Bear Rut?

[yakimarcher]

Im curious about the bear rut. Is it during hunting season? are there calls availible for this endeavor? sounds real exciting to shoot a love sick horny bear!!! 

[KillBilly]

http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/living/bears.htm#facts


Female black bears breed for the first time at 3½ to 5½ years of age. Mating takes place in June and July.
Males compete for the right to breed, and breeding fights between males may be intense. Older males frequently have extensive scars on their heads and necks from fights in previous breeding seasons.
Following a gestation period of about seven months, females normally give birth to one or two cubs in the winter den during January or February. Females have one litter every other year.
Bears have a reproductive pattern known as delayed implantation. Following fertilization in early summer, a bear’s embryo goes dormant, free-floating in the uterus. After the female dens in late fall, the embryo implants in the uterine wall and development of the fetus proceeds rapidly. Although the total gestation time is approximately seven months, the actual developmental period for the bear fetus is less than three months.
At six months, cubs are able to locate food, but generally remain with their mother for over a year—usually denning with her during their second winter.
Parental care is solely the responsibility of females; males sometimes kill and eat cubs.


I just typically use calling that will bring a bear to the table. The urge to feed is usually enough. Sometimes, curiosity will bring in a bear no matter what voice/call you choose but food is a natural trigger. Distress calls seem to work best.. my

[yakimarcher]

Thanks for all that info, hopefully i'll get to see a bear fight someday, sounds intense.

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I have been doing some research on calls, and they do make some geared towards vocalizations, cub distress seems to be a good call, but will bring in sows and boars, I am thinking about trying a "sow in heat" call, but do not know much about it (I am a rookie caller)
I have some friends that go on an annual bear hunt in Quebec every spring (over bait) and the stands that they put estrus scent on have a 90% boar harvest compared to the non-scented stands (60%)  
We cannot use attractant, but I was going to get some and put it on my boot pads as "cover scent" and watch my back-trail.

[Shootmoore]

Went out a couple times with a guy I went to school with.  He uses a sow in heat and boar grunts to call in bears.  100% boars, he uses a 44 mag and calls them in point blank.  One trip with him was enough for me, was a bit scary when a big ol boar came in popping his teeth and grunting, looking for a fight.  Then he shoots the dang thing with a low velocity weapon!  While effective, if I was to do it again I will bring an extra pair of Underwear just in case.

Shootmoore

[yakimarcher]

sounds intense

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

Went out a couple times with a guy I went to school with.  He uses a sow in heat and boar grunts to call in bears.  100% boars, he uses a 44 mag and calls them in point blank.  One trip with him was enough for me, was a bit scary when a big ol boar came in popping his teeth and grunting, looking for a fight.  Then he shoots the dang thing with a low velocity weapon!  While effective, if I was to do it again I will bring an extra pair of Underwear just in case.

Shootmoore

  I am going to try it with my recurve !
Can't wait for the adrenalin!!!!

[Shootmoore]

Went out a couple times with a guy I went to school with.  He uses a sow in heat and boar grunts to call in bears.  100% boars, he uses a 44 mag and calls them in point blank.  One trip with him was enough for me, was a bit scary when a big ol boar came in popping his teeth and grunting, looking for a fight.  Then he shoots the dang thing with a low velocity weapon!  While effective, if I was to do it again I will bring an extra pair of Underwear just in case.

Shootmoore

  I am going to try it with my recurve !
Can't wait for the adrenalin!!!!

You will definatly get an adrenalin dump.  After he shot the boar at about 15 yards it went into its pissed off tear up the brush run around.  Luckily it did not focus on us and expired shortly there after.  I would suggest having a backup hunter with a 12 gauge and slugs if you do it with a bow.  Or maybe a tree stand.

After it was said and done with I had the old foot tap with my left leg going a hundred miles an hour.  Thankfully the shakes usually come after things like this are over.  Only other time I have had that much of an after event adrenalin dump is at work.

Shootmoore

[Bigbuckhunter_1996]

the rut is during the spring so u have 2 get drawn for the spring bear permit

[Shootmoore]

the rut is during the spring so u have 2 get drawn for the spring bear permit

June, July is "breeding season" but seen the sow in heat and boar grunt work into september.

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

I plan on getting drawn one of these years for the spring permit....

[boneaddict]

As far as I know, the bear rut is in June.  Not a season open generally in that time frame.  I have however seen it in the beginning of August. 

[Yak-NDN]

This would be cool to try. Never have been much into killing bears I don't think I could eat one.

[Alan K]

Do you guys get to hunt them in June and July?

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

Copalts, Kapowsin, and formerly Capital Forest ALL ran until June 15th......

[Bigbuckhunter_1996]

well the place that i hunt bear which is a high mountain area they start ruttin in the later part of april & into may