Remy Warren (0:00)

Foreign I'm Remy Warren and I've lived my life in the wild as a professional guide and hunter. I've spent thousands of days perfecting my craft. I want to give that knowledge to you. In this podcast we relive some of my past adventures as I give you practical hunting tips to make you more successful. Whether you're just getting started or a lifelong hunter, this podcast will bring you along on the hunt and teach you how to live wild. This podcast is brought to you by Mountain Tough and Yeti. A lot of the tactics I talk about here require you to be in top physical shape. So I partnered with Mountain Tough to help get you ready for the mountain with their science based hunter specific training app. You'll get in shape and mentally tough able to tackle any hunt. Because we really believe this will help you be more successful as a listener to this podcast, we're giving you six free weeks to get you started. Just use code livewild Foreign welcome back to Live Wild podcast everyone. Today we're going to be diving into Bear Necessities Part two. Now, last week we looked at targeting water and narrowing down that bear activity based on a few things like weather, different ways bears utilize, waterways for cooling down available cover and travel corridors. So if you missed it, you're probably going to want to go back and check that last episode out because. Because today we're going to focus on spot and stock tactics, but primarily just the spot portion. We're going to look into some great spring bear gear choices and options for spotting strategies that might be just slightly different than other times a year. So let's dive into some gear and bear glassing strategy. When it comes to spot and stock bear hunting. You know, hunting via spotting can be a very effective tactic and just involves a lot of watching. And often that watching is looking over travel or potential feeding areas and then catching a bear out moving. So we're going to look at some of that optimal gear and the options for glassing bears because there is some stuff with spring bear hunting that you know is a little bit different as far as like the glassing than you might do for elk or other animals. And there's a lot of things that translate to to other species as well. So we're gonna dive into those bear glassing strategies. But before we do that, I think it'd be good to kind of talk about some of the gear choices and some of the things that make the way that you can find bears or like the effective spotting techniques easier, more comfortable and more successful. And there's some things you might not even think about when it comes to spotting bears. They can be very difficult to spot in a lot of places. Now, it depends where you're at. Some places I've been and seen you might see multiple bears in a day. And then there's other places you go and you might be days between bear spottings. And so I think no matter kind of where you're at, one of the things that I equate to bear hunting is this very long period of boredom looking followed by this short periods of sheer excitement when you actually find one. And I think that that's kind of what makes bear hunting so, I don't know, unique and fun is because they are a more solitary animal, they're harder to find. And when you do finally find one, it's like this, Holy cow. I actually, I actually found one. And that goes for, you know, bear hunting a lot of different places. I mean, I've hunted bears and I guess, you know, in spring seasons, multiple different states across the west, from coastal Alaska to like the mountains of Montana and Idaho. And I've also hunted them in the fall in other places like California and other places across the west where I've been hunting something else or maybe specifically going out for fall bears. But a lot of the time in the fall, it's more of a ancillary tag. Like I've got a deer tag or an elk tag and it's in case I see a bear or if I tag out early, maybe it's something else that I could do or something like that. However, these glassing strategies work in both spring and fall. But as we're coming up on the spring, there are a few different things that we focus on and a few different, I don't know, key gear items because of the time of year that, that we change. And so I think, well, I guess we can kind of first go into the optics portion of it when we're talking about spotting for bears. It's, it's, you know, there's, there's a couple different strategies and we're going to talk about the strategy after we talk about the gear. So I'll kind of go through the way that I like to hunt and then some of the gear that I choose for that. It's not saying that you have to go out and buy brand new stuff for this particular hunt because what you have works. But if you've got like, hey, I'm looking for to add something to my kit or I really enjoy spring bear hunting and I, you know, I'd like to maybe be more efficient. Here's some tactics and ideas and gear that goes along with it. I think optics is, is huge as far as you're sitting and you're looking through them a lot. I always suggest like it's probably a broken record and I, I heard this and took this advice when I was younger from like Eastmans and it was, this is not my own like strategy or thought. But as soon as I kind of adopted it, I became more successful. And it's like get the best glass that you can kind of get into. And there's a reason for that because if you're looking through it, you're going to be, if you're, if you can see better through it or it's more comfortable, more in focus or you can look through it longer, you're going to be