Rates and Dates

If driving, please do not arrive before 12am on the arrival date listed. If flying, and arriving early or leaving late, you will need to make hotel arrangements.

5-Day Spring Black Bear Hunts Below dates are arrival and departure dates
2011	2012	2013
May 15–21	May 20–26	May 19–25
May 22–28	May 27–Jun 2	May 26–Jun 1
May 29–Jun 4	Jun 3–9	Jun 2–8
Jun 5–12	Jun 10–16	Jun 9–15

2 hunters with 1 guide

$3900 each

1 hunter with 1 guide

$4900

Second Bear Tag

If the first bear is not an 18″ trophy, this fee is waived.

$200 tag + $500 Trophy Fee

ALL INCLUSIVE PACKAGE PRICE
All prices include licenses, tags, royalties, taxes, guides, cabins, meals, hunting transportation, and Prince George airport pickup and return.

Discounts Available

• -5% prompt payment
• -5% repeat client
• -5% groups of 4 or more hunters
• -10% prior unsuccessful hunt

Extras and Add-ons:

• Non-hunters: $50 per day (spouses are free)
• Fishing License, Wolf Tag, Grouse Tag: $60 each
• Wounded Game Policy: $500 to continue hunting
• $25 Firearm Permit @ Border: We provide the permit, you fill it out and sign at the border
• 5–10% Guide and Cook Gratuity

Booking Policy

• Phone (604) 629-9836 to book a hunt.
• 50% deposit required when booking for the same year.
• $500 deposit required when booking more than a year in advance.
• 50% due by November of the year before the hunt.
• 2-week grace period allowed for deposit to arrive by mail, after which the booking will be cancelled unless other arrangements are made.
• Personal cheques are preferred. Wire transfers are available for an additional fee.
• Credit cards are not accepted.
• 100% of the hunt price must be received by May 1st of the year of your hunt.

Cancellation Policy

• We strongly urge you to purchase sportsman's travel insurance! This protects both you and the outfitter from loss due to an unexpected cancellation. If you choose not to purchase travel insurance, you do so at your own risk.
• No refunds. No exceptions.
• Hunt may be transferred to another hunter before September 1st.
• After May 1st (when licenses and tags for all bear hunters are purchased), hunts may be transferred provided the alternate hunter pays for new licenses and tags.
• $500 advance booking deposit may be forwarded to another year if notification is given by November 1st of the year prior to the original hunt.
• Hunts forwarded to another year are subject to any price changes effective in that year.

Overview

Hunt Style

We hunt bear the most exciting way possible, spot and stalk. Baiting is illegal in British Columbia. In the spring we hunt the areas where the grass grows first, along the south facing slopes, river and creek banks, and along logged areas and roads. These spot and stalk hunts are action packed though. You can expect to see 5–10 bears a day. (Our record is 26 bears in one day.) Seeing 30 to 40 bears in a hunt is average, though we have seen as many as 102. Our lodge at Crystal Lake is at a higher elevation and densely timbered and, while great for moose, is not ideal for bears. Therefore we hunt bears from Greer Creek Ranch where we have guest cabins to accommodate you. From Greer Creek you will go out in a truck each day with your guide. As the grass grows first in the logging areas, this hunt is mostly a road hunt covering lots of ground and glassing large areas. For the more intrepid hunter there are some great hikes along our sweet spot we like to call "Bear Mecca" or along the Rim Rock where we find bears feeding.

About Black Bears

In the spring, bears start coming out of their dens by mid-April. We have a very healthy bear population which appears to be denser than it really is because bears gather in higher numbers around the scarce sources of food. Bears are all about food. Their primary food source in the spring is grass, roots, grubs, and later in May moose calves. Late May and early June is the Bear breeding period, and during this time frame large boars move about more in search of breedable sows. It is illegal to shoot a bear in a family unit, which is to prevent the harvest of sows and cubs.

We are so confident in our bear population we do not want you shooting a bear less than 6′ with an 18″ skull. Our trophy bears go between 6′ and 7′6″ long and 200 to 300 lbs in the spring with skulls measuring between 18–21 inches. A 300 pound spring bear will weigh 400 pounds in the fall. The trick to finding a trophy is not in finding the bear, but rather in being able to judge big bears from average bears.

