Black Bears are Agravating!!

[Haggis]

I've been baiting in a bear these last few weeks, and it has not been faithful to hit the bait on a regular basis, and season is running out...; well, cold weather is coming and the bears will be hibernating before too long.

That ol' bear does like its' vittles: beef tallow and suet, dogfood soaked in suger water, and crab apples, but he is never there when I am!
It has become a full time job, carrying grub to that ol' rascal.

[moonwolf]

I think most bear baiters here do something with the bait to make is smoke up and carry the scent in the air to the bear. smoked meat or fish would probably do that and bears attracted like they are to town barbecues. I would heat up the concoction you make and let the smoked scent of that be more inviting to the bear.

[shadowwalker]

Hag. Next time you go in take a buddy.Bring what ever your going to take the bear with. Do all your regular stuff and NO talking. You go to your hideing spot and the partnet leaves just as you always do. Same way, same vehicle and all just the same. I bet the bear comes in. He is probably waiting somewhere around where you can't see him when your there. He is used to what your routine is.

[fordson major]

if you can get a can of buckwheat honey, then hang it out on a limb that he has ta dance you will have more time to get him. how far is your bait from your house? have a wireless driveway alarm that you can place up too 300 ft(i think) and get a dinner call when he stops by!!hope ya get 2 or 3 ,tasty critters but i have a real hate fer them!

[Haggis]

The bear hit my bait again last night, after I'd left my stand of course. I rebaited and this evening hung a smoker full of bacon grease, and sure enough here it came again. I don't know if the bear smelled me or got freaked over the smoker but it wouldn't come out of the Tamaracks for a clear shot. It was a nice chocolate brown bear of a fair size, but I just couldn't make myself shoot it through the limbs of the Tamarack. It would have probably been alright, but there is always a chance of a deflected bullet and a wounded varmint crippling off to suffer.

Maybe it will come again tomorrow, and I'll try it without the smoker. Winnie the Pooh says, "There is just no telling with bees." Well, there is just no telling with bears either.

[xaguar_69]

Hey I used to hunt em up in northern MN and I always liked to use a honey burner when I was in the stand, not only did it create a nice cover for my own scent but it would waft long and far to help draw em in closer.... all you need is two coffee cans one smaller then the other and a small sterno burner can place the honey in the small can and the sterno in the larger can rig a spot to plave the smaller can with wires runnin thru but you get the idea....Hope it helps

[Haggis]

I'll try it again tonight, weather permitting, I know a lot folk swear by smokers as a lure and for a cover scent. Maybe there was another, larger, bear? Maybe ol' slewfoot got a whiff of me; who knows? I'll give it another go.

As the old Chinese wise man said, "One does not lose faith in all nails just because one of them bends."

[xaguar_69]

very true lol if you use the honey burner be prepared for an interesting smell lol some folks say it is like cotton candy but I wouldn't be one of those. I usede to combine honey and a lil bit of molasses, but usually folks just used the honey that I was familiar with. Good luck on baggin ole slew foot

[Haggis]

I just got back from checking my bait station and sure enough, it was clean to the dirt. The cover poles were scattered and everything cleaned up real tidy.

My good son is coming over in a bit to walk back with me to carry in some more bait; I'll be staying with the honey burned, he'll carry the buckets home. Who knows, there may be more than one bear working the bait?

I also went out and shot my .45-70 a bit to make sure the sights and I are compatable; everything is up to snuff. It will be a wet one this evening, but I'll got rain gear...., noisy rain gear.

[bgak47]

Good luck Haggis! It sounds like you have a wary opponent there,but that's why it's a challenge. What type of 45/70 do you use? I have a Harrington & Richardson made repilca of an 1873 Springfield. I've been thinking of buying a Marlin lever-action in 45/70.

[Haggis]

Thanks for sending some luck my way.

I have a Marlin 1895 Cowboy .45-70 govt., and it is a tack driver out to maybe fifty yards. After that my eyes and my nerves aren't what they once were, but I can still cover my shots with a silver dollar at 100 yards, if I have something to lean against, and take my time.

