Do any of you have expereince calling bears?

Yukon Mike

Yukon Mike

Well-known member
I've tried it a few times but so far the only bear I've ever seen was running like heck to get away. It was a sow grizzly with two cubs.

While looking for elk I've found a place where there are a bunch of wolves hanging around and at least one good bear. I figure he's a 7 or 8 footer from his tracks. There have been several bison shot in this one little area so the gut piles are the attraction. I can shoot wolves over bait but the law forbids shooting bears over bait.

Its a very flat area with thick bush so visibility is a big problem other than a cut line for power poles. I was thinking of a tree stand on a power pole and honk on the dying fawn call. I want to be able to see my way back to the truck clearly. Last weekend I had a grizzly circle me where I was calling moose. I never saw him but from the tracks in the snow, he came down the lake shore, circled to wind me, and then headed on. I'd been napping in the sun so I'm lucky he didn't like the smell of me. I had a fire going to warm my toes so that may have helped.

During the night he came towards our camp spot but veered off into the thick stuff and I sure wasn't going in there looking for him. Getting him to come to me in the right spot is the only option I can see.

MIke
 
Hey BooBoo......bring me that pik.a..nik basket.....Okay Yogi but the ranger isn't going to like it!!!
 
I have not done it, but guys in black tail country swear by a fawn bleat to get a bear to come in. Usually they are trying to get a deer to show themselves and get something else they didn't want.

Guys over here have been using electronic game calls with dying rabbit sounds for fur hunting in November and once in a while a late season bear will show up looking for a last meal before denning.

i think your plan would work as long as the bear does not get too much of your sent down wind.

Over here we can take griz off of gut piles, but cannot take griz off of bait stands set up for black bear. Unless you are in a predator control hunt program area and get all the right permits.

What is considered bait in your area? Would a honey burn or bacon grease candle be considered bait sense it is scent used to pull in a bear? Over here any scent used to influence a bear's behavior is considered bait.
 
First thought...Mike has gone nuts...

Second thought...Where can I get bacon scented candles and why am I just hearing of these now???
 
Second thought...Where can I get bacon scented candles and why am I just hearing of these now???
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Considering all the pork being passed around, I would suspect that these bacon candles are readily available from your congressman or woman as the case may be.
 
Bacon candles? What a great idea. Maybe I'll just get some sausage and egg McMuffins on the way out of town and smear them on my boot soles.: )

People here do shoot bears over gut piles but officially I believe the Fish Cops would have to prove you knew there was a gut pile there and not another "natural" food source. As far as I know our laws haven't really got very sophisticated - just no bait.

One friend of mine who calls a few wolves from time to time has been using a bag of dog food to make his wolf bait pile when he goes out. He says it only lasts for a short while but with the 2000 ravens it attracts he says he doesn't have to call much. I don't know if he pulling my leg or for real. There'd be no evidence of a bait pile though.

I gotta give the tree stand idea a try.

Mike
 
First thought...Mike has gone nuts...

Second thought...Where can I get bacon scented candles and why am I just hearing of these now???
Click to expand...


Folks in the Arctic have been using animal oil lamps for thousands of years, so I am not surprised that folks from a bit farther away may not be aware that you can make your own animal oil lamps or candles.

Here is a link for making a crisco and bacon grease candle. I hope it comes through for you guys without having to log into the site its posted on. This is getting to be a useful method for spots that bears travel through frequently but you don't want to haul bags of barely or dog food for miles to build an actual bait station. The issue with dog food is that it brings in too many brown bears and they tear everything up and eat all the bait. Meanwhile the black bears stay away while the browns have their way with it.

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/73334-Scented-Crisco-Candles?p=670120#post670120

Here is a link to an actual bacon scented candle. I should get one of these and light it early on a saturday morning kid visit weekend then put it away. My daughter will tear the house apart trying to find her share of the bacon.

http://www.hotwicks.com/products/the-bacon-candle
 
First thought...Mike has gone nuts...

