Is this typical

First off.... This is my first year bear hunting.
I had two large bears coming into my stand for about a week. Now it has been roughly 8 days and they seemed to have disappeared. The only bear I have coming in now is a two year old.
Do bears pull a disappearing act ( just like everything else I hunt it seems both turkey and deer ) or am I missing something or doing something wrong ? As I understand it their " rut " time has probably kicked in by now. Would this cause them to shift areas ? It would make sense that the larger bears are busy ( or getting busy ) and the two year old is taking advantage of their absenteeism.
I am at a loss.
Should I start walking the bush doing a spot and stalk ? I'm in a very dense bush and it would be very hard to be quiet on a walkabout.
Any help would be appreciated.

Completely normal. It is most likely rut related. Sows don't begin to breed until they are 4-5 years old so the pickings are slim lol. Think about it this way, you have a few weeks a year breed are you going to focus on food? lol

Other possibilities? did you add something different to your bait? meats? I find meats screw things up.

My bait has been inconsistent now for about a week and a half. All the consistent big bears have been totally random and only hitting once a week if I am lucky.

I don't use any meat in my set up only bakery leftovers and attractants.
Do you think they will return to "normal" feeding activity before the season closes ?

As the season progress,s , the bear's diet changes.

2 year old is great eating and easy to handle especially if your first bear. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Deer Hunter

2 year old is great eating and easy to handle especially if your first bear. Good luck.

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That depends if he's referring to a 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 year old in regards to size. All good eating for sure.

I've had them up and leave a good bait during both spring and fall hunts and to tell the truth, I've never been able to sort out why with any certainty. Usually they do come back but even then, its been anywhere from two weeks to a month sometimes. I've always made sure to have alternative baits for my hunters should this happen.

Maybe a neighbor is baiting?

Its certainly one of many possibilities but a friend of mine who runs around 60 baits has had locals move in and put a bait near his setup. The bears continued to hit my chums baits while ignoring the new bait site. He always felt it was because the bears were accustomed to his bait and therefore comfortable coming to it.

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Originally Posted by smitty55

That depends if he's referring to a 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 year old in regards to size. All good eating for sure.

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I'm pretty sure the bear I'm calling a 2 year old is a 18-24 month old cub that was with the sow at the beginning of the season. These are the target bears I'm looking for in the pics.Attachment 40495Attachment 40496

They travel long way looking for mates. Females will only spend a short time with a single Male before looking for another. In this time you could easily have a new target bear show up.

Ok. One of my target bears has shown up.... woohoo.
I smeared a small jar of peanut butter all over the bait pile and it showed up not two hours later.Attachment 40497

Ok. So I don’t think it was the peanut butter that was the trigger. I think it was the commercial fruit smoothie that the kids refused to drink.
I put more peanut butter out today and it only brought in the adolescent bear