californiacoyotes
New member
can you pattern a bear lie you can a deer? i have a camtrakker game camera and want to use it to get my bear.
can you pattern a bear???
- Thread starter californiacoyotes
- Start date
hntrjohn
New member
Bears #1 priority is eating in the fall. If there is plenty of food and they are eating it, they will pretty much keep hitting it as long as the food is there. That said I guess I am not an expert in CA bear because I keep having an empty tag.
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bcat
Guest
Califcoyote-In Wyoming its just the oposite. You can pattern a bear in the spring to some degree, but in the fall its impossible. There are so many gutpiles to eat on ya cant hardly get one to a bait site in the fall! In the spring we use alarm clocks for timers. We tape a string to the battery and then to the bait barrel. When the bear comes in it will jerk the battery out and tell ya what time of day the bear is coming in. The ya have to diferentiate whether its 1 pm or 1 am, but thats easy to do. Good luck on yer camera and the bear hunting.bcat
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If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes
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If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes
The Hedgehog
Well-known member
I think they can definately be patterened. Given they aren't too pressured or have the situation bcat described above. I killed a bear in WY last fall that was in the same exact spot I spotted it 2 weeks prior. Bet he was there every day.
Thumper
New member
From what I have experienced, learned from a few bear guides and read. It is true and you can pattern a bear at certain times of the season in the same manner as you would a white-tail!
They will change patterns due to other circumstances, like pressure, food sources/avalibility and mating!
Bears keep a pattern and use the same trails, dens and food sources unless pushed out of the area or search for a female in heat or other food source (which explains why Yogi and boo boo show up in town!)
I must admit from other hunters success, a game camera is an idea tool to use for watching trails and food sources.
I would guess that in a fall area where you have plenty of gut piles, I would watch trails leading into the areas where hunters have taken game, set up on a routinely used trail and possibly on a fresh gut pile from a kill! I can see how trying to pattern a bear in the fall would indeed be harder than in the spring.
I think with the help of a game tracker, clock, trail timer and watching well used trails will help.
Thump
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IF YA CAN'T RUN WITH THE BIG DAWGS, KEEP YOUR ARSE ON THE PORCH
http://www.geocities.com/thumper_67.geo
They will change patterns due to other circumstances, like pressure, food sources/avalibility and mating!
Bears keep a pattern and use the same trails, dens and food sources unless pushed out of the area or search for a female in heat or other food source (which explains why Yogi and boo boo show up in town!)
I must admit from other hunters success, a game camera is an idea tool to use for watching trails and food sources.
I would guess that in a fall area where you have plenty of gut piles, I would watch trails leading into the areas where hunters have taken game, set up on a routinely used trail and possibly on a fresh gut pile from a kill! I can see how trying to pattern a bear in the fall would indeed be harder than in the spring.
I think with the help of a game tracker, clock, trail timer and watching well used trails will help.
Thump
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IF YA CAN'T RUN WITH THE BIG DAWGS, KEEP YOUR ARSE ON THE PORCH
http://www.geocities.com/thumper_67.geo
californiacoyotes
New member
my hunt will be in the fall but i was hoping to pattern one before then. i know i can bait bears to hunt them here in california but i'm not sure what restrictions apply to photographing them, which is basically what i'll be doing...initially. i think that i maybe illegal given what the end result should be. BUT if it isn't illegal what do i use to bait and pattern the bear and also say i'm baiting the bear in april/may do you think he's going to stick around till the fall?
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bcat
Guest
I wish I knew more about California but I dont. Bears here in Wyoming have a route they take (the boars) and they travel alot. I would say here anyway bears wouldnt necesarily be in the same spot in the fall because of numerous gut piles to eat from. They do however drop by but getting them to do it more tahn one day in a row in the fall is almost impossible unless ya use honey or some kind of processed foood which is illegal here! ANd then I think its hit and miss. You should have an abundance of Bears in California to get on film! Wish ya luck and keep us posted on it!bcat
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If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes
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If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes
hntrjohn
New member
Calicoyotes, I think you better talk to the Game Warden before you start baiting.
