Hunting in Grizzly bear country is different. It's one thing to be cognizant of the fact that you need to take care and not be stupid in all of the outdoors. Getting hurt can be a life or death situation in almost all of the United States, but it seems a bit more so here in the northwest due to the amount of public ground and the long distances from civilization you can find yourself. As I stated in my profile, I retired from the USAF and currently work contract security overseas. I'm often asked by friends about how I deal with the danger over there. I usually tell them I feel the danger is about equal to or less than going out hunting in Montana. They usually look at me a bit funny so I go on to explain that in my line of work I'm in a static location. That is, I don't go off the sites, I'm not on the streets, I'm not in the "red zone," and that if I get injured or worse over here, it was just bad luck, wrong place at the wrong time. My primary concern is rockets and mortars. They don't have a lot of range as far as damage and we don't get that many, so again, it would just be bad luck.
So, sort of like hunting in Montana. I know that almost every time I go out, it might just be the time I come through the dark timber, wind in my face, and run into a Griz at close range. It won't be the bears fault if it attacks. It's just doing a bear thing and I understand that. It also does not mean that just because the bear is doing his or her bear thing, that I'm going to give up doing my human thing, which is to defend myself till I can no longer do so. When I write about defending myself from a full on attack, I don't mean yelling, or running, or playing dead. I mean to put as much lead into that bear as I possibly can as quickly as I can. I've been meaning to buy a can of bear spray but just haven't gotten to it yet. I think bear spray works...in the right situations. Like, I see the bear from a distance, the wind is not blowing in my face, I have time to get it un-holstered and ready and he or she is coming my way "slowly." I will yell first to let it know I'm human and if the conditions are right I'll use that spray. In any other situation, my gun is ready and my finger is the safety.
Example: Here's a story involving a neighbor of mine. I'm not poking fun at him, because I probably would have reacted the same way and so might you, because until you, me, he actually live it and do it, we don't know how we will react. I live on 23 acres about nine miles from town and there are eight houses above me. It's all wooded and we've seen everything from elk, whitetails, mulies, moose, black bear and cougar. No Griz yet, no thanks to Judge Molloy who keeps fighting against the removal of both the Griz and wolves from the endangered species list (but the wolves are now right behind my house, having moved the 50 miles from YNP.) Just so you know, I dislike PETA and instead, belong to PWETA (People Who Eat Tasty Animals.) Anyway, back to the story.
Every day, my neighbor walks with his golden retriever the mile from his house at the top of the hill to get his paper located at the mailboxes adjacent to my place. One beautiful, cold, snowy, bright morning, I just happened to be close to the road when he came down. I heard him before I saw him, so I crawled on my belly through the snow, under my fence and lied behind a thick bush about five feet from the road. As he passed by me, I started growling in my best bear growl and shook the bush for all I was worth. He immediately started backpedaling away from me while at the same time trying to get his bear spray un-holstered from his hip. He never made it.
The dog was going nuts and he was obviously flustered at his inability to get that spray, when I quickly stepped out to identify myself before the aneurysm started. We both laughed till we cried, but the point is, getting that spray un-holstered and safe to shoot is time consuming and almost impossible when the shit hits the fan. Luckily for us hunters who usually have a gun in our hands it is much simpler to flip that safety and go to it. We might not hit a damn thing, but by God we'll go down trying. I'm glad he couldn't get that spray going, but don't think it would have hurt me too much....because I'm pretty sure the wind.....was in HIS face.
My first run-in with Griz in Montana was an elk hunt in Ed Hake's camp. Others from our group saw bears at a distance in the previous year or two, but not me. We had hunted there enough that my guide allowed me to sort of do my own thing. On this particular morning I asked Dennis if he'd mind my walking alone up the ridge while he brought the horses up about a quarter mile behind. I was on "Second Ridge." It was a place I loved to hunt, sloping off gradually on both sides and interspersed with small meadows a few hundred yards across, separated by timber for a couple hundred yards, then meadow, then timber. I was moving as quickly and quietly as I could, since I wanted to cover as many of these meadows as possible in that "best time," that one hour from shooting light while they were still feeding till they headed for their bedding areas.
