First Montana Spring Bear Hunt

A friend from high school and I are coming home from college out of state at the end of this week and are planning our first bear hunt. We've both have hunted muleys and antelope out of the Billing area however neither of us have experience or know anyone who does in bear hunting. We've both been researching on the internet and in books so we have some basic knowledge but I thought it would be a good idea to post on here. I guess I'm wondering about if you guys have any advice that might not be so common, like is there any extra gear we need that you don't use deer hunting? Also we are looking for somewhere we can find bears, don't want to take your spot but any general locations or tips would be great, we've been thinking about going somewhere in the Helena or Lewis and Clark national forests are these good spots? Also being the broke college students we are we don't have horses or four wheelers available to get deep into the mountains, we are looking for somewhere were we can camp out of the back of my truck and hike into them and still find bears. Thanks for helping two young future bear hunters.

Lots of snow, no bears - let me know if you guys find them and where at?

This might help:

http://fieldguide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=AMAJB01010

Make sure you know your bear ID, as the areas you'll probably be in have griz in them too.

Find food sources, follow the greenup up the mountain.

Cover ground, glass from high points.

That should get you started.

I saw a 50lb cub/yearling literally about 5min outside Billings last Sat. He was in a creek bottom eating grass.

theres still too much snow to go deep into any mountains so I wouldn't worry about that

Don't need horses or atv's to get deep, best tool for the job is glass anyway. Best of luck.