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bcat
Guest
How do ya know he was there every day if it was two weeks before that you spotted him there and wasnt THERE every day? Did you have a two week battery on a camera showing him there every day? Just wondered how you came up with that conclusion is all. Did someone else watch it there in the same spot every day and tell you about it or is this another way to disagree without real proof of what you said! Just curiuos as to how you deducted this information or if it was just his regular two week pattern! bcat
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If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes
Thumper
New member
Cuz,
I would reckon that bear was on a two wek cycle!! Lest that what Thumpette told me last week!
Two week cycles mean the sow is in heat, yet not ready to breed! So I would recon that someone was sorta figurin out the time of the month for that bear and I can not help but wonder if it was a sow???
Nothing from the hunter, but to have a bear stay in the same area for two weeks is a bit beyond odd!
correct me if I am wrong, as I know a spriong bear wil hold pattern, but to stay in the same field for two week's???
I just have to wonder!!! Sorry about that folks, but I call BS!!!!!
Thump
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IF YA CAN'T RUN WITH THE BIG DAWGS, KEEP YOUR ARSE ON THE PORCH
http://www.geocities.com/thumper_67.geo
I would reckon that bear was on a two wek cycle!! Lest that what Thumpette told me last week!
Nothing from the hunter, but to have a bear stay in the same area for two weeks is a bit beyond odd!
correct me if I am wrong, as I know a spriong bear wil hold pattern, but to stay in the same field for two week's???
I just have to wonder!!! Sorry about that folks, but I call BS!!!!!
Thump
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IF YA CAN'T RUN WITH THE BIG DAWGS, KEEP YOUR ARSE ON THE PORCH
http://www.geocities.com/thumper_67.geo
californiacoyotes
New member
i already have a call into the warden for around here, it just takes a bit for him to call back. i went out for coyotes this morning and was thinking about this "baiting for pictures" and i'm pretty sure it will be illegal. although i am wondering how the fish and game people attract a nuience bears. i'm sure by the time a biologist or a warden had gotten out there the bear would be long gone.
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Deerslayer
Guest
CalifCoyote....
I have killed 7 bears in the last 10 years,not as much experience at it as some, true. But it has been my experience, that you can definitely pattern them! I have never hunted over a bait site, and have never had an unused bear tag. I hunt them almost exactly the way you would whitetails.
I locate an abundance of sign, usually in natural feeding areas, (berry patches, scrub oak patches,etc)then I set up and pattern them, usually watching them day after day, for a week or more until I'm sure I am taking the bear I want, and a bigger one is not there as well. In spring, they are famished, and pattern to the nearest best food source, and fall, they are stocking up on reserves, and pattern to the nearest best food source. So in my experiences, find the best food source in the area, spring or fall, and the bears will come to you day after day. I like spot and stalk much more than hunting over a barrel....it just feels more like hunting to me.
DS
I have killed 7 bears in the last 10 years,not as much experience at it as some, true. But it has been my experience, that you can definitely pattern them! I have never hunted over a bait site, and have never had an unused bear tag. I hunt them almost exactly the way you would whitetails.
I locate an abundance of sign, usually in natural feeding areas, (berry patches, scrub oak patches,etc)then I set up and pattern them, usually watching them day after day, for a week or more until I'm sure I am taking the bear I want, and a bigger one is not there as well. In spring, they are famished, and pattern to the nearest best food source, and fall, they are stocking up on reserves, and pattern to the nearest best food source. So in my experiences, find the best food source in the area, spring or fall, and the bears will come to you day after day. I like spot and stalk much more than hunting over a barrel....it just feels more like hunting to me.