able to utilize it more. And the more you utilize it, the more successful you're going to be. Now one of the things with spring bear hunting is there's kind of, it's like the time of year where the days are long, you have a lot of time. And so some of this gear really pertains to that and there's other factors that kind of pertain to that. But I really like to use what I call big binos. So anything in that 18 range it would be big 20 power binoculars or big binos. Even 15s are big binos. And I go down, I think like there's this edge between consider like big binos or something that I'm not necessarily hand holding, I'm more putting them on a tripod. However, there's kind of a fringe optic which would be your 12 power binocular. So for me I think of like two types of binoculars. You got your chest rig which is you've got them on you all the time. You're constantly throwing them up, you're looking, you can hand hold them, you can put them on tripod, you can do whatever you want, but you've always got them on you. And for Sprint, well, especially, I mean I have them on every hunt but for like spring bear hunting I would often have you know, maybe like pair of tens or something like that. As my chest binos or my standard hunts would be like chest binos like that. And then a bigger pair of optics would be in like 15 or 18 power. Now I think in as we kind of dissect optics here, I'm going to talk about and this could be translated into kind of any season because there is and I've utilized Them a lot. You know, getting to work with Vortex is awesome because I get to try nearly every line that they've got either in like a sample or in gear testing, whatever. So I get to try a lot of different optics and it gives me a good idea of like what some good options are for people. Now let's. If you're normally used to like having 10 power on your as your chest rig, 12 power can be the most versatile and probably like the most cost saving as far as you can kind of punch up with them but also use them as your standard everyday bino, which makes it awesome. I would say the, the caveat to it is they're a little bit harder to handhold. But if you hunt a lot of open country, if you're like in the high desert, do a lot of mountain hunting stuff like that, where you're really glassing further distances anyways. I have not in my experience had problems hand holding them, but I can, I kind of know how to get steady. I get steady pretty easy. And then when you put them on a tripod, you kind of get that added two times over your 10 power. You know, the extra 2x by putting it on the tripod you can really start to pick things apart at further distances. Now the big binos, why I like them for spring bear hunting is because you're sitting and looking for a long time. And often if you can cover more country from one vantage point, look further effectively, then you can kind of COVID more stuff. And because you're sitting there so long, you're really causes a little bit of eye fatigue to just be continually glassing through the, the spotting scope. And also it might not necessarily be needed to be glassing through the spotting scope. Well, you can effectively cover the country that's in front of you with your binoculars. Now you could Also throw your 10 power binoculars on a tripod and kind of be able to see it further distance as well. For people that haven't really bear hunted much, one thing that I always talk about is like everything looks like a bear and then you see a bear and you go, oh, that's a bear. It's a weird, it's a weird thing. But you're continually looking at stuff that looks like bears. Burnt stumps, rocks, these like they're very hard to find. And you're looking so minute, so minute, so minute. And then when a bear kind of shows itself, they do often stand out, like whether you're looking a long ways away and panning back and forth. Like if you can see it. You can often see it immediately. Like it just kind of. It might still be very hidden, but it kind of stands out as like, oh, that's a bear. I don't know what it is about him, but you'll stop and look at 10,000 things that you think are bears that aren't bears. And then when you do see the bear, you're like, oh, yeah, absolutely, a bear. But it kind of looks like a lot of things you've already seen, but also stands out in a way. I don't know what it is about it, but when I'm guiding guys, they're like, I keep looking in. This looks like a bear, and that looks like a bear. I've been guided in to look at so many stick bears and rock bears that it's like stump bears. I can't count them. But when an actual bear step, it's like, it's almost like very apparent, even though they're hard to find in a way. I don't know if that even makes sense, but that's kind of the way that I to try to describe it to people. And so sometimes having, you know, being able to just continually look over country, which you do need the magnification. I'm not saying you can just sit here with your naked eye and you're going to pick out bears. I'll get to a vantage point where I can look over. I know big drainages and stuff like that. And I'm in the optics looking a mile to three miles away, whatever. Or even sometimes I'm looking and there's a place that I like to hunt and I'm looking 800 yards away with my binos on a tripod. But I'm looking through like thick brush and stuff like that. And I'll pick out a piece of a bear that's moving like we talked maybe on those waterways or in that thicker cover. Like, it's just not super open. And when they get out in the open, okay, I could have seen it probably with my, I would have seen it with my naked eye. But I'm trying to figure out where they are maybe before that or, or, or glass into there. So I utilize binoculars because the days are long and I'm doing a lot of looking. I like to have both eyes open and I feel like it just causes less fatigue and allows me to kind of effectively glass longer times more efficiently. So when it goes to the magnification, I guess if you aren't familiar with it, we'll break it down. Like 12x is essentially like 12 times your vision. 