Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Hey, Guys,


I was just thinking, ,most people will bait bears or use dogs, but, IMO, that's really lame, are there any other bear hunting methods out there I need to know about, 'cause I'd like to apply for a black bear tag here in TN, but I don't want to feel like a guy who cheated.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Sorry, I am too lame to offer any advice ;0)

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

talk to huntnmuleys on this forum about his bear hunt in alaska last fall. he does things a little differant. it sounds pretty exciting.[:-]

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Hey Younggun,

I doubt if you will get many responses from the hunters on this but I could be wrong. Baiting or using dogs to hunt bear is not cheating. I take it you have never hunted bear before, so how can you form an opinion about it if you have never done it.I operate a bear hunting camp in Ontario and rely on baiting and spot and stalk. I do nothunt with dogs, and have never done so, but won't look down on the people who do.If baiting or hunting with dogs dosen't sound like your cup of tea, maybe you should do spot and stalk, or try calling. Just remember when calling....they are coming in looking for something to eat!

Good luck, and remember when you frown down upon something in our sport that is leagal and ethical you put out a poor message toeveryone, and that is the last thing ourwonderfullsport needs.

Oh, and I can guarantee you that if you were out on a bear stand (baited or otherwise) and had a big ol bruin looking up at you from the base of your tree,,,,,lame would be the last thing in your mind! Better yet, let them get a couple of steps under your stand and let's see how lame things would be. Don't knock something till you have tried it.;)

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Thanks Bear guy I couldn't have said it better. You should be in a ground blind with a big boar standing at 12 yards. Makes you heart thump an extra beat or two...

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

for a rush try spot and stalk......they all look like monsters walking straight at you at 7 feet!!!

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

I live in Idaho, where it is legal to both bait bears and hunt them with dogs. If you want to test your nerves, sit in a tree stand with a bow in a remote forest in the rockies until dark, with black bears, grizzlies, wolves, and mountain lions all inhabiting the very forest you are hunting.

If thats too slow for you, turn loose a pack of hounds on a smoking hot bear track at 9500 feet in elevation, then try catching up with them on foot.Remember, no dog gets left behind, and the bear won't be too happy that these animals are on his tail when he meets them, or you.

Both types of hunting really peak my interest, and the best part is, you can practice catch and release until you find a bear that you really want. The rest get photographed, then are allowed to live another day. Nothing lame about this sport.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

I too live in ID. As a teenager, we used to go into the Tetons on the other side of the state near WY. We only used knives, so you had to sneak up behind the Grizzly without it seeing you. That gets the old ticker thumping pretty good. But it does qualify under the "fair chase" ideology. I'm too old for that nonsense now, but in a way feel using a 338 WM would be lame and cheating.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

I have seen videos of bear hunts on UTube when the bear comes up to eat garbage or molassas out of a barrell and then the hunter shoots them from 20 yards. Then he gets all excited. This is not what I call hunting. I think that it takes advantage of the bears eager stomach and less intelligent brain.

I dont need to try something to have an opinion on it - this is an idiotic thought. I dont need to smoke crack to form my opinion that crack is for losers. I dont need to buy a $200,000 watch to form the opinion that this is a great watch, I just know that because it costs so much.

So when you say that I need to lure in a bear and shoot it at 20 or 50 or 200 yds when it lumbers up to eat molassas out of a barrell in order to decide that that is for fake hunters, I submit to you that you are wrong. I consider you a trash man, filling up trash cans with trash and molassas for foolish bears to gorge themselves on before getting blasted.

Next step: Multiple hunters shooting at the same bear, like a firing squad.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

"Fake hunters and trashmen" I am glad to see that you have such a high opinion of fellow hunters.....................

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Great reply Elk!I was going to reply big time to andrewjoseph's last post, but I think it's just better to let him self-destruct. Oh and andrew, here is a quote you had on a previous post about deer hunting.

Deer are bigger here, but that does not mean they are better. Unless you are part of the 95% of the hunting world that seeks size in body and rack. I just dont want to sound rude by my post earlier, I dont like it when people put eachother down on these sites.

Yep, I don't like putting down other people on this site either, but it seems you like to bash people who's ideas don't totally mesh with yours. So have a great day, and will leave it at that. Remember we as hunters are too often segerated on I don't like this, I don't like that...and because youhunt with weapon "x".... you are a bad person....What our sport needs is people who support hunting,and the wonderfull lifestyle it is for many of us.

Oops, guess I did leave a little bit of a reply.

Thanks....
Trashman,er... sorry I meant Bearguy.;)

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

If you bait bears with barrels of trash and molassa Im not trying to put you down, I said that I think of you as a trashman. I guess I dont understand how that could be percieved as negative. Its a fact, you put trash out to shoot your game.