DS
The Hedgehog
Well-known member
I stand corrected bcat and thumper. The prowess and smarts of you two are unparalleled. It was absolutely possible that the bear I saw in the Tetons, cruised in to Jackson Hole, then down the Hoback for a visit of Big Piney, then took a stroll over the Wyoming Range, up the Greys River, then through Idaho, back to the same exact draw that I saw him two weeks prior. Also possible that the big black sow and her red and black cubs did the same thing because they also were in the exact same place two weeks later. Thump it wasn’t a “field.” I don’t know where you have hunted bears before, but these ones were on a steep south facing draw in some berry patches and aspen groves. And like I said, it was fall. mid to late September to be exact. But since you bring up spring, last spring the same black bear was on the same grassy slope feeding along a river here near town, along with his reddish colored buddy for several weeks. Big Sky came out and almost killed the reddish one. My wife went along one night and watched them with me also. I guess if your definition of “pattern” is to intercept them with a 20yard bow-shot, then I didn’t have the patterned that well…. But for a rifle… “MONEY”.
Mini Moose
New member
I have never hunted bear but from my studies at my school from biology and zoology is that black bears follow patterns as this is how trappers knew where to set there traps because black bear always come back sometime or another to a spot. Just my .02 don't count to much on me though mine knowledge of bears is from books not accual experiance. Good luck getting your bear though Calicoyote
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Mini Moose
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Mini Moose
The Hedgehog
Well-known member
bcat, your right, perhaps it was a different 7' 450lb dark chochlate boar that was in that same place.
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Deerslayer
Guest
B'cat...you, yourself, have said you have VERY few bears in your area.....
....maybe this is why you haven't been able to pattern them?
Any bear hunter knows that a berry patch on a south facing slope in bear country is pure gold!
DS
[This message has been edited by Deerslayer (edited 01-20-2001).]
....maybe this is why you haven't been able to pattern them?
Any bear hunter knows that a berry patch on a south facing slope in bear country is pure gold!
DS
[This message has been edited by Deerslayer (edited 01-20-2001).]
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Deerslayer
Guest
My story has never changed, B'cat. If you remember the story, Dandy was not one of my seven bear kills, he was my brother's.
In fact, we already had a 6 1/2 footer in the boat I had taken earlier in the day, reward from patterning bears over a south facing berry patch from across the Yukon River.
How is spot and stalk and hunting a berry patch not the same? I always pattern a food source when bear hunting, from a long distance away, as bears have great noses. Then stalk in to shootiong range using the wind after the target bear is spotted. Glassing berry patches is probably the number one way to spot and stalk.....as well as the number one way to pattern bears, at least it has never left me holding a bear tag. Just because you may not like me, it seems illogical you would refute such proven methods. Spot and stalk hunting berry patches is as old as time, and something most all bear hunters learn very early on.
It has worked for me anyway.
DS
In fact, we already had a 6 1/2 footer in the boat I had taken earlier in the day, reward from patterning bears over a south facing berry patch from across the Yukon River.
How is spot and stalk and hunting a berry patch not the same? I always pattern a food source when bear hunting, from a long distance away, as bears have great noses. Then stalk in to shootiong range using the wind after the target bear is spotted. Glassing berry patches is probably the number one way to spot and stalk.....as well as the number one way to pattern bears, at least it has never left me holding a bear tag. Just because you may not like me, it seems illogical you would refute such proven methods. Spot and stalk hunting berry patches is as old as time, and something most all bear hunters learn very early on.
It has worked for me anyway.
DS
D
Deerslayer
Guest
I was in the Yukon for 24 days.....plenty of time for patterning the nice bears I took. In fact, not much anything else to do BUT pattern them with all that time.....
DS
DS
hntrjohn
New member
California Coyotes,
I talk to a friend ofmine last night who happens to be a game warden. He said you can not bait bears hoping to take a picture with your game camera.
I talk to a friend ofmine last night who happens to be a game warden. He said you can not bait bears hoping to take a picture with your game camera.
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bcat
Guest
Rather than having a big internet war over the patterning of bears, Calif Coyote asked a simple question, and I did the best I could to answer it from my experiances trying to pattern bears. We dont have the numbers of bears here in southern Wyoming that they do in the north or in Monatanna. All I am saying is here it is almost impossible to pattern a bear in the fall, and it may not hold true for california. Good luck Calaif Coyote. maybe we all have a different idea of patterning things. Sorry if I have offended anyone here, just telling my own experiance with the subject. bcat
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If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes
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If you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes
