Bear baiting questions?

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Boogieman1
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:27 am

dan wrote:
Boogieman1 wrote:Bear hunting has always been on my bucket list and I have found some relitively inexpensive places to go. I do not have the slightest clue about anything bear related. Is it possible to terrain trap them. I will more than likely only get one in my lifetime and I would prefer that memory not to include sitting on top of a bait pile if that's possible. Any help appreciated

You can hunt them on natural food... Just like bait. If your not shooting a young in experienced little rat bear, you would be surprised how challenging baiting mature bears can be. People seem to think you just flop out a pile of goodys any old place and sit over it. Don't knock it till you have tried it.

I'm not knocking it, I don't know nothing about it I just get a vision in my head sometimes about how I want my memory to be that and the fact the place I was looking at going does not allow baiting lol!


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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby stash59 » Sat Jun 10, 2017 2:39 am

Montana didn't allow baiting. So it was spot and stalk all the way. Most hunters were using firearms also, so they'd watch large parks, big open grassy areas. Or clear cuts.

I saw less bears than them, but had closer encounters in thicker stuff. With smaller openings with good green grass. If the elk were using the area it was a good chance so was a bear or 2.

This is for spring season.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Dthree » Sat Jun 10, 2017 6:41 am

dan wrote:
Boogieman1 wrote:Bear hunting has always been on my bucket list and I have found some relitively inexpensive places to go. I do not have the slightest clue about anything bear related. Is it possible to terrain trap them. I will more than likely only get one in my lifetime and I would prefer that memory not to include sitting on top of a bait pile if that's possible. Any help appreciated

You can hunt them on natural food... Just like bait. If your not shooting a young in experienced little rat bear, you would be surprised how challenging baiting mature bears can be. People seem to think you just flop out a pile of goodys any old place and sit over it. Don't knock it till you have tried it.
I agree. They don't get to be big bears being stupid. We have one bait site that I deer hunt near and there is a old bear on the trail cams just about every night, I've never seen him or had a daylight picture of him in the three years he's been showing up on the cam. He comes and goes from the refuge in the dark, so he's not in a area we can put dogs on him. Maybe he'll slip up one day.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Bearman13 » Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:31 am

Find where the bears are entering a corn field and doing damage and wait then out. I have buddies who do that in minnesota.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Octang » Sat Jun 10, 2017 1:31 pm

Boogieman1 wrote:
dan wrote:
Boogieman1 wrote:Bear hunting has always been on my bucket list and I have found some relitively inexpensive places to go. I do not have the slightest clue about anything bear related. Is it possible to terrain trap them. I will more than likely only get one in my lifetime and I would prefer that memory not to include sitting on top of a bait pile if that's possible. Any help appreciated

You can hunt them on natural food... Just like bait. If your not shooting a young in experienced little rat bear, you would be surprised how challenging baiting mature bears can be. People seem to think you just flop out a pile of goodys any old place and sit over it. Don't knock it till you have tried it.

I'm not knocking it, I don't know nothing about it I just get a vision in my head sometimes about how I want my memory to be that and the fact the place I was looking at going does not allow baiting lol!


Take a look at using predator calls. They are more popular out west, but if you don't like the idea of using bait, it could be a good alternative.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Sat Jun 10, 2017 2:36 pm

Predator calls! I like the sound of that thanks
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby cedarsavage » Sun Jun 11, 2017 8:31 am

stash59 wrote:Montana didn't allow baiting. So it was spot and stalk all the way. Most hunters were using firearms also, so they'd watch large parks, big open grassy areas. Or clear cuts.

I saw less bears than them, but had closer encounters in thicker stuff. With smaller openings with good green grass. If the elk were using the area it was a good chance so was a bear or 2.

This is for spring season.

That sounds like a cool hunt. Isn't the bear rut in spring?
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby woodswalker » Sun Jun 11, 2017 10:21 am

No baiting allowed in PA and it doesn't stop hunters from having a large harvest every year and some of the largest black bears in the country are taken without the use of bait.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby stash59 » Sun Jun 11, 2017 11:16 am

cedarsavage wrote:
stash59 wrote:Montana didn't allow baiting. So it was spot and stalk all the way. Most hunters were using firearms also, so they'd watch large parks, big open grassy areas. Or clear cuts.

