
King of the range, the grizzly 
EW sportsmen realize that the 
F spring is the best time of year for 
bear hunting. The bear feed on 
the open side hills, during the months 
of May and June, on the green feed 
which is their main source of food dur- 
ing that period. The nearer Yellow- 
stone Park, on the south, the better the 
bear hunting, and for many miles south 
of the Yellowstone one finds bear in 
Teton County, where they range more 
or less over the entire area and afford 
splendid sport. 
In this area range, the black, brown 
and silver tip or grizzly bear are about 
equally divided. In the spring months, 
after coming out from hibernation, they 
range over a large territory looking for 
green feed until berries and other food 
is available. During the early morning 
and late evening they are found mainly 
on the south hill sides, moving about in 
the morning, and laying up during the 
day in some thick underbrush. In the 
evening hours they seldom move much 
before dark, eating everything that 
suits their fancy; this is a good time to 
stalk them. 
Field glasses are useful in locating 
bear during spring months. Trailing 
over the snow is interesting if the snow 
is new and soft, but the chances by 
trailing are not so good as locating 
them with glasses before stalking. 
Last spring IT hunted bear in Buffalo 
country, south of the Teton State Game 
Preserve. The early bear that come 
out from winter quarters directly south 
of the Yellowstone Park travel south 
on the crusted snow and feed on the 
early green hillsides. 
We left the Red Roch Ranch on Crys- 
214 
tal Creek, a tributary of the Gros Ven- 
tre River, on the 1st day of May with 
a full camp equipment and pack train, 
and up to the 14th of May were busy 
packing back into the Soda Fork of 
Buffalo. We had to take grain for the 
horses, as spring feed is at that time 
just starting, and horses have to have 
oats to go with the last years grass 
in order to stand up. We made our 
main base of supplies at Elk, Wyoming, 
at the Billie Stilson Ranch. The Soda 
Fork of Buffalo being 25 miles from 
here, we finally got everything in the 
main camp and in a good location as to 
covering the best country. 
The first party coming had to cancel 
his trip, so Billie and I decided we would 
have a hunt ourselves, we left the Stil- 
son Ranch on the 15th of May with 
our outfit and, in addition to ourselves, 
Mrs. Vern Stilson, Billie’s wife, and 
Miss Gloria Frink, of Seattle, Wash- 
ington. 
E went as far as the Geo. Erwin 
Ranch the first day, and the next 
morning arrived at the main camp 
where we proceeded to make comfort- 
able for a week’s stay. After getting 
lunch, Vern got a pair of glasses and 
within a few minutes, while the others 
were busy doing other things, exclaimed, 
“I see a bear! I see a bear!” Billie 
laughed and so did the rest of us and 
kidded Mrs. Stilson over some black 
stump or other imaginary thing which 
we thought was her bear, but she still 
continued to argue the point that she 
saw him move, so we finally all got 
interested in bear and with the field 
glasses soon located some half mile 
Spring 
Bear Hunting 
in 
Jackson’s Hole 
A Sport Requiring Energy 
and Endurance 
By JAMES S. SIMPSON 
away and far up the open mountain 
side a large black bear feeding in an 
open draw and as though he were a 
thousand miles from any human being. 
ATURALLY, the girls got some- — 
what excited and continued to 
watch Mr. Bear until Billie and I got — 
our guns and we all started towards 
4 
the foot of the mountain, keeping well © 
under cover. We were soon at the foot 
of the mountain and the girls decided 
that, as it was getting late and a 
hurry-up climb had to be made, they 
covered up under a large limbed tree 
and with the glasses, of which we had 
two pair, watched the bear, while Billie 
and I quartered up the mountain side 
as fast as possible, but holding a little 
extra breath for some possible last 
exertion. 
got to where we could look into the 
draw opposite where the bear had been, — 
but he was nowhere in sight. 
time the girls were watching him from 
After what seemed a long — 
while, in fact some fifteen minutes, we © 
All this — 
below with no chance to give us the lo- — 
cation, as the bear had slowly gone up 
the hill, crossed over into some scat- 
tering timber and out of sight of Billie 
and myself. 
I went over into the draw where the 
bear had been, while Billie went on up 
the ridge towards the timber, and when — 
I got to where the bear had been feed- 
ing, I looked up the mountain and saw — 
him walking up the hill near the top 
on a very slippery slope. He was about 
200 yards away, and as Billie was out 
of sight of both the bear and myself, 
I took aim off hand and missed, shoot- 
ing under and then took another shot 
: 
