It almost all came together tonight!!!

[steeliedrew]

Today I got to my spot and climbed a tree with the self climber. Out in front of me was acres and acres of probably about a 5 year old clear cut. To my side was a grassy logging road to which I had a 15 yard shot through a decent shooting lane. Down hill of this road is the lower portion of the clearcut and there's a creek bottom down in there.

I've often thought that on hot days the bear(s) in this area must be spending some time down in that creek bottom. I've been discouraged with this spot this season because I haven't found any bear sign in the few times I scouted whereas last year I found sign galore in there! I decided to give it a go today though and I'm glad I did. I was 25' up in the tree around 2:00pm and I sat quietly observing until 6:00pm. Then I pulled out a Primos distress call and began a calling sequence. I'd call for 30 seconds to a minute and then rest for about a minute before calling again.

20 minutes into the calling session and I hear a really loud SNAP behind me on the down hill side of the road. I blow the call for a few more seconds and then I hear some more branches breaking and brush moving from just across the road!!! Then I hear a couple really loud and very pronounced HUFFS!!! At this point I was unsure of what to do cause I had the bear right there but could not see it so I went silent. a couple minutes went by and I see the bear pop out into the clear cut on the downhill side of the road. The bear was about 100 yards out and I was hunting with the bow. Once I saw him I began calling a bit but he just slowly walked away and I lost him.

So I'm wondering where I went wrong? Should I having started calling like crazy as soon as I heard that first branch break and even more so when I heard the bear huffing? I'm kinda thinking it may have winded me because it did come from down wind of me which I'm guessing is pretty classic for a calling session?

I'll be back in there ASAP and this time maybe with the 12guage with some rifled slugs. In the mean time though let's hear suggestions on what I should do next time.

Thank you,

Drew

[jrebel]

Not sure about the answer to your question, but just wanted to say...sounds like you had a good day.  Keep at it and make sure to post pics when you connect. 

[h2ofowlr]

It may have finally winded you and worked it's way off.

[jasnt]

Im no bear calling expert,but my predator calling experience leads me to believe the huffs were it letting you know the gig is up.  At that point im not sure any calling would have changed the outcome.  I'd try a different call or cadence from a different tree. Make sure you have several shooting lanes from were you think he will come and also imagine any place he could come in that's bad for shooting. Try and find those little holes in its travel route. Also place you stand in an area that forces the bear to come in the open in order to get to your wind.  Hope all that makes sense good luck next hunt and take lots of pics

[steeliedrew]

Thank you for the replies. On my way out I was scanning the downhill side of the road and there was a new hole punched through the brush. That may have been where he crashed through after winding me or it may be where he came out of. I also found what I believe to be his main travel route out of the lower cut and onto the road. There are a few trees I could get into that would give me a pretty commanding view over the trail but they're kind of out in the open and limbed pretty high up so I might be kind of silhouetted in them.

I'll take the wind into consideration with stand placement and I like the idea of finding a stand location that would force the bear to come out into the open to get to me.  I've been into this area probably 15 times in the last couple years and I've figured out the prevailing wind in there finally so I'll have to do some poking around in there.

Thank you,

Drew

[BenC567]

Drew,

I ran into you a few years ago near a cement bridge on a logging road. You were on a bike and I was on foot. If you are in that same general area pm me and I'll direct you where I saw the most bear sign last time I was there.

Ben

[RadSav]

Every bear calling session seems to have it's own surprises.  And huffs can mean more than one thing.  If he was close I assume he was trying to say, "Huff (huh?) what's that fawn doing 25' up in that tree!"

I call very few bear in using coyote techniques.  For bear I'm almost non stop.  At a level most coyotes would have left the county.  Only time I very from that is if I am starting off with cow/calf calls, then lost calf calls and then calf/fawn in distress.  But once I get to the distress call it's pretty much nonstop.

I'm sure there is more than one way to skin a cat (or bear )  Maybe Billythekidrock or Bearmanrick will chime in and give you a different idea.  I think they have cold called more bear than I have.  I use the call a lot more for setting up the shot for a client, wife or friend than actually cold calling.  Maybe only ten or twelve of my bear have been taken cold calling.  And none of those were archery kills.

[steeliedrew]

Drew,

I ran into you a few years ago near a cement bridge on a logging road. You were on a bike and I was on foot. If you are in that same general area pm me and I'll direct you where I saw the most bear sign last time I was there.

Ben

Ben,

I remember meeting you that day.  The spot I was at last night was on one of the other gates up there. I really appreciate the offer though.

Thank you,

Drew

[billythekidrock]

Radsav is correct, Huffs can mean more than then gig is up. While it is possible it winded you, it could also be trying to get you (predator) to respond or leave.

I usually experience the huffing along with a hang up with sows and smaller boars. It could be that they don't want to rush in without identifying what is causing the fawn to be in distress.

The problem is the bear has heard the call, investigated and is now disinterested. how do you get it's interest again?
What has worked for me in these situations is to call harder, louder with more emotion and even another call with a different tone.

Think of it like this, your baby is in the other room and starts crying. You go in to check and see nothing out of the norm so you let the baby cry itself to sleep. A few minutes later the baby is screaming with that gut wrenching tone that makes you leap out of your seat to see if it is ok. That gut wrenching tone is what you need to get the bear interested again.