I saw less bears than them, but had closer encounters in thicker stuff. With smaller openings with good green grass. If the elk were using the area it was a good chance so was a bear or 2.

This is for spring season.

That sounds like a cool hunt. Isn't the bear rut in spring?


Yes late spring early summer. Right about now. If you go to the current bear baiting threads now in progress. They mention seeing rut activity on their cams.

Montana's bear season used to last almost all summer. But they started cutting it back. While I was still out there they had cut it back "so" far that hardly any bears had come out of their dens before the season was over.

The one bear I killed I got on 5/9. Season was done 6/1. It eventually got cut back to 5/12. Some areas to 5/1.

By the sign the bear had left in the area. It looked to have only been out of the den maybe 2 weeks. With the first week usually spent very near the den usually.

Most of the bigger older boars. Den at higher elevations where the snow is deeper. So even if they're out it's real hard to get up to them. Deep spring snow is one real tough go.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Freelance Bowhunter » Mon Jun 12, 2017 12:04 am

woodswalker wrote:No baiting allowed in PA and it doesn't stop hunters from having a large harvest every year and some of the largest black bears in the country are taken without the use of bait.


Most bears in PA are shot incidentally or on drives involving large groups of people. The terrain lends itself to that type of hunting. Western states like Montana offer good odds of getting a bear by spotting and stalking. If you couldn't bait in Michigan, Minnesota, or Wisconsin, you'd never get a bear. Harvest styles and regulations are adapted to the terrain and to allow us to reach management goals.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Mike Foss » Mon Jun 12, 2017 12:51 am

Freelance Bowhunter wrote:
woodswalker wrote:No baiting allowed in PA and it doesn't stop hunters from having a large harvest every year and some of the largest black bears in the country are taken without the use of bait.


Most bears in PA are shot incidentally or on drives involving large groups of people. The terrain lends itself to that type of hunting. Western states like Montana offer good odds of getting a bear by spotting and stalking. If you couldn't bait in Michigan, Minnesota, or Wisconsin, you'd never get a bear. Harvest styles and regulations are adapted to the terrain and to allow us to reach management goals.


I looked at PAs 2015 stats.... if I am looking at the stats correctly the average size of the bears is about 175lbs. For each county it doesn't seem like they shoot allot of bears. But Freelance Bowhunter is correct, bear hunting is done much the same as deer drives. Looks like the success rate is very slim trying to get a bear by yourself PA.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby woodswalker » Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:05 am

I don't know what your interpretation of incidentally is but PA has a very large contingent of bear hunters and a lot of hunters do not drive for bear. they know the areas the bear are frequenting and post and hunt them either still hunting or from being on stand and wait for them to come by. To me incidentally means they were hunting something else and a bear wandered by. At one time when our bear population was way too high we were taking over 5,000 bears a year, we have them whittled down to the point where in 2015 the harvest was almost 4,000 and in 2016 it was a over 3,500. Our mountains while not the rockies have steep hillsides and swamps and thick laurel and rhododendron so other than farm areas at the base of the mountains, our terrain is not easy to hunt and we do quite well without bait. That is not to say there are not people caught each year using bait for bears. Driving out the places where bears are is not easy, while there is driving, our hunter population is aging so there are not nearly as many big drives as there used to be.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby woodswalker » Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:12 am

Mike, PA produces some of the largest black bears in the country, we have had several over 800 lbs killed and 400 and 500 pounds is not unusual.
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Re: Bear baiting questions?

Unread postby Mike Foss » Mon Jun 12, 2017 1:32 am

woodswalker wrote:Mike, PA produces some of the largest black bears in the country, we have had several over 800 lbs killed and 400 and 500 pounds is not unusual.


Yes, we also shoot huge bears, I also noticed a handful of 400-500 in PA.


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