I had just come to the edge of the timber where I could scan the meadow before moving quickly across for the next. I saw nothing in the meadow, started across and was about 25 yards into it when three, immature two year old Griz came into the meadow directly ahead of me. I'll tell you now, I don't like young predators like bears and cougars and especially cougars. Just like teenagers, they do not always make the best of choices.
We were about 75 yards apart and they had not spotted me. The wind was in my face so I knew they wouldn't smell me, but I did not feel like yelling at them because I was unsure about how they would react. I believed they would run, but if they didn't, three against one with four rounds in my 300 mag just did not seem like the best of odds. I looked back to the timber, no Dennis. I wondered if I could sneak back into the timber and climb a tree, high ground is always good and while it is untrue that Griz can't climb I thought I'd have a better chance if they came after me. It truly is interesting how much goes through your mind in very short period of time when the blood starts hammering your temples. Anyway, the trees were so thick that I knew I would not be able to get up one very quickly, soooooo, when all else fails, wave your arms and yell 'Hey Bears! Get out of here!" The first time I yelled this....they didn't even look up, just kept walking towards me. Now they were about 50 yards away, my safety was off and I yelled again "HEY BEARS! GET THE **** OUT OF HERE!" That got their attention, the first stood up, sniffed the air and I yelled the same for a third time. The three of them almost ran over each other as they did a 180 and hauled ass. I stayed where I was till Dennis came up. I told him the story and he said, "Wow, pretty cool." Um, yea, my thoughts exactly. :-)
That evening, I was doing a similar hunt in the same way, but going downhill on an adjacent ridge. It was getting dark fast and the wind was blowing about 15 mph...again...in my face. All I could think about as I checked a meadow...jogged through the timber....checked a meadow...jogged through the timber ...was...."Where are those damned bears?" I got to a meadow in the last five minutes of shooting light, looked out and was disappointed to see nothing. I did not have enough light to make it to another one. I stepped beside a lone spruce tree that was next to the timber, but in the meadow and as I came around it I spotted a nice mature bull, all alone, at 25 yards, at the same time he spotted me. I pulled up and fired just as he made his first jump and managed to get one more into him in the next 20 yards before he went over the rise and out of sight. Both shots were in the "boiler-room," he was an older bull, just a 5x5, but one of the most exciting I'd ever taken. As Dennis and I started field dressing, in the dark,....all I could think about was, "Where are those damned bears?"
Griz Country Tips:
Tip One: Ed Hake leaves all the door zippers open on his wall tents. Reason: If they want in, they'll just tear hell out of your tent and go in. You've all heard about how to store food in bear country, so do it and open those tents up and let 'em in. For the most part, they'll nose around a bit, maybe chew something up like a chair, or a wooden box, get bored and move on.
Tip Two: Put an electric fence around your camp. Use either a solar or a good D-Cell mini charger. The thinnest electrical fence wire works fine. On my mountain goat hunt in 09, we came back into camp after being gone for days. We came across the Griz tracks about a half mile from camp...headed towards camp. They went straight towards the tents and you could see where he touched the fence and tore things up during the shock. When he got his "bearings" back (had to do it) he went over the fence which was now on the ground. We could follow his route through the snow, first to the sleep tent where he stuck his nose in but did not enter. Then the SOB went to the cook tent and rather than using the open door, he tore a hole five feet long, nine inches from the unzipped door. He went into the tent, knocked a few things around and left. I know, it does not sound like it works, but it does. Ever since Ed started using the electric fences he's had much fewer incidents of bears in his camps. And I'd bet you 100 to 1, this particular bear probably won't try the fence again.
Live well, hunt hard
Ron
Ron Minard provides stories and tips on hunting deer, elk, antelope and mountain goats in the Rocky Mountain West.
At the Top
At The Top! From left: John Alexander, Ed "The Goatman" Hake, Ron Minard
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
GrizTails and Lessons Learned-Part One
I haven't had that many face-to-face encounters with grizzly bears, but beginning with my first, way back in 1985 in Alaska and several times in Montana I've learned that bears are a lot like humans. They all have their own personality and respond differently to whatever situation they are confronted with.
