Episode Details

In this episode Matt Hartsky breaks down how to actually find black bears in spring—not with guesses or internet shortcuts, but by understanding what bears are doing and why. Spring bear hunting frustrates a lot of hunters because they treat it like a numbers game: glass more, hike more, cover more country. When they don’t see bears, they assume the unit is empty. That’s almost never the truth.

Coming out of hibernation, black bears are calorie-depleted, digestion is restarting, and every decision revolves around efficiency. That makes their movement predictable. When you understand how calories, warmth, snowline, and terrain interact, massive country shrinks into high-probability zones. Matt explains why early season bears concentrate instead of roam, how green-up acts like a moving conveyor belt of feed, and why south- and southwest-facing slopes, burns, edges, and travel lanes between bedding and feed consistently produce sightings.

He also covers the mistakes that keep hunters from ever seeing bears—hunting too high too early, glassing shaded timber instead of sunlit slopes, moving during prime visibility windows, and not staying patient behind the glass. If you want a repeatable system to locate spring black bears before you ever think about calling or stalking, this episode will sharpen your strategy fast.