15 is it's just the magnification 15x and then 18x. When you think about like a spotting scope, a lot of spotting scopes on the low end, they might be variable in that probably more than 15, less than 20, and then go up to 15, 40 or 60, depending on the type of optic. But having that 18 magnification, you can actually effectively glass. I would say, you know, four or five miles away. Things look small, but you could definitely pick things out at that distance and then you can use it for closer distance as well. That's generally what I carry because I have it. But like I said, you know, I'll often have a lighter pair, like a lighter magnification on my chest and a higher magnification that I'm going to throw on the tripod and just kind of set up and glass all, all day with. And then 15s are kind of in the middle of the 12s and 18s. I used the 15s for a very long time. The Vortex kaibabs for a long time. I've even used like the Vortex Diamondbacks on some bear hunts. Now I use their Razor Razor 18s, which I've used for a lot of different hunts as well. Not just spring bear, but I do like often find myself probably carrying those on a spring bear hunt. Maybe even over a spotting scope. Now if all you've got is a spotting scope, bring the spotting scope because that extra verification of miles away is that a bear with cubs is that a sow can make a big difference in like how much you might have to hike. And often in the springtime, hiking to where the bears are can be treacherous and difficult. Like you might have to cross some ripping creeks and other things. It might be a lot of mountains and a lot of distance in between. By the time you get over there, you really don't know. You might not spot them again. But hey, it's worth the try to go over there. However, if you could identify that it was a bear that you didn't want to take sow or a sow with cubs, then you know, you probably save yourself some miles. So having a spotting scope is good. I do often like I don't if I'm day hunting, I'm like base camp somewhere or even honestly, if I packed in somewhere too, I don't mind carrying extra weight and optics. It depends what else I'm carrying. If I got cameras and other things, then I kind of think about it a little bit personally. But a lot of people aren't carrying like A bunch of camera lenses and all that kind of stuff either. So, you know, big binoculars, we talk about them a lot on this podcast. They're kind of, I don't know, I see them as a fun addition to your optics kit. It's like if you've got, I hate to say it, but if you've got some extra income, maybe you mowed a few extra lawns and you're like, hey, I want something that I don't have. They're extremely beneficial and I really like hunting with them. I don't think that they're an absolute necessity, like you can still be successful on most hunts without them. So it's a very luxury hunting item. I think it's kind of one of the things that people end up with toward the tail end. But it might be something to think about and go, oh, well, maybe I'll get a less expensive pair of those binoculars. But I've got a pretty expensive pair of chest rig and I've got a good or mid range spotter. There's a lot of ways that you can mix it up. And then like I also mentioned, you know, the 12 power could kind of work both sides of the fence there where you can almost treat it like higher power binoculars glass further comfortably off of a tripod. But you can also use them as handheld binoculars in your chest rig and it's a really good option. And then you could do that in combo with a spotter and you can kind of find yourself in a really good situation optically where you've got a little bit of everything for the task at hand. Now, aside from binos spotter I talked about tripod is super beneficial. I mean you pretty much. I rarely go on a hunt without a tripod. But spring bear hunting especially, you're going to be set up, you're going to want a tripod, even if it's just to have your spotting scope. Like see, you got your binos, your glass and kind of close. I would have my spotting scope up and ready so I could kind of verify something if I needed to right away. The other thing that I like the tripod for is you potentially utilizing it as a shooting platform. Spring bear hunting. I really like, like, I love bow hunting, right? I mean that's like my, my biggest passion in the hunting world is bow hunting. But I, I hunt with everything. Rifles, muzzle loaders, shotguns, if I can, you know, whatever it is, long traditional bows. I hunt with everything. I think I hunt with everything except crossbows. But I just, you know, if there's a season for it. I go after it. Spring bear hunting though for me, spot and stock spring bear hunting. I've hunted archery but I also really enjoy especially early in like mid spring rifle hunting. And because you can hunt some of these canyons that are hard to getting close with a bow, but like you've got good opportunities for cross canyon shots, it's kind of a fun time to get out and and do some shooting and bring the rifle. Like I actually enjoy a lot of that spring bear hunting with with a firearm. And because