My very first meeting with a grizzly bear occurred when I shot a caribou in Alaska in 1985. I had backpacked by myself approximately six miles from the Denali highway east of Denali National Park. On the third day I was making my last trip in to pack out the remaining meat and the horns. I arrived at the head and horns first as I had drug it approximately 300 yards away from the meat in the hopes of keeping a bear from packing it off. I had seen a lot of Griz scat on my trail for the past couple of days and knew they had been in the area within the past week. I used my pack saw to remove the horns and as I was sawing away, I heard a noise and looked up to see a Griz sow and cub standing about 50 yards away.
I happened to be by the only large rock in the area, about eight feet square and eight feet high. The sow didn't show any aggression, just stood there looking at me, trying to figure out what I was. I felt comfortable enough that I reached over, grabbed my coat and climbed up the backside of the boulder.
I was seriously regretting that I had left my rifle back at the truck and only had my .44 mag revolver. I left the rifle because the weight of the remaining meat and the size of the horns strapped to my pack were going to make it difficult to get through the brush on the way down. I thought being on the top of the rock gave me some protection, in that it was high enough that I didn't think she could jump right up on it and the sides were all vertical with only small indentations that I used to get up. I figured if she came after me, I'd have a pretty good chance on the high ground.
I yelled at her and waved my arms, letting her know I was a human and not some tasty pastrami on rye. She stood up, sniffed the air and then started bouncing herself up and down with her front legs. Like I said, this was my first Griz encounter, but, that didn't look good. I only had 12 rounds for my 44 and really did not want to waste any rounds in case I needed them, but fired a shot into the air. She just stood there, so I fired off another. At this, she looked at me like "That all you got?"
She started walking away and had gone about 100 yards, but the cub had not moved. After all, I was probably his first experience with a human. He was curious and mom didn't seem too scared. I yelled and waved my arms some more, which probably bored him to the point that he decided to catch up to the sow. The two of them started walking off when I realized they were headed down to the trail that I was using to get back down. I didn't like the idea of walking down that brushy trail with 50 lbs of raw meat strapped to my back so I fired a round about 10 feet in front of them. It took four more shots, but she finally turned and headed up the mountain slope and I stayed where I was and watched as they climbed up and over the top about three quarters of a mile away.
"Luck" plays a huge part in bear encounters or non-encounters. I walked up to where I had left the rest of my meat and the carcass. When I arrived, it was obvious they had been feeding on all of it. My meat was gone and the carcass was partially buried. 70% of bear attacks are committed by females in defense of their cubs. The other 30% are committed by bears, (boars and sows) when they are either surprised at close range or protecting their food. There's a very, very small percentage of attacks that are committed by bears that went after humans for no apparent reason or for reasons, mistakes or stupidity of the humans. IF, I had left those horns with the meat, I would have come up over that slight rise, with the wind in my face and walked into that sow and cub at approximately 40 yards, which would have put me at about 98% of that "attacks for: protecting their cubs, surprise at close range and protecting their food." (This would have also put me into the catagory of stupidity by human, so we can change that 98% to 100%)
Tip Number One: ALWAYS get a look at a carcass or food source from as far away as possible to look for bears and when you approach be on the look out for bear sign like tracks or scat to see if they've been near it. Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't near by.
Luck played a large portion in my second "non-encounter" in 1986. I was hunting Dall Sheep a bit north of the above hunt with a friend. We had hunted from first light, had traveled about 10 miles in a big loop around camp and saw quite a few caribou and some nice Dall's, but nothing with the legal full curl. Six hours later, we were tired and headed back to camp. As we walked off of one mountain we came to a small stream, about 20 feet wide, a foot to two feet deep and lined with brush for about 30 feet on both sides. It had a good trail going down the middle of it, which we were going to use to get back to camp, until I spotted a bunch of sheep on another mountain about two miles away. We talked some, my partner was beat and did not want to make the trek to determine if there were any legal rams, but I was determined to check them out. He finally decided to go with me rather than returning alone to camp because of bears.
