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Black Bear hunting tips

bigmike23

bigmike23

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2020
Messages
1,687
Location
NE PA
Looking for some tips for bb hunting. It starts tomorrow in pa. Never killed one before. So you prefer morning or afternoon sits for them? I assume like deer warm weather shuts them down?
 
^ this is spot on.

I also prefer evenings close to food sources adjacent to thick cover. Whether that’s a cornfield or an oak/beech covered bench
 
I've actually never killed one and don't really have any desire to.

As far as patterning them, good luck. I find our deer about 50x more random what you see on TV and bears about 50 times that. Just put yourself in a good position and wait them out.
 
I’ve had about as many bears on cameras this year as I had deer, At all different times of the day. Forget about trying to pattern anything just do like the above say. Food and thick cover! I had every Intention of trying to run a predator call for bears this year as we seem to have a high number of bears where I hunt. You could always look into that if you can find an area you know that there are bears in. What area if PA are you in?
 
Amccormick said:
I’ve had about as many bears on cameras this year as I had deer, At all different times of the day. Forget about trying to pattern anything just do like the above say. Food and thick cover! I had every Intention of trying to run a predator call for bears this year as we seem to have a high number of bears where I hunt. You could always look into that if you can find an area you know that there are bears in. What area if PA are you in?
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Nepa
 
Amccormick said:
www.pgc.pa.gov

Harvest Data and Maps

www.pgc.pa.gov www.pgc.pa.gov


Check back through this data. This will be a good place to start. I would also bet you can find a similar map to break it into counties. And really try to narrow down bear densities.
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I should clarify. I'm in bearville. Can't go a day without 3 cams getting pictures. I'm in the heart of it. Just looking for more precise tips on when to hunt and stand placement
 
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bigmike23 said:
I should clarify. I'm in bearville. Can't go a day with 3 cama getting pictures. I'm in the heart of it. Just looking for more precise tips on when to hunt and stand placement
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Somewhere you can see a long ways and have a predator call. Do some quick research on calling black bears and hope for the best! Both bears I have killed recently haven’t necessarily been in the food and the one I killed last week was in the most open space on the property. Since baiting is out of the question I would pull every other available tool from the tool box and try them all.
 
tailgunner said:
Take a peanut butter sandwich for lunch.then take a long time to eat it......thats not baiting.
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Throw in a can of sardines and a half dozen donuts, cause you hongry, and they will be along shortly. Seriously, dont think I would try to hunt them from a stand unless it was on a strong food source like a loaded persimmon. Something less random than acorns. Otherwise I would slip hunt areas like have been mentioned above.
 
Honey burns and bacon burns.

Assuming you're out at dawn and dusk... 6' birch logs placed strategically around your bait / in your shooting lane, make good references to judge a bear's size. So does a smear of anisette oil head-high on a tree.

Bear blood trails tend to suck because they plug up with fat and fur pretty quickly. And they go into the nastiest, thickest, tangles of underbrush to die. Tracking out a wounded bear in the dark is an exhilarating experience you may with to share with a tracking dog.

Since bear fat and fur are excellent insulators, you can't handle a dead bear the way you would a dead deer. Think pork or fish, not beef or venison. Get it gutted and skinned and on ice ASAP. Also if you want to have a rug made, talk to your taxidermist now, before you might harvest one, for any instructions they might have for you. I know MeatEater has done some videos on skinning bears and salting bear hides, see if your taxi wants you to go that route or do something different. The MN DNR permits BWCA hunts, they recommend hunters pack 30# of dry ice to freeze the fur and meat in the field, then package in coolers (hide can be wrapped around the dry ice and wrapped in a tarp instead of a cooler) for the portage(s) out. Probably overkill for what you're doing but a couple-four frozen gallons of water in a cooler will probably help considerably.
 
Iron_llama said:
Honey burns and bacon burns.

Assuming you're out at dawn and dusk... 6' birch logs placed strategically around your bait / in your shooting lane, make good references to judge a bear's size. So does a smear of anisette oil head-high on a tree.

Bear blood trails tend to suck because they plug up with fat and fur pretty quickly. And they go into the nastiest, thickest, tangles of underbrush to die. Tracking out a wounded bear in the dark is an exhilarating experience you may with to share with a tracking dog.

Since bear fat and fur are excellent insulators, you can't handle a dead bear the way you would a dead deer. Think pork or fish, not beef or venison. Get it gutted and skinned and on ice ASAP. Also if you want to have a rug made, talk to your taxidermist now, before you might harvest one, for any instructions they might have for you. I know MeatEater has done some videos on skinning bears and salting bear hides, see if your taxi wants you to go that route or do something different. The MN DNR permits BWCA hunts, they recommend hunters pack 30# of dry ice to freeze the fur and meat in the field, then package in coolers (hide can be wrapped around the dry ice and wrapped in a tarp instead of a cooler) for the portage(s) out. Probably overkill for what you're doing but a couple-four frozen gallons of water in a cooler will probably help considerably.
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Good info on meat preservation.
Baiting and scents would land me in jail in pa
 
I have harvest 2 over popular creek crossings in the middle of the day, morning and almost evening.these where both medowy spots where elk occasionaly wallow.one at the top of a draw.and one in a bottom.both spots get mad travel.creeks just like roads have to be crossed and they are way more cumforitable in a creekbottom .blacktail woods are very thick and when you find a hard beet trail through it that bears made, its up and down the less sloped creeks every time.up steep creeks they turn off to the side on to benches or at the top so they mostly come in side hill to cross creeks even on trails that cross steep ridges ,kind of lazy and loud it would seem to me.im not good at it and dont know much,im just lucky and there are a lot of bearsScreenshot_20210912-120243_Gallery.jpg
 
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They are roamers for sure. When I see them in range, most of the time, I'm sitting in some sort of funnel in the mountain. But I've heard they love laurel thickets. I always get a tag but I'm not actually trying to hunt them. It's sort of "if they come along I'll take it" type deals.
 
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