trying to do something the first time.
Just find a win, celebrate a win, and don't worry about,
you know, what other people are going to say or think.
And ultimately, like your first animal, you don't want to
(11:13):
be a big animal because that's a lot of work
all the way through. Like last year in Arkansas, I
killed a bear that we think was around five hundred pounds.
And by the end of that night, when I got
home in the single digits of the morning, I was like,
what am I doing with my life? Like I was,
I was beat up and whooped, you know. And anyways,
(11:39):
don't bite off more than you can get you and
don't take on something that's like two way outside of
your reach or your experience. But anyways, we better jump
into this to this.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Yeah, we're going.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
What was kind of the first thing you wrote down
on your list?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Okay, so I wrote down ten things, but the first
and foremost thing was like a quality weapon with quality
ammo or you know, broadheads, aeroshafts, that type of stuff,
and the skill to use it. So I know that.
I mean that goes for all hunting, right, but don't
give your don't get yourself a decent weapon and then
(12:17):
put in a crap bullet that's that's cheap and will
shatter upon hitting the animal like I have done that before.
I was like, oh this, you know, this box is
five dollars cheaper than the other box or whatever, and
I'm gonna do that. And then it shoots and it
blows apart and it doesn't retain its weight, and you
know it might wound the animal or something like that.
Take the time and the money and lots of times
(12:38):
it's not much money or extra money to buy yourself
a quality weapon and become familiar with it. You know,
don't borrow your buddy's gun for the first time and
then go out. Spend time to get to know your
weapon or bow or whatever, you know, whatever your weapon
of choice is. And you know, like for me, when
I'm hunting, it's it's almost muscle memory, like if it's
(12:59):
time to shoot or something that I don't think about safety,
the safety on the gun, I don't think about anything.
It's it's all muscle memory. It comes up, I click
the safety off, I find a spot. You know, the
same thing with the bow. So quality, quality weapons and skill.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It's it's funny I put that further down the list.
And for me, you know, we don't shoot far here
in the South. We just really don't like especially if
you're if you're hunting bears, they're typically in the You're
not gonna be shooting them in the field here. Like
you you might have one hundred yards that you might
(13:39):
see a bear through the woods, and at that point
they're probably gonna look like just a shadow, and so
we're not having to stretch out like in the West.
And so actually the first buck I ever killed, I
killed with the Mossburg five hundred day twelve gauge with
number four buckshot had he had pellets, he up in
(14:02):
his neck, broke his back leg like it was just
like cloud caught.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
The first buck I ever killed was with a shotgun too,
a buck shot, and it was it was a spike.
And it's similar over here in western Washington as well.
So like most of my shots are probably fifty yards
or less on bear, and sometimes a lot closer. I really,
I mean I could shoot farther obviously, but I even
in eastern Washington, where it's more arid, more open, I
(14:29):
don't take three, four or five hundred yard shots. I
just don't. I like to get close. Even last year
when I got this white tail, I saw him from
like six hundred yards and I crept up to within
one hundred yards of them and then shot him just
because I like to get close. And so, yeah, you
and I are very similar in that respect.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, I've gotten where I'll stretch it out more and
there's guys that's like nothing to him to take a
six hundred yard shot, you know, but that's what they
like to do. Yeah, and so you got to figure
out your method. But for me, you know, it doesn't
take a lot to specifically with a firearm to be
(15:11):
able to be proficient with it, especially at like one
hundred yards or like sub two hundred yards. One thing
I will say about gear when you're talking about a
rifle and scope and ammo, I think the AMMO is
the most important thing in the equation. And then also
I would say, make sure you don't get too powerful
(15:33):
of an optic, like you want to low powered scope
when you're in like a southern forested kind of area,
like you want like a two to ten you know,
would be a good choice. And then but in the South,
your best opportunity is going to be more with archery.
(15:53):
And so if you're not proficient with with a bow,
a lot of times you can use a crossbow and
that that really cuts the learning curve down, you know,
So a lot of things can go wrong if you're
not willing to put in a lot of time shooting
targets with a compound. So if you if you feel
(16:15):
like you're somebody that's not diligent and feel like you're
not gonna get out there and put your reps in. Uh,
you know, I would say crossbow would be the way
to go. My number one was mapping software. I use
Onyx on every single thing that I do.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
That was ten.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Well. So the reason I put that is I can
go into an area I'm unfamiliar with and navigate it's
easy to get turned around. And I'm thinking about this
from terms of somebody just getting into into hunting that
doesn't have the wismanship, doesn't have like anything any history
(16:58):
to lean on, probably what a boy scout but wants
to get out there and do it, And especially when
you're in areas where there's a lot of public and
private merging, like we don't always have huge tracks in
the South for you know, public land, so you could
easily get on somebody else's property and sometimes it looks
(17:21):
like a checkerboard. And so for me, like a mapping
software is really important.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Totally agree on X has has helped me, you know, enormously,
and it's it's gotten our hunt cap hunt camp. A
couple of deer like you go by and you don't
realize that that piece of property is owned by the
state or something and it is no one's hunting it.
