Got Bear?

[Boar]

Anyone do good on the nomad of the woods? I think I have a smart bear. Friday it [PoorWordUsage]ed from 4 till I left stand at dark, no show, Sat. bait wasnt hit an a no show, Sun. No hit on bait since Thurs. an didnt hunt cause of priorities so I refreshed the pile an left. Mon. finally hit bait but no show for the hunt. Either hes feeding at night or he dosent hear me leave, gonna try to do the two people in an one person out trick. Later Boar

[Code-Man]

Was driving home on Sunday from Crookston to DL and saw a bear crossing the road on 32. Middle of the day and running through a field. I aint bear hunting but I did see one.

[harvey lee]

Another trick that can work is to pull your bait when you leave and get him or her to start hitting it a bit earlier.The two in and one out can work.Make sure you have the guy leaving to slam the door hard.I used this trick once and the bear hit the bait 10 minutes after he left.Someone else could have started a bait pile and now the bear is eating there first to.

Good luck

[Dock Boy]

I would purchase a couple of cheap trail timer. I bought mine a few years ago two for $20 bucks. The cheap ones that you use fishing line to tie to your bait area. It worked great for me and I new exact what time the bears were hitting. It's worth a try and rather inexpensive. Good Luck

[almostthere!]

We managed to get one bear for 4 guys. Other than that, the bears went nocturnal after the first day of heavy hunting pressure and mostly from the constant ATV and loud talking of the riders going back and forth during prime time. There were three groups hunting in the general area and one of the group is the culprit. This group also happens to be the group that went out 2 weeks early prior to legal baiting and laid claims to spots.

Let's just hope that these regulations ignorant idiots do not decide to hunt deer there.

[Swamp Scooter]

I had similar stories. I posted so let me know as well.

[sakazulu]

The two man approach or that interesting one about the balloons peak my interest. Gonna just plug away!

[HunterLee]

hey code, where about did you see that bear on Hwy 32. in the gary fertile twin valley area. any info would be greatly accepted.

[Code-Man]

shoot me an email [email protected] it would be worth your time if your from that area

[HunterLee]

message sent... i think

[Code-Man]

No luck try sending it again :S

[ducksnbucks]

I had a monster bear coming out of my bait as I was pulling in with my truck. A half hour earlier and I would have had him. Another one of our guys saw a cub Sunday. I then managed my first bear Tuesday night, not that monster on, 110 poounds. I'm happy with that for the first one. Went and checked the baits for the fellas today and two were hit, so there are still a couple walking around.

[charliepete2]

The first night out I was treated to the antics of a 250-300# sow and her two cubs. They were at the bait for the better part of 2 hours and I just couldn't take my eyes off them. I set my bow stands about 12 yards from the bait so I had a front row seat for viewing. The sow even backtracked me about an hour into it and sat under my tree looking up at me before returning to the bait. The only problem was as darkness approached they didn't show signs of leaving any time soon. I broke branches and they didn't pay any attention. Finally I snapped a sizable branch and one of the cubs went flying up a tree right across from me. It stripped a few years off my life, but after a few minutes it backed down. It was getting pretty black and I thought they had left. I readied my gear to climb down and before decending I figured I'd check the bait with my flash light, when I lit it up they were all still there. Yikes! I banged an arrow on the stand and the noise got them off the bait, but I could still hear them back in the woods. I decided to make a break for it and got down and backed out of there quickly.

The next night I tried a new bait. About two hours before dark I had a nice brownish/blonde color phase boar come in. I pegged him at about 150#'s. I've taken bears in that size range before, but for the past few years I've been holding out for a real pig. The unique color got the best of me though, and after watching him for a while I decided to take the shot.

I had set my crib directly facing away so I had to wait for a few minutes to get a good quartering angle. When I could see the near leg in front of the back leg I started to draw back, and got busted at about 3/4's draw. The bear knew something was wrong, but it didn't bolt, it just stared back at me. I had calmed myself down from the bears original appearance by taking my time and looking him over, but when he looked over as I was drawing, my heart rate spiked through the roof. I stayed at full draw and tried to steady myself, and when the bear didn't react I just settled the pin and dropped the hammer.