We crossed the creek, clambered up the steep bank and rested. As we were getting our breath back, I looked back at the creek and noticed some movement about a hundred yards below where we crossed. I chucked a rock in that direction and yelled. A Grizzly stood up and looked over the brush in our direction. The brush was about six feet high and her chin just cleared the tops so I estimated her at close to seven feet tall. I yelled again and she dropped down out of sight. She then came out of the brush about 150 yards away on the far side of the creek from us. What we thought was one bear turned out to be five. I still don't know if this is normal, but she had two cubs that were just tall enough that when she stood up, they stood up and wrapped their arms around her legs and their heads were at about her knees. There were also two other young bears that appeared to be about a year and a half old. I yelled again and the sow dropped down and ran like hell up and over the hill.
![]()
For the most part, when given the opportunity of distance between you and them, Grizzly bears like Black bears will get away from you. However, I'm sure it would have been a much much different ending if Don and I had taken that trail back to camp. The stream made a lot of noise as it flowed over the boulders, the creek side brush was thick and limited visibility to about 30 feet and the wind was coming upstream directly in our faces. IF, we had not seen and decided to go after those sheep, it was inevitable that we would have come face-to-face with that sow, her cubs and the other two. I have little doubt that the situation would have left her no choice but to strike out and while I can't guarantee how it would have turned out, in the end I'm sure it would not have been good for Don and I.
Tip Number Two: When you are in bear country, if you have an alternate route that might be a bit more difficult, but provides you with better visibility and standoff..take it. Don and I could have used almost any other route to get back to camp. We were just tired and knew the trail would be the easiest. Sometimes "easy" is not "best."
More "GrizzTails" tomorrow
Till then, live well, hunt hard.
Ron
My very first meeting with a grizzly bear occurred when I shot a caribou in Alaska in 1985. I had backpacked by myself approximately six miles from the Denali highway east of Denali National Park. On the third day I was making my last trip in to pack out the remaining meat and the horns. I arrived at the head and horns first as I had drug it approximately 300 yards away from the meat in the hopes of keeping a bear from packing it off. I had seen a lot of Griz scat on my trail for the past couple of days and knew they had been in the area within the past week. I used my pack saw to remove the horns and as I was sawing away, I heard a noise and looked up to see a Griz sow and cub standing about 50 yards away.
I happened to be by the only large rock in the area, about eight feet square and eight feet high. The sow didn't show any aggression, just stood there looking at me, trying to figure out what I was. I felt comfortable enough that I reached over, grabbed my coat and climbed up the backside of the boulder.
I was seriously regretting that I had left my rifle back at the truck and only had my .44 mag revolver. I left the rifle because the weight of the remaining meat and the size of the horns strapped to my pack were going to make it difficult to get through the brush on the way down. I thought being on the top of the rock gave me some protection, in that it was high enough that I didn't think she could jump right up on it and the sides were all vertical with only small indentations that I used to get up. I figured if she came after me, I'd have a pretty good chance on the high ground.
I yelled at her and waved my arms, letting her know I was a human and not some tasty pastrami on rye. She stood up, sniffed the air and then started bouncing herself up and down with her front legs. Like I said, this was my first Griz encounter, but, that didn't look good. I only had 12 rounds for my 44 and really did not want to waste any rounds in case I needed them, but fired a shot into the air. She just stood there, so I fired off another. At this, she looked at me like "That all you got?"
She started walking away and had gone about 100 yards, but the cub had not moved. After all, I was probably his first experience with a human. He was curious and mom didn't seem too scared. I yelled and waved my arms some more, which probably bored him to the point that he decided to catch up to the sow. The two of them started walking off when I realized they were headed down to the trail that I was using to get back down. I didn't like the idea of walking down that brushy trail with 50 lbs of raw meat strapped to my back so I fired a round about 10 feet in front of them. It took four more shots, but she finally turned and headed up the mountain slope and I stayed where I was and watched as they climbed up and over the top about three quarters of a mile away.
