first time bear hunter

[22x11]

hello again,

my dad and I are going bear hunting in a month in WMU 28. I myself have never been bear hunting and my dad has done it once and was successful. any tips in general on how to bait? when/where to hunt?

[brad]

You will want to start feeding as soon as possible. It's best to hang a bait, such as a stink bait that will give off lots of smell and carry for a long way, such as in a tree where it can drift in the wind. Your food sources should be such where it won't be carried off easily, this is why many people use barrels and ground baits (dug holes). As nice as it is to see an animal coming from a great distance, the lack of cover makes animals more spooky and I suggest you should feed in the woods, compared to the middle of a gravel pit or something like that. Bears will often find the food source at night and return earlier and earlier until they are within shooting hours. I strongly suggest, that you think of a bear like a whitetail in terms of scent and movement, often we have experiences with bears that lead us to believe that they aren't very cautious or smart and are only interested in food, I find this not to be the case especially close distance such as archery hunting. I find it as hard or harder to draw a bow back on a bear that I do a deer.

i also suggest that after the shot, if you shoot one you take great care into following the sound, listening for the bear to crash and fall or keep running. If the keep running I would give the animal a lot of time and this is because, if jumped, a bear will travel a great distance and often not bleed much for you to find, if they crash or you hear them moan (they will moan sometimes before they die) then recover the animal as you would any other game. It strongly suggest that you try to shoot the animal quartering away or complete broadside, due to the animals hair, it makes judging shoulders and ribs difficult, often placement finds it's way too afar forward or too far back.

bears will travel great distances for food, often in one day, I've seen nuisance bears which have been removed and transported 50-100km return in a day. Try to consider if there are local outfitters in the area, this being for two reasons, first you don't wan to interfear with another hunters, second you don't want to compete with any other food sources.

judging bears is next to impossible, and as it's your first bear hunt (I'm assuming) any cub less animal will be great. If you don't want to shoot a sow, the only way I can tell when they are alive is by judging their face, males will look more masculine, females more feminine, and males will often if not always, kick out their back legs away from their genitals when they walk.

good luck I hope this helps and I'm sure there are many more hunters that can offer much more to help you.

Brad

[22x11]

thanks a lot! we own 180 acres up there, our neighbor up there hunts bear quite a bit and I believe he has been baiting them already this year. its an 8hr drive for us so obviously we wont be up there before the hunt or at least not a lot hahaha. I plan on using my 308 with 150gr Corelokts. adequate? shoulder shots or lung??

[TurkeyRookie]

The berries up here are bountiful this year, tons of blueberries, choke cherrys, and wild raspberries, I suspect they won't be hitting the baits very hard early on with all the berries available.

[SongDog]

i also suggest that after the shot, if you shoot one you take great care into following the sound, listening for the bear to crash and fall or keep running. If the keep running I would give the animal a lot of time and this is because, if jumped, a bear will travel a great distance and often not bleed much for you to find, if they crash or you hear them moan (they will moan sometimes before they die) then recover the animal as you would any other game. It strongly suggest that you try to shoot the animal quartering away or complete broadside, due to the animals hair, it makes judging shoulders and ribs difficult, often placement finds it's way too afar forward or too far back.

Brad

Great post, Good advice, Especially this part.

I would talk to your neighbour and see what he is baiting with. How far do you figure his bait is going to be from yours??? If its less than 5 miles you guys will be sharing the same bears and they will go for what ever bait has the easiest food.


Bait as often as you can. If your only baiting once before the opener, Than I suggest a 50gal barrel with two one inch holes at the bottom and chain it to the tree. Fill it right full with corn/oats/mollasses or dog food. That should last a month.


I bait every 2 weeks, I put out about 150lbs of bait each time and its usually almost gone in 2 weeks and my bait is not easy to get a lot of food from. Bears stay there for 2-6 hours at a time LOL.

[22x11]

I forgot to mention this part hahaha, our neighbor there lets us bear hunt on his land and use his treestands because we let his group moose hunt on ours.

[Tomislav45]

I had my first bear hunt this spring, and was successful...

Tips from another first-timer:

Look for sign, and when you find some (fresh scat, fresh tracks, etc.) then that is a good place to set up. I shot my bear this spring about 100 yards from a fresh pile of bear crap.

Even if you can't pre-bait, doesn't mean its not worth doing while your up there. If there are bears in the area, when they smell it, they will likely come. The bait I used was a cheap bag of dog food, molasses, a jar of peanut butter, and 3 packages of jello powder all mixed together in a vented barrel.
A good trick I learned after setting up the bait was to do a couple "honey burns" to bring the bears in. I did 2 of them and had 2 bears come into my bait after about 4 hours from set-up. Here is a decent youtube video of the honey burn process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoZSS156l3Y - it works, carries the scent for miles.

You will do just fine with your .308...
I got mine with a .270 win and 130gr powerpoint at 80 yards. just aim for the shoulder.

Hope this helps, I'm sure some of the others here have some good tips also. All I know is I'm hooked, and I will be out again!

Good luck!

[Greenhorn]

Feed them oil/ grease.in the spring I put out 10 gallons every second day and depending 50- 150 pounds of meat every two days. Used my trail cams and killed a dominate bear over 300 pounds. I have a few relatives in Newfee that love bear meat so I'm hunting the fall season. I had over 25 bears hitting the bait so I'm going to increase the oil from 10 - 30 gallons and bait every third day. I have trail cams set up, once they get comfortable, I'll determine their schedule and wait for them to come in. I carry another trail cam with me and take a quick look at the videos and times.last hunt,I waited 1 hour and 40 minutes,first sit.i watch all the videos will waiting,lol.
Good luck.

[highvalley]

When I was guiding we used popcorn with fryer oil and mixed in jello donuts and bread. We out this in a kitchen garbage bag which was easy and light to carry and hung it in the tree. Bears can't carry it off but it doesn't last long

[22x11]

ok thanks, might try mixing up some kind of "slop" for them hahaha. if you had to choose between a 50cal muzzleloader no scope, 870 12gauge with slugs through a rifled barrel or scoped 308 with 150gr what would you choose? might thoughts being the 308 can shoot furthest but the 12 and 50 will blow a bigger hole in them and let the blood run out quicker