Calling bears

[jason4429]

I was just wondering when everyone has the most success?

[trophyhunt]

We had a really nice e caller for bears the last week for spring bear, dry called a few times in bear country, zero luck. Called just after seeing bears a couple times and no success.  So calling, ehh. Maybe it’s just all perfect timing, but it’s not like some people think bear baiting is, they just don’t come running.

[jrebel]

Tagging....have tried cold calling a few times with no luck.  Would love to call one in but am skeptical of it's effectiveness. 

[stringer]

Deer Talk Deer Stopper. Had mine for a couple decades now. Had to replace the rubber band a couple times.
Put your own inflections into it, whimper like a fawn.
Times when I get no response, makes you wonder if it works.
But when it does...
Have had does slide to a stop right in front of me, looking for that fawn. Or hear them stomping around in the brush and blowing.
Sometimes I've had brush breaking, then fade away, probably winded.
Successfully called in deer, bear, and coyote.
And for those you don't see, don't count out cougar.
Two particular incidents stand out. A reminder that they react by instinct,  not reason.
I stepped into a section of timber that had been select logged. I made one fawn call. Immediately a bear came over a ridge 100 yards away. He was downwind,  and reared up to smell. He had to have smelled me. I whimpered again, he dropped down and kept coming. I kept calling, and he came up to 20 yards before I  dropped him. Even tho he must have scented me, he must have been locked onto the fawn cry.
The same scenario happened with a coyote also.
That time I  was camo head to toe.
With the bear it was blue jeans and white t shirt. Their vision is poor, I wasn't too concerned about that.
Don't forget, sometimes the bear maybe a ways out, it can take some time to bring them in.

[Machias]

I have called in 16 bears over the years, that I know of.  Probably a few that slipped in that I did not know they responded to the call.  I'm going to guess my average is about every 20ish hours of calling I have called in a bear.  This is cold calling and calling on hot sign.  If I counted only calling when I found a lot of fresh sign, I think that time would shrink down to roughly 4 hours of calling.  Calling is very effective in the right circumstances.  But it's a lot like rattling and grunting in deer, very effective at times and other times not so much.  I also think a lot has to do in your confidence in the technique.

[trophyhunt]

I actually think I called one in very close last week, dang tree blocked him from getting whacked. But the wind started swirling, and then silence.

[Jonathan_S]

Bears are pretty notorious for having a short attention span and will give up on a call if it isn't constant. I've had some success getting bears to reveal themselves e.g. standing to get a look at the call or poking their head out of the timber.

Predator calling ebbs and flows. Some days you can't miss and most days will suck.

[bearmanric]

I call the coast a lot brushy I call into feeding area's Huckleberrys, blueberry's cascara .  Were I know they are. Was close at Kelly hill fawn with emotion in it. Wind shifted there a lot. Been a few bears this year called in with my calls. Machias has it down.

[ridgefire]

What time of day do you guys have the best luck? Would it be a waste of time trying to call from a tree stand with a bow? I have never called for bears but I want to try it.

[Machias]

What time of day do you guys have the best luck? Would it be a waste of time trying to call from a tree stand with a bow? I have never called for bears but I want to try it.

I did not pick a time up above, because I have called in bears all times during the day.  More has to do with weather and temps in my opinion.  Cool cloudy days, you can call bears in throughout the day.  Warm sunny days I prefer the first and last hour of the day with a nod towards the morning hour because it's much cooler than the evening hour on warm days.

[StuckoYota99]

I just tried to stop a bear with a squeak from a predator call
It stopped walking and ran the 25yds into timber... tried to coax him out but the wind shifted.

[bearmanric]

All day long. Use to call timber patches in the afternoon hand calls hot interesting a few times. Along creeks  are great do much better with hand calls.

[jason4429]

All day long. Use to call timber patches in the afternoon hand calls hot interesting a few times. Along creeks  are great do much better with hand calls.

What kind of call? Fawn,rabbit or bear cub.

[bearmanric]

Right now fawn and bear cubs there mating. August lots of raspy distress  fawn in distress at times.

[High Climber]

I’ve never been successful calling a bear, but never really givin it an honest effort.  All things I’ve read up on say it needs to be 45 mins to an hour of continuous calling to bring one in and I’ve never felt like doing that!  Let’s hear some stories of successful call ins weather it ended in a dead bear or not

[Bango skank]

Any time of day is a good time to call.  As for length, ive never had anything respond to a call after 30 minutes or so, but you never know.  People say most coyotes come in 5 minutes, and 10-15 is typically the maximum amount of time people spend calling coyotes.  Well today i was cold calling for bear outside of saint maries and at 19 minutes i heard a noise behind me and turned my head and there was a coyote not 3 yards from me.  Man he turned inside out fast, didnt even have time to swing my rifle his way.

[jason4429]

The first bear I called in came in under five minutes running. The next one after that I called for thirty minutes. I then got up to move to another area and he was about 40 yards behind me standing up looking for the noise. Those are the only two that I have seen. I have had three others come in and I could hear them but never could clearly see them.

[Firetwin3]

“Called” one in this weekend with Bearman’s hand call. Spotted the bear at 900 skylined.  Stalked into 300, but I dropped lower in elevation, my  spotter staying back told me he had dropped into the opposing ridge. 30 seconds of calling he was back on top of the idge searching. 30 more seconds and he was barreling down the hill looking for me. The story ends with 2 shots over his back, but, I called him back over the hill in about 5 minutes.

[tlbradford]

I have called a lot of bears in as well through all times of the day.  However, I did put down a time of day but not because of number of bears called, but my personal opinion and thoughts.  I marked early morning.  I feel that the best time to hunt bears is in the evening.  However, I think the most difficult time to call bears is off a food source.  Early morning I see them waking up or coming off of a water source and moving.  The rest of the day they are feeding.  I think weather might be more important than time of day, but that wasn't the poll.  I would like to sit around a campfire and bs about this and hear everyone's opinion though!

[dilleytech]

When guys give there experience about hand calling. What kind of hand call you used would be helpful. Like cottontail or deer fawn in distress.

[tlbradford]

When guys give there experience about hand calling. What kind of hand call you used would be helpful. Like cottontail or deer fawn in distress.

Fawn or elk distress is easiest to blow for a long time when cold calling.