If you could please, explain any other type of ethical of skillful hunting that consists of dumping waste and trash out and blasting your game from short distances.

If numbers are a problem and you are trying to erradicate bears, thats one thing, but by my definition this is not hunting. Your welcome to, obviously, to keep doing it. I respect anyones perconal right to follow his or her game laws.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Blasting bears eh, well you don't know much about me then, I do it with sticks.

Successful hunting in all facets deals with exploiting an animals weeknesses. For whitetail hunters there is the rut, exploitation of the animals need to propogate. Hunting fields or crops ,taking advantage of the animals need to eat. Sitting water holes in the desert waiting for the antelope to water, using the need for water. Calling gobblers in the spring and using decoys, again using the need to breed and again, exploiting the animals weekness. Sitting a mule deer migration route, thus exploiting the animals needs to escape heavy winter snows.

Using the animals weeknesses and understanding them is a direct way of becoming a successful hunter. if you ever get a chance, I would suggest sitting in a ground blind having nothing but a sheet of fabric between you and a hungry boar at 5 feet.

Even if one were to spot and stalk bears, I would bet that you will be concentrating on areas with a food source being used by the bears, again exploiting another weekness. I have done the spot and stalk on bears with my bow before and have had good success at that method, but I refrain from helping those who start out by calling me and fellow hunters lame by using other methods.

Trash is not allowed on a bait site and mine are VERY clean. The doughnuts arent bad eating either!!!!

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

I use dairy ration (horse feed)not trash, with molasses mixed in. Also used is a lot of candy corn and gummy worms. I do not use trash, and don't know of many respecitable outfitters that would. The bait I use is totally edible, just in case I got stranded out baiting, I have something to eat.;)

You bet I like to shoot game at short distances. It's avery ethical and sucessfull way to hunt. Just like Elkcrazy8 touched upon, hunting deer over a travel route, or a farmers field as they either come to feed or to bed, turkeys in the morning where they like to roost, squirrel's in the timber, pheasants in CRP or after the first snow of the year, hunting a low pressure just after a long period of high, moose during the rut, deer during the rut, elk during the rut, ect...You get the picture. It is our responsibility to the game we hunt to make a quick clean kill, so for me (and a lot of other hunters) that's getting them in close.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Elk and BearGuy, Thanks! This is the first time I have opened this post. If I would have done so earlier, I would have been compelled to post responses to their moronic statements. But you two have taken care of it for me. Its amazing that people who have no clue about bear hunting give off the wall opinions.

Keep up the good work guys!

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Note to self: Don't care about senseless opinions regarding your hunting tactics that come from someone that never has walked down that trail.

There is nothing.....and I mean absolutely nothing......unfair, weak or fake about taking any bear from 20 yards out.

I'm from N. Idaho....I'm no flatlander and I'm proud of the fact that I can go into the woods and actually harvest a bear and do it responsibly, fair and with a challenge.

I won't teach or form an opinion about putting a tampon in....cause I have never done it, even though it seems simple enough.

~Cam

www.myspace.com/fuzzyballs44 (I have a couple territory pics on there if you want to see gorgeous N. ID)


P.S.....OH WOW! I AM SOOO SORRY ABOUT THIS POST....I JUST REREAD YOUR POST AND REALIZED THAT YOU HAVE EXTENSIVE IN THE FIELD YOUTUBE EXPERIENCE! I bow to your expertise, as I pale, with my thousands of hours in the rocky mountains to your YOUTUBE experience!

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

I picked up on the Youtube thing too, Fuzzy. Its a shame when these guys get so critical about something they obviously have never witnessed firsthand. I shot 1 bear in the last 12 years or so that I have hunted hard for them in Idaho, both with bait and hounds. Iestimate thatI have passed up shots on 25-30 in that time, including one last fall that I stalked within 25 yards, but I just didn't want to put an arrow in him for the sake of killing another bear. He was young and had a black colored coat. I already have 2 black-phased bears mounted.

These individuals that throw out critical retoric without any facts might as well put "PETA member" after their name, since their criticism is no different than we hear from staunch anti-hunters.

United we stand, divided we fall.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

I dont see a real connection between calling in deer in the rut and leaving barrells of molassas outside for weeks for bears to gorge them elves on. We call this baiting here in Iowa. I think it is about as unethical as it gets, I could shoot 10 deer a day if I put out a corn feeder and blasted them as they came down to feed on it.

Once again, I dont need to participate in this "sport" to form an opinion. I have an opinion on the Iraq war as well as an opinion about the Vietnam war, I fought in neither of them.

Bears are dangerous, I appreciaite that.
You need to be quiet while they are coming in, mabye camo, de-scent, good shooting. All theessential of most hunts, but I still cannot recognize thisbaiting of bear auctual hunting.

