Bear hunting is not everyone's cup of tea which is obvious from the fact that even the ODFW wildlife biologists accept that bear hunting is quite challenging for everyone, even for the expert bear hunters.
At this stage, everyone who is passionate about bear hunting wonders:
"Will I be able to hunt the bears in the first attempt?"
The answer is "Yes'' and ''No". It is YES when you follow the techniques and go out hunting in the spring season when the bears actively wander in the forests.
And it is a big NO definitely when you do not particularly research and practice about how to successfully hunt this wary and smart creature.
So if you ever tried to hunt black bears using proven techniques including baiting and field judging, but still failed, you need to load yourself up with more suggestions, tips, and tricks.
No matter whether you want to hunt small bears or looking to target the larger ones, it is time to enhance your knowledge about how to field judge and how to hunt bears successfully in the first attempt.
All you need to do is to carefully go through the given 7 tips that will help you become a successful bear hunter.
Without further ado, let's dive into the hunting right away.
7 Tips For Bear Hunting That You Must Know For Best Hunting Experiences
In the upcoming lines, you will read some general and specific tips that will ensure your success during the bear hunting adventure. These tips are both for first-time hunters and experienced ones.
1. Study Your Field Judging
While trying to field judge the bears accurately, keep the saying in mind "Measure twice and shoot once". Moreover, it is also so important to consider that a bear is one of the most difficult animals to judge properly and you need to analyse all of his gestures, expressions, and actions very keenly.
First of all, you have to judge the size of the bear. As we know that bears are often at a large distance from the hunter the hunters need to use smart techniques given below.
● Check out the ears. If they look larger than the size of the head; it means that the bear is not a huge one and vice versa.
● If a large amount of light is passing through the legs and its belly does not seem to touch the ground, it means the size of the bear is quite small.
● When the shoulder of the bear can touch the 55-gallon barrel, you can use it as an excellent size reference and such a bear is quite large.
Right estimates of the bear size lead to successful field judging.
2. Hunt during the first and last hour of daylight
It is an obvious fact that whenever you go out hunting, you need to take care of your necessities as well. For example, you have to prepare yourself for lunch, napping, or hunting. However, if you are wondering if being involved in such activities can miss your chance to hunt the bear, you should know that bears are never active in the midday hours and you can reserve this time for lunch, napping, and hunting preparation.
However, you should be super careful in the first and the last hour of daylight as it is the right time when you can easily find the right bear for hunting.
Remember that many people fail because they try to hunt the bear at the most challenging midday hours of the day. So never make this mistake.
3. Carefully observe the bears' behaviour
If the bear is quite cautious, it will start walking slowly and pause after every few steps. At this time, you should remain silent and avoid making any kind of noise that can give it a clue.
However, if the bear is pausing again and again and sneaking around like a kid, there are strong chances that it is totally unaware of your presence and is afraid of the bigger bear. do not wait anymore and short such bear immediately.
You may also encounter the situation when the bear is actively moving here and there with full confidence and seems that it is not afraid of anything. It's because he is not. It is probably the best time to shoot it without any delays.
4. Do care about your safety
Safety should always come first, especially when you're using baiting techniques. While baiting bears, you may surround yourself with the large, fierce, and toothed predators unknowingly. However, there are some tips and tricks that you can use in order to ensure your safety in case you get caught up in a difficult situation.
● Try to follow up the tree that has a cub equal to the size of a cat's house.
● If you are a brave person you have to understand the fact that black bears are naturally curious. If any such bear sees you and starts approaching you, you can climb a tree. However, there are strong chances that a bear will follow you and try to check out who you are or he will only start wondering about how you look, how you smell, etc. At this time, keep yourself calm and cool and do not immediately move, shout or cry, because in most cases the bear does not eat such a person, instead it backs down.
5. Do not hurt the small bears
Although it seems quite easy to target the small bears, especially the ones who are less than 1 year of age, it is important to remember that it is illegal to have a bear whose age is less than 1 year. If you do not follow the instructions you can face legal consequences.
It is worth mentioning that most hunters do not have any knowledge about how to estimate the age by watching the bear physically. For this purpose, we recommend you check out the level of movement of the bear. If it is actively moving and running here and there, there are strong chances that it is one of the small bears and you can easily sense its presence.
6. Hunt at the start of the spring season
The beginning of the spring season is perhaps the most important time whenever it comes to hunting the bear. This is because bears are dispersed in March and April when there is more greenery and grassy meadows which means that they have a lot of food sources that they can use. However, with time the bears start dispersing from meadows because they accumulate and pile up the food in their homes.
Keep in mind that at the end of the spring season, you should not go hunting because the bears are available in the form of groups and can put you in trouble if you attack them. So the beginning of the spring season is also the most appropriate time in the sense that you can easily find bears walking isolated on the forest roads with good grass growth.
7. Use digital and mouth calls for attracting the bears
If you are an expert bear hunter, you may use mouth and even digital calls for the beer. However, if you are super concerned about safety and do not want to use the mouth call for safety reasons, you can also use digital calls. However, digital calls are best for people who have just entered the hunting world and do not know how to use mouth calls.
Basically, the main purpose of using mouth or digital calls is to grab the attention of the bear and change its focus from anything else. In this way, the bear will move to your desired location or place in response to the digital call and you can easily use this opportunity to shoot it.
Nowadays, purchasing the best bear digital call is as easy as 1-2-3. All you need to do is to go to an online marketplace that sells digital calls. Purchase the product online which will be shipped to you within a few days based on your location.
Wrapping up!
Before you go out for beer hunting it is important to realize that bears are one of the most difficult prey for hunting and you may fail. Hence, follow the given tips and tricks if you want to become a successful bear hunter.
In the end, it is important to tell that you should also go through the legal requirements in your area because most of the states and localities have particular rules and regulations about how to handle the bears, what their age should be at the time of hunting and how to label the bait stations.
In the end, it is important to remember that just let the beer lick your toes and feet if he has reached you when you have climbed the tree to escape it. It will never harm you but not everyone can face this situation calmly.
By the way, have you ever gone to a forest for bear hunting? What was the season and circumstances and how was your experience? Make a quick comment right now and share your ideas and experiences with us.
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