"Luck" plays a huge part in bear encounters or non-encounters. I walked up to where I had left the rest of my meat and the carcass. When I arrived, it was obvious they had been feeding on all of it. My meat was gone and the carcass was partially buried. 70% of bear attacks are committed by females in defense of their cubs. The other 30% are committed by bears, (boars and sows) when they are either surprised at close range or protecting their food. There's a very, very small percentage of attacks that are committed by bears that went after humans for no apparent reason or for reasons, mistakes or stupidity of the humans. IF, I had left those horns with the meat, I would have come up over that slight rise, with the wind in my face and walked into that sow and cub at approximately 40 yards, which would have put me at about 98% of that "attacks for: protecting their cubs, surprise at close range and protecting their food." (This would have also put me into the catagory of stupidity by human, so we can change that 98% to 100%)
Tip Number One: ALWAYS get a look at a carcass or food source from as far away as possible to look for bears and when you approach be on the look out for bear sign like tracks or scat to see if they've been near it. Just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't near by.
Luck played a large portion in my second "non-encounter" in 1986. I was hunting Dall Sheep a bit north of the above hunt with a friend. We had hunted from first light, had traveled about 10 miles in a big loop around camp and saw quite a few caribou and some nice Dall's, but nothing with the legal full curl. Six hours later, we were tired and headed back to camp. As we walked off of one mountain we came to a small stream, about 20 feet wide, a foot to two feet deep and lined with brush for about 30 feet on both sides. It had a good trail going down the middle of it, which we were going to use to get back to camp, until I spotted a bunch of sheep on another mountain about two miles away. We talked some, my partner was beat and did not want to make the trek to determine if there were any legal rams, but I was determined to check them out. He finally decided to go with me rather than returning alone to camp because of bears.
We crossed the creek, clambered up the steep bank and rested. As we were getting our breath back, I looked back at the creek and noticed some movement about a hundred yards below where we crossed. I chucked a rock in that direction and yelled. A Grizzly stood up and looked over the brush in our direction. The brush was about six feet high and her chin just cleared the tops so I estimated her at close to seven feet tall. I yelled again and she dropped down out of sight. She then came out of the brush about 150 yards away on the far side of the creek from us. What we thought was one bear turned out to be five. I still don't know if this is normal, but she had two cubs that were just tall enough that when she stood up, they stood up and wrapped their arms around her legs and their heads were at about her knees. There were also two other young bears that appeared to be about a year and a half old. I yelled again and the sow dropped down and ran like hell up and over the hill.
Tip Number Two: When you are in bear country, if you have an alternate route that might be a bit more difficult, but provides you with better visibility and standoff..take it. Don and I could have used almost any other route to get back to camp. We were just tired and knew the trail would be the easiest. Sometimes "easy" is not "best."
More "GrizzTails" tomorrow
Till then, live well, hunt hard.
Ron
Friday, June 17, 2011
Steve's Mountain Goat
Ed Hake of Big Sky, MT guided both Steve and I to the tops and backsides of "No Name Mountain" in Montana. I doubt there's a better Mountain Goat hunter in all of North America.The succes rate for getting drawn in this particular unit is about 3% and in four successive years my brother in-law, Ed's brother, myself and Ed all got drawn. I was Ed's 20th of 20 successful goat hunts.
I'm not sure there is any way a "flatlander" can ever get 100% prepared for a goat hunt. My brother in-law, Steve Tedford from ND was in his mid 30s when he got drawn first for a goat tag. He trained quite a bit, running and riding bikes in preparation for the altitudes we would be hunting. He had hunted this area many times before for elk when Ed Hake owned the outfitting business in this unit, so he had a pretty good idea what he was in for. He had opportunites for smaller billies the first few days, but after five days of hard hunting he finally decided to take a good average billy at a range of 450 yards. To make a long story short, the goat was wounded with the first shot, but managed to get up and move on far enough that the only option was to head down the mountain, across a valley and get closer.
We had allready hiked straight up, sometimes through hip deep snow to where Steve got his opportunity, which meant John Alexander and myself would head back down, gather all the horses and make a three mile ride down and around to get to where Steve and Ed would end up, hopefully with a filled tag. Things went as planned and when John and I got to the intended rendevous site, Steve had his goat, which was a good thing because both of us were pretty spent. I'm not sure Ed and John ever get too tired hunting Mountain Goats, they both love it and it does not matter that they are not packing a gun, they just love being up with the goats and I can't blame em. IF you want to go on a goat hunt....Get in SHAPE,! and carry a flat shooting caliber that you KNOW without a doubt that you can hit your target out to at least 500 yards.
