Hello all. My BIL and I are headed to Wyoming in May to hunt black bear for the first time. This will be a self-guided, spot-and-stalk learning experience. I've planned seveal fall elk hunts over the last five years, but I've never planned a bear hunt nor have I been to Wyoming. So there's a lot I don't know. I've done some reading, watched some videos, and listened to some podcasts. I identified a unit that has a decent population of black bears and is not in grizzly bear territory. Tentatively, we're thinking of showing up around May 15th to hunt. Our plan is to camp at the truck and move around as needed until we find fresh sign or bears. What I know about spot-and-stalk spring bear hunting can pretty well be summed up as (i) glass near the snow line and look for bright green grass to find them feeding, and (ii) walk logging roads to find sign, and then figure out where they are feeding. That's about all the plan I have at the moment (other than some preliminary e-scouting).
I know this going to be weather and snowpack dependent and varies from year to year and probably area to area. But I have to ask anyway: for those who have hunted spring bear before, what are your thoughts about a May15th hunt? I'm tempted to go a week later to allow roads to clear up more and to perhaps get closer to the bear rut, but the unit I'm hunting looks like it often closes around the end of May or early June each year due to the female mortality limit. I'd hate to go up there and then not get to hunt because the folks who knew what they were doing shot all the bears already. Based on current SNOTEL data, this appears to be a relatively "average" year for snowpack in the area I'm planning to hunt, but that could change in the next 6-8 weeks.
A related question is at what elevation range you would look for bears in mid-May in Wyoming. Sources I've read suggest spring bear hunting is done from 4,500 feet to 8,500 feet. That's quite a range, and it matters quite a bit because in the area I'm looking to hunt there isn't a lot of national forest below 7,000 feet. Looking at SNOTEL data for this unit, and making lots of rash assumptions from that limited data, it appears to me that by May 1 the snowpack is usually gone (in a "median" year) from about 7,500 feet and by May 15th the snow line is usually up past 8,000 feet. Does that sound right to folks who live in or have been to Wyoming in May? I know last year was an outlier.
Another related question here: in what condition are forest service roads this time of year? There's a highway in the unit that goes up to about 10,000 feet that tends to stay closed due to snow until the end of May or early June, but many of the forest service roads coming into the area stay at lower elevations. I'm hoping they will be passable (in a 4x4 pickup) or else I don't see how one could get into the forest to find bears. I'm a flatlander and haven't previously spent any time in the mountains in May, so please forgive my ignorance.
Any help or advice is appreciated. If you have good sources of information (books, blogs, podcasts, etc.) you recommend, I would appreciate those too. Thank you.
I know this going to be weather and snowpack dependent and varies from year to year and probably area to area. But I have to ask anyway: for those who have hunted spring bear before, what are your thoughts about a May15th hunt? I'm tempted to go a week later to allow roads to clear up more and to perhaps get closer to the bear rut, but the unit I'm hunting looks like it often closes around the end of May or early June each year due to the female mortality limit. I'd hate to go up there and then not get to hunt because the folks who knew what they were doing shot all the bears already. Based on current SNOTEL data, this appears to be a relatively "average" year for snowpack in the area I'm planning to hunt, but that could change in the next 6-8 weeks.
A related question is at what elevation range you would look for bears in mid-May in Wyoming. Sources I've read suggest spring bear hunting is done from 4,500 feet to 8,500 feet. That's quite a range, and it matters quite a bit because in the area I'm looking to hunt there isn't a lot of national forest below 7,000 feet. Looking at SNOTEL data for this unit, and making lots of rash assumptions from that limited data, it appears to me that by May 1 the snowpack is usually gone (in a "median" year) from about 7,500 feet and by May 15th the snow line is usually up past 8,000 feet. Does that sound right to folks who live in or have been to Wyoming in May? I know last year was an outlier.
Another related question here: in what condition are forest service roads this time of year? There's a highway in the unit that goes up to about 10,000 feet that tends to stay closed due to snow until the end of May or early June, but many of the forest service roads coming into the area stay at lower elevations. I'm hoping they will be passable (in a 4x4 pickup) or else I don't see how one could get into the forest to find bears. I'm a flatlander and haven't previously spent any time in the mountains in May, so please forgive my ignorance.
Any help or advice is appreciated. If you have good sources of information (books, blogs, podcasts, etc.) you recommend, I would appreciate those too. Thank you.