Second thought...Where can I get bacon scented candles and why am I just hearing of these now???
Click to expand...


Folks in the Arctic have been using animal oil lamps for thousands of years, so I am not surprised that folks from a bit farther away may not be aware that you can make your own animal oil lamps or candles.

Here is a link for making a crisco and bacon grease candle. I hope it comes through for you guys without having to log into the site its posted on. This is getting to be a useful method for spots that bears travel through frequently but you don't want to haul bags of barely or dog food for miles to build an actual bait station. The issue with dog food is that it brings in too many brown bears and they tear everything up and eat all the bait. Meanwhile the black bears stay away while the browns have their way with it.

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/...?p=670120#post670120

Here is a link to an actual bacon scented candle. I should get one of these and light it early on a saturday morning kid visit weekend then put it away. My daughter will tear the house apart trying to find her share of the bacon.

http://www.hotwicks.com/...cts/the-bacon-candle
Click to expand...


Well, realizing you can use animal fat for lamps and knowing there is a marketed "Bacon-Candle" out there are two totally separate things! Actually my wife gets 2-3 pounds of bacon and cooks it up all at once to save the greese for other cooking. She hates bacon, so my daughter and I get to "pig out" plus the house smells delicious for a day or so.

Chuck
 
Mike,

Personally, no, I haven't any experience, but I have heard of calling bear with a challenge or mating call. One company that you might want to look at is Woods Wise and their bear call. http://www.woodswise.com/details.php?pid=ww08150. There is a short 3 minute or so demo video on that url. Though I haven't experienced the wawawawa of an aggresive male bear, I have seen it on several bear hunting DVDs. I have experience with the mama bear with cubs sounds a couple of times and, no thank you, don't want to be there again :)

Like other's, I have heard accounts of calling bear with predator calls but no personal experience.

Good luck and take notes, I can imagine a fine story out of this adventure.
 
Pete, I have experienced the distinctive sounds made by an aggressive male black bear and wouldn't mind not hearing it again. I shot that bear with a bow at about 6 yards as it was running at my hunting partner. We were stalking a bull moose and apparently the bear was too. That or he was stalking us.

I too have heard of a rabbit call bringing in a bear. I would give it a try.
 
Andy was telling me about a time he had to shoot a coyote from a few yards out in front when you were calling in your whites.....Don't have that happen with a bear please!

I'll never forget a Jack Brittingham video where he climbed up on a 10' tall stump and started blowing a rabbit distress call. Bears came in from all directions and after he shot one, they had to wait for 2 or 3 more to get out of the area before heading to the truck.

It would probably count as bait, but jello powder is supposed to attract them when spread out on a old log.

Good luck!

-D
 
Nice, Paul. Bet you felt really alive after that event. How far did the bear go?

Either the last or one of the last spring bear hunts in Ontario. My buddy had hit a bear just before dark. All our baits were near the shoreline of Lake of the Woods - Aulneau Penninsula. By the time he had gotten me at my stand and we made our way by boat back to his stand it was full dark. "I know right where he must be" - famous last words. We didn't see the arrow at the bait site so started following the trail. Blood wasn't too prolific but being dark actually helps tracking in my experience. With a good light you can actually see foot prints in the moss and tiny specks of blook show up well.

After about 50 yards, and to the point where "I know right where he must be" was..........the bear wasn't. So, slowly, we started on the track again. Blood was becoming scarce, just a speck here and there, when we came upon a big blow-down - total distance so far was close to 150 yards. I elected to follow the blood through the tangle and my buddy would circle around. Well, he got about 15-20 feet away and hollered "there he is!"

I jumped a log and made my way over to him. He was shining a dim 6 volt light towards the bear and just as I turned to look with my much more powerful light - and could see the bear SITTING UP - my buddy shoves me and yells "HERE HE COMES!!!" Well you don't have to tell me twice and I took off running...........making damned sure that I was in the lead. I figured that though I wasn't the fastest sprinter in the world and had rarely won a race in my life - I was damned sure faster than my buddy.

