All encompassing calling black bears thread (like the old calling tactics and sounds but for bears)

Brennan. I Have My Best Luck ON the Gated Road's Were I Hunt.I Will Be Using a Mountain Bike ON Them. I Will Bringing Up a 4 Wheeler This Year. I HAVE a road That is Brushed Over THAT Alway's Has Bear's ON It. I Call it The Cliff's. LOT'S of Berry's And That's What You Want To Look For. I Do See Bear's Off Of Road's. But Mainly Daylight And Before Dark.Allday Too.Find Berry's Get Cozy Listen And Whatch. Good Luck. Rick
 
Does the state prevent the harvesting a sow with cubs. You will often have a female bear run her cubs up a tree and then come to the rescue the cub in distress. You could think it is a barren sow and after you shoot her find out you have a couple of cubs on your hands with the warden close in tow. Big Boars will come to a cub distress sound to kill the cub. So the call will work. What I am going to do with mine is set up a series of fawn in distress CD with a loud take down kill, then have some leaf rustling sounds with soft cub sounds. I figure an hour of fawn distress and 15 minutes to finish the scene. If a big boar is waiting in the wings or slowly making his way to the call he will think a sow with a cub made the kill and he can steal the meal.

As far as the caliber goes I believe in using a premium bullet such as a Barnes X or trophy bonded bear claw. A double lung shot with aiming to the off shoulder should bring most animals down with in 100 yards.

Well that is my 2 cents.
 
In my humble opinion BearmanRic is the god of washington bear calling. He has suitcases of calls and more of those fishing lure boxes of calls than a bass fisherman. I do not know the exact sound he uses(electronic) it is a bleating, sort of a deep jackrabbit sound with a nasal rasp to it, he augments with a loud mouth call. I am sure bear cub distress is on the label somewhere.
Sounds like you are getting critters, Ric and I want to hunt over that way someday. I hunt Turkeys near Fruitland.
Good luck
Carl
 
I also suffer from multiple call syndrome but found the best sucess with jack rabbit distress that hurts my ears when I call. It has been too hot to call but this weekend the first fall rains are going to hit the Oregon coast and it will dampen woods and reduces the risk of fires. I hope that the timber companies will open their lands at that point.
You should pick up a good call that sounds like a jack rabbit. The reason I suggest a jack rabbit is that it is corse loud call that can reach out a longer distance to get bear to come in. Calling in the cold poses 2 problems, 1) your ability to sit still for an hour or longer, 2)the bear will be slower to respond because it is pre hibernation mode. The bears will be very heavy and may not be motivated by hunger.

You may also search through the archives on calling to pick up other advise on this forum.

Keep us posted on how the hunt went.
 
Sorry this took so long, been out of town. Thanks for the kind words.
Stanley, My pack weight is 80 lbs till I find a water source then it drops down to around 50. I carry a poncho, gortex suit, sleeping bag, extra socks, headlamp, water purifier, GPS, maps, 8 MRE's and the processing gear. The distance I walk is dependent on the loop I do each day. I work this long ridge line and all the draws and spurs that come off of it. Getting in to it is a couple of miles and then I plan on 3-5 miles each day on the loops. Getting the bear out is normally the hardest part, but there is a road that sort of parallels the ridge a couple of miles away and a 1000 feet down so I have been able so far to drop right down to it after getting one and then reposition the truck to pick it up. Staying in the whole time gives me a lot more time calling and makes it a more satisfying hunt.
 
The best thing about building a custom CD is that you can bring in some addtional sounds to set the table. An example is adding some thrashing sounds to start a sequence with the animal yelling in pain afterward. Adding Magpie or crow vocals will bring in those bird and will add both sight and sound to your set up.

By adding a decoy (old hide)it will keep the focus away from you. Adding scent to the decoy will bring them in. In Oregon you can not use a scent to attract bears unless it is applied to your body. I just met my sisters boy friend and offered to take him bear hunting. Of course I was going to apply my "Bear juice" of Anise/maple suyrup flavoring to him. I told him that is how we hunt bear in Oregon. Being from Washington DC he was not sure what to make of my offer.
 
hey John! Have you been after any coyotes? Last fall I was grouse hunting out of Heber just after the Elder berries were ripe and we were stepping on bear crap almost every 10 feet. In the thick brush the dog kicked something up and ran it for a while, but the brush was so thick I never saw what it was. Made LOTS of noise going down.