We go in there and ended up getting a deer
and quick story on that. I actually went to our
(17:47):
jeweler in town the other day and a couple of
years ago he was telling me a story. He was
out hiking in this place called Paradise out out in
the mountains Washington. He got turned around and he got lost.
I think it was for like a day. It was.
I think it was overnight. He got way turned around,
but it was in it was in August. It was,
you know, cooler or decent weather. Long story short, he
(18:10):
got turned around, found his way out, but he was
all tore up, beat up. He was an older guy.
And I told him about on X and this this
last week when I went in there, and he said
he had bought that and been using it and he's
he was like, man, this thing's a godsend. It's you know,
I wish it would have had it before. And how you
can save maps so when you're not online. Yeah, it's
a great tool.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Yeah. Another thing that just a little quick tip on
on X. If you're ever looking for an animal and
you're blood trailing or whatever, like, immediately start a new
track and you can see where you've walked and where
you've gritted, and you're not like, you know, going over
the same area over and over and over again. So
(18:52):
it works well, I'm told with when guys are going
and looking for sheds as well to grid out an area.
Oh yeah, my number two. I really put a lot
of thought into my boots. Specifically in a western hunt.
It doesn't matter as much to me here in the South.
(19:14):
There's not a lot of I mean, when you leave
the road, I mean, if you just walk a couple miles,
you'll probably come to another another road. Like, it's just
not as big of a deal. A lot of times
I'm torn between where my mountain boots and and my
knee boots here where I'm at. But having the right
(19:35):
boot for whatever you're doing, Like, you got to take
care of your feet, and I think that that's a
really important thing whenever I'm thinking about where I'm going
or what I'm going to do.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, you got to have you got to have healthy feet. Right.
You don't realize how much you use your feet or
your back until you hurt it, and then you're like, oh,
I use this all the freaking time, and it hurts.
Baldy Boots is definitely up there. My number two was
was a good knife or knife set and a sharpener
with and so my knife set, I have kind of
(20:10):
a heavier bladed knife. I have like a skinny knife,
and I actually have a filet knife, and I have
a little sharpener that I bring. And specifically with Bear,
I have noticed that their hide, for whatever reason, seems
to dull knives way faster than elk or deer. I
don't know why it is. I don't know if it's
just more coarse or the fat or what it is,
but it's important to have a sharpener, to take the
(20:32):
time to take a rest, grab a drink of water,
sharpen those blades, and then continue on. I think that's
really important with Bear.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Yeah, yeah, I mean we've done a lot with just
simple have lines and so whenever you're thinking about your gear,
I had. I've got some friends in their role of
thumb is whenever I buy a new tool that I've
never used before, I'll go to Harbor Freight and just
buy cheap one, and if I use that enough to
(21:02):
wear it out, then I'll go get a different one,
you know, Like I'll give a nice name Brandwin And
I think that that's a good idea whenever you're coming
into hunting, too, is like on X is kind of universal,
like you know, just get it, but maybe not get
the package for all the states. Just focus on the
state that you're going to be hunting and get that
(21:23):
package with boots. Get a pair of boots that fits you, like,
fit your feet good. You know, it gives you good
ankle support on the left and right roles. And but
you don't have to go and buy the five hundred
dollars mountain boot. You know, you could go and find
a decent hiking boot like I've I've hunted in like
(21:45):
a pair of hiking boots some Solomon's I was actually
in in Washington and the Cascades, and they worked. They
weren't as good as my my kinetrec said it I have,
but they worked just fine. So you can always take breaks,
but you know, you don't want to always break the bank,
like go out there, use the stuff that you can afford,
(22:07):
and just get out there and then start building up
your pack from there. So start cheap and work your
way up into the things that you know, give yourself
time to to hone in your you know, your whole setup.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
I would agree with that, Like I don't. I don't
think people need to out and completely break the bank.
