First year bear baiting..

[Waterfowler]

Started a bait barrel this year with a buddy. It's my first experience with this. Never shot a bear and not sure I want to but figured it would be fun to set up for one.

Got a couple different bears hitting it so far. I have no experience with this but I'm guessing 150-200 lbs. Thoughts??

 

[IanON]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

 

[Shovel]

Kinda like fishing. So unsportsmanlike

Nice looking bear. They do make good chilly and stew

 

[jlovie]

I baited a bear unintentionally a few years ago at my cottage. It's a log cabin built in 1935 so the windows aren't far off the ground. I walked in the front door and he was sitting at the table, eating a tray of cookies. He finished the cookies, went back out the window, rocked a deuce, then when about his day. Good times. My limited experience is they are normally a little bigger than you think. My guess is top guy breaks 2 hundo and the second guy is 180+.

 

[Waterfowler]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

I bait deer too.

What you think matters nothing to me, but I respect your position.

 

[the spank]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

Who cares what you think?

 

[Jay]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

I look at it in a different light...

I support ALL legal methods of hunting/trapping/harvesting & there are even ones that I think SHOULD be legal but aren't.

And just for perspective, I've seen fewer bears than you can count on 1 hand while out hunting and do consider that baiting allows the hunter to evaluate the bear & ensure it's not a sow with cubs.

 

[lespaq9]

Looks like a sow. Baiting is an effective way to see bears. It allows the hunter to check out the animal and decide if its an animal the hunter would like to take. Remember, with a firearm or bow in hand doesn't mean that you have to take a shot. The choice is the hunter's. I watched a sow with 3 cubs over a bait for an hour and a half and it is one of my favourite hunting memories.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Looks like a sow. Baiting is an effective way to see bears. It allows the hunter to check out the animal and decide if its an animal the hunter would like to take. Remember, with a firearm or bow in hand doesn't mean that you have to take a shot. The choice is the hunter's. I watched a sow with 3 cubs over a bait for an hour and a half and it is one of my favourite hunting memories.

Had a buddy who was watching a small bear on his bait, from his tree stand, when the neighborhood boss showed up. My buddy ended up fighting the little guy off with an arrow when it tried to join him in the tree.

Grizz

 

[nowarningshot]

So after a few years, does that make you a master baiter? Here all week, I'll let myself out.

 

[big boar]

IMO the biggest benefit of BAITING is to be certain the animal you’re shooting is NOT A FEMALE WITH CUBS. I know a guy that has held off shooting at several bears at his bait as they turned out to be females with cubs so DONT SHOOT THEM. Baiting is best.

 

[bearkilr]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

Like hunting deer on alfalfa fields, so unsportsmanlike.

 

[Gonewild]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

Clearly you know nothing about bear hunting.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Clearly you know nothing about bear hunting.

Agreed, a Liberal to boot ? Probably saves a lot of bears who shouldn't be shot and sometimes the only practical way.

Grizz

 

[Brassman66]

If it is a legal way to hunt then go for it as it is probably a better way allowing you time to properly evaluate.

If one shoots a Sow thinking it is a Boar only to find lil ones crawling all over the dead Mama, got to be the sickest feeling a fair Hunter could imagine.

Cheers

 

[hoytcanon]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

You have clearly never done it... if it is unsportsmanlike then so is much of other hunting pursuits... a bear over bait or a deer under an apple tree or a prairie moose on an alfalfa field... you are splitting hairs. There is nothing easy about taking a good bear over bait.

 

[FishHog]

You have clearly never done it... if it is unsportsmanlike then so is much of other hunting pursuits... a bear over bait or a deer under an apple tree or a prairie moose on an alfalfa field... you are splitting hairs. There is nothing easy about taking a good bear over bait.

Agreed, and its typically western hunters who have poor opinions on baiting, as they get to see bears often in the open areas. In the Ontario forests, there is only one reasonable way to hunt bears and that is by baiting. I would love to spot and stalk bears out west someday, but its just not realistic in the thick bush.
Baiting is a very useful management tool, if we didn't bait bears in Ontario and other thick bush regions, the harvest would be cut by 95% easy, leading to all the other bear issues that occure.

 

[Butcherbill]

Agreed, and its typically western hunters who have poor opinions on baiting, as they get to see bears often in the open areas. In the Ontario forests, there is only one reasonable way to hunt bears and that is by baiting. I would love to spot and stalk bears out west someday, but its just not realistic in the thick bush.
Baiting is a very useful management tool, if we didn't bait bears in Ontario and other thick bush regions, the harvest would be cut by 95% easy, leading to all the other bear issues that occure.

Being out west I’d love the opportunity to bait bears, as it’s not allowed. I’ve hunted deer over apples and alfalfa and being able to pick which animal you are going to take is nice, baiting isn’t a guarantee you’ll cut a tag though. Like some people seem to think.

 

[hoytcanon]

Being out west I’d love the opportunity to bait bears, as it’s not allowed. I’ve hunted deer over apples and alfalfa and being able to pick which animal you are going to take is nice, baiting isn’t a guarantee you’ll cut a tag though. Like some people seem to think.

Ontario bear hunting success rates are generally around 15%, hardly a slam dunk... with knowledge, determination and strong legs and back, you can be very successful on good bears, but the number of hunters that pull that off are in the neighborhood of one in seven... and if you are talking about truly big bears that number is far, far lower.

 

[canadian hunter312]

Honestly always thought tricking animals with a barrel of food and killing them is very sad and unsportsmanlike...

Yes, damn those bear hunters who put in so much time and effort baiting bears so they can be sure it’s the animal they want and it’s not a sow with cubs. Very unsportsmanlike of them to greatly decrease the odds of leaving orphaned cubs to starve or get eaten.


Practically every article I have read about bear baiting and every video I have watched all say the same thing. It’s a ton of work, costs add up quickly between bait and gas, and it’s the best method in thick cover to size up an animal and be sure there’s no cubs around.

You’d prefer young bears to get shot and cubs get orphaned???