of that having that tripod that I could shoot off of is super beneficial because you're often find yourself when you're doing a lot of spotting and you get into position on a bear, you're probably shooting across canyon, you're probably in steep terrain and you probably have not a good option for laying down and getting steady. So I utilize a tripod a lot or like trekking poles for shooting off of. And then I also, you know, this is something that is a little bit different spring for spring bear. I carry trekking poles on nearly every spring bear hunt, whether in my backpack or I'm using them to hike with because I'll also use those sometimes like to get more comfortable. Sometimes it's more comfortable to just cross your trekking poles and glass off of that with your binoculars and get steady that way than setting up a tripod because you can just sit a little more comfortably. The key is to just be comfortable anytime you're glassing for long periods of time. Like being able to look longer makes you more efficient having like good posture, not having to kink your neck down or sit at a weird angle to look over here, to look over there. It makes a big difference. So tripod and or trekking poles. And then often a lot of places I hunt you might have to cross some creeks and other things. So it's nice to have that extra stability or going up scree slides and stuff like that never really hurts. A couple of other glassing based gear items that I think you kind of don't necessarily think about. Other times a year. One of them I bring like a, a pad to sit on. I've got one from. Oh, I've had this thing for probably 20 years. I don't know. As long as the outdoorsman's been around I think I should ask them because I, I know the guys over there. I could be like when did you guys start making this? Because I think I got it right when they made it, but it's like a little glassing pad. Mine's lasted forever. I've used different kinds over the years on different hunts. Like inflatable ones, you know, thermarest kind of pads. I don't suggest the inflatable pads. They pop. They just are pain in the butt. So, I mean, I've used, like, I've had those. I used to have those sleeping pad that you'd fold up. And whether I'm overnighting or or not, just uses a sitting pad. The outdoorsman one's the one that I've used probably most of the time. I've got some other ones that clients have left in my truck, and I've just kind of like acquired over the years that maybe like a little more cushion or a little more memory foam type. Depends where I'm going and whatever. But having a pad to sit on makes a big difference in that comfort level. Like, I'll get my pack set up. I'll make a good station for myself where I can kind of look at this area and then maybe move and look at this other area. But getting comfortable is huge. So having that pad where you can sit longer, glass longer. There is a lot of time in between bare spottings and can be. I mean, I hate to say it, but it's the truth. It can be super boring. So it's really good to be comfortable while you're bored, because if you're uncomfortable and bored, you are not really focused on the task at hand, which is spotting a bear, which can be difficult. So the longer you're looking, the more comfortable you are, the more likely you are to turn up what you're looking for. And that's especially true when it comes to spring bear hunting. Another thing that I started bringing in my kid, I actually saw them on my website because I think they're so useful. Is the stone glacier sky tarp the reason that I like it, like, you can utilize it as a makeshift tent if you want. One of the things that I use it for. You can use it for so many things. Like, there's just so many uses for it. You can use it as a tarp if you're, you know, cleaning an animal and want to keep dirt off of it or whatever. Especially I bring it bear season for that. Because if I'm going to skin out a bear for a rug, it's sometimes a lot better to have something that you could put it on. Sometimes it's just not possible because the angle of the hill and. And I've done it enough where I'm pretty good at keeping the dirt and cutting the meat off, whether I'm doing a rug kind of cut or any kind of cut. But if you're new to it, it's definitely good to have some kind of tarp. You could get, you know, any kind of tarp from Home Depot or whatever, too. It's just that this stone glacier one is just so light and quiet. And then the other thing I like about it, so the. The main thing that I use it for is, is I'll take my trekking poles, I'll. I'll post them up, and I'll just create this, like, either rain or shade shelter with it while I'm glassing. It's like, I know I'm going to get set up. I'm going to be sitting here for a while. Let's get comfortable. And I. I think I. I've got a buddy, Cole Kramer, and he does a lot of hunts in Alaska for brown bears and stuff. And I, you know, he sets these up all the time. It's like you set up the tarp, you sit under it and you glass, and it works really well for just that added comfort of keeping your optics dry when those. Those little rain squalls come through. You know, if the wind's super bad and depending on your setup, sometimes it's difficult to utilize. But I utilize it for both rain protection. If I've got an area that's like, you know, I'm going to. I'm sitting here, I've got a good spot, I've got a good vantage. Really, I got to just watch this. I know it. That's my strategy. I just got to be patient and watch this diligently. Okay. And it's kind of like, all right, early spring, lots of little rain coming through. Optics keep