The arrow looked on the money left to right, but I thought it might have been a tad high. The bear spun at the shot and headed back into the speckled alder swamp he came from. I heard him break branches for a few seconds, but then silence. I didn't hear the death moan and I was a bit worried. Every bear I've ever killed with my bow has made it.

I decided to stay on stand for a good 45 minutes so I wouldn't do anything stupid. After time was up I climbed down and inspected the arrow. It was buried 2 inches deep into a log on the bait and was covered with what I thought was lung blood.

I found a few splotches of blood on the trail the bear took out, but it petered out within 5 feet. I cralwed around on my hands and knees for the next 50 minutes trying to come up with a blood trail, but there was just nothing past the arrow and the bait. I still knew generally in which direction the bear ran, but without a blood trail it was going to be a dump shoot. At that point I decided to take compass bearings off the bait and spider web out in 75 yard increments. I didn't think he could get any further than that in the time I heard him run.

When I got into the swamp my hopes started sinking. I was hoping I'd stumble across a blood trail, but there was nothing. Just bear trails that were extremely beat down. I was trying to piece together the shot sequence in my mind. I heard the bear breaking branches as it ran and then nothing. As I looked at the terrain about 40 yards in the smaller trail hit a big one. I started thinking maybe the bear high tailed it down the small trail breaking branches until it hit this bear highway and then just ran off quietly.

I was starting to get that panic you get when you think you've wounded an animal. The longer I walked around without finding that bear or a blood trail, the worse it got. I was grumbling up a storm after the first 40 minutes and if I hadn't switched my bow for a pistol when I climbed out of the stand I would have wrapped it around a tree.

It was beginning to feel like I was walking around aimlessly. I'd burned the better part of two hours between searching for blood on my hands and knees and hoping to stumble across the bear by taking lines off the bait. I was thinking about wrapping it up and going to get some help and a lantern when out of the corner of my eye I saw some fur. I can't tell you how pumped I was to find that bear! It was a good shot and took both lungs, but the bear was heavily fatted and did all it's bleeding internally.

It wasn't a monster, acutally it was a hair smaller than I thought, but I was absolutely tickled to have made a clean shot as well as pulling off the recovery. He's all butchered and in the freezer and now I can get on with some grouse, pheasant, and deer hunting. Good luck to everybody else!

[Code-Man]

hunterlee you got an email address. never got anything from ya.

[Boar]

Wow Great hunt Hub an congrats, an congrats to all who nailed one. I'm still bearless, I've decided to back off a little. As of friday I had'nt been hit since the Sun. before, Ive been cleaned out a few times but the logs have'nt been touched, I thought a cub had been scooping but closer exam. an some intel. tells me other critters are helping themselves. I think the warm weather, tons of acorns, an the full moon just aint making the mix for bear on ice in my neck of the woods. Soooo... To top off matters, I decide to head to my cabin on Friday up at Roosevelt, MN an as I thinking about the beefing up of the crib an fresh grease sack an dougnuts I had placed hours before, my uncle calls me an says hey were on our way up to the 80 to put up stands an clear brush an trails, ...... Pardon? Yea me an tim an mike are heading up to put up stands. UHM..... can you go back please... I'm bear hunting an this really is'nt a very good time. Well no, as he proceeds to tell me why. All I can think of is you state land hunters. I really feel youre pain. i've read youre forums about state land nightmares an was thankfull not to have to deal with those hardships of hunting, then out of the blue my family members, not just strangers mind you but flesh an blood decide without warning not to ride four wheelers but to actualy set up a small construction site with in a couple hundred yards of my bait site. I ask them nicley not do this but they insist they will stay away from my bait site an bla bla bla. Fine do what ya got to do. Soooo we'll see what impact they have. It's just one day. So what! We can do this after bear hunting... But no this is the only weekend for the rest of their lives to put up stands an clear brush..... I'm a whiner. Anyway I guesse if they have to do it, its during a time when my crib is kinda slow. Soooo.. I have a taste of what you guys go through. Yup it sucks. can I say sucks? sorry if i cant say sucks. Later Boar

