Bear hunting October?

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Jul 9, 2019
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I'm new to western hunting but will have an opportunity to hunt Idaho this year. I'm wondering how late in the fall can you expect good bear movement? I plan to hunt mule deer in early September and I am dreaming about also doing a second hunt the end of October. I can use this second hunt to chase deer again if I still have a tag or try some bear hunting. Because of my work schedule, the last week of October would be best for me. Is bear activity still good and do I need to worry about snow? Maybe stick to lower elevations?
 
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I haven’t run into bears then. My understanding is they hibernate around late October to early November, though sometimes considerably later depending on the year and the bear. You would expect more bears to be killed during that time frame but very few are. Between bears slowing down for winter, using cover for food sources and staying in the bottoms a lot, and avoiding all the pressure from ungulate hunters, bears just aren’t easy to find. I went through a checkpoint in a unit with a huge bear population, huge deer population, and high hunters numbers and in late October there were just a couple bears killed over a 2-3 week period.
 
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Thanks for the info! That's not what I was hoping to hear but I have noticed in my research that the numbers of bears killed in the fall is substantially lower than spring. Seems all the buzz is on spring hunting.
 
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Thanks for the info! That's not what I was hoping to hear but I have noticed in my research that the numbers of bears killed in the fall is substantially lower than spring. Seems all the buzz is on spring hunting.

Part of it is due to the interest in Spring bear hunting, no doubt. Any availability for an early season hunt starting around the August 30 opener (ballpark)?
 
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Thank you both for your input! @ bradolf, I'm not able to PM yet - I'm pretty new here. I am planning to hunt archery mule deer September 5-9. I know that's hardly enough time but I am going out to visit family and my work schedule doesn't allow me to take of for longer than that. I plan to hunt deer in one of the southern units mainly because I want to be close to where they live just across the line in Utah. My work load gets lighter by the end of October so I could go again for a longer period. My thought was that if I still have my general deer tag in my pocket I can hunt deer and bear with the rifle. If I get my deer in September then I can just buy a bear tag for the October hunt. Since I have a bit more time in October I'm willing to drive a little farther, up to 4 hours or so?
 
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Yeah the idea is that a bear could give me another way to use my deer tag if the deer thing doesn't pan out (although it would be an expensive tag). I never heard of the worm thing before, that sounds a bit nasty. I've heard that fall bears that are eating berries are some of the best tasting animals but apparently not all fall bears are equal.
 

MeatBuck

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That's a good looking bear man. I'll be honest I always thought of California as somewhere that there's not a lot of room to breathe. That sounds ignorant I know, is there a lot of roadless areas that way to hike around and get away from pressure?
There are a few wilderness areas and tons of national forest to roam around. Any of the b zones and zones d3-5 are a good place to startstart for fall bear.
 
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Yeah I just meant more to be aware of that. I grind all my bears into burger so I never really noticed any like berry marbling in the meat or anything lol.View attachment 111308View attachment 111309so that first picture is an old sow and she was a bit stronger tasting. The 2nd guy was a young boar like 3 years old if I remember right and he was really tender and tasted great.
Those are some nice bears and I appreciate your knowledge on the subject. I have 2 questions for now; how late does the berry season go in central to south east Idaho and will there still be good bear activity the end of October. I saw in an article about Yellowstone bears that they start hibernation mid to late November. I'm just not at all familiar with your seasons there.
 
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