The New Huntmastersbbs!: Spring Bear

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Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on March 27, 2010, 08:20 AM:

I got drawn for a spring bear permit here in Washington State !
Season runs April 15th until May 31st, No bait or hounds, so I gotta spot and stalk, or call.
Other than looking around swampy areas and old logging roads, any advice ?

Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on March 27, 2010, 12:24 PM:

Well, not too surprising, but they tend to be nocturnal so use the daylight for scouting sign and later, be there at sun up and sun down. Glassing hillsides can work, I have been told, but this would be too early for berries, even in WA. Maybe not, is it?

They will come to a call, occasionally. I can't say that I have ever seen it, but then again, I do not frequent bear country, as much as some others.

Spot and stalk is a lot more productive with a rifle. I don't know how you will sneak up on a bear with archery tackle? Ambush, if you can stay awake?

Did I ever tell you the time I fell asleep in a very nice hollowed out tree trunk facing an open meadow? I woke up about midnight, pitch dark, couldn't find the vehicle or my partner....who had also fallen asleep. I acvtually woke him up with my hollering. We were pig hunting on the Hunter Liggett Military *********** , Coastal California. Should have signed out at dark, nobody there when we left the base. Maybe they are still looking for us?

Anyway, good luck, and keep yer eyes peeled.

Good hunting. LB

Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on March 27, 2010, 01:29 PM:

FWIW; A bear coming to a call is looking to KILL and EAT something. I would suggest an electro-call placed away from you. If you're planning on using mouth calls.........watch your back!!! [Eek!]

Posted by 4949shooter (Member # 3530) on March 27, 2010, 01:58 PM:

I called one in last October using rabbit and pup distress sounds at night.

I didn't shoot because bear weren't in season, nor can you hunt them at night.

Good luck! It sounds like fun. I wish we had spring bear hunts around here.

Posted by Andy L (Member # 642) on March 27, 2010, 03:59 PM:

I was invited, didnt go, on a bear hunt in Oregon one year. My cousin lived out there and ran around with a bunch of crazy ass loggers. I asked them how we would be hunting. They said, just like deer or elk huntin. I asked if that was stands or spot and stalk. They said ride around in the truck and drink beer. [Big Grin]

Tim, your a bear hunter and didnt know it!!! [Smile]

Posted by Lonny (Member # 19) on March 27, 2010, 07:28 PM:

Gotta love spot and stalk spring black bear hunting. A great time to be out and about when the world is coming back to life.

My locale and bears are probably different than yours, but I never had much luck finding bears in clearcuts and along roads in these parts. I've had much better luck walking ridges and glassing the opposite slopes. Patience and good glass will pay off... Avalanche chutes or other natural openings with some good greenery growing and heavy timber surrounding the openings will sooner or later produce a bear sighting. In the spring when everything is green look for the areas where the plants are an especially dark green like at the foot of bluffs or places that get more sun or must have better soil.

You always read or hear where bears graze on grass just like cattle in the spring, but after watching literally hundreds of bears through a spotting scope or binos and looking at what they are munching on they seem to go for the leafy they type of vegetation like sunflowers or clover in these parts. Many times I've located bears from the sound of rolling rocks as they look for whatever is underneath to eat.

As far as sneaking up on one, if the terrain is condusive for a sneak and they are busy eating, bears aren't that hard to get on. I've arrowed a couple and I've watched a bowhunting buddy of mine also arrow a couple and sneak up on quite a few more that he passed on.

Posted by Locohead (Member # 15) on March 27, 2010, 07:46 PM:

Wow! I can't imagine passing up any bear with archery equipment.

Seems like Behle told us few years ago the best way to get bears is to borrow your neighbor's airdales?!?! [Smile]

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on March 27, 2010, 08:40 PM:

Well, due to the fact that this is what they refer to as "Coastal" Washington, there are no avalanche chutes (elevation under 1500 ft) I had one come walking up the trail I was on last year while turkey hunting, but the unit was not open, nor did I have a tag. This is the first year for this unit and they gave out 50 tags, so I wont be alone. The locals swear by calling, or watching opposite sides of small ravines, but mostly finding sign and calling.
I read a book by Ralph Flowera, a local legend, that says to find a confortable spot at the head of a draw and sit down and listen for logs being torn apart.

Posted by Okanagan (Member # 870) on March 27, 2010, 08:41 PM:

Stiknstring...

Added later: Just noticed that you posted while I was typing, and answered my questions about where you will be hunting, so I will delete them.