[Longline]

What a hunt, went out wed. night and sat from 3:30 till about 7:40 when it started raining. Didn't see anything that night but had a bear off behind my bait hissing either at me or other bears. That sure sends the chills though the body. Went out Thursday night about 3:30. Had 3 cubs walk behind me about 4:30 but they never came into the bait. At 5:25 I could see something black to the right side of triple branched birch tree. Leaned over and could see that there was more black there then what I thought. Leaned to the left and then I could see the bear climbing over the back on the crib. The bear started eating with its head straight at me, brought up the 270 and put the scope right on its head. Now I ma just praying he starts to turn as I really didn't want to have to take that shot. I waited about 2 minutes and he finally started to turn. Waited another minute and he finally was broadside. Slid to the left and took a good heart shot. Then he jumped up and over the crib and off into the woods, I hurd branches break only for about 15 seconds, then nothing for about another 15 seconds. Then I heard the the moan. Ended up being a lot bigger then I thought he was, about 350 lbs live weight. Here are pics on the link.

http://www.amborn.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1991

[Gofishleech]

Nice bear Longline, were you on a guided hunt?

[Swamp Scooter]

Nice harvest. I am going solo tonight and hunting tomorrow and Wednesday if I need to. I still have hope that I can bag one before the weekend. Then bait it all up for a break over bow opener.

Longline, no quota or up north bear?

[huntingislife]

Nice Bear!!!

Man I am so jealous of you guys bear hunting. Its get me all fired up reading your posts. I shot my first one up in Canada this spring and I wish I could have worked something out to hunt here this fall. Oh well, maybe next year.

Lets see some more pics

[almostthere!]

The brother-in-law and I did the two man trick on a boar that wouldn't come in: it would come and sit out of sight until dark. Well, the trick worked and it came in like a charm. It came in the first time and sniffed around then left. It came in a second time to lick the honey we sprayed on the trees. It did the policeman's "hands on the wall" scene and stretched to lick the honey I smeered on the tree head high. Then it left. It came in a third time, and as it turned to leave, the brother-in-law finally decided to shoot for fear of it not coming back. Dude aimed for the shoulder blades because he wanted a drop in the track shot. Let's just say, he shaved the bear quite nicely: I mean shave, not cut nor penetrated.

He did everything wrong. He had a 5'4"+ tall bear (standing head to foot) come in and decided to watch the brute. And to top it off, he took a shot at the shoulders on a going away bear on a slight sloping away land from a 16ft tree-stand.

Gun: 300 Win Mag: $789

Scope: Zeiss conquest: $429

Cost of shaving Monster boar: $2

Teasing the guy at camp: Priceless

[Longline]

My father-in law guides up in area 31 so I sort of was on a guided hunt. He did pretty good, 14 for 16 with his clients. only 3 sows this year.

[walterman]

I hunt in area 31 and havent filled my tag, I havent baited in about a week and was wondering with the cold temps in the area if it would be worth baiting/hunting again this weekend?

[RBuker]

Quote:

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My father-in law guides up in area 31 so I sort of was on a guided hunt. He did pretty good, 14 for 16 with his clients. only 3 sows this year.

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Can you please call me with his contact info? I may be looking for a guided hunt for next fall with my wife. I've been hunting the past several years but struggle with the time to do the baiting.

Please call me toll free at 800-930-0761

Thanks

Randy

[HunterLee]

whoops i was off for a week so i didnt have time to check the puter. my address is [email protected] thanks for the info

[lichen fox]

We didn't start baiting until the second of September. We hung about a dozen bags and only had 3 hits after the first week so we added a few more...another week and we had 6 baits hit and only two of them multiple times...checked our baits this past wednesday after the cool down and picked up 5 more with all of the previous 6 baits being hit too!! The cooler weather really got the bears going in our area. We now have 11 active baits...of the 6 that were hit before and had timers on them we had 3 that were hit more than once at shootable times...the other 3 were in the middle of the nite...so, we have 3 bears to hunt for two hunters!Hopefully we'll get one down this weekend!!