Bear hunting in the rain - Waste of time?

[Elkmagnet]

Im back early. My now educated opinion about spot and stalk bear hunting in the rain is that it is wet.
The bears didn't seem to care about a constant downpour for around 36 hours they held the same routine I was seeing before the rain. The wild card is fog. I lost an entire day to fog that could cause claustrophobia.
In the end I saw 8 bears in the rain and was able to re find a big boar I had lost in the fog. I sat on him all day and was able to harvest him 30 minutes before dark while he was trying to convince a sow that she was ready. She left a big open wound on his nose and one on his neck. To indicate that she was infact not ready.

 

[Elkmagnet]

Video of my boar in the rain. I harvested him 2 days after I had taken this video.
(I jacked up the audio so you can hear the rain)

 

[Elkmagnet]

Here he is with a sow in the rain.

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Cool footage.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Cool footage.

No kidding. BFB too.

 

[el unit]

Very cool elkmagnet!

 

[Bombsnbullets]

Video of my boar in the rain. I harvested him 2 days after I had taken this video.
(I jacked up the audio so you can hear the rain)

That is good looking bear! I hunted in very heavy rain last friday and after glassing for a couple hours, I decided to creep through a patch of timber that I know a bear hangs out in. Had an encounter that made me question my decision making strategy.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Awesome videos magnet and a totally tremendous boar. Thats a no brainer bear without a doubt. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully some pics come up soon

 

[Elkmagnet]

I didn't intend to steal this thread but Ill post a picture if bombsnbullets is ok with me doing so.

 

[BrentD]

Super video and the contrast in size and bulk between the sow and the boar is impressive. Any grip and grins?

 

[Losing_Sanity]

In my experience bears don't like the rain too much. Especially when there is thunder and lightning associated with the rain. They hunker down in their beds and ride it out for the most part. They have relative poor eye sight, as compared to the animal world, and it makes it so they can't hear or see as well as they would like. They don't mind the drizzling rain as much and sometimes need to go our to eat if it continues too long. My best success were just after the rain breaks. Then they come out to forage. I used to wait out the rain and as soon as it stopped, I would head to the barrel. That's when I saw the most bears during the rainy spring weather. And it seem to force the big ones to change their habit so I could get a look at them in the daylight. That has been my experience, anyway.

 

[Bombsnbullets]

In my experience bears don't like the rain too much. Especially when there is thunder and lightning associated with the rain. They hunker down in their beds and ride it out for the most part. They have relative poor eye sight, as compared to the animal world, and it makes it so they can't hear or see as well as they would like. They don't mind the drizzling rain as much and sometimes need to go our to eat if it continues too long. My best success were just after the rain breaks. Then they come out to forage. I used to wait out the rain and as soon as it stopped, I would head to the barrel. That's when I saw the most bears during the rainy spring weather. And it seem to force the big ones to change their habit so I could get a look at them in the daylight. That has been my experience, anyway.

That makes the most sense to me. I think you have to look at the pattern of weather over a period of time. If it’s a rainy day or two they probably bunker down, but if it’s a couple weeks of crappy week I’m sure they’ll have to adjust.

 

[Bombsnbullets]

No bear so far for me. I have seen 5 bears, and hopefully I’ll be able to seal the deal this weekend. I did get to call a Tom in for my wife yesterday (her first), and that was one of the best hunting experiences I’ve had yet.

 

[Khunter]

I didn't intend to steal this thread but Ill post a picture if bombsnbullets is ok with me doing so.

you have a GREAT hunt story vid and pics. by all means start your own thread from start to finish if for no better reason than to make so we can find it again!

 

[Bombsnbullets]

I didn't intend to steal this thread but Ill post a picture if bombsnbullets is ok with me doing so.

Love the vids and pics, keep em coming! The story is awesome

 

[Elkmagnet]

I wasn't interested in making my own thread. I was just trying to add what info I had gathered to this one/subject. I thought the videos were relevant to the discussion and just plain neat. As I read back I put in a lot of "me's, I's, and my's" probably because I was happy about the bear I harvested. See there I go again....Here is a picture.

 

[Elkmagnet]

Back to the subject at hand.
I do believe that during a short heavy rain storm almost all animals hunker up but I also believe during long multi day sustained rain a bear just has a knot in its stomach it has to fill in the Spring and if we are man enough to get out there and glass. The bears are quite visible at least that's how it worked out for me during this single trip.

Good luck on your bear hunts!

 

[----]

I was having a really slow spring, until this cold front and rain moved in. The evening the cold front hit, it went from 70° to 45° in about 45 minutes, and I saw the only good boar of the spring an hour later. Since then I've been tripping over bears, both in the rain and when it lets up. The shitty weather definitely helped.

The lone exception was Sunday night when the wind picked up and it started snowing. I didn't see any bears that evening, and I assume the storm had them timbered up.

 

[gouch]

When I was a teen I never really hunted bear but always wanted to kill one. One day while deer hunting I found a dead cow that several bear were feeding on and decided to take up a stand and get me a bear. It started raining and just kept coming down harder and harder. I sat there for a good two hours with no rain gear, freezing by butt off but finally a big ol' boy came in to the cow. I don't know if the shaking was more from buck fever or hypothermia but it didn't matter. When I raised my rifle I found that my cheep scope was so fogged up I might as well have been trying to shoot through a shower curtain. Kind of ruined hunting bear in the rain for me.

 

[Bombsnbullets]

I wasn't interested in making my own thread. I was just trying to add what info I had gathered to this one/subject. I thought the videos were relevant to the discussion and just plain neat. As I read back I put in a lot of "me's, I's, and my's" probably because I was happy about the bear I harvested. See there I go again....Here is a picture.

Lol no rules here man. Love seeing success of others, keeps the fire burning! Bears are such a cool animal to observe and I love their unpredictability. Bears do bear stuff. Idk if there is an exact science to it. Either way, time in the mountains + hard miles = success for most critters. You going to rug him?