I didn't know what it was so I was yelling at him (thought it might have been elk, had seen one earlier) but he didn't come back for a while. I didn't use the collar just in case it was a bear, didn't want to start shocking him off bears.
 
If you look through the forum using the search function you will find a lot of information posted in the last 2 years.

Bears will either come in rushing or take their sweet time. I have even had bears in visible on the other side of a clear cut and totally ignored the call. Calling is not a guarantee that the bear will present its self

You can use the spot & squawk or blind calling in good habitat. If you blind call make sure you call for an hour, longer if you have confidence in the location.

I start off with a softer call (fawn bleat) for the first 5 minutes then I put more panic in the call. I try to build to a high point then soften up for a time. What I try to do is pattern the "lost child" with a soft Mom?....Mom...Mom!...MaMa..MaMa...MAMA (cry)...MaMa (whimper)

With a tape system you are limited to playing with the volume. I have both but prefer the hand calls because I can control the script. What I have seen a fawn do is run back and forth looking for its mother bleating at each end of a 30 yard run. So having ground sounds along with bleats would be great.

I hope this helps
 
Hunt the feed first. When you find the feed, then hunt the bears. Some areas have lots of acorns and manzanita berries. Other areas have little feed at all. You wonā€™t find many bears or deer there. Itā€™s still dry and dusty. We had a little cold snap with a frost, but temps are back up in the 80's now. Most serious bear hunters wonā€™t get interested until deer season is over, it cools off, and we get some rain.
 
Some others will probably give you more bow experience but here's one guy's experience. You've got plenty of bow and cutting stick for what you propose. Whether you can shoot through a black bear's shoulder blade depends on the size and age of the bear. Old bones are harder, lots harder. Don't try a front to back angle on the shoulder blade, as the highest probability is that the arrow will slip off the bone and deflect outside of rib bones, under the hide but totally non-vital. If you have a broadside shot, go for the middle of the ribs rather than the shoulder blade. Go for soft, vital tissue with minimal bone. Quartering away is better, as with most critters. Go for the offside shoulder. I have shot a lot more bears with rifle, but got my biggest one with a bow. 55 lb. recurve, hit a little high and a little far back at 30 yards. Arrow zipped through the tenderloin just under the spine and appeared to accelerate as it went on past the bear skittering through the trees. The bear didn't slow it down it looked like. I had to replay the image of yellow fletching disappearing into black fur to be sure I hadn't missed. It cut the large arteries just under the spine. The bear whirled and ran 75 yards downhill, collapsing in mid stride.

Try your best to avoid frontal shots. About the only vital area is in the chest between the shoulders, and the bear's head will probably be covering that. Shooting a bear's head/skull is like hitting a wedge shaped greased anvil. I.e. Three head shot anecdotes:
1. A 30-30 round at point blank range hit a bear skull at low angle and dropped the bear instantly. On skinning, the hunter found that the bullet had skidded along the bone under the hide and over the top of the skull, ending up at the back of the head in the neck, but never penetating into the brain.
2. I saw a large bear skull that had a broadhead imbedded at a 90 degree angle in its sinus, with bone grown over it so it couldn't be removed. The bear had lived a year or two with the broadhead a smidge lower than between the eyes, long enough to grow considerable bone over it.
3. A friend of mine held at full draw on a whopper bear at about 8 or ten feet in a head on postion with a recurve, till he couldn't hold any more. He could see about an inch of chest alongside the bear's neck and tried to slip the arrow along the neck and inside the shoulder. Oops. Arrow hit bone and deflected outside the shoulder and rib cage, sliding along under the hide the full length of the bear to stick out over a foot from his rear end. Lots of pain I'm sure but nothing vital hit. The bear spun, roared and slapped at the end of the arrow sending it spinning high, and ran out of sight before it hit the ground. The bear ran off a short distance into the brush, pulled out the rest of the arrow and went on his way. The hunter wished that he had yelled at the bear or stomped his foot to get it to change position.

If you want to call them close, scout sign and call in a thicket where a bear lives. They will walk the same trails for days, especially if there is an old kill or food nearby. They make pad marks in the dirt, grass or moss, stepping in the same spot with each foot each time they pass, wearing down an oval depression for each step. Just make sure in thick stuff that you can see downwind. Never violate that rule. I face downwind, ready to shoot. The problem with calling is that you seldom get to look over the bear well before the shot so you may not be able to judge size, which is not easy to do on bears anyway. Ideally you want one whose belly drags the ground, with stubby legs not much more than feet on a fur ball. If he is tall and leggy and looks big, he's young, or skinny in the spring. Any bear with a bow is a trophy, and one called is doubly so. Good luck.

