Calling in bear

[Machias]

Rick is right on, emotion and distress are extremely important.  Lots of fun and even when nothing is responding it is exciting stuff knowing that any second you can swivel your head and be staring face to face with a big ol slobbering 350 pound boar!!  Just remember, the hot breath on the back of your neck is not a good thing.   

[billythekidrock]

There is alot of good info above. The comments on location and emotion are spot on.

Intruder - Let my try to explain my thoughts. I truly think any distress sound can call in any predator at any time, if the animal is curious or hungry. I also think that distress is distress to a large degree. This would explain why a bear comes to a Javelina distress sound when there are no Javelinas around. To expand on this, I bet my cottontail distress sounds a bit different then Rick's and my cow calling will sound different then the next guy, but yet they work.

As for selecting a call. I won't pretend that any one call is the best, but I do have a few tones or sounds that I prefer. They have worked for me and it makes me feel confident. Sometimes that confidence can mean the difference in staying or leaving and I have had more then a couple bears come within minutes of my decision to stay.

Most of the large commercial companies have great rabbit or fawn calls and we have a couple of great custom guys right here that are tuned in to both call making and the distress sounds that will work. You can try crow calls or other types of "ambiance" sounds to make it more real if you like. I started using a decoy last spring but more for keeping the bobcats interested for picture taking and for killing yotes.

[Michelle_Nelson]

I've been listening to a CD I have and from what I am understanding is that you can't call bear hard or loud enough.  Does this apply to cold calling only or bear over a certain distance from you? 

Another thing the mentioned is that he prefers calls that have a real loud squal and  real raspy? 

[demontang]

I weird thing is the fox pro was set on a lower volume when it showed up. I have called in deer/elk with a dist. calls, I think that they are curious as to what the noise was. Predators are the same way, if they hear a dist call they will come in and check it out, but normally try to be down wind though.

[billythekidrock]

You can call too loud if the bears are near. I spooked one at 30 yards one morning with loud distress and he took off like a scalded cat. But he was feeding in the same place later that evening and he feed around me long enough to get the shot.  I like to start out with quiet fawn distress then work my way to a higher volume.

[Skyvalhunter]

Little Bear treed

[Intruder]

Great info guys.... thanks!!

Billy... your comments regarding confidence are so universal to hunting and fishing.  I know I have certain turkey calls that I am way more confident in as well as certain steelhead flies.  In reality however, they probably don't out perform others as much as I'd like to believe. It just comes down to that confidence factor making you try a little bit harder.... which is probably what really makes the difference.

[DeKuma]

I notice this too.  I have gear that is better than some of my others, but becauseI am confident in it, it seems to work better or force me to work longer and harder.
Noticed it the last few days with my arrows.  I have nice, new nano arrows that were not cheap and supposedly very good, but I shoot my old cheap arrows way better.  I know what will be in my quiver this season based soley on my confidence in shooting them.  Since I suck at all my calls, I do not think they will matter much.  I just hope they work on the bears!

[demontang]

Thanks for the info. It might be the year I get my first bear

[billythekidrock]

Great info guys.... thanks!!

Billy... your comments regarding confidence are so universal to hunting and fishing.  I know I have certain turkey calls that I am way more confident in as well as certain steelhead flies.  In reality however, they probably don't out perform others as much as I'd like to believe. It just comes down to that confidence factor making you try a little bit harder.... which is probably what really makes the difference.

Yep, calling and fishing are alot alike and if you are confident you will stay longer and be ready when the action starts. I know there have been many times fishing that I wasn't confident and my mind would wander and I would be late on the hookset when the strike happened.

[demontang]

Only 15 days tell I can go try and call it in again, I'm kind of excited I haven't shot a bear yet.