Greetings fellow outdoors enthusiasts!
I would say I had a weekend most definitely well spent! With Spring Bear Hunting Season just around the corner opening in about a couple of weeks, I spent the weekend prepping and setting up my bear bait site.
This is my 2nd year hunting, and my first time hunting for bear!
Day 1:
We started off by finding a spot with good cover and a mix of pine, poplar and oak trees along with a variety of shrubs and bush. We then terraformed a small clearing within that area of about 20 yards diameter using a chainsaw and weed wacker. We also created a small discreet trail to get in and out of the spot from where the truck would be parked off the roadside.
Day 2:
IT'S TIME TO GET THE BAIT IN!
The bait we're using is 300lbs of feed corn and 200lbs of oats. Packaged in 50lb bags and the spot being inaccessible by ATV (also the fact that I don't own one lol) I had to carry the bags in by hand over my shoulders. It was a great workout to say the least!
As a topper for the bait site, we are also using used restaurant fryer grease, along with some home-made boiled jello, marshmallow & a ton of sugar mixture to pour on the bait, on the trees, and around the site.
Our SECRET INGREDIENT for the site are beaver carcasses from the beaver's we've trapped over the season (20+ beavers) - If you don't know already, apparently beaver meat/carcass is one of the TOP BAITS for calling in any predator!
Finally it was time to pour the baits in the barrels and around the sites.
And set up the spot and shooting lane for the tree stands. I'm using a Summit Viper Self Climbing Stand here in the pic.
Lastly, a trail cam so we can see what kind of action we get on the bait site over the next couple of weeks before the season opens which will give us a good idea of what to expect and if we should make any changes if necessary!
And finally the prep work is done! Now the excitement of the waiting game until season opener!!
I can't say enough how excited I am to do my first bear hunt. And putting in this kind of work to get it prepped is way more satisfying than just paying for a guided hunt.
I LOVE DIY hunting & outdoors! Figuring it out as you go is part of the fun!!
I've heard some folks criticize hunting bear over bait as too easy and requiring no effort, well, perhaps they have never set up a bear bait site because there was ALOT of work done lol Though I would agree with that saying to some degree however, here in Manitoba where I hunt there just simply isn't any hills or mountains where we can go and do a "spot and stalk" style hunt. The bears here reside in thick bush and you're going to be shooting from within 100 yards - therefore the bait method is more prevalently used here.
Have you hunted bear before? How did you go about it, spot and stalk or baited? How was your experience?
I've never had to do any of that. Most of my hunting has been on foot, stalking. I'd range out of camp and do some 20km a day seeking the quarry and on occasions bait a tank (earthworks pushed up to enclose water usually about the side of a couple Olympic sized pools or so). I hunt in remote areas, I'm talking 500km from the closest town and that only a fly-speck town so there's not a lot of gear.
So, in this way I've hunted pigs, like razorbacks, and had good success. They like eating each other so the best bait has been pig but roo or goat works in a pinch.
Deer is different of course, as is goat, but in the main that's how I've hunted. I have mates that hunt pigs with bayonets and pig dogs but that's not my style. I guess I don't trust dogs enough. I've done a lot of long range goat shooting...I mean 1200-1400 metres in mountainous terrain. I enjoy that as I'm a long range shooter at heart.
These days I mainly cull on a big cattle farm - Roos, deer, foxes and the like. I shoot at between 100m-500m and go all year round...Except when it's hot. (Gets to 47+ here. Celcius.)
Seems like you've got it all worked out so hopefully you go ok. Please tell me, are the bears a pest in need of culling and what's the situation around numbers, how many do you/can you take? Maybe a post on it?
That's awesome, your terrain out there I think is perfect for that style of hunting. Ours here though we're quite limited as what I've wrote in the post so the primary style for bear hunting here is with bait sites.
Our moose numbers have been on a decline for the past few years due to bear and wolf so a few years ago they opened spring bear season but before it was only fall season. In terms of numbers you're allowed 1 bear per year so the two seasons is simply to increase the odds for hunters to get their 1 each year because even though there's bait - it's definitely not guaranteed to bring in bears let alone at the right time when you can shoot (which is only during daylight hours) as most of them roam around nocturnally here!
Ah ok, a controlled situation as far as the bears go. It's odd to me that they limit shooting to daylight hours as we don't have that however I guess they make rules dependant upon the needs of each area. All the best with it, I hope your efforts are rewarded.
Yup exactly! So yeah no need for night vision here lol Thanks man!
wicked post buddy! hope you get that bear!
Thanks man! When you setting up your site? You're going for Spring Bear too right or just in the Fall?
maybe fall. I was going to do spring but I can't justify the cost at the moment.
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