west slope welcome to BGH . I was born and raised in Grand Junction and I have been on the Uncompahgre all of my life . Congrats on your tag, it is hard to beat the bear population in unit 61 and 62 . The last bit of information I received when i took a collared bear was that there are 1.2 bears for every square mile on the Unc. The amount of bears you see in September depends mostly on the amount of food there is this fall. If there is a lot of food the bears don't have to travel as much and they are much harder to find, but if there isn't, they have got to travel more and much easier to spot . The big boars are a lot tougher they travel a lot, I took a big boar in 1995 and when I received the information back from his radio collar, he was traveling a 168 square miles in his 7 to 9 day travels. Sows on the other hand usually stay within 5 miles of where thay are born. There will be bears in almost every canyon with water and good food, get to an area where you can actually see into the areas and start glassing. If there is a lot of food you will have to hike down in the canyons and try to spot and stalk muck like a muledeer.

The "ONLY" taxidermist I personally would recommend is Precision Taxidermy, his name is Matt, the address is 3265 E Road. Go over and check him out and tell him Quinton sent you.

One more little thing when you have your bear processed do not forget to have the back hams cured and smoked . There is nothing like it, my father would trade a whole elk for smoked bear hams.

Thanks elkkill
Nice boar !
If they are moving that many miles then i will probably be better off working the areas that I know in 62. I have a few canyons that I will hike in July to scout for sign and i know a few ridges that have good visibility in to the canyons to glass from.
I will check out precision tax. thank you
I never would have thought to have the hams smoked.
Have you or anyone else ever had any success calling bears?

The only luck I have had calling in bears is during the summer when I am out trying to take down the coyote population on the Unc. I have litterally had them within three feet of the end of my barrel. We have tried calling them during the September season and first rifle elk only season without any luck. It seems to me that once everyone is out there pounding the mountain those bears move down into the canyons and don't like to come out and play. But we have called in bears while cow and calf calling for elk. Usually when they do come in they come in very aggressive.

Great
Thank you for the info
I dont think I want an aggressive bear in my lap for my first hunt and my calling is a bit rusty anyhow. Do you use an electronic caller or a mouth blown?
I have only ever used the mouth calls with mixed results.

During the summer I use an electronic call. During the big game seasons electronic calls are illegal. When calling bears it usually takes 40 to 50 minutes of continual calling to get them in, your face tends to go numb. Fawn in distress seems to work the best during the summer.

Thanks for all the info and tips. I really appreciate it.
I've read some of your older posts and you have been hunting the unc. for a long time. do you prefer the north or south end.
Do you have any tips for getting away from the crowds?

I have hunted or fished most of the unit and there are places in unit 62 that even in this day and age do not see people, but those places are bigger, deeper and nastier than most are willing to hunt.

When it comes to bear hunting it is not so much getting away from people as finding the little out of the way places they can hide from people. When it comes to the big boars it's a matter of the right place and right time and catching him as he is passing through. I have killed all of my bears within 5 miles of each other because I know the area so well and know where they head to feed in the fall. It also helps seeing them when they are cubs and knowing where they are born because in the fall even though the boars are traveling they will come back to where they are born.

The only thing I can say about getting away from the crowds is learning the areas you like and figuring out not only how the animals behave to the pressure but also how the people hunt the areas. The 363" bull we killed in 2007 we killed at 11:00 a.m. in an area that is very heavily hunted and we new he was in there. There were easily 40-50 guys in the area and even I had walked through the area trying to push the elk down to the guys. They stayed hunkered down in the thickest stuff they could find until all the hunters had left for breakfast. The elk (the big bull, 5 raghorns and 23 cows and calves) got up and headed down country while we were still sitting there watching. And on the other hand I killed my biggest bull 6 1/2 miles from the end of the road. It really is a matter of putting in the time and learning your area you like to hunt. And yes there still are those guys that have never hunted an area and get lucky and shoot a big one from the truck.

Good luck and good hunting !