Need MN Bear advice

[Trigger50]

I have a MN bear opp that has come up very last minute so I will welcome any advice. I just got 2 pieces of private land to bear hunt in the no-quota zone. I got this land through a friend & we are gonna coordinate baiting efforts. This will be my 1st attempt at bear baiting. My friend secured the land & will supply the bait. Which he indicated would be sweets. I will do most of the baiting. Its 4 hrs round trip to bait so likely I will be able to bait prob twice a week. My friend bear hunted it once several yrs ago. He had bait activity but didnt score a bear. He was a novice hunter at that time. Next week we will check the property out. My friend indicated that there is 2 swamps nearby that seem likely to hold daytime bears. I was just reading an article in Outdoor News that said to bait close to acorns. Any tips would be great for a 1st time bear hunter.

 

[TheShootist.41]

Near a swanp is a good choice. Try to use some stinky bait also (fish, etc). Once you are sitting over your bait site, you might want do a honey or bacon burn. Good luck!

 

[deanlaker]

Feeding drum or barrel

Trigger50,
now that we can use drums/barrels on private property in MN, and I assume you will be on private property, I would suggest using a drum with a smaller feeding hole in order to keep the bears coming in for multiple days after you fill up the bait site. Good Luck with your first bear hunt in MN.

 

[LCH]

For the record, I've never baited bears. BUT, I've baited hogs, and a trail cam on the bait site is a very valuable tool for determining when / how many / how often critters are coming in.

 

[MN Public Hunter]

With it being 4 hours round trip I would suggest trying to find someone local who will bait for you for a fee. Good luck with the hunt.

 

[nbell]

Not sure what the terrain looks like where you will be, but I have had my best luck on ridgelines. This allows the thermals to carry scent better, as well as helps you in guessing what the wind will do when sitting the bait site. The most important part about baiting bears in my opinion is getting the site to smell A LOT. Bears find bait sites with their noses. I generally start a site with a pretty big pile of food, and once the bears start using it, I usually bait with one 5 gallon bucket at a time. If you have more than one bear on the bait, the smaller amount of food will cause competition between them, giving you a better chance at an opportunity in the daylight. This will be difficult with the commute that you have, as I have had the best luck killing bears with small amounts of food fed every day. The biggest problems I have had is when there is only one bear using a bait site because there is no reason for them to come in when it isn't dark. I will second the trail camera as it allows you to see how many bears and when. One piece of advice is to put it in a bear proof case, as a lot of times bears like to eat cameras. If you are looking for stuff to get scent out there, I have had great luck with the scents from boar masters. The caramel conviction scent they sell is one of my favorites, and when used regularly, the smell sticks around for a long time. Best of luck to you. Baiting bears is one of my favorite things to do, even when I don't get a chance to shoot one, I love looking at all of the pictures of them off of my camera. Baiting in theory sounds easy, but be prepared for a lot of work to make it happen, it isn't as easy as one might think, but it is more fun than one may think as well.

 

[trotsky]

Use a barrel with a small opening. Make them work for the bait so they can't gorge one day and then sit on a full stomach for two days. Should keep them coming in more readily. The biggest thing that can derail you is if natural forage like acorns, berries, or even corn are readily available. Even the dumbest bear won't pass those up for a rancid doughnut

 

[Trigger50]

Thanks for the tips & pm's.