spring bear advise

It sounds like you have a great plan. Very similar to what I do. If you have a Facebook account, do yourself a favour and join this group https://www.facebook.com/groups/225827837965816/ Lots of useful DIY bear hunting info on there.

It sounds like you're expecting your bait to last 1 week between re-fills, so your barrel design will be important. Once bears find your bait, they can be on it all day and night 24-7. The volley ball sized hole with the logs shoved in it will be cleaned out in no time. For bait, unless you find a connection for something for free, the cheapest way to fill a barrel really does seem to be popcorn. (Unless you put a lot of value on your time spent popping it.) A $35 50lbs bag of kernals will fill nearly 3 barrels. Whole corn is another relatively cheap option to add something that will fill bellies. A local farm here sells 50lbs bags for $8/bag. Each bag is about 6 gallons. So you can do the math for volume required. Less than half the price of the cheapest dog food you'll find. I primarily use popcorn due to the weight, but bears sure can eat it fast if your barrel allows it. I think i could eat 50gallons of popcorn in a couple days myself! :D I've finished popping mine a month or so ago. 6 barrels worth. Start over the winter. When you're doing something in the garage, run the popper. Filing your chainsaw chains, run the popper. Changing oil on the mower,,, Popper! :D
Deer feed (whole corn + molasses) is another option and it's often on clearance sales.

Yes. I use a 45 gal plastic drum and drilled roughly (12) 3/4” holes spread out all around. I would only cut out a small hole at the top to fill will Ol Roy dog food from Walmart or/and corn. This seem to last longer as they have to push it around to get food out. I pass a chain through existing holes and place swivels at both end and lock it on a tree. I would bring bread and other scrap only when I sit on bait. When you have a couple sow and a couple Cubs with a bunch of boars they can still clean it out quick. Bear meat can get expensive. Haha. Then once in a while I get lucky and shoot one while driving cut overs.

If you need your bait to last a long time I suggest you go with a steel roller barrel. I went with a 4" square hole on mine that the bear literally has to roll around for the bait to come out. Stick with dry baits like popcorn, corn and dog food. Sprinkling it with flavour crystals or jello powder for extra scent and flavour but stay away from liquid additives as you don't want the bait to get clumped up. Here's a pic of mine, I should have put my hole a bit higher up so it could hold more but it still lasted at least a week although I did have some other bait there as well in a smaller can with a lid and heavy rocks on it to keep the coons out.
https://i.imgur.com/mSiZaOy.jpg

I made the same mistake cutting the hole half way up the barrel. We are 6 hours away from our hunting grounds so having a full barrel is key or as others mentioned double up on the barrels.

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Originally Posted by huntnmachine

I made the same mistake cutting the hole half way up the barrel. We are 6 hours away from our hunting grounds so having a full barrel is key or as others mentioned double up on the barrels.

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Me three
Halfway up seemed like a good idea at the time

I think the hole 2/3 of the way up is the key. Too high and the stuff in the bottom will rot. Too low and it won’t hold very much.
Here is my set up. First year running a barrel set up. The hole I put in is too low I think. To be more effective I think it needs to straddle the next rib up.
Attachment 41737

Bear stuck in barrel.... Make the holes square instead of round to avoid this.....Lucky they found him when they did....More than a few youtube videos of such things, (sad to see)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3neKH7nsM5Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H66_Wz49Yuk