my suggestions to the abve
will be contact your state game d ept and ask where there having HIGH complaints on bears, and also where farmers are complaining about crop damage from bears!
then start asking farmers for access to hunt them
other wise, finding a bear without bait is a LOT of luck, they have huge home ranges and follow food so, even if you find one today, odds are it may not be there the next day
only time you get bears coming back to an area is if FOOD Is there to draw them back over and over, and that typically means a corn field or like crop that is planted and attracting them, and or someone placing bait out!
acorns do attract them but they will eat one area and move to the next and keep going, not really holding them in one spot!
after hunting GOOD food sources, next comes , getting a group of guys(if legal) and having some standers and others pushing sections of area';s with bear sign, into the standers.
drives for bears are highly effective, but not perfect, bears will many times refuse to be pushed out of cover and double back, climb a tree or else ways of not being driven, but it does get many bears every yr here in PA, and is the MOST reliable way of hunting them in a NON ag area IMO!
but it takes a good sized group of guys and a PLAN and good knowledge of the area's you plan to push! to work the best!
other wise IMO< walking about the woods and or setting up some place, comes down to a LOT of DUMB luck(unbless your settung up along others doing drives and using them to maybe push something to you, or catch it looping back)
YES many do kill by dumb luck to, so it does happen, but, honestly, to be an effective bear hunter, baiting is the highest way to be so!
Illegal in many places, but that doesn;t seem to stop everyone sadly from doing so!
seen many bears at check stations that had a LOT of human food under claws and in fur!, in NON bait allowed areas! ?
so?? I know it still happens, cheaters are out there!