getting wet. You know, you're in your rain gear, whatever. I'll throw that little tarp up, make a little shelter, and just glass under it. Also, later in the season, or even just midday, utilizing it to just cover myself and my glass. And just glass from the shade is super beneficial because, like, you see better through the optics. And. And once again, it just goes back to that. That comfort level. Another little piece of gear for all day glassing or long glassing is just bringing lots of water. You kind of don't really realize how much water you go through. Or, I mean, spring bear hunting. I. There's water everywhere. I just bring some kind of filtration and then carry my water when I go to my glassing vantage. And then with that water, I also utilize a lot of like wilderness athlete energy and focus. I probably have more energy focus during the spring season than all the other, like, hunts combined. Because it's long days, you generally get little sleep. And I like. I like the energy portion because I get those. You get that, like, hot midday lull or whatever. But that focus portion of it is really beneficial where I'm. I'm in the game longer, I'm focusing more, I'm, like, alert, I'm paying attention, and I can just, you know, do the kind of boring part of the hunt or get through it and continue to look. The other thing is when you're. When you're glassing with a buddy or something like that, have multiple people, you know, take turns, glass, and one guy kind of walk around for a little bit. Like, I get the happy feet. I got to move a lot. And so spring bear hunting is just a test of my patience in many ways. Like, I've found a lot of success by being super patient, but also it can be very difficult. And as a guide, you know, you're the one trying to do a lot of the spotting and other things. And so I've gotten used to, like, sitting there and being patient because I know that it oftentimes pays off if I'm in a good area. But there is a lot of time and a lot of, like, lull and so bringing good quality snacks, not just a bunch of garbage food. Because you're often, like a lot of the places out west, you can do some pretty good hiking to get into spots. And then you got spots where bears are likely going to be. And you could sit there for hours a day, even multiple days. There's places where I've hunted, and I just go. I hike in three, four miles. I've got my little zone. It's a good advantage over the type of country that I like to hunt for that time of year. I sit down, I sit there. Day one, I don't see anything. And then day two, I don't see any whatever, Might not see anything, or maybe I saw something. And then day three, I see four or five bears. It's like, that's how it can be sometimes. But being patient can be a huge advantage when it comes to spring bear hunting. And then having the right gear and setup just makes you more comfortable and more likely to kind of be in the game and. And turn something up. So let's look at a couple of different strategies for spring bear hunting. Glassing that might be a little bit different than other times a year. And like I said, you know the strategy that we talk about, you could go back through and maybe I'll try to put something together with a little bit of all the bear stuff. Maybe maybe a blog post or something like that. Because I think that when it comes to spotting bears, there's so many different tactics, places to look, ways to hunt them. During the springtime I try to cover all the kinds of tactics that I use and often I'll use multiple tactics throughout the season. Some years I'm 100% still hunting like logging roads and other things. Other years I'm like 100% hitting a couple high quality vantages and just glassing it till I can't glass anymore. And then there's other times where I'm doing combination of the things or you know, checking like different areas, moving a lot or sitting a lot. Like there's just two completely. There's so many different ways to hunt. And one of the things I like to do on this podcast is kind of highlight all the different techniques and tactics because if you have more tactics at your disposal, you're just going to be more successful depending on the conditions where you're at and going into new places. But when it comes to glassing strategies, we've talked about in the past where to look and that's really find the food, find the bears. Springtime you're looking for those just real bright green growths, the new growth, all that stuff that's starting to pop up the most nutrient dense parts of the plants. In the fall time we're looking for other types of maybe more, I guess you'd call them mass crops of like berries, things that have like maybe more. Well, I mean protein can be one in the spring like calf, elk, fawn, mule deer, stuff like that. In the fall protein can also be good, but you have more options of things like, I mean places I've hunted in like New Mexico and stuff like that. I would imagine there's a lot of places in Utah and Colorado that's like oak brush and acorns are, can be big. In some years there's a lot. Some years there's none. Places in the Sierras I've hunted where it's in other places in the, I guess Idaho and stuff where there's manzanita and some years manzanita berries in the fall are just huge crop. Just focus on manzanita patch if there's manzanita berries because that's where the food is, that's where you start to find the bears. So the strategy really with glassing and Spotting is often focusing on food sources. And then in many cases, you might find bears in like travel areas or looking in places where. Look, it's a. Let's say we're