bear hunting 101

[haus]

So my cousin and I are taking a crack at bear hunting this year. I've seen several over the years, never during bear season, had some damn close encounters too. Back in my Pullman days I spent some time using a bear call down in the Tucannon, we were at the X, just never saw any. Boy that bear callin's some unnerving sheet   My cousin has yet to see one in the wild, which I've taken as opportunity to scare the hell out of him with crazy bear stories  
That's the extent of our experience.

Started off our scouting last weekend up near Mineral. Saw some deer and snuck up on two nice bulls, 5x5 and a 6x6. As for bears, nada.

Our plan is to scout the high elevation areas in the NF land around Mineral/Ashford. What sort of habitat should we be looking for? Should we try to find open space where we have a view into creek drainages, sit 'em out and see what comes of it?

Side note, I'm using a bow and he's using a cannon. Figure he can cover me when I try to sneak up on one  

Any suggestions for a couple bear huntin newbies?

We're hoping to get out and do some scouting once a week right up to opener.

[bearpaw]

Berries

hunt the ripe berry patches

[billythekidrock]

Learn bear sign and follow the food.

[kbdavear]

As a newbie myself to WA and to Bear hunting. I would STRONGLY recommend reading everything you can in this Bear forum. There is a HUGE amount of information in here. I have gained a lot of knowledge from the individuals on this site just from reading the posts. IMO.

[rasbo]

right now boars are on the prowl for love,I found several trees today marked...owell,,,,come fall its about the belly and staying cool

[machine]

Read everthing you can about bear hunting.This site is really good because you don't have to skin over the baiting and dog topics :bash:Spend as much time as you can in the woods the farther from other people the better.When I started to think I wouldn't see any bears is when I did.

[WASHBCBOOK]

why hunt high tons and tons of lowland bears
look for berry patches choke cherry black berries this bear is about 100 yard of the road

[Winchester670]

Hehe thats the same general area me and a friend are hunting for our first bear seems to be a decent area lots of signs

[haus]

Pleasant Valley/74 line. Anyone know the status of the roads that enter the NF from the south? Obviously the norths a no go, I'm all for hoofing it in, but holly sheet that'd be a long way to pack an animal out in the August heat.  pm me if ya want.

[Winchester670]

Let me ask a buddy of mine he might know

[bearkautz]

 I love bear hunting  I have taken 24 bear my self . these tips will help the higher evaluation is easier to spot bears i do not hunt low land it is to thick . I like to hunt  the middle of the week less people in the woods. over cast days are much more active . on hot days bears don't come out until an hour be for dark . if they come out it will be on a shadow side of a hill first. listen  you can hear them before you see them alot of the time.the south facing slopes ripen first  then north later in the year. early in the year you will want to look for a draw with salmon berries watch for movement the bush might be 6' tall and the bear 3'.  well that should help . and the bigest thing get the bear skinned out soon as possible ! take a ice chest with 6 bags of ice with you . alot of people shoot a bear and get scared and leave it over night it will spoil in 5hrs with the guts in it and will have a Oder with the hide left on over night even if it is gutted bear meat is excellent if properly cared for

[haus]

Let me ask a buddy of mine he might know

Talked to the supervisor(chief, head honcho, etc) of the Mt. Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest last Thursday, said the Fed is sending them some money that will be spent on fixing the main road wash outs........why not just chop down some tree's?  I figured I should be a little formal when I met him so I didn't ask that, but I wanted to 

[gasman]

PM sent.

[tony04]

i hunt in between mineral and and randle for my bears. your best bet is high as you can go and get in to the huckle berries. look for tore up stumps too. if your driving a logging road and see peices of rotten logs/stumps that have rolled off bank hill and into the road, definatly hang around there. ive found a few bears that way.

[ML_Hunter]

Hunt the berry patches and clear-cuts!  The easiest way to a bear is his stomach.  Also a good time to start scouting is mid may through mid June, this is when the deer and elk drop fawns and calves which is really the first source of protein that bears will feed on.  If you can find a high fawn or calf population you will be sure that bears will be there too!!  Although they will travel, this is a great time to not only see bears but find out how many are in the area. 

