Do your own Bear hunt/HELP

[Mort Scott]

lots of good advice on bear hunting. I would keep away from the dump bears. What ever method you use remember "no food no bears." they are always looking for something to eat. unless it's mating season.

 

[longcruise]

In my state you can not hunt over bait or use hounds.Spot and stalk is the way to go.

After reading about the conditions in your state, I think bear hunting there will be a tough proposition. Our bears don't live in proximity to crops which makes watching food sources more productive. If your bears have crops like corn to feed on, they will probably be scattered and hard to find.

 

[texcl]

I do my own bear hunts but I hunt over bait. Me and my buddy did all the scouting and baiting and ended up with seven bears in the bag the 1st day(group of seven guys). I shot a brown bear with a blonde stripe down it's back, anyway, I see lots of bears walk across fields and roads and could shoot them that way if I wanted to I suppose, what it comes down to is how much scouting you do, people can give you all the advice in the world and next season the bears might do something completely different, get out in the field and start looking for bear sign early, when you find it post cameras and figure out the pattern and set up an ambush, that is your best bet. I would start looking for berry patches, if they are like bears here, the bears crave berries and then acorns. You can't even bring in the bears with fruit loops and doughnuts when the acorns are falling.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The Berries provide them with sugar, and its carbohydrates, which the bear stores as fat. The Acorns provide more carbohydrates, and Protein, which the bears uses to grow muscle, and to store as fat. Understanding the annual life cycle of bears will give you a big leg up during your scouting trips. Asking locals about the berry crop this season will give you more useful information than asking them where they last saw a bear, in many cases. However, talk to enough people and you will be eventually steered to someone who knows where the Biggest Bear is that is causing problems with local homes and garbage containers. That will be the bear to hunt if you want to make friends with locals, and get a larger than average bear.

 

[BrownBear]

I plan on seeing a bear biologist.What questions should I ask Him
or Her? An are there any good books or dvds out there?Any infomation is helpful and appreciated
Thank you Scott

I'd ask about areas with high incidence of bear problems, as well as adjacent lands you can legally hunt.

Every biologist I've ever known would see your interest as an "easy" alternative to the hassles of getting the permits, live trapping, and especially finding a suitable place for release. Their lives with bears may sound pretty romantic, but problem bears are a 4 star hassle.

I'm betting the biologists will lean over backwards to "help" you solve their own problems.

 

[hawk]

I've hunted problem bears in remote areas where lodges and camps are vacant for the fall and winter.they can do a lot of damage just before they snug up for the winter.

the camp owners are very thankfull for the removal and even offered to pay for my tag !

good luck

 

[texcl]

You can't beat that!

 

[henbrook]

If you see scat in an area then it s best to keep looking, The old guys around here would say that the scat tells you that a bear has moved to feed in a new area as they don't poo where they eat.

With all due respect...that's NONSENSE! :bull:

My camp partner and I have been offering guided bear hunts over bait,both spring and fall for a few years now as well as having 50+years prior hunting experience between us.We run 12-15 baitsites each season and I can promise you that the surrounding and immediate area(within inches at times) around the baitsites is peppered with bearchit.

Reading this thread,I didn't see too much mention of apple trees as a food source which strikes me as odd? In my area,apples are probably the #1 natural food source in Fall,with lots of old abandoned 1800's homesteads and overgrown orchards scattered about the countryside.Find apples/find bears here...almost gauranteed.Apple producers generally shoot'em on sight as they can be very destructive,break alot of limbs,and eat a ton of apples.I often bump bears while deer or grouse hunting in old orchards.....and in some of the better bear orchards it's actually quite a chore to walk around without constantly slipping in bearchit.If I couldn't/wasn't allowed to bait bears,that's where I'd be hunting them. :thumbsup:

 

[texcl]

I agree that is one of the signs I look for in a bait site (Bear poo), it is an excellent indicator that there are bears around and what they have been eating.One of the group shot a 300lb+ bruin that had a gullet full of wheat, so it's good to look at scat, grains like wheat and oats pop out at you.

 

[crazybear22]

:v one thing you can find out is if you can use fox urine as a cover scent. If you can use a drag rag covered in it as the bear and fox are after the same food sources and the bear will track the fox to kill it .I have had two bears come up the tree after me on stand when i haved used this methode.it might be because i am over bait but i also have had them follow me in the woods also when i put the urine on my boots. They have gotten a little nasty on occasion.