Judging a bear to be a trophy is particularly difficult and takes experience and careful examination of the bear. Bears have as diverse a body shape and size as do humans, and while these are some good rules to follow, there are always exceptions. Here is what to look for: small ears, ears will appear to be off to the side of the head, belly close to ground, runs like an accordion, walks with a sway, crease in the forehead, head will be shaped like a box with a nose sticking out of it, large tracks, large diameter droppings. Of course it helps if you have something you know the size of to compare against the bear. Here are the signs of a small bear: large ears, ears stick up as if off the top of the head, long legs with belly way off the ground, runs swift with agility, walks like a dog, head is shaped like an elongated triangle, small tracks, small diameter droppings. Remember it is about quality. Hides are very thick in the spring, and depending on the weather bears may start to rub. If the bear looks scruffy, it is probably rubbed. We are careful to ensure that the bear has a high quality pelt. Poor pelt quality is rarely an issue, effecting less than 10% of our harvested bears. We do have color phase bears including cinnamon, chocolate and the rare blonde. Color phase bears tend to be smaller bears. There are two reasons for this, first hunters will take a smaller bear just for the color, and second, as bears mature they tend to darken, and while they may keep a cinnamon undercoat, they will appear black. The percentage of color phase bears harvested changes from year to year.

Misconceptions

Many hunters bring with them ideas they have formed about bears from magazine stories and hunting tales. Allow me to dispel some of these misconceptions so that you have better expectations. First, most size estimations of bears are false. When told about a bear's size, my first question is "was that an estimation?" We have a scale and regularly test people's estimation of a bear's weight against the reality and found that most hunters overestimate by at least 100 pounds, and in some cases up to 200 pounds. A 200 pound bear is a VERY LARGE BEAR. A 300 pound bear is GIGANTIC! A 400 pound black bear is moving into the grizzly size category, and your taxidermist will have to order a grizzly manikin to mount it. Do not be duped by stories of 400 pound spring bears, they are extremely rare, and that is probably an exaggerated estimation of an excited hunter in the field. Second, photos can be manipulated to make bears appear larger than they really are. Unlike antlered animals in which you can count points, a bear must be judged in reference to an object, such as a hunter, who is often set far behind the animal to make it appear larger. This is a common practice for outfitters, especially prevalent in magazines, and rarely reliable when it comes right down to size. This has had the unfortunate side effect of causing what is known as "ground shrinkage" when you actually get up on the trophy bear you have just harvested. Skull measurements are the only reliable method to actually determine the size of a bears head. Photos are unreliable. A bear with an 18″-19″ skull is a trophy, 20″ is huge, and 21″ is gigantic beyond most peoples wildest dreams.

Success Rates & Recommendations

100%! We like to boast that we have never had a hunter who didn't pull the trigger. Everyone gets their bear. In fact, this hunt is not about whether you get a bear or not, but rather how much bigger your second bear will be than your first. We consider it an opportunity on a tag if the hunter wounded, or missed a bear, but not if he passed it up. The following table shows our statistics since we began offering Spring Bear hunts in 2002:

Year	1st Bear	2nd Bear
2002	100	100
2003	100	63
2004	100	100
2005	100	90
2006	100	100
2007	100	100
2082	100	100
2009	100	100
2010	100	90

Junior Hunting Program

BC has a junior hunting program for kids aged 10–13 (they must not turn 14 until after their hunt) that is quite spectacular for bear hunting. The way it works is this: purchase a 1-on-1 bear hunt, with 2 tags plus a $25 junior hunting license for your son or daughter (total: $5125). This enables your junior hunter to hunt on your adult licence. You may each then take one bear; your son or daughter may shoot a bear on one of your tags. The regular value for 2 hunters to take one bear each is $7800 ($3900 each). This is a huge savings for you and your son or daughter.

Recommendations

Big black bear boars start cruising for sows around the first of June. This is the best time to hunt bears, as the big bears are more vulnerable. We want you to plan your hunt as close to June as possible. This is when we see the most bears, and take our biggest boars.