looking to get into bear hunting

250_sx

250_sx

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Lake Doucette NS
hey all, longtime lurker, first time poster. I've been deer hunting for about 3 years now and got my first little buck last year, been small game hunting for a few years more and am thinking I'd like to try my hand at bear hunting but don't really know a hole lot about it. any pointers, tips etc... to get started in it.
thanks
 
A few things I learned this year and last year . . .

1). Get a trail cam if you are running a bait. It will save you a lot of work and hassle and guesswork. You can get them for less than $60 US on Amazon.com.

2). Bears love sweet foods like donuts, but they will be plenty happy with just plain old bread. Find yourself a source of cheap or free bread/rolls/bagels, etc. and you are in business for bait. In my limited experience, a bear would much rather eat moldy old bread than old vergetables/fruit, or even old fish. I had some chub in my bait barrel this year and it took days for them to eat it.

3). Get as much grease as you can into and around your bait. Bears love it. They track it everywhere when they walk around, and other bears smell it and come in to eat. They will sit there and lick grease off trees when you smear it around. Plus, you can get grease for free in most areas, so it's a pretty good bait to have.

4). Make sure the bears are used to your scent. I used to take a leak close to my bait site, so they were used to me. I noticed that when I had friends or cousins in my stand, they rarely saw bears because the animals were not used to their scent.

I learned lots more than this, but other guys on here have a lot more experience than me . . . so I'll let them share!
 
if you can't get your hands on a decent amount of pastries or meat just go to a bulk store and buy a whole wack of popcorn kernals. Spend a couple hours popping it until you get a large garbage bag full. Add corn, oats, and fryer grease. I usually add some of the cheapest dog food i can find. put it in a barrel with about 10 1" holes in it staggered around the barrel at different heights and chain it to a tree. there you go


I usually dump all my fish guts and any fresh roadkill i find on the way up lol worked for me I shot my first bear last season on the first day.
 
right on, I'm pretty close friends with a couple small local grocery store owners so i imagine I can get alot of that stuff from them. so what about setting up the site, other than some good sign, whats some things to look for when picking a good site
 
Well, I'd put my ear to the ground and talk to other local hunters . . . if you can find one willing to help you out. That's how I got steered in the direction I went this year. You could also ask the local rangers or maybe even cops what areas are having bear problems.

Bears seem to like traveling along rivers and streams, so try setting stink baits close to these areas.
 
You can pop your popcorn at the bait site. Smoke from a fire will only help you out. Bring a cast iron pot or skillet and pop it on a fire. Bring a large cooking ladel and remove the popped corn as you pop it in your old cooking oil. Gets the oil all over the popcorn nice and evenly, you'll spill as you cook and generate great cooking smells as you pop it.
 
Dont forget, the rules for bear are different in Nova Scotia - I dont have them on hand, but I was of the impression that you can only snare over bait, not hunt - and to do so you need a trapper's permit... might be wrong... *shrug*
 
Best to bait in the bush somewhere where you can place a treestand close by and still see pretty good. You want easy quiet access. I didn't look for bear sign at all before placing my bait out, I know theres bears around and more would come to the scent. The reason I say place the bait in the bush instead of a field or clearing is the bears will be more likely to visit any time of the day instead of nighttime if they are a little hesitant to feed at the bait. I keep my scent down to a minimum and try to bait at the same time each day, around 12pm.
 
Hi there, I do a fair bit of bear hunting in B.C. where it is not legal to bait a bear. We manage to shoot lots of bears every year without the work of setting bait. Is there any success in your neck of the woods with hunting logging cuts, spurrs or grassy areas? During the spring here it is also common to see them on the move looking for grub at the sides of the logging srurrs. Best of luck to you.
 
pretty much everyone I've talked to around here uses bait sites. was actually talking to the guy down the road who said he's seen a few around lately so he's giving me some pointers on setting things up. also said he had a little bit of meat he was gonna bring me. gave me some steak the other day that was really good. said he's gonna bring me a roast to try next
 
Bear crack burn attractant

Need:
-Two metal cans, a medium sized coffee can and a standard size bean/corn/pea can.
-Two straight pieces of coat hanger
-sterno type fuel can, the new wick style with a cap work excellent
-molasses or maple syrup
-bag of small marshmallows
-box of strawberry jello powder mix

On the medium sized coffee can cut three or four squares out of the can about 1/2” or so higher than the height of the sterno can you have. This will provide air for the flame.

