Bear hunting

[hikerman]

That was what I don't under stand: if you sit at your bait and wait for bears, what about on your way in or out? Don't want to become the bait?

[chris lavoie]

If its a fall hunt, like steve says, you can spot and stalk the blue berry patches. A bear is not interested in attacking you.

[bellerivercrossbowhunter]

Bear hunting over bait is not that difficult last season me & a buddy went up on Sunday Aug 31st to start baiting.

I had a bear show up on Camera on Sep 01st & I had a bear hanging on Sep 2nd. I would think that is not the norm but it was an amazing hunt to have a bear circling around my tree stand for several minutes before it would come in to the bait & offer me a perfect broadside archery shot.

The best thing about bear hunting is the weather is nice / Fishing is great & bear meat is fantastic if you get lucky!!

[trimmer21]

Thanks for the replies

Some great advice.

This will be the fall hunt, planing for next year.

maybe I will just camp crown land and not hang my food during the day and see what comes in. 😀

Just cook up a big feed of bacon,eggs and fried potatoes. Mr.Bruin will be along,shortly,so,keep a rifle handy. I mean,it sure seems to work for unsuspecting campers,right? LOL

[sawbill]

Unless you have a fair knowledge of the area you're going to hunt, spot and stalk is not worth the effort. I spend most of my days in the bush and seldom see bears in a shootable situation--and Sudbury is probably the most populated area in the province for bears.
You can hunt blueberry areas but unless you put some bait up first the chances of getting a bear in the particular patch you're watching is quite slim. With hundreds of blueberry areas what is the chance of you picking the one that a bear will be frequenting at the same time?

[chris lavoie]

In western Ontario, if you spot and stalk the berries, you will see bears. Bears are thick here. All you got to do is walk the patch preseason, check the lay of the clear cut and you will see the bear you want to tag.

[fishy steve]

around my place the big patches of blueberries all have well matted down trails, and tons of fresh scat on them, not to mention lots of sandy areas where you can see tracks, so pretty easy to tell where the bears are feeding... if you hunt the beech trees watch for the claw marks on the bark to tell if the bears are in the area...

[COYHUNTER]

That was what I don't under stand: if you sit at your bait and wait for bears, what about on your way in or out? Don't want to become the bait?

Had this experience ,,,,,,,,on the way out sow with 3 cubs,,,,,,,,,,took 3 attempts to stop the sow from leaving me alone......

[fishy steve]

id be lie'ing if i told ya i had no fear of walking into my baited stands in the dark... keeps ya on your toes, but i think thats part of the excitement very rarely do i hunt right till last light in my bear stand (ussually dont have to, either get my bears in the morning or the latest has bin supper time) have no interest in blood tracking a bear in the dark... couple years i brought my bow instead of the rifle, thought i would try and arrow a bear, well a bear came in about a hour before last light, but never presented a shot, stayed in in the brush or was behind the barrel, kept watching him, and watching the light fade, didnt wanna give away the location of my stand... finally he decided he had enough and sauntered off, right down my trail and towards my atv, that one made me a little nervous on the walk out lol

[Final Flight]

I have successfully hunted bears over bait, I have successfully hunted bears on spot and stalk(closed the distance to 30 yards). Both are great ways to hunt black bears.