Many bears I see are a little bit away (200 to 500 yards) the rifle hunter can easily take this shot, but as for you with the bow, as soon as you see a bear start calling!  80 percent of the time, they will start coming in, and if they stop, change the call.  You can almost never over call a bear.  I use a fawn in distress the most which works very well.  I have found that bears are hard to blind call, and this is a good way for a bear to come up on your six looking for food; not where you want to be .

I hope this helps!  And if your fishing...carry your bow!  I've missed out on several bear wile drifting down the river and saw a bear just cruising the banks.

[haus]

I hope this helps!  And if your fishing...carry your bow!  I've missed out on several bear wile drifting down the river and saw a bear just cruising the banks.

Really? what rivers did this happen on? I hike the Tilton and Wynoochee quite a bit in the summer, haven't seen any bears yet, just tracks.

My only bear encounters(that I'm aware of):
Turkey season '03, we were walking up a creekbed/meadow somewhere outside of Chewelah and we start seeing bear poo every 10 yards or so. Few minutes up the creek I hear some rocks falling and here's this HUGE blacky about 70 yards off on the side of small hill, quartering away. I pull up the 12g just to see how it reacts and the sob sits down!!!!!  Finally walked off, but I still laugh everytime I think of that encounter.

My other close encounter(that I'm aware of) was at the age of 14. Hopped on my mountain bike and started pedalling over to some girls house. Well about a 1/4 before her place there is a slight downhill straight before a steep up hill. I'm flying down this hill to get my momentum up and I see something black in the grass field next to the road. Since several of the people in the communitty had black labs I didn't think much of it until I got damn near next to it and the sob stood up on its hind legs and let out a roar.  Never road so fast in my life. 

[haus]

Thanks for the hunting tips and the pm's I've received.   I hope to see a bear soon.
Last weekend we were on pedals behind a gate in the Elbe Hills state land. Saw this:



top bite mark was 4ft up. Looked like it peeled the bark back with one swipe of the paw. My cousin turned to me n said 'and you want to shoot one of these *censored*ers with a bow?' 

[saylean]

I missed one last year with a bow...I want revenge this year!

Good luck man.

[ML_Hunter]

Haus, Its only happened to me twice, both times on the Wynoochee.  My buddie and I will spend the whole day drift fishing that river (one of my favorite rivers for steelies!) and we always see bear sign.  The first time I actually saw one on the nooch was later in the evening (after 7PM~ish) just before the clay banks.  The second one we saw was at first light, where the old hatchery used to be, it was actually in the river and we anchored the boat and just watched along with about 6 other drift boats.  The first one was during bear season later in Aug. '04 if I recall correctly, and second one was in March of '06.

One of the best and funniest encounters I've had was in Aug. of 07!  Will and I were driving home after a long day of bear hunting in Capital forest a little after dusk.  In my head lights I saw what looked like bear scat in the road so we stopped and checked it out for neither of us saw it on the way in.  Sure enough, the *censored* was fresh and still steaming!  The flys haven't even landed on it yet!  So Will and I started looking around with my flashlight and although we never saw the bear we knew it was close, it growled at us and brush started breaking in our direction.  We hopped back in my truck and I hit the high beams and we sat there waiting to see if it would cross the road in front of us.  We never did see him.

My other funny encounter should have ended in a dead bear!  Will, Dave and I were walking up a logging road and as we reached the crest a we saw a bear walking up the logging road form the other side.  Now again we are all hunting with muzzle loaders.  Will goes to shoot but he spun the safety the wrong way and it locked up on him, David went to shoot but he lost his cap so he had to recap his gun, I was a few feet behind them so I took about 3 steeps forward and took a shot.  A fluff of fir went flying tho the air and the bear ran away!  When I looked at both Will and Dave, they were both just holding there ears and cursing me.  My muzzle was between both of there heads and just in front of them by about a foot.  Once I realized it was a cub, I just knew that I had a bad hit and my shot was well high for a 15 foot shot, I pointed and pulled the trigger (that's right not aimed, pointed).  We never found blood, and after 3 hours of searching for a wounded bear, we never found it...but there was lots of fir on the ground from where i shot high!

Anyways man Good luck bear hunting this fall.  I have found bear hunting much too addicting!  Almost, just almost prefer bear hunting over deer hunting.