If you make your living as a guide or outfitter doing this, good luck to you. It seems like good money to me. As the recent posts said, they dont use auctual trash, Im sorry for that misstatement by me.

Just because I dont support bear baiting with molassas dosent mean I dont support hunting. Ive said three times within this post to go ahead and do it if it makes you happy and it is within your legal limits.

Where Ilive, and within my circle of friends,baiting is not only illegal and unethical, but embarassing if others find out you are doing it.

I have watched thison UTube, true, a lot of people use this site for information as well as entertainment. You can findsome clips of autcual hunting as people call in deer, coyotes, and other creatures. The reason why I posted on baiting bears is that I searched hunting and came up with a guy shooting a bear from 12 yds with a bow. It made me sick.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Is fishing then unethical too?

Bottom line is this: Predators are far less in numbers than herbivores......but they have just as much of an impact.

In states that have outlawed bait/hound hunting for predators the population is exploding and already they are seeing areas where the over predation of the herds has caused the animals to kill family pets and in worse case scenarios, even people.

We are not being unethical...the bears and the cats still have the upper hand.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

1. See my post in Andrewjoseph's thread.

2.You may have the idea that someone simply hikes to a nice looking spot, throws a barrel of garbage down, and then shoots the bear when it comes. Some forms of hunting occur well before the shot. In most places you don't get bear by just throwing a bait station anywhere. You need to know the area well enought to have an idea where the animals are traveling. You need to know the topography well enough to place the bait where the greater number of bears are "likely" to be. You need to try to find something to entice the larger bears out before shooting light is gone. Like other forms of hunting there are differing strategies that can be used to increase the reach of your bait and increase the odds of bear hitting the bait. You have to keep that bait well stocked everyday. Once bears hit it, they WILL clean it out. They come back and there is nothing there=they don't come back again. You are also feeding about everything else out there, helping numerous critters recover from winter.I've never baited for myself (just don't have the time and resources--it is a LOT of work), but have helped a few guys with their baits. It is a lot like trapping in some respects(Still a form of hunting, but set up to catch and hold the animal until you get there to either dispatch it or release it unharmed).

Try sitting over a bait once. Go ahead and leave the weapon at home. Take a camera. Many of us HUNT for reasons beyond harvesting an animal. You will see things over a bait that you seldom see through other methods of hunting. There is more to a good hunt than the kill....

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

First, I live by the saying "There is more to a good hunt than the kill..." and no matter how hard I have tried, I have not been able to truly put this into words when I'm explaining it to a nonhunter.

Second...you have a valid point and I always enjoy well thought out and educated answers. The only thing I would add to some of your explanation is the wind. Baiting requires more insight than most meteorologists have towards weather.

The terrain has effects on the thermals. Barometric pressure causes scents to rise to fast, or not be carried well. Moisture decreases the likely hood of detection...tempature cause things to freeze or and not be very aromatic. Finally strong winds or consistently swirling winds make the bait nearly impossible to find.

You have to take all of these variables and put the bait in a place that is most likely to be smelt and detected by an animal that is commonly scarce in most environments.

I have not bait because it takes so much work and so much effort and time spent that it makes it hard to do if you have a career of any kind.

The bears I have gotten come from shed hunting and scouting for hundreds of hours and tripping on one. Then I will only take the animal if it is noticeably large, or has a hide that is remarkable.....and never a sow if I even think she may have cubs.

But maybe if I would just spend the time to focus my efforts on YouTube so that I can become a noted expert in the matter of baiting....but unfortunately I have wasted my time hiking, camping, climbing, hunting, fishing, riding, shooting, searching, listening,watching, learning the rocky mountains of Idaho/Montana.....so many thousands of hours wasted!!!

~Cam

www.myspace.com/fuzzyballs44

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

I use half-eaten Big Macs, Papa Johns Pizza Crust, and the brown Jelly Belly beans (nobody likes those).

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

No one here's thought of using bacon? Heck, if anything will draw bears it's bacon.

Maybe mixing bacon with honey and blackberries would be a great combo, especially if you heat it up, that way the smell is stronger.

RE: Alternative Bear hunting tactics.
 

Bacon and honey burns do work well, and are used often to activate the bait site. I use rock chucks that have been cooking so to speak in the hot sun..

Bears are also addicted to the additive in propane. I have taken unlit torches and craked the valve open to slowly let the fumes out. This will bring them in too.

I am not sure if these would be considered baiting in your state since you are not leaving out a bait per say. Direct answers would have to come from your Fish and Game department. If not, you will be limited to locating the food sources and either finding them using the food source and stalking them, or you can sit a well used area and hope that one shows up. if you are hunting in the spring, the bigger boars will be out and about around the late may early june time if your breeding season coincides with ours.