bears

Hi Guys,
I am new to bear hunting and have a question. I am am planning on using oats, popcorn and some other sweet stuff. I just bought 2 barrells with the lids on. How big should I make the hole?

Also, what is everyones recomendations for wall tent size. 10x12? 12x14?
Could be anywhere from 2 to 4 guys.

If you are using what you had mentioned and you are planning to put it in the barrel I would make my hole NO bigger than 1 inch. I would also suggest chaining the barrel to a very thick tree, and make sure there is about 4 feet of play for the bears to move the barrel around, to let them work at getting the food out.

You do not want the bears comming in and grabbing a mouthfull, and moving into the timber to eat. What you want is to have the bears hanging around concentrating on getting out the food. THUS giving you plenty of time to judge your bears, and plenty of time to make your shot.
I hope this helps you out. Feel free to PM me or Katts69, ( my hunting partner) we can help you out with what ever you need.

And as for your tent question, the bigger the better, you want comfort, and room to move around with the 4 of yall. And it is also nice to be able to set up a table when it is just the two of you. Katts can help you out with both the Tent, and the Stove.

G-len

61A is right...keep the hole small so the bears really have to work at getting food out. It keeps them around longer plus it prevents them from cleaning out your barrels too fast.

I am sure that everybody has a recipe of their own but I would love to hear some ingredients that guys use in their baits.

I have even heard of guys using propane as an attractant.

I like using oats, and meat scraps, mixed with cooking oil or molasses, and dog food. It also looks like I'll have some beaver carcasses this year from a friend.

Beaver to start the baits off. One hanging from a tree for scent dispersal one diced up in the barrel. In the barrel goes old freezer burnt meat, beaver chunks, anise, liquid smoke and lots and lots of popcorn. The bears love it....once the bait is established just popcorn and liquid smoke in the barrel that is more than enough to keeep em coming back.

How about some pics of some bait sited? I know some of you guys must have some.

The area I hunt in there are a few other baits so I like to feed the hell out of the bears. I have one barel filled with oats and grease with small holes in them with the barel chained to a tree and I have another barel full of the same stuff but I have no lid on it. I also have a beaver cage stuffed full of beavers and meat which is also chained to a tree. When I hunt my bait I always tie a bever up in a tree and wrap it really good. This will allow you to wait for the perfect shot. Feeding the hell out of the bears works for me because I live only a few miles away from my baits, and it gives the bears no reason to leave.

Heres a view from one of my stands (26 yards away):

One other thing I forgot to mention a couple of pails of deep fryer grease on the ground around the bait to start it helps too.

great tips. I have never baited before and I am hoping to do it this year.

with the propane do you just wait till the bear is right beside the 40lbs bottle and shoot the bottle :rollin lol

Thought I'd mention that a feind of mine from the Coast used cans of sardines nailed to trees along a game trail to attract racoons to a tree stand. This ended up bringing in bears to the stand also(which I know isnt legal in B.C.) but i thought it might be worth a try here in A.B.Good luck on your Hunt Scouter.

have tried this works well ,just dont get any juice on your stand from your hands or gloves,really close encounters. i use popcorn with butter and sugar,then pour molasses on topped with artifical vanilla extract,they really love vanilla.good luck and happy huntin

Yes that way you can fill two tags at once but it makes for bad rug....

No I have heard guys will take a propane bottle and let it seep gas and the odourant in the gas (rotten egg smell) attracts them.

Here is a picture of one of our sites, and our goodies.




And here is a method we use to deturmine the size of our bears in our site.

Lookin at these pics has me fired. Trying a spot-stalker this year. But man, sure am gonna miss my stands.