The 1 Thing You Learned- Bear Hunting

[archp625]

Its hard in Northern Idaho. What looks to be clear cut is 5 feet tall and un glassable.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

Its hard in Northern Idaho. What looks to be clear cut is 5 feet tall and un glassable.

Tough to glass for animals when the grass is taller than the animal. Can always look for grass movement, which I’ve done, but you may not know if you’re on a bear, deer, etc.

 

[huck]

hunt the feed . use the wind, I killed a bear at 3 yds. with a bow and was winded by one at 1200 yds. with no wind just morning down draft before the sun came up . A bear is bear and they do what they want ,so I hunt all day but it takes 1 dumb move to blow out alot of country.

 

[TheGDog]

Keep your tips and tricks to yourself to separate yourself from people who want instant success vs earn it.


Pack your kills out in the dark to avoid people finding your spots.

Heck ya gotta do that just to not die of heat exhaustion out here sometimes.

 

[TheGDog]

If you find a really nice looking place where the water widens out and makes a nice areas to bath in. Haul butt to get in and setup on that spot before the sun comes up. And also before last lite. this is more like in Archery season when it's pretty damn hot and miserable.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

hunt the feed . use the wind, I killed a bear at 3 yds. with a bow and was winded by one at 1200 yds. with no wind just morning down draft before the sun came up . A bear is bear and they do what they want ,so I hunt all day but it takes 1 dumb move to blow out alot of country.

The bears don’t care about human scent. It’s the scent of the bear tag that spooks them!

Their noses are impressive. Had a grizzly wind us about the same distance. She took her cubs and went the other way.

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Here are a few examples.

AZ 2021 (hunted multiple parts of the state)
* Bears were hitting lush green grass (from monsoons) as most traditional food sources were not available due to extended drought and fires.
* Bears stopped eating grass and started hitting other available food sources that started to ripen. This was very location dependent. Bears traveled a healthy distance to hit ripe prickly pears, yucca fruit, wild raspberries, wild grapes, etc. Whatever was "on" they went to. The normal eat A, then B, then C, then D did not apply as it was a crazy year between the fires and the record monsoon.

AZ 2020
* Bears were primarily hitting acorns and juniper berries where I was hunting. Area mostly dried up and it coincided with archery elk season ending.
* Bears moved in and started eating the carrion (majority still had their racks). Put a camera (until ran out) on each elk carcass found and all had an assortment of bears coming in at various times. The "intact" carcasses had more activity than the "field dressed" carcasses. They went from herbivore to scavenger PDQ. Area dried up from a bear perspective not much later (assuming due to no more viable carcasses to eat). Did not go back after the other elk seasons ended to check.

AZ Few Years Ago
* Had bears dialed in one general location. This one area had juniper berries, manzanita beans, and acorns. All plentiful and the bears were happy.
* Had been capturing a ton of bear activity every day on all of my cameras. One week before season starts, every camera captured all of the bears going west (leaving the area). Prickly pear were on somewhere to the west (none within miles of where I was at). Zero bears captured on those same cameras for the next couple of months. Glassing and boots on the ground confirm that most, if not all bears, left that area. So they clearly found something else to eat once the pears were gone. Still have no idea where they went to and stayed.

AZ Few Years Ago (not the same year as the previous section)
* Was in the desert flats over 30 miles from the nearest mountains. Was quail hunting and saw tons of bear sign (scat and tracks). The scat was full of hackberries. Did startle one bear who damn near ran me over. Since Game and Fish says there are zero bears in that unit, never gone back to check to see if the bears hit that area on an annual basis.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! I'm curious to see what other people on here have learned about food sources?

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Evening, definitely evening. But we have killed them as early as 11am. Just real hit and miss during the day. My first bear hunt we got up at 4am like we were elk hunting and road horse way back in so we could be glassing at first light…lol. Never again.

That's super valuable information! I hate getting up super early in the morning if I don't have to. Have other people on here found similar experiences that the best luck is in the evening?

 

[TheGDog]

Know when the choke-cherries are about to get ripe!

 

[Oregon Hunter]

Calling with a distress call can work at times and is a fun when you can see a bear and watch its reaction to the call. But it's the bear you don't see that you need to be concerned about. Keep your head on a swivel if you chose to call.

How long do you give a calling session before you move on?

 

[huck]

Get up in the morning ,you watch a big boar sittin on a rock waitin for the sun to hit him with his nose in the air and he dont know your around, know amount of sleep is worth the price of that.

 

[StuckoYota99]

One thing I learned last year is that bear hides are heavy

 

[huck]

BOY HOWDY.

 

[huck]

Hey just thought of this , all you guys on this thread should get on wdfw website post a comment . Also should apply for a spring tag weather you want it or not . more applications will help with future rules.

 

[DawnPatrol]

If you glass up a bear half a mile across a canyon, and he looks like he’s going on a mission somewhere, don’t bother going after him. You are not going to catch up. Gotta wait for the ones that are kinda milling around feeding.

 

[Marbles]

Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

My lesson is rather embarrassing, it was learned bear hunting, but applies to everything that involves shooting. The first bear I got on I inadvertently stalked to within about 10 feet, before realizing it was on the other side of a tree. As I tried to get positioned it stood for a split second then dropped to run away. In my hast to close the deal, I fired too quickly without getting the gun fully into position or getting into the scope (scope was on 1X, so the distance was not an issue). So, I missed a bear from 10 feet away, no blood, no reaction to the shot, no change in gate, all verified by my hunting partner who was watching from the boat about 100 yards away. I also tracked him about 100 yards over a snow bank, clear tracks, no blood. Track was lost when he got off the snow and into brush.

Lesson, never pull the trigger unless in the correct position and sighted (well for the bad asses trained in the Israeli point shooting method, perhaps not the last part, but that is not me). Even if the bear charged me, I would have been better off waiting until the muzzle was jammed against him than missing because with a bolt action there is no follow up shot at that range if charged. At that range, I probably should have set the rifle down and drawn the 454 Supper Redhawk that was on my chest, both for faster follow up shots and better maneuverability. Not to mention I have trained with handguns at close range, but largely neglected rifles. Though, given the pathetic performance, I'm not sure that would have helped.

Thankfully I was able to partially redeem myself that afternoon and took a nice, midsize (about 250 pound) boar from 25 yards and he piled up less than 15 feet from where I shot him.

From another hunt, bears are fast. Watched a small (perhaps 2 years old) bear climb more than 2000 feet vertical in perhaps 10 minutes to punch over a ridge (there was a much bigger bear in the valley below). Would have taken me over an hour to cover the same ground.

 

[DawnPatrol]

Also, you should definitely always sleep in till at least 11 am when bear hunting. If you hear my truck roll by an hour before first light, don’t worry about it.

 

[StuckoYota99]

Just get out there! I hunted 8 years before I killed my first bear. You will learn more in the feild than on a forum.

 

[huck]

AMEN STUCKO .

 

[MillenialHunter]

If you run into some local good ole boys and they give you advice listen to them. Their knowledge was more valuable than anything you could find on the internet.