Not to be a smart a$$, but still hunting through the woods here and they will find you years later looking like a gun and bones, because getting lost is not hard at all. There is no openings and fields here when you get in the woods, its all rock, trees, ridges, swamps, rivers, more rocks, more swamps and it all looks the same for hundreds of miles...

When people duck hunt they throw out decoys, when people deer hunt they throw out decoys..... it's kinda the same thing. "your friends are down here come join". This will be my third year bear hunting in MN, it's legal to bait here. I've baited the past three years and hunted very hard but haven't got a bear to show up when i'm in the stand yet... i have a cuddeback up and have some great pictures of 3-4 different bears hitting my bait. So it's not as easy as they make it look. throw out some bacon and every bear in the woods will come running isn't true.

How did I know the thread would go like this. Very predictable. Even though I stated more than once. I don't give a rats arse how you hunt. How many times do I have to say that?

A lot of assumptions going on here.

One of them is i've never hunted bears, and I don't know anything about baiting.

Another is i've always lived in the west, and never hunted/lived in other states.

Another for the record. Spot and stalk is NOT still hunting. So, i'll assume those who said that don't know what either is.

One thing is a fact. You can't bait in Colorado, so at least they agree with me.

One more fact. It's easy to get lost in the Rockies. People die here all the time who have gotten lost and never survived.

Nobody has a 50% kill record here that I know of, because you can't bait here.

Preparing for a bait hunt is not 1/10th as hard as training all year for an elk hunt at 11,000ft. I hike and work out 350 days a year.

Still hunting for bear means i'm down on the ground looking for them without a clue where there are. Close encounters are common, because the point is to let the bear know you're there. Ever try to fool a bear like that. It's not the same as hiding in a tree while they come to bait. Which do you think is more dangerous? Which do you think is more of a challenge?

I wanted to just give my method of hunting in this thread, and let it go at that. You all couldn't accept that. So, now you have my real feelings. Tree stand-baiting is easy, and offers me no challenge.

Get on the ground with a muzzleloader that has one shot, and hunt bear. That's a hunt. Not just a kill.

How do you like me now? :p

the thing about baiting is that people have this viewpoint that an animal is lured in by the promise of food above all other things in the world and any animal takes leave of its good sense once under the allure of a bait... this is so untrue i almost don't know where to begin.

some of you anti-baiters hunt the eastern states (and i grew up in ohio where i've killed many deer with a recurve from a home-made groundblind and while stalking in the corn fields) and your perspective on hunting in general is derived from your experience hunting small tracts of timbered land.

i know my next statement to be very factual because i've had this conversation several times with different people. most easterners are completely overwhelmed by the amount of land and area to cover in the west that it's tough to know where to begin looking.

accross thousands or tens of thousands of acres, a bear wanders and finds food in many of the places it looks. so it is more practical to go looking for the bear, rather than letting it come past you on a trail right. and so it is with spot and stalk. but in a region so vast that there is no reason for an animal to use the same trails or even stay in the same river drainage, it's easier to try to get the animal to come to you.

in my opinion, many species of animals who travel to bait sites filter in and out of the area based on their seasonal migrations with little regard to what you have on the ground. this may mean they only stay in the area for a week or two instead of passing right through. which just prolongs your oppertunity a little.

take it easy on baiting, before you know it we won't be allowed to use doe estrous either.

All I have to say is that you seem that you are looking for a debate, my post was not a attck on you at all , I answered a question as I have hunted in your part of the world have you hunted in mine ?

The woods are very large here, but being your super man you could do it !

How do you like me now?

you don't want me to answer that question....

Why would superman care what you think?

huh uh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can see the bottom of the popcorn bucket!

Finish it up. I'm done.

Lol! You asked for It, you got It. I thought I was respectful In my post. Like I said, I've done both and walked In both shoes. For the record, It don't get any better then spot and stalk hunting either. Some places though It's just not the right style of hunting like It or not.

its funny how ppl complain about bear baiting but they think nothing about hunting deer in a tree stand over looking a feild or water hole.here in saskatchewan baiting bears is the only real option,how else do u find a bear that lives in dense woods.