Baiting and 55 gallon barrels

[Jim G]

I am going to start using some 55 gallon barrels for baiting this year and was wondering if anybody has any great ways of setting one up? Do you get ones with the lid that comes off? Do you lock it closed? How big of a hole in the side? Do you just leave this hole open or weld some hanging chain to keep other critters out? How high do you cut the hole in the side, 1/2, 3/4 from the bottom? I can only get up to bait about once a week and thought the barrel would help me put out more stuff at one time and keep the bears from eating it all at once. thanks for any advise in advance.

 

[AkBearHunter]

When I use to bait we would use a 55 gallon drum with the lid on, lay it on it's side and cut a hole in it just big enough for a bear to get his paw inside to scrape out some food and we would chain it to a tree. If you make the hole to big the beas will clean your station out in no time. Also, I would run a timer around the bait so you know what time they are coming in. I use to use an old battery operated clock and fishing line tied around the battery, when the bear hit the line it will pullout the battery, only problem is you have to figure out if it's am or pm...

 

[Jim G]

No body else has any input?? WTF??? No problem. I read the ID regs, and it looks like you can't use a plastic barrel? Is this the way everyone else reads it too? Still interested if anyone has any good ideas. thanks

 

[BRD DAWG]

We use one. I cut a hole in the side about 1/3 of the way down from the top, just big enough to get their paw into. We have the locking lid and then I cut two small holes in the sides just big enough to run some chain through and chain it to the tree. We only rebaited once a week and it worked fine.

 

[Nightwolf]

I also use a drum but it's more like a 40 gallon. The hole i cut is about 12 inches from the top. The lid is on by one of those ring clamps that a bolt holds it together. I strap it to the tree with two cargo straps we use to hold bombs onto our bomb trailers. I strap it so far from the ground so I can judge the size of the bear by weather or not its back is even with the bottom of the drum. The way it looks you would think they can't reach the kernels of dog food at the bottom of the barrel but they do. It takes a while, but that’s a good thing