Looks like R. Buker gave some excellent words while I was writing this.
 
The best shot is a double lung shot. Even with a good shot the blood trail will be difficult. My suggestion is that you shoot the bear with a bow and after the shot walk back to your vehicle to bring along shotgun to follow the blood trail. The walk back to the vehicle will give the bear a chance to bleed out. If you clip only one lung and the bear heads into the pucker brush slowly working your way through the brush with just a bow would be way too nerver racking.

One bear I shot (with a rifle) headed into some real thick salmonberry. For every foot you move forward your imagination increases. When I caught up with him I parted a real thick set of branches the bears head was 5 feet away. I did a 5 foot vertical and 10 foot horizontal jump. The bear was dead but it took a few minutes for my heart beat to slow down to that of a hummingbird.

With calling bears I had one come down a hill at full tilt and he sounded like a boulder rolling down the hill. It make for some interesting hunting.
 
375HH said:
The most important thing is being very quiet. Bears will run for cover if they hear a twig snap. They take it as another bear coming towards them.

Don't just go in the woods and expect to call a bear. It won't happen. Look for sign.

Enjoy
 
I know I live a long ways from AZ but I might have a bit of useful info. The bears will probably be coming out of hibernation at the time of your hunt since it's pretty early. Start glassing and calling in the meadows. Anywhere you might find grassy vegetation, the greener the better. Bears will be naturally attracted to these areas as they need the fibre to get their digestive system working again after a long winter. Good luck.
 
wnys>As far as calling goes,I would be sure to stay at least an hour on each stand.I don't know what kind of calls your going to use.I like a course sounding call.I use hand calls a lot and if you can try to keep the racket going pretty continuously that won't hurt you.I've noticed that when you see a bear and quit calling a lot of times he will stop where he is until you start calling again.You might be able to use that to manuever him into a shooting lane for you.I also try to give him something to zero in on.I use fishing line to hang a predator supreme from a limb.That dances around pretty good.

Also if you can figure out in your area what their eating,Berries and whatever other grub their munching on.You can maybe position yourself in the middle of the grocery store where they will hear you when you start calling.Also have you talked to the game & fish person in the area you plan on hunting.A lot of times they are pretty helpful in pointing you in a good general direction in where to get started.

I'm no expert by any means,just trying to help you with some of the things that have worked for me.There are other much more knowledgable hunters on here that hunt bears with calls and hopefully some of them will jump in here and help you out.Just be ready.If your on the ground and call one in and he comes into 30 or 40 yards from you,I can assure you your adrenaline will kick in like you've never felt before /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif.Good luck on your hunt and be sure to post some pictures if everything works out for you and you nail one. take care,daveyboy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-006.gif
 
I have hunted bear a long time. I have seen videos of folks calling in bear. But that has always been during the spring mating season. Not saying it can't be done in the fall as well.

I would look for an area that had some water, slough, marsh or bog and was near to a good natural food source. In the fall, berries and acorns are top on the list.

Talk to as many locals as possible. Farmers and forestry workers are especially good because of the time they spend outdoors.

Good luck on the hunt.
 
You can call blind or do a spot and stalk depending on the terrain.

Calling blind you are basically setting up in the areas you are finding fresh sign. When doing a rapid "on the fly" scouting listen for the sounds of bears working berry patches. On some of big area you can see the brush shake and then settle as the bear strips the downed food. If you can circle down wind and set up in an area that has some visibility you may be able to pull the bear from the berries. There are situations where there are more than one bear in the area. The territory a bear will defend shrinks when there is an ample supply of food. Small bears may rush in to steal the "meat" before the big boy ambles over.

The type of call can be a deer in distress. Fawns should be fairly large so going for a deeper voice of a young doe may not be a bad idea. Rabbit in distress also will work.

I normally start off with a softer call that would be a deer equivalent of "Mom" "where are you". After 5 minutes of calling through a little more emotion into it. If the bear is close you don't blast them into the next county. By the 1/2 hour mark I am in the panic mode and then kick it into a fight and death throng. The fight and slow death would be like a young bear trying to kill its first deer and not doing a very good job of it. Extend it out for 20 minutes or more in good bear areas. A big bear will think it can walk in an bluff the young bear off the kill. After you stop calling I normally wait 15 minutes just to see who may amble in.