in timbered mountain west. You've got a canyon, there's trees. Well, looking where you can actually see might be the best option. Clear cuts, logged cuts, avalanche shoots, rock slides, open areas, meadows. Not necessarily that they're. I mean, they will utilize those areas, but it's somewhere that you can actually see. And so when they enter into a place that you can see, that puts you at the vantage, so you're watching places where you might be able to turn up a bear. So the strategy with glassing is covering places where you hopefully can see them. Like we talked about last week, you know, utilizing that strategy for water. We're just continually trying to narrow down where to look, but then how to look and how to set up, that's kind of a strategy in itself. And so there's two main strategies when it comes to especially spring bear hunting. There's the kind of sit and wait strategy and the walk, move and wait strategy. So the sit and wait strategy is where you get into a place and you go, remy, how do I know that it's the place that I should sit and wait for a long period of time? Sometimes you find them purely on accident almost. You, like, do the sit and wait and walk technique or like walk and move. Walk and move. You spot a bear and you go, oh, there's a bear there. Maybe you don't get it or maybe it was a past season. And then you keep going back to that spot, hoping to see a bear again. So he's like, you've seen one there before. Now you know that there's bears there and you continue to kind of hunt that. For me, I kind of base my strategy on the type of terrain and just knowing what bears like and how much I can see from a particular vantage. So for the sit and wait, I utilize that strategy a lot when I think that the bears are in a time phase, probably when they're going to be moving. So that could be early spring. They don't move as much early spring, but they go like out of the den, explore around. But there's limited food sources, so they might have to move to those open spots more often. And then oftentimes too, like late in the spring, if you get closer to like the bear is called, like mating season rut, when boars are on the move looking for sows. And in those times, I like to Utilize the sit and wait strategy. Because I know that, you know, eventually something's going to show up in the place that I'm looking if I have a good vantage. So I try to first find a place with really good opportunity to spot something in good country. So that could be maybe an area that I've got. Let's say it's a canyon. And I've got three or four openings or rock slides that I could see over the face of this entire canyon. So I sit there and wait. I'm really just continually watching those spots for, let's say it's like you can see 10% and other 90% timbered. I just have to be patient knowing that eventually something will walk through there. Whether they're there to feed or there to just pass through. If I'm sitting there waiting and watching, I'm going to spot them. I do this over places that I believe are good country and productive country. And sometimes I'll find similar places where it's like, hey, I just have a really good vantage. Maybe it's not even as good of country, But I can just sit and cover so much of it from one vantage point that it allows me to sit there and go, hey, something can turn up at any point. I just have to continue to look, and sooner or later I'm gonna spot a bear. And it really does work. And it's a. It's a good, solid strategy for spring bear hunting of finding a vantage, being patient, waiting. I think that people that are used to whitetail hunting and stand hunting and that kind of thing are very well suited for this strategy and can find a lot of success doing it. Now the next kind of tactic is that walk and move. Walk, move, spot. So this would be like, hey, I'm in an area where spotting is effective. There's a lot of different advantages, but you kind of always just want to see what else is out there. And so when I do that technique, often I try to time my sitting for the, like mornings and evenings and then kind of move a little bit more during the day. However, there's this. It's more of a false sense of potentially seeing something. Because when you're looking at new country in the middle of the day, it's the least likely time that you're going to run into something. Often, I mean, I. Over the years we've taken. I would say if you, like, took a calendar, like hours, We've probably shot a bear within every hour of the day. I would almost guarantee it. I don't think that there's an hour of the day, within legal daylight shooting hours that we haven't taken a bear over the years. Like, they can pop out at any time, but the majority of them or are closer to the mornings or evenings, or like midday depends. Like we talked about with the water. Like depending on your strategy and the time of year and the temperature and all that, sometimes middle of the day can actually be a pretty productive time. And it's weird because you'll maybe go to a spot, you'll spot a bear, say in the morning or the evening, and then you're continuing to sit there and you don't see that bear again for the week. But had you sat there all day, you realize that he's popping out at 3:00 and not 8:00pm, which they do. Like, they can, they can be strange during the springtime. But the walk and move technique is more just like continually hitting good spots, sitting there, looking at it for the amount of time that you think, if there was something here, I would have seen it, and then moving on to the next. You can also do this if you got like an