And I actually I kind of encourage that. Like, you know,
our grandparents they were out there with blue jeans and
flannel shirts, and they probably didn't stay out there as
long as we do. Necessarily they didn't have as nice
a gear. But there's been a lot of deer killed
in blue jeans and bear too, right, So yeah, just
get what you can afford and get quality stuff as
(22:42):
best you can.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah, I mean, especially bears. Bears don't care as much.
And you know, I kind of like I've gotten nowhere.
When I do get new gear, new technical gear, I
typically buy the solid colors, Like I don't go as
much for the cameo anymore. Like sure, there's benefits to it,
but it's like some of these things are becoming so
expensive that I'm just not willing to spend that much
(23:07):
on something that I'm only going to get one use
out of. And so it's like I'm going to use
it when I'm in the woods, but I'm also gonna
wear them to church.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
You know, or wherever.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You know, they definitely cost more than dress slacks some
of them. But I mean we can go ahead and
talk about clothes. I mean I grew up hunting in
just a pair of coveralls, and I would wear blue jeans,
a T shirt sometimes pajamas underneath, and I you know,
(23:38):
I just put on a pair of coveralls and that
was good for you know, up to pretty cold temperature
and temperatures. And back then there were you know, one
hundred and something dollars. They're probably not too much more now.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Yeah, I mean I kind of look like a collage
of various gear when I go out there. So you know,
I'll have like first light gators on and some you know,
some one hundred and fifty dollars boots, and then I
might have you know, like a wool long sleeve shirt on,
and then you know, I'm just all hopoged together. I'm
(24:13):
not like the Sitka model or the you know, Couu
model or any of that stuff, but I have that stuff
sparkled throughout my sprinkled throughout my outfit.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
But yeah, yeah, no, whenever I first started buying my
own stuff, and you know, I shopped, they used to
have the bargain cave at Cabella's I got a bunch
of stuff from there, and then camofire dot com. I've
got a lot of stuff from there, and you know,
just mix and match. It doesn't matter like you don't.
(24:44):
You just need to be able to make it out there,
you know. And the biggest thing in the South is
be still, you know, don't move a lot. And uh
so it's it's a lot more skill. I mean there's
guys that are really like good whitetail hunters, like what's
his name, Cody to Cristio that he just goes out
(25:07):
there in flannels and pants and you know, gets big
old heer, you know. And it's one of those things
to where there's diminished gains whenever you get past a
certain threshold. And I talked to the guys up at
Vortex here a few months back, and there's a big
(25:27):
jump from like a you know, crossfire to a viper
level inside of their line of scopes. But whenever you
go from a viper to a razor, the margin of
gain is a lot less like dollar for gain, you know.
And so you don't always have to go and get
the most expensive You just get something that works and
(25:51):
the thing that you're gonna gain and I think we're
just gonna get off the list and just talk about
different things now, but just for the sake of time,
because we're we're kind of there. But in terms of glass,
as far as binos and stuff, we don't use a
lot of buyos down here because you know, they just
they're nice to have, but you don't have to have them.
(26:14):
We've used rifle scopes, I use my I use my
range finder all the time just to give me a
little bit of extra clarity to what I'm looking at.
And so here in the South you don't have to
worry as much about wait and stuff, but out west,
you know, And the more that we talk about this,
the more it's like, man, we're gonna have to do
(26:35):
specific talks at some point of what it looks like
hunting in the South versus the West, because you know,
it can be really simple in those areas for people
that grew up there and lived there and know their areas.
The main thing about this podcast is I just want
people not to feel like they have to go and
buy the most expensive thing, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
No, I tell a lot of people that to like,
just go out with what you have right, gather what
you can get equality stuff when you can and just
go out there and have fun and a lot of
just especially when you're a beginner, a lot of it
is just getting boots on the ground, getting to know
your hunting areas, getting to know sign of bear and scat,
(27:20):
and you know mark or trees and the trails that
they use and stuff like that, so that can pay
dividends down the road. You get a good knowledge of
a hunting area, and your odds of success increase with
your knowledge, and so that that'll pay out regardless of
the gear that you have.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So for me, one of the things that has changed
the game when I'm out west specifically, or when I'm
baiting bears and I'm packing bait in down here in
the South, just anytime I'm carrying load or going up
and down some steeper terrain, trekking polls have been a
game changer for me. I I didn't grow up in
(28:00):
the mountains. I grew up as a flat lander. You know,
there were some hills there here and there, and I
grew up in East Texas. Whenever I went up on
my first hunt in Montana, I was so like I
wouldn't have made it without trekking poles. Uh and uh,
I'm glad I was listening to Randy Newberg back then.