After about 50-60 yards we stopped to listen but could only hear our hearts pounding. We thought we heard a twig snapping so took off for the boat again and decided that - yep, maybe waiting until morning was a better idea.

We made it back to the cabin and each had a couple shots of whatever amber liquid was on the table - my buddy says " you know, I've always wanted to experience that" .. my response "NOW YOU TELL ME? A--hole!!"

Next morning we made our way cautiously back to the spot -and we knew it was the exact spot because my buddies hat was laying on the ground. The bear had actually never moved from where we had seen him. The arrow had clipped one lung and the liver so that bear was real sick when we found him and was in no mood to chase anyone.

Oh, one more detail. The Aulneau Penninsula is primitive weapons only - no guns except muzzle loaders and we didn't have one of those.
 
Since no one was mauled, I have to tell you, that is one funny story right there!!!
 
Yeah, I know....... Every time I think about that tracking job I can't get the image of my buddy's hat - reminds me of the old cartoon characters who jump up in the air, take off and their hat falls straight down......
 
Pete,

Your story reminds me of the time I was tracking a bow shot hog through palmettos on our hands and knees in the dark. As we are in the middle of a big patch my buddy says, 'this wouldn't be a good time to crawl up on a big boar hog! I had images of coming up face-to-face with ab ig tusker for the next half-hour.

Not quite the same as coming up on a wounded bear.

Tom
 
Pete, that is a great story. That is pretty funny about the hat.

The bear I shot spun, roared and nipped at the point of entry. It ran as fast as it could away from us and died running and it was laying in a bunch of blueberry bushes just out of sight. I was amazed that it covered about 100 yds in 4 seconds... those things are fast. Good thing you only have to run faster than your buddy because you are not outrunning the bear. LOL My partner and I approached the bear and from a distance of about 40 yards I offered to let him go over and poke it to see if it was dead but we decided to have lunch first. When we came back we discovered the arrow went through both lungs, took a slice out of the heart and cut up the liver pretty good. It entered just behind the left front leg and exited back in the last rib on the right side. I don't think the bear was going anywhere.

IMG_0141.jpg


The crazy thing is that right after I shot, Steve looked at me and asked "why did you do that"? The bear was only 18 feet from him and running straight at him and I asked him what he was waiting for. His answer was "I wanted to see if he was bluffing". I didn't think that was much of a plan in case he wasn't. Truthfully, Steve didn't really have a shot as all he could see was the head coming at him. We didn't have anything but bows to shoot with.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Mike. Back to the real topic... I would try a rabbit squealer.
 
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Tom,

It's amazing how your mind goes into overdrive after dark. We were tracking another bear in the dark a different year and my buddy had a short piece of string with a metal clip on it that would bang against a plastic battery case occasionally. I had myself convinced that the sound was a bear popping it's jaws until I actually saw the sound being made. Then one year I actually saw a bear popping it's jaws (sow with cubs) and won't ever forget that sound.

That said, tracking a wounded hog after dark is not real high on my list of to-do's. Actually being able to bow hunt hogs is very high on my bucket list though - some day.
 
"I wanted to see if he was bluffing"........hahahaha. That's good Paul, isn't it interesting how funny some of these events are in the retelling when in the moment we almost crapped our pants.

I'll never forget my first archery bear. I had spined him and he only went less than 20 yards but it was into a big thicket. I saw him laying there, circled around so I could see his head with the eye's open and asked myself the only question that I could think of "are those eyes - dead eyes or alive eyes?" Gave me the willys until I actually poked him.
 
Actually being able to bow hunt hogs is very high on my bucket list though - some day
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Come to coastal Alabama, we've got tons of them and thousands of acres of public land to do it on. October 1-February 15th is open season with the bow!
 
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