Bear running off my deer!!!!
 

The woods around eastern WA can be pretty thick and hilly. I look at pictures you hunters post of open fields or stands with open views and I chuckle.:D Here are some pictures of my new stand location that I took last night.

We are hunting on 200 acres of private property. As far as we know there is only one other hunter with permission to hunt and he is a gun hunter. There is a small clearing to the east of my stand that is grass. I'm down in a ravine thicket with the only water flowing that we've been able to find in the area. The water has cut a really deep ravine that the animals can't get into. This area is the first open spot where they can cross and get water. I damed up two spot to collect water and put a pile of corn covered in vanilla close to the water.

Stand location.

The tree I will be using is in the middle of this shot right behind the fallen log. I'm standing next to the corn pile looking back at the stand.


This is the watering hole. The first water dam I created is located just on the right edge of the picture and the other is just to the left of center. There is a huge game trail cutting down the hill behind me and cuts up the bank just to the right of the tree.


This is the corn pile I left that is covered in vanilla. I also put up a scent wick soaked in vanilla in a tree to the left of this shot.


An added bonus. This log was destroyed by a bear sometime in the last three days. This is located just to the left of my stand tree (as looking at the picture above). We have found a lot of torn apart stumps and logs in our travels around the area. We are both excited about getting a bear as well.

That's it. It might not be much to look at but we are very hopefull at filling a couple of tags in this area. Larry is across the field from me in a bedding area that also has a lot of bear scat and torn apart logs. He put up a trail cam Saturday and already has at least 2 six pointers walking past the camera. I laid in some vanilla corn last night to heighten the area. We will see.

Getting Excited...
Reid

RE: My Stand Location
 

You chuckle...try hunting in Florida with our scrub oaks...



I hunt in similar woods to the above about 50% of the time...other times it looks more like your pictures.

RE: My Stand Location
 

I was born and raised in Pensacola Fla. I was stationed at Eglin AFB and Tyndal AFB in Panama City. I know all too well what it is like to hunt down there in the palmetto's, scrub oaks and swamps. My first bow kill was a scrub oak. I cut a section of it out and mounted it with the broadhead stuck in it.:D

Southern born...Northwest Planted
Reid

RE: My Stand Location
 

WARedbear, is the corn and vanilla just a little extra incentive? Sounds like a pretty good set up without it, nice open area, only water source (that's known), heavily used game trail and a ravine thathelps steer them to the crossing. Sounds nice. Won't the bear want to get into the vanilla and if so will that interfere with the deer?

RE: My Stand Location
 

EXTRA...EXTRA...that is all it is. Just a litle something to 1) bring them in and 2) make them stop for the stickin'. There are a lot and I do mean a lot of game trails heading down this hill side. All I am trying to do is maybe bring some more my way. Maybe have a big buck think twice about taking the time to "walk my way".

I don't think the bear element is going to be a factor only because he/she is roaming this whole area all ready. It's not like I'm creating a bear bait that several bear are going to be coming to. I think he is roaming for food and water so he might come back by just like the deer. We have seen stumps and logs all over the area torn to shreads by bear. In fact my friend will be hunting an area that not only has mutalated stumps but bear scat all over the place. He plans to hunt out of a ground blind. I don't know if he has thought this all the way through yet.



Two old bear scat piles. Have you ever seen them piled on top of each other. There are at least two piles each on these two piles. They have a lot of grain and berries in them so they have molded real bad. But they are somewhat fresh. Want to know how to tell?


Totally excited
Reid

RE: My Stand Location
 

Lets see, it's not still steamingand it doesn't have an extremely strong(new) arroma? So what do we do now..... ok I leftthe latex gloves in the truck,so howabout I'll just take your word for it [&:].

RE: My Stand Location
 

Latex gloves????:eek: I got home the other night from walking this whole area. My wife wanted a hug and I told her she needed to wait until I washed my hands. She kind of looked at me stange. I told her that I had deer, elk and bear poo on my hands. She pointed to the bathroom.;)

Cleaned-up
Reid

RE: My Stand Location
 

Well we had to go to Texas for a wedding so I missed opening day of deer season. I know I know.... Anyway my hunting partner kept me posted twice a day with updates and pictures. OH THE PICTURES!!!!!!

Now we know what was tearing up the logs.....









Talk about distroying a good deer baiting area and running off all the bucks.

RE: My Stand Location
 

So should I remove the corn or not put any back to see if the deer will come back? Have you ever had this happen to where bears move in and take over a location and run off all the deer? The only good thing is this is still the only water in the area so the animals still have to come here. My hunting partner is in a ground blind and the bears are about to send him up a tree.

Bruin Happy
Reid