Newbie bear hunter dumb questions

[bigbucks]

The woods are very dry at all up there. It's stuff that was logged less than 10 years ago, so it's thick with really green stuff. I don't think it would burn very well at all. Hunting next to swamp edges too.

So say we do a burn Friday night over our baits & nothing comes in what do you guys think, go do a burn from a different stand the next night or stick with the bait? Saturday night is going to be my last bear hunt other than possibly the last weekend.

[CANOPY SAM]

I gotta leave that one up to the bait station guys. They know bear behavior over baits way better than I do.

If you've got bear coming to baits late at night they could be experienced bear, that recognize safe times to come in for supper. They could be IN the same section your hunting, or they could be coming from a fairly long distance away, and it just takes em' that long to get there each night.

If it were me, and I knew from cam pics that nothing was coming in during shooting hours, I'd position myself upwind of the entire section accordingly and try a potent burn to see if you can pull em' into range out of sheer curiosity.

If time is short, and your chances are slim, thoroughly scout the edges of your section and see if you can find where your bear are moving in and out of the area, or if they indeed are living right inside the clear cut. If they're coming in from somewhere else you gotta find a way to close the distance...trying to catch them earlier in the evening on the way to your baits.

Old clear cuts can be a real challenge. They're so darn thick it's hard to peg a bear's movement, and sometimes it can be a real challenge to even set up a good stand site.

Nocturnal bear are fickle critters. Changing that behavior is a game of trial and error. That's one of the many reasons I don't hunt over bait. I've spent way too much time and money feeding nocturnal bear. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out their patterns before it gets dark.

[bigbucks]

Okay now I'm curious if you don't hunt over bait how do you hunt them? How do you find them?

[CANOPY SAM]

I scout for them. This year it's reasonably easy in our area cause they're almost universally near water. Bear in our area are relying on travel routes in waterways, rivers, creek bottoms, ditches, etc. Toughest part is finding tracks cause it's been so darn dry for so long this summer.

As has been stated numerous times over the years under this heading, bear need three things to survive 1) food, 2) water, and 3) bedding or denning cover.

I start by scouting agricultural areas outside the quota zone. The combination of a steady food source, with nearby water and heavy cover are key areas. Once I've isolated a few "likely" areas, and obtained the appropriate permission, then I drill down on scouting by finding tracks, scat, crossing areas, damaged crops, etc.

If you can find a good trail, or someplace where a bear is feeding routinely in a standing crop, you can quickly get near that bear, and position yourself for a shot as he travels between feeding, watering, or bedding areas...not entirely unlike you'd do for a big buck.

Quick and careful stand placement, spraying down the area with sweet smelling juice, another great attractant is Kipper Snack Juice (that stuff smells STRONG), and doing a simple bacon or berry burn (with the "right" wind), and you've got a pretty good shot at bringing in a nice bear without all the investment in bait, and time in baiting.

In the big forest a great way to start is topographical maps. Look for high ground Oak stands adjacent to waterways. This time of year bear will obviously go to high percentage food areas, and acorns are a high volume food source. Doing a potent burn in a big oak stand surrounded by lowland swamp, or evergreen forest can also bring in a bear pretty quickly.

The MN DNR recommends that bear hunters use bait because it greatly ups the odds of filling a tag, and ultimately offers better control of the MN bear population. However, it is certainly not the only way to hunt MN bear. I don't often fill a tag, but that's honestly not my primary goal. I absolutely love the aspect of the "hunt" itself, and the challenge and reward that goes along with filling a bear tag by open range hunting tactics.

I've spot and stalked them in corn fields, oat fields, and big woods. I've tracked them for miles to find denning and feeding areas, and I've even crawled into temporary dens to see if anyone was home!

Some people think I'm crazy, and wasting my time hunting bear this way. They think I make a "mockery" of "real bear hunters". It's too bad, IMO, that people feel this way. Putting a bear in the freezer isn't my end all accomplishment. I appreciate the hunt itself, figuring out a bear's travel patterns and daily routines on the ground level, and if I can get it all right, and harvest a nice animal, that's just a bonus. A generous gift from the Lord.

I don't have anything against hunting over bait. I just don't have the opportunity, money, or time to make this work in our region of the state. If my son and I can't connect well into the season, I'm not opposed to firing up a small bait station to see if we can catch a straggler.

So far this year I've only put in a few hours of scouting/hunting with my eldest son. I'm teaching him this method of hunting bear, the same way I taught him to spot and stalk hunt deer on the ground, and he absolutely loves it. In those few hours we've located 4 different bear, but have not been presented an opportunity yet. I'm counting on things starting to heat up as our temps start to cool down...if you know what I mean!

Seems like every evening he and I have a chance to get out it's either way too hot, or way too windy, or both! Unfortunately, we're both just way too busy with tons of other priorities to pour our efforts into bear hunting, but the times we do get out are awesome, and finding an animal, or sign, is just icing on the cake.