I agree with the comments about trying again from another tree. Also if possible, a small electric call at the base of your tree would help.
 
On the calling frequency, I would probably not wait nearly a minute between calls, but if it worked for you keep doing what you are comfortable.

[steeliedrew]

Thanks for the info BTKR.  I wish I could afford a fox pro right now.  I might go ahead and order one of Rick's calls this week.  I mean, the Primos one worked but i've heard nothing but great things about Rick's calls.  The call I have is one of those multi-sound calls that you slide an O-ring up or down the reed to create the different pitches.  Mine does fawn distress, cottontail, and coyote.  Honestly there's not much difference in pitch between them with this call but all I know is it sounds real eery while I'm blowing it like something is definitely in distress. The cottontail sound seems more raspy than fawn in distress though.

[Ripper]

It's always nice to have more than one call. I watched a bear calling video a while back and that was the suggestion. They said bears have short attention spans so by mixing it up it can keep their interest. Now if they wind you, then the gig is up. There is no telling why that bear walked away, but in my opinion, it hadn't winded you. Otherwise it wouldn't have shown itself within 100 yards of you. Try picking up another call and also do what BTKR suggested, scream bloody murder with your call. Good luck, I look forward to some pic's and a good story.

[RadSav]

I'm going way back to my first cold call kill with this, but it worked!

I had a bear hold up in a spot I could not shoot.  After about five minutes the bear decided it was going to head off in a different direction.  With nothing to lose I figured I would make the bear feel as though the distressed animal was easy to steal from a smaller animal.  So I did a few young coyote yip yips.  I then added some pulses of volume in the distress call like a small coyote just couldn't kill the little bugger.  It definitely changed the bears interest level.  And while he did not RUSH in he did continue toward my direction.  He'd come ten yards, stand up and look, come another ten yards stand up and look...  At 150 yards I figured that was good enough and put a Core-Lokt in his chest the next time he stood up.  Not sure how close I could have gotten him to come.  But it did peak interest when I thought the gig was up.

[steeliedrew]

Sounds like a great tactic to me RadSav.  Until reading some of these posts it had not yet occured to me that the bear may be wondering what is causing the animal in distress to be distressed.  This just opened up a whole new ballgame! haha

[billythekidrock]

This is an older story but it is very practical for this thread. Sorry for the length.

I had a bear hunting partner that was not confident in his calling ability so we always hunted together. I always wanted us to hunt separate areas as it would double our opportunity and we could keep tabs on more areas.

I finally convinced him to go to a spot on the east side of a road and I went to the west. I got hung up in real thick brush after a short hike and headed back to my truck where I saw my partner sitting on his tailgate. I asked why he was back already and he made a comment about not being able to kill a bear.

He had gone in part way, climbed on a stump and started blowing some cow calls on a name brand bite call. After a few minutes he stopped, grabbed a few huckleberries and had a bear growl at him from the grade only feet away.

This bear came in silent from the downwind side. He could not see the bear through the Alders and Salal and he never heard the bear come in or leave. Had he not stopped to grab a few berries he would have jumped to the road and right on top of that bear.

So he heads in a little farther and climbs another stump with the wind in his face. This time he starts blowing cow/calf distress with the same bite call. After a few minutes he felt the need to look behind him and saw a bear about ten yards from him. The bear had turned and was walking straight away. Again, this bear came in from the downwind side.

I figured that the bear was more curious than hungry and probably wasn’t that spooked so we made a plan to hunt that spot the next morning.

The next morning I went to the second spot and he went about 40 yards farther hoping to see a little more of the area. We could hear a bear feeding a hundred or so yards away but there was not way we were going to see it at that distance.

I started calling with some soft cow calls and then tried to sound like a lost/lonely calf. After a few minutes we could still hear the bear feeding in the same location so I started in with some calf/fawn distress. Immediately we could hear the bear breaking logs/limbs but it would not come in. I continued with the distress calls and the bear continued letting us know it was not happy and it would not budge.

I was excited but also a bit perplexed as we had a bear that would not come in, but it did not leave. I knew the cow calls would not pull him in and I knew that the distress calls got a reaction so I figured I would put them together.

I waited about 5 minutes while the bear went back to feeding. We could hear it feeding away slowly. I started with a few quick/loud cow calls and went right into calf/fawn distress and as I was getting to a fevered pitch I immediately switched to a closed reed call. I hit it as hard as the reed would let me and put as much emotion in it as I could. After about 30 seconds of this I tried to listen for the bear but my ears were ringing. By th time I could hear the bear had covered half the distance. I could hear it coming and I knew where it would likely pop out at about 70 yards. I stood and shouldered my rifle at the same time but it was too late. The bear was in the opening looking in my direction. I raised, pulled the trigger and shot high.


Anyways, after all that the gist is that it took three different styles of calling with two different calls, but I found a sequence/tone/pitch/cadence that made that bear respond.

Other takeaways from this story include:
Bears may come in downwind.
Bears can be called in multiple times.
They may ignore you.
They may come in fast
They may come in out of curiosity.
Be willing to try something new or different.
You need to find what triggers that bear to respond.

[bear hunter]

Should of used a rifle on the first bear of the year and picked up a bow for the 2nd one.