Bear Help

[jrebel]

Bear hunting has been my nemesis for many a year.  I finally harvested my first bear last year and was officially hooked.  I can count on one hand how many bears I have seen in the wild in the 25 +/- years of big game hunting.  Needless to say this year has been no different than the previous years.  I have spent countless hours sitting on berry fields with spotting scope to no avail.  Well most the berries in my neck of the woods are gone now so now I need your input.

Where in a bears diet do these two food groups rate;  rose hips and elderberry??

The area I am refereeing too is literally covered in rose hips......they are everywhere you look and thick (the whole mountain)  I would have to believe if this is a good food source they will be there, though I have never seen a bear on this mountain. 

What is your experience with these two food groups.

Thanks for any imput

Johnny

[h20hunter]

tagging this one....

[jrebel]

tagging this one....

With your avatar pic you should be the expert.....  

[h20hunter]

Far from it.....but it is a nice bear!

[Jonathan_S]

Tagged.  I'm equally curious.  I've never hunted bear this late in the year and I'm hoping rosehips are the ticket.

[MtnMuley]

Number 1, they will still be eating rose hips.  Number 2, if you've never seen a bear on that mountain covered in those rose hips, then why spend time there trying?  Not trying to cound like a dick, but move on.  Bears will "generally" be moving higher for food sources as the berries dry up from the valley floor up.  Also remember, pear harvest is going strong, and bears LOVE pears........if you have any access to that kind of country.  Good luck.

[jrebel]

Number 1, they will still be eating rose hips.  Number 2, if you've never seen a bear on that mountain covered in those rose hips, then why spend time there trying?  Not trying to cound like a dick, but move on.  Bears will "generally" be moving higher for food sources as the berries dry up from the valley floor up.  Also remember, pear harvest is going strong, and bears LOVE pears........if you have any access to that kind of country.  Good luck.

This is why I have such a hard time with not finding bears.....This mountain has pear orchard at the bottom of it.  I have access to some of the orchard (there is literally 25 miles of orchard) but not all.  There are bear in the area and at times the orchard owner that allows me access will see bears, but not consistently.  this portion of the mountain is covered in rose hips with sporadic elderberry bushes.  The hard part is there is not a ton of large timber for cover and the buck brush is 6 feet tall.  maybe I need to try calling them in....cause I have never seen them otherwise.  I don't believe this area is crawling with bears, but I know there are some in the area...just trying to narrow my search based off food sources. 

Thanks
 

[saylean]

Jrebel....

calling often brings out what you cant or dont see. Why pass up an area for calling, especially a thick area with food!  I love calling over here in western wa in brush so thick I can see 5 ft infront of me. I either burry myself in the brush and try to find a small opening so when they come in, its too late for them, or I get up high on a stump and try to get a better vantage.

It is a valid point, if you never seen a bear there, you might want to move on, but I would definetly give calling a try (bobkitties anyone?). Sounds like they have plenty of food, cover and land.......

Rosehips will be getting eaten for sure.

[billythekidrock]

I have never seen a bear eat rose hips or even found any that I could say were eaten by a bear but I have to believe that they would. I would look for recent sign and activity before spending much time there. If there is no fresh sign then I would come back later. If there is no old sign from years past then I would not waste much time there. Keep moving until you find sign. If it's fresh, camp on it. If it is old, figure out the time of year it was done and prepare to hunt at that time this year if possible.

I agree that calling could help, but if I were hunting near an orchard I would try to find a good trail to set up an ambush. No sense putting a bear on edge if you don't have to.

[BOWHUNTER45]

ALL I can tell ya is just take a drive anywhere around Winthrop or Twisp in about 2 weeks and see how many Elderberry trees you can count that has not been destroyed  by bears .... they love them ...No expert on what they eat on the eastside but I know Elderberries has to be one of their favorites ..When it comes to the westside I have that figured out ....only took many of years beating the heck out of a lot of area ...and one thing I can tell you is once you kill a bear in a certain area in the fall and there is always a food source you can bet your arz there is more than one bear using the same area and you can kill bear in these same spots year after year ....that's all I know 

[jrebel]

Jrebel....

calling often brings out what you cant or dont see. Why pass up an area for calling, especially a thick area with food!  I love calling over here in western wa in brush so thick I can see 5 ft infront of me. I either burry myself in the brush and try to find a small opening so when they come in, its too late for them, or I get up high on a stump and try to get a better vantage.

It is a valid point, if you never seen a bear there, you might want to move on, but I would definetly give calling a try (bobkitties anyone?). Sounds like they have plenty of food, cover and land.......

Rosehips will be getting eaten for sure.

How far will a bear come to a call?  This is big country....I know there are bear in the area (though I don't think it is saturated with bear) it is just about finding where they hang out.  I will try calling this next week and let you know how it goes.  Never done it before. 

[KFhunter]

+1 on the pears, a bear tore the hell out of my pear tree but didn't hardly mess with 3 apple trees right nearby. 
Why eat top ramen when you can have warm apple pie?



when there is that much food bears will hit their favorite stuff first, I'd hunt the fence line to that pear orchard.
I'd look for entry points to the orchard, hair on the wire, bent wire, dug under spots and hunt the heck of out it.


If the orchard is getting hit at night you should see a bear scat highway into the timber, they'll head for water then lay up for a snoozer.   Your probably hunting above them in that top ramen berry patch.

[KFhunter]

Jrebel....

calling often brings out what you cant or dont see. Why pass up an area for calling, especially a thick area with food!  I love calling over here in western wa in brush so thick I can see 5 ft infront of me. I either burry myself in the brush and try to find a small opening so when they come in, its too late for them, or I get up high on a stump and try to get a better vantage.

It is a valid point, if you never seen a bear there, you might want to move on, but I would definetly give calling a try (bobkitties anyone?). Sounds like they have plenty of food, cover and land.......

Rosehips will be getting eaten for sure.

How far will a bear come to a call?  This is big country....I know there are bear in the area (though I don't think it is saturated with bear) it is just about finding where they hang out.  I will try calling this next week and let you know how it goes.  Never done it before. 

I haven't had much luck calling orchard bears - maybe its the belly full of pears and apples making them too sleepy to come to a call.

[jrebel]

That was one of my thoughts, but maybe I will get lucky.   

They just finished picking pears and the ground has pears laying all over it.  There is plenty of food so calling may not work.   

[KFhunter]

I'd call in the evening before they head to the orchard - when they have an empty stomach