In the fall Herself, my good son, and myself check our sights at 100 yards; they both use a scope: Herself, on her model 94 in .357 magnum, my good son, on his Remington 700 in .30-06, and my groups with iron sights on the .45-70 are as tight as theirs. Of course, the .30-06 will still be shooting as tight a group on out to 270 yards, the MPBR for that cartridge.

I've looked at the H&R "big bore" rifles. They are some fine looking guns for sure.

[bgak47]

Thanks Haggis. My 1873 trapdoor replica was made in the late 1950s. It's a great gun,but due to it's design,it can't handle the higher-power 45/70 cartridges that are now becoming available for more modern designs. I'm thinking about the Marlin Guide Gun in stainless steel with the composite stocks. I like the 45/70 because it is an immediate stopper for whitetail in my brushy hunting area. I've used everything from.270,7x57mm,30/30,.357mag,.303,30/06 & 7mm mag, along with 12ga slugs. I like the 45/70 & I've had 1 shot kills for the last 8yrs in a row. It just works for me. I guess I just want a new gun...again.

[Haggis]

There is a certain wondrous "bang...plop" experience that goes along with the .45-70. Being color blind, I can't trail wounded game, without finding color sighted help, with the .45-70 it just doesn't come up.

My good son watched through his scoped rifle once when I shot a fine 6-point buck, in the head, at fifty yards. He said he's never seen, or wants to see again, anything like it, but then, lung shot deer fall just as fast.

[elkhound]

i been toten a marlin lever action 45/70 since early 80's.i have killed bear and deer with it.it sure does knock'em down. with the new loads they have out now it's even better.i got some 300gr that are hot loaded,man that thing will kick the crap out of you.i went back to the old original loads with the 405gr bullets and lower powder charge.if you hand load and have a modern rifle you can load 45/70 to exactly what a 458magnum has at the barrel in foot pounds.put solid bullets in it and you have no problem takeing down a cape buffalo or any africa game.the 45/70 is a great cartrdge.

[bgak47]

I also take head shots on deer if I get a chance Haggis because I'm not interested in trophys. At 60-100 yds I can still make those shots if conditions are right. We have many ''poachers'' down here who take deer with.22LR or .22mag with head shots... at night with the aid of spotlights. I would never sanction poaching, but if you are trying to feed your family it's an efficient way to put meat in the freezer.

[xaguar_69]

Did I miss something? Did you bag ole slew foot or not? Just curious....

[poorboy]

Dat bear is a going to make a master baiter outa you.. :-)

[Haggis]

I did not get ol' Slewfoot this year, but if he makes the winter, he'll be back next fall. After the bear stopped visiting the bait station I stopped hunting it, but one day while grouse hunting I swung by to see if anything had changed, and the bear had been back. By late September they are more alseep than awake, and by early October they are not as hungery as they are nosy.

I'll give him another go next year.

I learned something this year I had not previously known; one can "feed" bear all summer but one cannot legally hunt over this feed. One can, however, move 100 yards away from these feeding areas and create a "bait station" with a sign hung over it stating as much, as of the middle of August. So what this means is, I can feed in several bears throughout the summer months, then move a little to one side, draw the bears to the new spot and hunt them there. That should be much more effective than trying to suddenly draw bears into a new area just two weeks before the season for hunting them.

[tinknal]

Haggis, I'd try frying a little bacon when you set out the bait.

[Haggis]

I burnt bacon, bacon grease, and honey while I was on the stand, but I only had the one bear coming in, it seemed to be only the one bear, and it was not really committed to my bait station. I think the main problem was that the bruin did not find the bait until well into the season, and by then its' appetite was already waining.

Whenever it came in it cleaned up all of the bait, but it just was not hungry enough. Bear hunters up here tell me the first two weeks of September will tell the tale, and usually the bear hunter ought ot have gotten his bear by the first week-end. I'm afraid it was just a matter of too little, too late, with this bruin.

I think I mentioned somewhere in the thread that most of our bears were off in search of acorns, I think I was just lucky to see even this one bear. Some local lounge lizard/bear hunters I know, through Daughter #3, fill all of their tags every year, this year they didn't get even one, nor even see one.

I do like the idea of burning a lure/cover scent though.