Above the cut out air hole squares, punch four holes through the can at 90 degrees to each other and at the same level to slide pieces of coat hanger through. This will serve as the rack that the normal sized empty bean can will sit on.

Using two straight lengths of coat hanger put a 90 degree bend on one side that will serve as a handle and will stop the wire from sliding inside the can and cut to length about an inch longer than the diameter of the coffee can.

Using the device
Take the bean can and fill it a quarter full of molasses or maple syrup, toss in some small marshmallows and a few spoon full’s of strawberry jello powder. Mix it together.

Light the sterno can and drop it into the medium sized coffee can.

Insert the coat hanger wires through the holes in the coffee can.

Place the bean can with the molasses mix on the coat hanger wires.

Let it burn to create smoke, it’ll smoke for a half hour or so. Do it again.

Note:
There is a definite fire hazard doing this, this molasses mixture will expand four fold when it is bubbling and cooking. It can easily overflow and the mixture will start on fire if exposed directly to flame.
Do not hang this thing in a tree, put it on the ground and make the area around it fire proof.

Once the molasses mixture has burned fully it will be a black hardened crust, you will need to have a screwdriver or similar scraping tool with you to break out all the burned residue to do another burn.

This can also be done using a honey and water mix.
The more water the longer the burn.

Burn_2.jpg
 
Phil1 said:
Hi there, I do a fair bit of bear hunting in B.C. where it is not legal to bait a bear. We manage to shoot lots of bears every year without the work of setting bait. Is there any success in your neck of the woods with hunting logging cuts, spurrs or grassy areas? During the spring here it is also common to see them on the move looking for grub at the sides of the logging srurrs. Best of luck to you.
Click to expand...

Phil, in the areas where I do most of my bear hunting, there is poor or no visibility into the cutblocks. Usually the best areas to look for bears, in the spring are along the trails and roads themselves, or cutlines through the bush.

In the high country where I like to go, every spring is a bit different. Whatever type of winter we have had, will affect the spring growth; snow depth mainly. Also cold weather, dry conditions, etc, also affect it big-time. It changes year-to-year, because of those factors. So I always have to go in and explore to find the areas that have the ideal type feed.
The same areas are pretty much good every year, but the dates at which the fresh growth is at the ideal state changes, as much as a week to 10 days year-over-year.

I like to slowly cruise the country, until I find sign of bears feeding. Fresh track, fresh s**t, good feed etc, then concentrate my hunting in those areas. I prefer to identify a good spot then still hunt, spot and stalk on foot. But I will also ride an ATV through good country, hoping to catch a bear feeding at a distance that allows me to judge it for size and then put on a stalk if it's a worthwile bear. I won't shoot a little bear.

The other thing I like to do, is to hunt late May, early June, when the big boars are travelling looking for sows to breed, to take advantage of the extra movement that happens due to the rut!

For a lot of guys, the most productive way to get bears here, is to bait 'em. No doubt it's certain to bring in the bears, but there's a helluva lot of work and headaches that go along with it. It is no where near as easy as what some people assume. In fact it's downright hard work to maintain a bait! Put up with small bears, beligerant sows with cubs etc... walking into bears coming and going. Bears climbing your tree. Just lots of BS to deal with that many guys don't understand.

Which is why I have never baited for bears. Way to much work!
 
Demonical said:
Which is why I have never baited for bears. Way to much work!
Click to expand...

It certainly is a lot of work, and the more sites you have, the harder it gets.

From what I've been told, the local hotspot if you want to spot-and-stalk a bear is the army base, but it's a pain in the a$$ to get permission, and for those of us who are new to the area, it'd take too long to get to know the area, since you need a permit to visit every time. It's a lot easier in my case to set up baits close to the base and lure the bears off.

I thought about trying calling bears in this spring, but I just don't have the time to practice that. It looks fun, though.
 
The main thing I would ever tell you is to look at your baiting site - if that is the route you choose - and check on the natural ridges and swamps around it. We have had amazing differences in very close proximity based on small changes closer to natural travel corridors. Trail cameras are a great bonus as you can see what you'e working with and maximize your hunting time.
 
For bear hunting in the fall a good trick is to ask farmers that have oat crops for permission, bears love oats. If you are polite and courteous you would probably have no problems getting permission as a bear will do severe damage to a oat crop.
 
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