The other technique I have used is call while walking. I walk at a slow pace and while scouting out a new area I use a slightly distressed fawn call. Any sound you make while walking would be what a bear would expect to hear. I only do this when I have 25 or more yards of visibility. Always look behind you because you are walking into the wind and the bear will circle down wind.

In Oregon it is unlawful to kill a sow with young cubs and calling in a bear you my call in a sow. Be careful
 
In Oregon you can use bait so you are limited to spotting the bear and then calling them or setting up blind. I have called bears through out the day in the spring time and had the best success in the fall with later afternoon. If they have been feeding all night on berries they are getting hungy and a prey sound my get them out of their resting spot early.

Any prey sound will work and I like jack rabbit squall. You can use a electronic or hand call but the real trick is call for 1 hour in good bear habiat. With a hand call it can be exhausting.

If I am going to be hunting a new area I will use a fawn bleat while working along old skid roads. I will try to sound like a fawn who lost its mom and trying to find her.
I had one bear come down the hill like a boulder on a steep hill. The bear hit the road and I looked at him and he looked at me and at 30 yards he did not fill the scope at 2X. That 100 lb bear sounded a lot bigger when he was coming in. I was kind of glad it was not a 300 pounder.

If you put your search parameters to 2 years ago you may find some information.
 
There was a sow in the Boundary Water Canoe Area in Minnesota that learned that the campers would suspend the 1 or 2 weeks of food on a rope between 2 trees and that if she got above the rope and jumped on the cooler she could break the rope. Some times the bear would become knocked out and when she woke up and the food was ready to eat. People nicked named her Suicide Sally. The next year she had cubs with her and they learned the same trick and they were named the Kamikaze Kids.

She was in an area it took 3 days to get there by canoe and there are no stores to buy more grub. Talk about a way to put a damper on camping. I was at a camp 1 day into the wilderness area and had a fish shore lunch going and this camping group with showed up with 12 people who encountered Sally. They also had bad luck in catching fish and I had a hot spot in a small tributary 50 yards away. So after performing a minor version of the miracle of fish and loaves (mostly with fish) we were able to keep them going back to the trail head.

We planned on camping in Sallyā€™s back yard but chose an alterative route and camp sites.
 
Gotta go with an electronic call for cougs?

Where is your sense of adventure????

Sit out there alone in the dark, nothing but a rabbit call and ............??

The coug sounds on the WT are the best though. The "aggressive female cougar" sound on a WT makes you skin crawl for days afterwards. It is "too real" for comfort.

Three 44s
šŸ˜ƒ
 
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A black bear bit and clawed a hunter who had just shot it four times in what game authorities said appeared to be a first for the state.
Samuel H. Beauchamp, 47, said he was approaching the downed 320-pound bear in Rothrock State Forest in central Pennsylvania on Monday, the first day of bear-hunting season, when it came after him.
Beauchamp, of nearby Newville, had just shot the bear with a .444-caliber rifle and was within 15 feet of it. He turned to run, but the bear put a claw around his hip and bit him twice, once in each thigh, before dying.
"The bear wasn't attacking 100 percent. I mean really, it was dead on its feet when it came up. If it would have been 100 percent I wouldn't have been standing there," Beauchamp said Friday.
Other hunters heard a growl and came to Beauchamp's aid.
"It was shock at first. It's like he came alive, like 'boom.' I guess he growled, like the other people heard. That motivated me to turn around and start running away," he said.
Game commission bear biologist Mark Ternent said the attack was the first case known to state officials in which a bear had attacked a hunter who had just shot it and was attempting to recover it.
Beauchamp was released from the hospital after about two hours of treatment. One bite went down to the bone.
"I didn't feel any pain after it happened," he said Friday. "I'm a little sore now."
I wasn't there but our rule is a minimum 30 min wait after you find the bear and more if it is in confined area like brush or trees close enough to restrict gun swing.
Problem with the cortex shot on bear is the same as a brain shot on trophy buck deer.

It sure doesn't seem like this fellow was prepared for bear hunting. He was approaching a potentially dangerous animal, and though he had a good rifle and caliber, he turned to run when the bear "came alive." If he would have approached from behind looking for signs of life and then instead of turning to run, use the rifle in his hands, cause he sure isn't going to outrun the bear from only fifteen feet away. I don't think he had fully thought things through... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
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