Hunting Washington Forum
Big Game Hunting => Bear Hunting => Topic started by: STIKNSTRINGBOW on August 19, 2019, 02:05:02 AM
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Let me just start out by saying I have never killed a bear.
I have only intentionally hunted for two specific bears in my whole life.
other than that, I have just carried a tag "just in case"
I have personally seen more bears than I can count,
but unfortunately the few I have seen during season have often been too fast,
too far, or I was totally unprepared.
I just want to talk about that though.
How often do you actually see bear?
Most people think they are crepsucular, or only active during twighlight.
Others attribute them to being nocturnal.
However, according the a WDFW study on bears in Washington that I read, they found out that the
bears they studied were actually diurnal, leaning towards vespertine, or active late morning, through evening.
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I seem to think/remember that most of my bear "encounters" have happened well after daylight.
Most have been in the afternoons, when I wasnt paying attention and see the south end of a northbound bear.
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I stood 15 feet away from a bear at NW Trek, still took me a while to see it sleeping in the depression on the ground.
When it got up to walk around, it was easy to see..
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I have stared at clearcuts while glassing for elk, and suddenly see a bear that was not there a few minutes ago...
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but again, usually later in the day.
ON THE AVERAGE,
Those that have actually killed a bear that was not chased by hounds, or over bait, has it been in the morning, middle of the day, or just before dark?
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I have encountered only 2 bears in person. One I killed, at about 3:30 PM early in September, and the other I came by while hiking in 2 hours before daylight.
I have had a lot of camera pictures of them however. And only twice have they been at night. There have been quite a few between 8AM and 10AM, and then again quite a few between 3PM and 7PM. Most all of them have been July through the end of September. So overall, most of the activity I have seen has not been mid day, nor twilight hours or night.
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Most of the bears I see are are from late morning to evening.
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Mine have all been evening bears last 1-2 hours before dark
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You can see a Bear any time of day. I do think early to mid morning is best. I shot a huge Boar a couple years ago on a southern slope at 11 am with it being 80 degrees. I have seen tons of Bears feeding mid day even in hot weather when all other animals are bedded in timber
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Maybe they didn't know what time of day it was
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I have seen far more than I could ever count prolly couple hundred. Times of the year play a huge roll in bear activity. Spring bear early in the season bear are more active mid day to evening, as it begins to get hot in the summer into sept bears do not like being out in scorching heat. I hunt them alot in NE WA over the last 30 years and the places I hunt the bears in the am are very active in the shade as the sun begins to hit the hills bears move into thicker stuff, same with evening it can be 90 deg day but as a canyon begins to shade bears start appearing. Have I seen bears in mid day sun on hot days? sure have , but its pretty limited.
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I see bears all hours of the day. Maybe a bit more often in the morning hours, but even mid day in summer i see them moving around. But mid day in the heat i tend to see them closer to cover, shade, water. I think maybe people think theyre crepuscular because those actually looking for bears are glassing the big open areas, where they dont hang out as much mid day. Theyre generally in the timber mid day, where theyre harder to see. Ive been posting up a lot of bear pics in my eyes in the woods thread lately. Start at the end and start going back, looking at times on all the bear pics. Theyre active all day on my cams, which are all in timbered areas, and mostly near water.
I killed both of my bears right about 12:30 this year. The first one i could have woken up with my calling i suppose, no way to know, but the second one i spotted out feeding on berries mid day.
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I've always slept in when hunting bears, always felt they liked to sleep in as well. I've killed bears in the afternoon but mostly towards later afternoon, 5pm and on. I just saw a bear on Saturday walking on the fs road around noon.
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I was always told they are like teenagers. Eat alot and like to sleep in. I believe there is alot of truth to that.
That being said, I think from sun up to sun down It just gets better and better
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I've seen bears at all hours of the day and at many various temperatures, even very warm. I believe they are less lazy and more active as fall starts approaching, the weather starts cooling and days get shorter.
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Anytime of the day. Starting about September until shutdown they start feeding 24/7. They'll pause here and there, but they are even more single minded than usual, bulking up. They eat damn near non stop. DAY and NIGHT!
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In all the time I've spent in the mountains I don't think I've ever seen a sleeping bear, whereas it's normal to see bedded deer every day. I'm of the opinion that bear are feeding or going between feeding areas most of the time, when they do sleep it must be in the heaviest cover. During mid day I think the instinct for survival and possibly a desire to avoid the heat of direct sunlight causes bear to stay in heavier cover as much as possible while feeding. During early morning and late evening they are less cautious and it's much cooler so bear are more willing to feed in open areas, which is likely why more bear are seen at those times.
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It's tough to sneak up on a sleeping bear, I've done it once and only because it was a fairly breezy day and I was silent as death going in cause I knew they were laying up in this shallow pond keeping cool.
I've bumped several sleeping bears though, last one was laying on a bed of cattails, it roared and took off. I figured it might be there and was trying to see it for a shot but got winded.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190829/1b09bebd25841acab72bd111f26908d6.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190829/0214744b69e1613fe4674f5562ecb95e.jpg)
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I dont think too many folks can sneak in on a bear, especially two or more in a group. I was crushing a pine cone with a toe trying to get a shot and was flabbergasted how well they could hear it. This one I tried well over an hour to get a shot with a bow, but it finally caught wind and shot out of there :(
I see bear beds in creeks a lot laying up in the grassy benches, but they like cattail ponds too. Like a hog really.
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All but one of my bears has been morning to mid morning. I’ve seen bear at just about every hour of the day.