(28:22):
That was back when he started using them.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
They help, Like my dad has two faake knees and
he's seventy eight and you know Marine Corvette Vietnam VET
and the Trekking poles he uses. You know, they helped
him quite a bit. And he you know, he still
gets after it, you know. Game sack. That was my
number four. I skipped number three. Number three was quality.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Pack pack for me too. I was up there.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
But I use those Caribou game bags and I had
found those to be very beneficial. You know, like the
flies they can't they can't lay in them like uh,
you know, put blow on their their a. You can
wash them, you know. Uh, they have the nice dross
ring on there. They're sturdy. So I I have used
Caribou game bags for years. I'm not sponsored by them,
(29:10):
but I do recommend them, and i've you know, I
just wash them and bleach and and and keep you
reusing them.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, I've got some Moregali ones I like,
and uh, I've used some qu ones and but even
those basic ones from from Kabela's like I've used them,
and they do. They do fine too. They're they seem
to have a little bit more access, like the gaps
are wider in the in the weave, gotcha. Yeah. And
(29:40):
one of the things like trekking polls, I like the
Argalli's uh because they have a thing you can screw
in the top of one of them that h makes
it a rifle rest, uh too, And so that could
be beneficial for because whenever I'm thinking about shooting some
sort of firearm, one of the most important things to
(30:02):
me over everything else is just being stable whenever I shoot,
you know, like I could use the cheapest rifle and
the cheapest scope, and a lot of times if I'm
just if I can get stable and steady and somebody
else can't, I'm probably gonna shoot better, you know.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, it's so, but a steady rest is definitely worth
the effort to get that in your setup, whether it's
a tree limb or you know, your pack or something.
If you can steady yourself, that's definitely beneficial. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
And I know you get a call somewhere on your list.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, call is number five, so that you know that's
one of the that's one of the things that kind
of varies from my deer season. Although I bring a
call with me when I go deer hunting, but I
definitely don't. I don't leave the door bear hunting without
a predator call around my neck or or and or
in my pack. So I usually have one or two
with me, but I usually always have one around my
(31:06):
neck in case I see a bear, you know, maybe
in the brush or darting it out of a clear
cut into the tree line or something. I will use
that to try to coax that animal out to get
a shot. And a lot of people, especially new predator
callers or people who read my book or whatever, they're
you know, oh, I don't I don't sound right. I
sound horrible, you know, I don't sound like an alk
(31:28):
or this or that. And I'm like, hey, man or lady,
you don't have to sound perfect, right. Your whole goal
is to just sound raspy, annoying, wounded, scared to kick
that predator response. And so that adds that adds an
advantage to those who don't carry it necessarily.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
So yeah, well, also, whenever you're walking through the woods
and you make a loud sound or something, if you
have a call, that sounds like an animal. Well, if
you make that sound, they're not going to be thinking,
oh person, They'll be like, oh whatever.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yeah, no, elk hunters will be able to relate to
that because you know, I hunt up too. And if
you're in a herd and you're making noise and you
do a couple of cow calls or something, they and
the wind is right, they don't care at all. Like
you can be noisy in an elk herd. In fact,
I think they almost prefer it because if you're sneaking
around and then you kind of call there, eh, they're
kind of iffy. But I've walked in herds with the
(32:28):
right wind plenty noisy, and they just they think you're
an elk unless they see you, obviously, But if it's
super thick brush or something, you can get away with
a lot as long as they think you're something.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, I think this is a good start. I mean,
I wish we could dive deeper into them, and I
think we're going to have to, but I think it's
a good start to just you know, a list a
few things that people need. I mean, here's the thing,
like I whenever I came on that hunt in Washington,
there was some locals that came out and T shirts
and just blue jeans in a Nissan Frontier. That bed
(33:04):
was only held on by a ratchet strap. All three
of them piled out in tennis shoes, and they went
further than we went when we hacked back with our
with all of our gear. You know, they were just
I mean they went back miles just like one rifle.
Three guys I don't even remember if they had backpacks
(33:26):
on and tennis shoes, and so you just got to
get out there.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
You know, gotta get after it.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Yeah, yeah, I mean here's the thing. You go out
there and do the best you can with what you have,
and then you upgrade after that. And in the grand
scheme of things, if you talk to a lot of people,
the first scene to upgrade would be like boots and glass,
particularly in the West, like having really good glass to
(33:55):
be able to see out further, maybe out of tripods
so you're stable whenever your glass and just just you know,
stuff like that. But those are things that you if
you went and got the best from the get go,
you have ten grand fast just out the door. You know.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Glass is a good thing to spend money on, right
because you don't want, especially in the in the West
where it rains, foggy, whatever, we have a lot of moisture,
and so if you go out to go deer hunting
and your scopes flogged up, right, you can't shoot your scope,
you can't shoot your rifle. So that's that's no good.