Finding new areas with bear sign nearly every time we go out now.

[bigbucks]

Cool thanks, seems like that would take a lot of time too.

[Matt Breuer]

What Canopy means is this, you go to TRF for coffee and a farmer says, "Say, yeah, over der on da' ditchbank der's been a big bear trouncing old man Peterson's crops!" You reply with, "Oh yeah, t'ink he wants it taken care of?" To which the farmer says, "Can't hurt to stop out der!"

That afternoon you bring out some cookies and ask for permission, then sit on your tailgate waiting for the bears to move from the grove to the sunflowers.

While I am of course semi-kidding, it's pretty common in that section of the no-quota. My sister has been begging people to shoot the bears in her corn. My dad is too weak and ill to get it done, and only sat one evening but had to get down during prime-time due to coughing fits and dizziness. It's pretty awesome, and way cheaper than baiting!

bigbucks, you can burn anywhere in your zone. When you build a burner, try using a clothes hanger for the "wire". Honey is the best. It emits a nice cloud of smoke and really sticks to the canopy when it burns out. Bacon is good, but don't use a ton, as it can cause grease fires like CANOPY said. We had a small boar in thanks to 1/3 cup of honey, 2 slices of bacon, and 1/3 cup of brown sugar. Great scent. Pie filling emits a nice cloud and smell as well. Cherry.

Purely nocturnal bears suck. If I have one that is never hitting during the day, I move on. If there's a few hits during daylight, I know there's a chance and just stick with it. All a guy can do... Have you tried minimal bait? Like 1 gallon? Ring the dinner bell like you typically would, drop a gallon, and then leave? Might make the bear think something is beating him to it... I don't know. Nobody does. Bears are confusing. You just keep feeding, and pray that you get lucky. End of story!

[jerkbait]

Here is my 1st attempt at a bacon burn. Definitely pays to test drive at home first. Honey burns have been much more succesfull without practice. Cherry pie filling? Might have to give that one a try sometime.Good luck BB!

[Matt Breuer]

Haha, awesome pic! NOT an awesome scenario however! Yes, putting a pile of raw bacon in the can seems like a good idea, until the fat begins to reduce and the can starts to overflow into the bottom container... 2-3 strips of bacon is more than enough!

[CANOPY SAM]

Hey! That's funny, but not funny, Matt! Especially since you won't let me go hunt the bear in your sister's corn! Doggone it, den dar!

Ok, Matt's correct, in that's where we sometimes start. Ya gotta do, what ya' gotta do, when you don't have time for baiting. But is that really any different than scouting out any new area for hunting opportunities for deer, birds, or anything else for that matter, when you don't have Daddies private land to hunt? Har har har....

Still gotta figure out where, when and why they're moving. Be in the right place, at the right time, and/or go into the thick stuff after em'. It's exciting and fun, and there's no guarantee the animals are going to show up where you expect them. That's where some good scent, or a "non-explosive" burn comes in.

LOVE that pic Jerkbait! The Towering Bacon Inferno! Don't know if you guys remember, but there was someone on here a year or two ago that had that same thing happen, and he tried to put it out! Ended up in the emergency room that night!

[CANOPY SAM]

Oh, and one more thing. It's, "Oh ya?", not "Oh yeah?" Geez your dumb!

[Matt Breuer]

I have my own land where I can chase bears, daddy doesn't have any! I wish he still had his chunk by Fourtown though, it was bear heaven!

I agree though, hunting them free-range is fun. It's often times a lot easier than baiting, and far less expensive, which is very nice. I remember many hours driving around, looking for bears, chatting with farmers, watching my dad and uncle shoot "nuisance" bears. Something I can't do around here!

And you might just get to hunt her corn! Dad was in the hospital again this past week, so I think his season is over. We'll chat about it soon... He's hitting at 10am daily. There's also a giant collared bear around their place. He'd be a good one to watch and observe...

[CANOPY SAM]

Yea. My apologies bud. I shouldn't have made that comment without considering your Dad's health situation. It was thoughtless, and dumb. Sorry to hear he's struggling. I was just jeering it up after your Scandahoovian barrage! I'm sorry. Is he getting any better?

You know I'd never hunt off the tail-gate anyway. I only shoot from the road, out the cab of the truck!

Gimme a call if your coming over this way this weekend. We both have B-days to celebrate, and I can't think of any better way than to chase a few birds with the dogs!

[bigbucks]

You two are funny! I hope you're Dad gets better.

We were up hunting again last weekend. Went up Thursday night around 9:30 to rebait & put radios on our baits. Switched camera cards, my bear had just left the bait @ 8:47, which really sucked, he beat us.

Neither of us got hit during the next two nights with the radios on, but then they didn't come during the day or evening with them off either. I'm tired of the battle, probably try them the last weekend of season, going to hunt ducks, deer, & turkeys in between. So many critters, so little time...