I mentioned in my first blog about how quickly the weather can change. As an example: On Steve's hunt we took the horses as far as we could, tied em up and then headed out on a beautiful sunny day with little wind. We hiked a couple hours headed for the top of "No Name Mountain" and the weather slowly changed from blue skies to overcast. We kept heading up as the winds increased, the sky darkened and we took cover, when we could find it, to take a break. We were still headed up when Ed stated something like "It's time to get off this mountain or suffer the consequences of continueing up." But in reality it was more like "Lets get the %#**! out of here before we die." By the time we were headed down, the sleet was flying directly in our faces at about 50mph. Visibility was about 50 yards and just being able to see, with the sleet in our faces was almost impossible. We got off of course, but the moral of the story is "use your head and live to find your prey, another day,"
ALWAYS carry the required survival gear in your pack, don't assume your guide or buddies will have some for you. At a minimum, water, power bars, flashlight, small-light tarp and something to start a fire. Firesticks work great as do military surplus fire starter packs and for those who like to save a dime, it's true, petroleum jelly covered cotton balls work great. In addition, an emergency transponder like "Spot" is good insurance. I have one, it cost around $150 and I think I pay a bit over $100 a year to maintain the service. It has three modes, "I'm OK" that advises a couple people that you put into the system that you are fine, "Help," which advises those same people I'm OK, but maybe broke down, with your current GPS coordinates, and "911," which sends a signal to the national system that you need immediate help. It's well worth the piece of mind in the outback country.
Live well, hunt hard
Ron
My first blog
Hi and welcome to my first blog on Hunting the West. This will be a very informal site where I plan to post tips on hunting big game in the northwest U.S., to include elk, deer (both white tail and mulies, but predominately mulies), antelope, mountain goats and in the future, if I ever get drawn I'll write about my experience with a Rocky Mountain Goat hunt, but....could be some years out. I'll provide tips regarding camo, calibers, camping, clothing, boots and physical conditioning. You can ask me about anything hunting related, if I don't know the answer, I'll say so, but may do some research in order to answer the question for both of us. I've been on a number of guided elk hunts in Montana, New Mexico and Utah and will discuss the pros and cons in future posts. I grew up on the Oregon coast hunting black tail and mule deer, and both Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain Elk. I've hunted in Alaska back in the 80s while I was stationed there in the USAF and guided myself to a 423pt Barren Ground B&C Caribou. I'm certainly not the best hunter out there, but have enough experience to pass some info on to "would be," "first time," "out west," hunters from the mid-western, eastern and southern states.:
As an example: My older brother came out from Oregon to join me for an elk hunt. I live in some great hunting country, located approximately 50 miles from Yellowstone National Park. We hiked up in the mountains near Ted Turner's Ranch, covered quite a few miles and returned exhausted many hours later. My brother shed out of his outer jacket, got into the truck and off we went. After approximately 10 minutes I noticed huge waves of steam rising off of his upper body. He was soaked to the skin, but was not uncomfortable and suffered no affects of the cold since we had been moving most of the time and the weather was clear and cold, but with no wind. I asked him what type layers he had on underneath his button up chamois cotton shirt and he told me a thick thermal long sleeve and a thinner long sleave under that, ALL of it was COTTON!. His outer coat was a heavy insulated jacket with cotton outer shell, inner synthetic fill and nylon liner...folks,..he could not have worn much more that could have quite literally killed him if conditions had been different.
Know this right now, as far as I'm concerned, cotton, especially Cotton combined with nylon...can kill you. Now, don't get me wrong, I know many of us are quite skilled at starting fires, getting out of the wind and weather and drying our gear out. But, as I also know from experience, when shit goes wrong, it goes wrong fast and with little to no warning. If you hunt the northwest, and especially if you hunt the Rocky Mountain northwest, at altitudes from 5000 to 11,000 feet. You are definitely going to sweat and the weather can go from blue bird skies to "white out" conditions within minutes. Buy the best gear you can afford, but realize you can use inexpensive layering that won't cost you an arm and a leg. Micro fleeces for under layering works great and when you get right down to it any micro fleece will work fine and a wool sweater over the top works great. The good thing about wool in wet weather is that the wetter you get, the warmer it seems to get. It's just a great insulator and should not be overlooked for both top and pants.