[haus]

Good stories! and I hear ya about the addicted part. 

On the hot days what type of area's do you guys hunt between your early morning and late evening spots? Not that its ideal conditions, but when you only have a couple days each week to get away from work ya kinda have to roll with the conditions that are delt ya know.

[ML_Hunter]

Good stories! and I hear ya about the addicted part. 

On the hot days what type of area's do you guys hunt between your early morning and late evening spots? Not that its ideal conditions, but when you only have a couple days each week to get away from work ya kinda have to roll with the conditions that are delt ya know.

For the most part with bear hunting, I sleep in and don't hit the field until about 5pm .  I then drive from clear cut to clear cut spending about 40 minuets glassing them, looking at every black stump and anything that moves.  If i can, I'll position myself to be looking at the north or north west side of the clear cut.  On warmer days I'll look for clear cuts close to water or mud holes and glass the shade.  Twice, I've see one sleeping in the middle of a berry patch.  I know a lot of people see them in the brush (they do like brushy forested areas) and have close range shots, but just about every shot I've taken has been 150yds+ and have see them out past 500yds (farther than my rangefinder lazes).

Just remember, the warmer the day, the later they'll come out.  But sometimes they will just fall asleep in the shade in the middle of there food source.

[billythekidrock]

On the hot days what type of area's do you guys hunt between your early morning and late evening spots? Not that its ideal conditions, but when you only have a couple days each week to get away from work ya kinda have to roll with the conditions that are delt ya know.

I usually hunt from dawn to about 10 am, then try to take a nap in the middle of the day and head back out by around 4 pm. Depends on the conditions and the amount of people. I have killed a couple in the middle of the day with temps in the 80's.

If it is really hot and I feel like hunting then I try old swamps or creeks. Anywhere that it is cooler.

[haus]

found out the skinny on the Pleasant Valley 74line NF access:

The NFS office for the GPNF in Randle maintains the Pleasant Valley/74 line area. The NFS has sent bids out to fix FR 74. Work will start this fall. Now here's the bs part....

Our state owns 5 miles of the Pleasant Valley road/FR74 access. The state DNR and Tacoma Power told the NFS to bugger off. They are shutting down the road, not hard to do since its washed out just inside the gate. Because of this decision the NFS had to fix the 7409 in order to fix that side of the 74. If anyone knows the area at all, that means the trucks and equipment travel times just doubled. They have to drive up from the Mineral side of the 7409 and drop all the way down into the Little Nisqually side. This goes for anyone who wants to access that part of the NF too.

I'm all for access management practices that ensure main access roads are maintained so its good to see the NFS is fixing the 74 line, but the fact that the State is saying no to maintaining their little wimpy section of road that provides additional access to the NF makes no sense to me. It's beneficial to no one and its just going to cost us the tax payer more money to not have that road open.

[Pathfinder101]

Berries

hunt the ripe berry patches

This could be a GREAT bear season.  The berries I have seen are at least 2 weeks "behind" normal schedule, which means that instead of starting in late July and being done in early September, they won't even start until well into August this year, and the bushes at certain elevations will still be loaded for the opener in September. 
We will see how it goes, but I am optimistic...

[billythekidrock]

Just remember, the warmer the day, the later they'll come out.  But sometimes they will just fall asleep in the shade in the middle of there food source.

Sometimes they sleep in the middle of a new clearcut. 
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,10915.0.html

[saylean]

Just remember, the warmer the day, the later they'll come out.  But sometimes they will just fall asleep in the shade in the middle of there food source.

Sometimes they sleep in the middle of a new clearcut. 
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,10915.0.html

Dont we all?

[Pathfinder101]

Just remember, the warmer the day, the later they'll come out.  But sometimes they will just fall asleep in the shade in the middle of there food source.

Sometimes they sleep in the middle of a new clearcut. 
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,10915.0.html

Dont we all?

 

[billythekidrock]

Yea, but so far none of you were shot while sleeping. 

[Pathfinder101]

Yea, but so far none of you were shot while sleeping. 

That's because I usually take my black fur coat off and put it in my daypack first...

[haus]

Yea, but so far none of you were shot while sleeping. 

That's because I usually take my black fur coat off and put it in my daypack first...