So you know, like loo loophold, they have, you know,
(34:33):
the gold Ring standard, so if something happens, they have
that lifetime warranty. I have loopholed scopes on all my
guns that have scopes on them. Anyway, and as far
as bear hunting goes, like, I rarely ever bring a
spotter scope with me if I'm if I'm bear hunting,
I'll do that maybe in eastern Washington as a as
(34:54):
you know, if I'm gonna go l hunting, I'll bring
that for for bear for fun. But bino's I in
the West, I always have binos with me because similar
to you, it's a lot of it's very close, right,
I mean, it might be a couple hundred yards that
you're looking, but a lot of a lot of the
areas I hunt are Northwest jungles, like they're thick, so
(35:16):
you don't really need a spotter scope, but quality glass,
quality binos, that's important.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, there's a there's a lot of places in southern
Oregon where you need to glass further because of the
way that the topography is, you really can't glass close,
so you're going to be glassing cross canyon. And uh,
whenever I was there last, I really wish that I
had had a little bit more power behind my binos.
(35:45):
So I usually run a ten by forty two. I
was wishing I had at least some twelves if not,
you know a little more, And it all depends on
the area that you're in. But you can get by
with ten by forty two is just about anywhere. It
just you know, might be limiting at times to not
be able to see a little further out, but a
(36:06):
good tripod will stretch that. So like a tripod or
something steady that you can look through takes all that
extra movement that gets taken out is a game changer
whenever you're going. I didn't own buy those before I
started hunting the West, Like we just never used them
(36:29):
growing up, And so these are things that I've had
to learn as I've you know, started getting further and
further out inside of the things that I do, and
so I don't think that you need everything. But because
like whenever I take my spoder, I just I hardly
use it. I like to have it, especially now that
(36:52):
they've gotten lighter. I've got one of those really light
razors that Vortex makes, and it's all awesome, and but
I end up I end up on those hunts looking
at Elka mule deer. I don't know that I've looked
at too many bears through that.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
You know, I like spotters, but it's almost a form
of entertainment for me because I'll find myself where I
go deer hunting, I'll be looking at mountain goats and
I'll be like, oh man, these mountain goats are so cool,
and I'll just watch them for hours, or you know,
if I'm if I find a good glass knob. I
just enjoy picking things apart with those spotter scopes. They
(37:33):
are a lot of fun. But again, like I don't
really use it for bear necessarily because most, like I said,
most of my hunting's thick in western Washington. Eastern Washington
is open, like you were you were talking about in Oregon.
You know you're probably an Eastern Oregon or something of
that effect, and that's pretty open yet.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, people at the
end of this episode might be thinking, I don't know
that I really know what gear to go for I
learned anything in this And you know, it's like, well,
that's kind of the point that gear doesn't matter. You're
the thing that matters, you know, like it's all the
other things that really truly matter. You know, these are
(38:11):
just a few things on a list that could help
you add to the things that you're bringing yourself into
the equation.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
The one other thing that I would mention before we
probably end this is like, at least where I hunt,
leather gloves And that might sound kind of silly or
whatever to some people, but some of the places I've
killed bears, like it's an eight foot wall of BlackBerry
thorn brush that you have to like either crawl through
(38:40):
through a bear tunnel or cut your way through to
get to the animal. So it can be pretty brutal
on your hands. But leather gloves, you can just grab
those thorns vines and just you know, move them out
of your way. It's no big deal. Those are very
handy for me, so and they help keep flies and
mosquitoes and crap like that off your hands too.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
So yeah, Trekking pulls up with with briars and stuff too. Yeah,
I use those a lot. No, I usually keep a
pair of leather gloves inside of my packs all the time.
You just never know when you're gonna need them. So
next time we talk, well, we'll dive into you know,
what you look for whenever we are scouting for bears.
(39:23):
We'll start talking about sign and just some of the
things that you've written about inside of inside of the magazine.
You know, we'll dive into sizing them, judging them, and
we'll talk about some shot placement and stuff too. So cool.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Well, thanks Doug, thank you for having me anytime, happy
to help.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Awesome, Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
The Bear Hunting Magazine Hunt Cast is recorded by Bear
Hunting Magazine and produced by Mountain Gravity Media.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Be sure leave us a five star review on iTunes
and keep guarding
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