area where you can't. This is more of a good strategy when you can't really get a good advantage. Where you've got, say, a big canyon or I don't even. Just a lot of timber country, but there's nowhere to really look at it from. So you kind of gotta walk this. Maybe it's a logging road trail, whatever. You go up this spot, you can glass this one little piece, but you know that there's five or six other pieces that could also be good. And whether that one that you're looking at is gonna be the one or not, you don't know. So you just continually move and check and move and check also. Very effective tactic. And probably, I mean, as far as the glassing goes between those two types of strategies, I'm split on them. As far as success, I. I tend to do the walk and move more, but when I commit to an area and like sit in glass, I find a lot of success as well. I think you, you kind of have to base your glassing strategy on your temperament for that kind of stuff and how patient you can be. For me personally, I'm more of a mover. Like, that's why I like, I will go, I'll use a lot of different tactics, but I do a lot of the logging, cruising, logging roads, grass areas, that kind of thing, because I just like to move. But then there's times where I know, man, I'm I want to be successful. I know this is an effective strategy. Okay, buckle down. We're going to sit here, we're going to glass, and we're going to try to find a bear. And both the strategies work, right? So I think that that's just something to think about. The thing that's a little bit different about spring bear hunting, I do believe that, like the sit and wait method is more effective for bears than it is for other species, in a way because they kind of do have their own little zones in their own kind of areas. They can be fairly habitual. They can also have like, places that they utilize because it's the best type of terrain or feed around. And so when it comes to elk and deer, you know, I. I give areas a lot less time than I would for bears. And for bears, the reason that I give it so much time is because it's just an effective way of like covering that usable country. And because they are a lower density, you do have to be more patient. So that's where you get that kind of bored factor out of it. But you also can find a lot of success by kind of powering through that boredom factor and sitting and waiting and actively glassing over productive areas. I tend to like whatever I would have waited in the fall for elk or deer to glass something. I feel like I can cover it a lot more because they're a little more predictable in their times that they come out like elk and deer. Is that corpuscular hours, which you would think bears that can be nocturnal or whatever, they would be right on those fringes. And majority of them are going to be be right after first light and right before dark. That's going to be most of your bears moving, but then you're also going to get bear movement that's outside of that and you just don't know at what point that's going to be. So by sitting and just watching and waiting, you have a lot more likelihood to actually turning up bears. And it's just a proven strategy for western bear hunting and spotting, especially during the spring. The last little glassing technique and tactic that I'll talk about when you're set up, let's say you're in an area. So a typical bear hunt, I'll run you through it like I've got a spot that I want to go to, or maybe it's one that I'm just exploring. Doesn't matter. This year, like, I'll do quite a bit of spring bear hunting and I'm going to go into Places that I've never hunted bears there before. It's like I maybe been into the spot or just looked at it on a map. You go, oh, this seems like a cool unit. I just like the exploration factor of spring bear hunting a lot as well. So I'm just gonna go into a new spot. I'm hiking in, hike in there. I gotta like, oh, this looks like a good vantage that I just had my onyx maps out, scouted out, climb to that vantage. Oh, yeah, it is actually a good vantage. I can overlook it. I set up, I'm like, all right, I'm here for the long haul. Okay, so I'm sitting down, I've got my comfort stuff out, I've got my binos out. I've got my trekking poles over here for when I turn this way to glass. I got my tripod here, what, and all set up and I start scanning, glassing, looking over those feeding areas, potential places for, for bears to be. Now, what I'm also going to look into is looking into that fringe so that, that kind of brushier stuff on the edge of open where it's like rock slide brushy stuff. This is where the optics come in real good because I'm really diving into that, that stuff where a bear might not come out in the full open, but it's going to be in that fringe of timber cover or thick brush or whatever. And I'm looking for not just bears, but movement of brush as well. I spot a lot of. And sometimes, you know, I'll look and is that moving, though? That's where the spotting scope actually comes in handy, is zooming in on brush. Is that moving because there's a bear there or not? I spotted a lot of bears, especially in the fall because they might be food on the type of tree they're getting hawthorn berries and other stuff like that. You see these bushes shaking. But I'll look in that kind of fringe habitat. And then one of the things that you want to remember, let's say I'm set up right like that. I've got my optics, I got all my stuff. You got to remember to kind of look out of your optics and look up a bit, look around. There's so many times where guys will be and myself included, where I'm focused