Good luck! It's a great time to hunt bears.
I've called about a dozen black bears and three grizzlies, all with hand calls or my voice. As usual, most came to my Weems jackrabbit sound. I like a coarse somewhat raspy fawn/jackrabbit sound but have called them with lip squeeks. IMO sound is the least critical component.

Everyone seems to say to call continuously but I have called mine with intermittent calling: 15-20 seconds of sound and a minute of silence, and stay at least a half hour.

They tend to be nose dominant in my experience, and usually head downwind to get your scent so make sure you can see downwind enough to shoot. Most I have called in timber, fairly thick. In brush and timber, it can be hard to judge the size of a called bear. I've called a few that we've seen first, but most have been called by finding a location with LOTS of fresh bear sign and calling in the middle of it. One west side spring sow with a big cub paid no attention to my call till I quit calling and then she moseyed my way from 250 yards to inside of 100 and still coming when I walked away.

Places to look would be rock slides or rocky hillsides with rocks to flip for bugs, as mentioned, hillsides with down logs holding bugs under the bark, and on the west side especially cedar swamps with skunk cabbage blooming. Sometime in May, grassy switchbacks with a patch of dandelions on old logging roads seem to sprout bears. I've heard bears working logs for bugs, and it is a fairly quiet sound, not smashing the logs but delicately lifting off bark or a thin layer of wood with claw tips. It has been surprsingly hard to locate a bear from such sound, for me anyway,in timber.

Call with confidence.

[ March 27, 2010, 10:04 PM: Message edited by: Okanagan ]

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on March 28, 2010, 02:27 PM:

Thanks, There are a lot more rotten stumps than rocky areas, it is unit 501, and the swamps will probably be my best bet......

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on April 05, 2010, 09:53 PM:

My problem now is I have found several piles of what I think are Elk droppings, but the "experts" on my local site say that it is Bear poo......
If they are correct, I have an excellent spot....
But I think that I need to keep looking....
It sure looks like Elk to me (no tracks)

Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on April 06, 2010, 04:45 AM:

Time to hang a trail camera if it's raining so bad that it's melting the poo-poo.

Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 06, 2010, 08:41 AM:

Can't most people distinguish elk poop and bear shit, from a low flying airplane?

Good hunting. LB

Posted by Locohead (Member # 15) on April 06, 2010, 09:14 AM:

Hey StiknString,

What is it about the scat that makes it confusing?

Elk scat is pellets like mega super sized bunny poop. Each pellet is the size of a grape and is shaped just like a grape. Usually they are in a pile or scattered a bit. Even the really icky wet sloppy piles of elk poop I've seen are are still sectioned. If you break them open, they're always made of have short fine grass fiberey stuff.

I think bear poop is like mongo sized human scat scat; 12 oz. Budweiser sized turds, or really big black piles. [Smile]

Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 06, 2010, 11:11 AM:

Somebody around here knows their shit. String~ quit paying attention to your local experts. They obviously don't know shit? But, it was on the Internet, so it must be true?

Good hunting. LB

Posted by Paul Melching (Member # 885) on April 06, 2010, 02:56 PM:

Even on the days I dont know Shit from apple butter ,I know Elk droppings from bear scat????

Posted by Okanagan (Member # 870) on April 08, 2010, 03:42 PM:

Post a picture? Or taste it and from your description of the flavor we'll be able to tell you what it was. [Wink]

All the info is good. Here is a bit more nuance. On the west side, spring bear piles are almost all made of digested green vegetation. Really fresh stuff, less than 20-30 minutes old, will be a fairly bright grass green. If you see green colored bear turds, stop: swivel your head, listen and look for him.

After half an hour in the air they usually turn black. It is very different from soft spring elk puddly globs, and totally different from elk pellets, which are more usual. Deer and elk sometimes eat something in spring which gives them a mild diarhea and softens the pellets toward a small immitation cow pie. That is still totally different from bear droppings.

Edited: I just looked at your pics on another site. Bear for sure. They are looser than defined logs due to spring vegetation forage, but the total size, color, shape and everything about them says bear. The dull green color is probably due to a combo of what the bear was eating and the wet climate not letting the bear droppings dry out.

[ April 08, 2010, 04:29 PM: Message edited by: Okanagan ]

Posted by Okanagan (Member # 870) on April 08, 2010, 03:57 PM:

Re: tracks. If a black bear likes an area for some reason and stays in a relatively small patch of ground, he will step in the same tracks day after day and wear out a string of oval "tracks" in the moss/grass/duff. You will probably not be able to distinguish a specific "bear track" showing pad, toes, claws, but it is a bear trail or track. Just keep an eye out for a staggered line or pattern of oval spots as big as your hand or larger in the moss.