Use anywhere from one to four layers under your outer shell depending on the coldness, and remove layers according to the physical exertion you expect to use when you start out. Realize that what may be too cold as you are standing outside the truck or tent while you get your gear ready may well be much to hot within 300 yards of walking up a 60 degree slope with snow up to your knees. And when it comes to outer shells in the mountain cold it's critical that you wear some type of windproof shell that breaths and breaths well. When it comes to waterproofing stay AWAY from those garments that say "waterproof" but nothing about "breathable."
Many, many years ago I purchased a "waterproof" camo outer shell. It had a brushed nylon outer shell and a nylon mesh inner lining. I guess that nylon mesh was meant for "breathability," but after 20 minutes I was in high, cold winds and my fleece undergarments were soaked. I eventually got so cold that I knew my hunt was done and headed back to the truck before I got myself in trouble. No one knows you,...better than you. Use your head to the best of your ability and play it smart or you could be playing in a life and death situation..
Hope I helped..more later
Montana Ron
As an example: My older brother came out from Oregon to join me for an elk hunt. I live in some great hunting country, located approximately 50 miles from Yellowstone National Park. We hiked up in the mountains near Ted Turner's Ranch, covered quite a few miles and returned exhausted many hours later. My brother shed out of his outer jacket, got into the truck and off we went. After approximately 10 minutes I noticed huge waves of steam rising off of his upper body. He was soaked to the skin, but was not uncomfortable and suffered no affects of the cold since we had been moving most of the time and the weather was clear and cold, but with no wind. I asked him what type layers he had on underneath his button up chamois cotton shirt and he told me a thick thermal long sleeve and a thinner long sleave under that, ALL of it was COTTON!. His outer coat was a heavy insulated jacket with cotton outer shell, inner synthetic fill and nylon liner...folks,..he could not have worn much more that could have quite literally killed him if conditions had been different.
Know this right now, as far as I'm concerned, cotton, especially Cotton combined with nylon...can kill you. Now, don't get me wrong, I know many of us are quite skilled at starting fires, getting out of the wind and weather and drying our gear out. But, as I also know from experience, when shit goes wrong, it goes wrong fast and with little to no warning. If you hunt the northwest, and especially if you hunt the Rocky Mountain northwest, at altitudes from 5000 to 11,000 feet. You are definitely going to sweat and the weather can go from blue bird skies to "white out" conditions within minutes. Buy the best gear you can afford, but realize you can use inexpensive layering that won't cost you an arm and a leg. Micro fleeces for under layering works great and when you get right down to it any micro fleece will work fine and a wool sweater over the top works great. The good thing about wool in wet weather is that the wetter you get, the warmer it seems to get. It's just a great insulator and should not be overlooked for both top and pants.
Use anywhere from one to four layers under your outer shell depending on the coldness, and remove layers according to the physical exertion you expect to use when you start out. Realize that what may be too cold as you are standing outside the truck or tent while you get your gear ready may well be much to hot within 300 yards of walking up a 60 degree slope with snow up to your knees. And when it comes to outer shells in the mountain cold it's critical that you wear some type of windproof shell that breaths and breaths well. When it comes to waterproofing stay AWAY from those garments that say "waterproof" but nothing about "breathable."
Many, many years ago I purchased a "waterproof" camo outer shell. It had a brushed nylon outer shell and a nylon mesh inner lining. I guess that nylon mesh was meant for "breathability," but after 20 minutes I was in high, cold winds and my fleece undergarments were soaked. I eventually got so cold that I knew my hunt was done and headed back to the truck before I got myself in trouble. No one knows you,...better than you. Use your head to the best of your ability and play it smart or you could be playing in a life and death situation..
Hope I helped..more later
Montana Ron
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