on a meadow a mile away and I've been staring at it and my visions at this point, by the time I take my eyes out of the optic, it's like looking close is blurry. But, you know, like, look glass with your optics. Scan glass. Like, I do a lot of grading where you go up and down, left and right, just cover the whole thing and then start over. Or I'll kind of strategic shotgun glass, as I call it, where, hey, I'm just. I'm going to glass this opening and then everything's covering. I'm going to glass this opening. I'm looking over a big burn. I just got to glass it all. Don't forget to continue to, like, look up and look around at the things around you, because sometimes when you're so narrow focused in that, you miss that broad view and there's bears out. So I'll do a combination of varying looking through the optics. If I've got my bigger binoculars out 15s, 18s, whatever, I'm looking through those. I'll stop, I'll look with my naked eye. I'll put up my ten powers. I'll glass, I'll stop, I'll look with my naked eye. I'll go back to the 15s, and that way I can kind of continually, like, I'm continually looking, I'm continually covering, and I'm doing it in varying zoom levels. It helps reduce fatigue, and it also allows you to spot things that you might not have noticed because you were so zoomed in on this other thing, but also maybe allows you to spot something that you would see because you aren't so zoomed out. So you're going through all the levels of magnification and then continually working through that as you look and scan it keeps you a little more active in your mind, too, of, like, continually looking. And I think it's a super effective tactic for spotting bears when you're up on that glassing knob, sitting there and really trying to pick apart the country. I hope you guys enjoyed that podcast. You know, getting out, getting on a hunt this time of year, March, April, May, June, like in that spring time frame, is awesome because it gets you out in the field and there's just some really great adventures to be had. I think that, like, this time of year, you know, you're kind of thinking about the hunting season that's coming up, and it's always nice to kind of get out and just get on a hunt, in my opinion. One of the things that I wanted to say before we go, my buddies at Canada North Outfitting actually have a few muskox hunt cancellations. They're kind of last minute, but if you're like, hey, I want to hunt a muskox, it seems like a cool adventure. I actually went with them last year and got on a hunt and it was really cool. It's just like a really cool experience in a very unique part of the world. Because of their last minute cancellation spots coming up within the next month or so, like it's incredible deal. They've got some all inclusive pricing that has like airfare and everything included, gear rental for all that stuff. So if that's you, you're like, hey, that's kind of been on my bucket list. And you're the type of person that can act fast. They do have a couple spots that just kind of became available in some really good areas. I was talking to him the other day about it. So you can find those guys canada north outfitting.com and just maybe shoot them an email and say, hey, Remy told me about there's some hunts available for this year. There was some special pricing and they can get back to you on that. Also, we do have our outfit in Montana has. I won't be guiding it, but our, my guide, Brennan, who's running the operation right now for this spring, has some openings. I think a couple cancellation openings for spring bear hunting. Montanaoutwest.com you guys can check that out. So if you're, hey, I like the idea of going on a spring bear hunt and I just want to go guided. That's an option. I think we have a couple spots for that. Or you're like, hey, I want to go on just a crazy arctic adventure. There's some openings in I think March like now and some in April as well. Maybe, maybe one in May. I don't know how their schedule works for the Muskox stuff, but reach out to those guys if you're interested because it's like it'd be about. It's a pretty good deal. So if I hadn't already gone on that hunt, I probably would have taken advantage of it. You know, he talks a lot about optics today. I think, you know, Vortex optics, awesome supporter of this podcast. I've used their stuff for years and worked with them for a very long time. They have a lot of great options. And the cool thing about Vortex is they have so many varying price points that they're all pretty good. I mean, I've used their, I guess they're, they're Diamondback line, which is their kind of a economical line. I've used them on spring bear hunts that I've guided. When they first came out with their 15 powers and spotted plenty of bears with them. I actually sell them on my website as well. I've got a few if you guys like. Hey, I'm looking for some some optics, some big binoculars. I've got kind of a little bit of everything in the line. I think right now we're sold out of the the Diamondbacks but we're trying to get some in. We've got 12 Power Diamondbacks hoping to get some 15s in here pretty soon. I've got a few Kaibabs in there and then we've also got the high end Razer hds so we've got all that. Plus you know, spotting scopes, tripods, all that good stuff. So if you guys haven't checked it out, plenty of vortex options there or even just rifle scopes, spotting scopes, range finders, all the good stuff. So you can check that out. Remy warren.com I'm just gonna say until next week spring forward dude, this time change last week really tore me up. I'll catch you guys.