I've seen such trails along an old grassy road that the bear walked frequently for some reason. I've seen them where a bear was eating on a dead elk and crossed an old grassy road back and forth from a creek bottom thicket to where the elk was. I think he slept in the thicket and followed the same path to his elk vittles.

In hot weather black bears will lie down in cool mud or right in a spring seep. It will not likely get that hot during your season but given a bear's heavy fur coat, on a hot day it might be worth checking any cool spring fed seeps, same kind of place elk make wallows.

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on April 09, 2010, 12:30 PM:

quote:
Edited: I just looked at your pics on another site. Bear for sure. They are looser than defined logs due to spring vegetation forage, but the total size, color, shape and everything about them says bear. The dull green color is probably due to a combo of what the bear was eating and the wet climate not letting the bear droppings dry out.

Well...Shat....I guess I might have to go back and put my camera back up....I hadit there 3 days and the only pictures it took were of me...., I have looked around a lot and I have only seen 3 more piles somewhere else, this spot had about 12.....

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on April 09, 2010, 01:52 PM:

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on April 09, 2010, 01:54 PM:

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on April 09, 2010, 01:55 PM:

Posted by Stiknstringbow (Member # 3571) on April 09, 2010, 01:56 PM:

Posted by tlbradford (Member # 1232) on April 09, 2010, 04:14 PM:

Definately bear, maybe several. What was the site that you posted these on? Okanagan gave great advice. Hunt the food sources. I have never tried calling spring bear since my areas do not offer a season.

OK...I looked up my home site and am glad to see that our guys got it right.

Posted by Steve Craig (Member # 12) on April 10, 2010, 07:33 AM:

Next to calling a lion, there is nothing like calling in a bear. Like KOKO says.They are coming to eat something. Movement when calling them is a big no no. ANY kind of movement on your part and he will do one of two things. Run away like crazy or run over you. I have had both happen on numerous occasions. Thats bear calling.
The biggest problem with bears is 50% of them will run the other way when the call starts. The good part is that when they come......they come! Use enough gun. Ive called in 50+ bears over the years.
I too like the gravely Jack Rabbit for calling them.
Spring bears are not known for their calling response. I have had far better calling success in the fall. Spot and stalk would be a better way to go this time of year. IMHO.
Steve

Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on April 10, 2010, 07:55 AM:

Steve;
Have you done any spring calling with the cub distress sounds??

Posted by Randy Roede (Member # 1273) on April 10, 2010, 02:59 PM:

Stringbow your posts stink [Eek!]

Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on April 10, 2010, 03:21 PM:

Yeah, Randy. I was going to ask him how that shit tastes?

Good huntig. LB

Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on April 10, 2010, 04:17 PM:

Mayhap a 'Scratch & Sniff' logo on those pictures would be in order. [Razz]

Posted by Lonny (Member # 19) on April 10, 2010, 06:11 PM:

Koko, A few falls back, buddy and I were archery elk hunting when we spotted mama bear with two young cubs about 200 downslope from us.

After watching them for a bit, my buddy pulled out a open reed call of some sort and gave his best attempt at a cub-in-distress sound. The cubs immediately went up tree's and the sow came right up the hill.

As she was approaching I dug the camera out of my pack, and at about 30 yards I took a pic. At the sound of the "click" mama let out a loud WOOF and for a second I thought we might have trouble, but she took off back to the cubs and the last we saw of them they were still covering ground a half mile later.

If were blind calling and did not know she had cubs, it would have been real easy to shoot, especially with a rifle, only to find out she was a wet sow.

Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on April 10, 2010, 06:47 PM:

Lonny;
That is, indeed, one of the problems with the spring season. I could see that also happening using a fawn distress.

The other problem is that there's 6 foot of snow on the road up to the mountain. [Frown]

Posted by Lonny (Member # 19) on April 10, 2010, 09:06 PM:

Koko, at least you got some moisture in the mountains waiting to come out. Up this way, the snowpack is waaay down. We just might burn up this summer.

Posted by Kokopelli (Member # 633) on April 11, 2010, 07:30 AM:

We must have gotten all of your moisture. The 'Talking Barbie Head' on the TeleVision said that we've gotten more rain so far this year than ALL of last year combined. If this keeps up, the day may come when I see more quail while out hunting than I have in my backyard.

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