Bear Hunting, tips and tricks.

[Furync]

Allright everyone, lets hear your "secret" little tactics you use on bears.
It would be nice to know what calls everyone uses too, if any.

My standard tactics is just to bait with the cheapest bag of dry dog food I can find, I dump it in a gravity feeder made of PVC tube (I'll try and find a pic). To get them coming to the dogfood, I dump a can of sardines/tuna on top of the exposed dogfood. Then I top it off with the biggest log I can find.

My secret tactic is: I put toothpaste on trees all around where I bait. They rub themselves in it like crazy.

I 've never used calls, I will be trying a fawn bleat call this year.



next.

 

[Furync]

gravity feeder made of PVC tube (I'll try and find a pic).

This is the best pic I could find, I use it in the fall too for deer, I just put corn in it, as seen in this pic. I just got a little too exited when filling it this time...

I know who's been to it just by seeing how it's standing the next time I go, The deer leave it standing, bears kick the s**t out of it.

 

[Silverado]

I always wondered about using dog food as bait. I've seen all kinds of animals take food from outside dog bowls...

 

[Can'o'nutz]

Ops...double post please delete

 

[canucklehead]

Best bait ever - old tim hortons donuts covered in molasses.

 

[Can'o'nutz]

Great pic of your feeder Furync, and interesting choice of lure. So, what brand/type of toothpaste do you use?

Also, what do you use on the top of your feed rig to keep the moisture out? I would assume this is important to keep the feed flowing and acceptable to the game?

An added idea I can think of for bear is to add fryer grease around the feed area. This will add as an extra attractant and will also get picked up by bear and other criters in their paws. This will help to bring more bear in to the site as they move up and down the game trails.

Good Luck

 

[huntinstuff]

Oil of Anise mixed with water and sprayed on trees......cheap cola poured on the ground within 40yds of your tree stand. Total weight: 10lbs Lasts for 1 week.

For the guys that can't run back and forth to bait and re-bait......

I've had bears come in within 5 hours of spraying the Oil of Anise.

 

[SignGuy]

i must invest in some poil of anise where does one find it ?

last season i used 150lbs of day olds from timmies and about 50 gal. of used frier grease which was kindly donated buy the chip stand by my work in ottawa the chip stands have to pay someone to dispose of there frier grease so they usualy have a huge stash of it some where and will gladly let you take as much as you can carry luckely i just happend to have a clean 50gal drum strapped to the back deck of my work truck i just used and pother clean barrel filled it with donuts about half way and brought i up to 3/4 with frier oil let sit a day or 2 to give the donuts a chance to saturate the oil and voila also take about 5 galons out with you per each bait site and dump some of the oil on the ground all over the bait site the bears step in it and track it all over the place helps carry the scent back to the stand

 

[Furync]

Great pic of your feeder Furync, and interesting choice of lure. So, what brand/type of toothpaste do you use?

Also, what do you use on the top of your feed rig to keep the moisture out? I would assume this is important to keep the feed flowing and acceptable to the game?

An added idea I can think of for bear is to add fryer grease around the feed area. This will add as an extra attractant and will also get picked up by bear and other criters in their paws. This will help to bring more bear in to the site as they move up and down the game trails.

Good Luck

I use the cheapest kind of toothpast I can find. I think it's colgate... I would have to check last years supply (I came upon a sale during hunting season... you can figure out the rest. ) I think it's the minty smell that gets em going.

As for the feeder, I just use a regular PVC cap to seal off the top, and at the bottom, same thing except the bottom half of the cap is cut to let some grain out, but not too much. The top one really has to be closed tight though, if moisture gets in, the feed expands and jams the feeder. All in all, I love this feeder, and it costs 10-15$ to make, no complaints here.


Silverado, I use dog food but that's why I top it off with a big log, it will usually cover the access to the open area of the feeder and most the feed outside, I know all sorts of critters will eat outside but only a big animal can get the log out of the way to access the feeder itself. At least that's what I like to think... One thing is for sure, only a bear can have an appetite big enough to empty the whole thing!

 

[Can'o'nutz]

I use the cheapest kind of toothpast I can find. I think it's colgate... I would have to check last years supply (I came upon a sale during hunting season... you can figure out the rest. ) I think it's the minty smell that gets em going.

As for the feeder, I just use a regular PVC cap to seal off the top, and at the bottom, same thing except the bottom half of the cap is cut to let some grain out, but not too much. The top one really has to be closed tight though, if moisture gets in, the feed expands and jams the feeder. All in all, I love this feeder, and it costs 10-15$ to make, no complaints here.

Sounds good Furync, I'll have to try that.

 

[Tikka300]

We tend to stick with a traditional bait site of a 45gallon drum full of hotdogs, burgers, & pizza. We always put +100lbs of logs on top of our sites to deter non-targetted species from accessing the treats. As for tips, we prefer to use honey burns and vanilla spray for stinky scent as opposed to fryer grease or rotting fish. A 10:1 mixture of vanilla & water in a spray bottle makes an excellent cover scent and attractant. We'll spray it on the trees surrounding the bait and tree stand, as well as our boots whenever accessing the site. Plus the odour is rather pleasant and certainly preferrable to spent fryer grease or rotten fish.