WI Bear 2016!!!

[wisconsinteacher]

I checked online today and see I got a Zone D bear tag for the fall of 2016. I have 2 farms lined up to bait on and if that does not work, I have a group of houndsmen lined up. Bait sitter go first this year. I had 7 points going in but 5 was the minimum needed this year. Time to save up on bait.

 

[Guy Miner]

EXCELLENT!

Tell us more about your Wisconsin bear hunting please. Here in Washington it's pretty much all "spot and stalk" anymore as baiting and dogs were both outlawed about 20 years ago. The black bear population is strong... 30,000+

Some guys are calling them with varmint calls, but I haven't tried that much yet...

Guy

 

[SJB358]

Congrats on the tag Matt!

 

[DrMike]

Congratulations on the tag! That should be great. Do you have many colour phase bears in WI? Or are they strictly black?

 

[JD338]

Congratulations. What rifle and load are you planning on using?

JD338

 

[bbearhntr]

Wahoo me too! Same unit! Congrats pal. The last time I drew a tag was 2008. Let me buy the first cold beverages to celebrate

 

[IdahoCTD]

The last bear I shot over bait was with a 460 Weatherby using modified Cutting Edge brass bullets (the hollow point was drilled bigger and deeper plus we added a tip with a 250gr finish weight) at 3400fps. I hit the bear at the neck shoulder junction, as it was feeding on popcorn on top of the barrel, and it turned into Jello. It literally slid off the barrel and down the hill like Jello. It was pretty amazing to see.

Good luck on your hunt.

BTW A rotten chicken (leave it in a bucket for a week before your ready to bait and hang it in a sack or bucket with holes), carp, strawberry Jello mixed with popcorn and marshmallows, or anise scent mixed with marshmallows and popcorn work really well for attracting bears. I'm not sure what your regulations are concerning what you can use for bait but bacon grease and several other things works well too. I save my bacon grease all year, take my single burner stove to heat it up on site, and pour it all over stuff. We use a lot of popcorn and dog food for the mass of the bait in the barrel with syrup poured over it. Costco is your friend for syrup and dog food if you can't find Ol Roy around for cheaper. Scent burners work really well too but can be dangerous in the woods if your not careful to suspend them a long ways from the trees themselves.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

Thanks for the comments.

WI bear hunting is unique but and I think the system is okay. Others disagree but I would rather have a tag every 2-10 years and have a chance at a big boar then hunt every year and shoot a few 100 pound bears. The state is on a draw system and you build points. There are 4 zones. One zone is the lower 2/3 of the state and you can only use bait, no hounds. The upper 1/3 of the state has 3 zones and hounds are allowed. The way it works is that on odd years hound hunters get to start a week earlier than the bait sitters and on even years, the bait sitters go first. After the first week ends, it is open to everyone and the late starter gets to go alone the last week of the season so everyone gets even time. You can use hounds if you want or bait, you don't have to pick until you go to hunt. The zones have different wait times for tags. The southern zone is a 1-2 year wait while the other zones are 5-10 year waits.

When baiting, we can't use meat or any man made materials to hold the bait so no barrels or dog food allowed. Most guys use cereal or candy of some kind. I plan on buying a few drums of bait and mixing it up as the season goes so I the bears don't get sick of the same thing.

To me the worst part of the hunt is the timing. If the season started a week earlier the success rate would be greater but for some reason the season always starts as the acorns start to fall. When this happens, baits go dead while the bears go to the natural food. It happens every fall.

My plan is to set a few baits and hunt those, if I don't get a bear, I will contact a few houndsmen and see if they will help me out. By that time, most guys have filled their tags and just want their dogs to hunt.

It is a good time but a lot of work. That is one reason I like the system in WI. If I had to bait every year, I would quit because of the time needed. My longest run of baiting was 3 seasons and after that, I was burnt out.

I plan on using the 444, my compound or recurve. Time will tell what one I use.

 

[Thebear_78]

A few tricks we use up here.

Honey/syrup poured into a rotting log gives them something to tear into for hours, giving you ample chance for a shot. Popcorn, molasses, apples, sweet feed hog food, and bacon or fryer grease.

They will track molasses and bacon grease long distances attracting other bears.

These products are great!
https://baitem907.com/bear-lure-products.html

The bait balls are almost mandatory! Their burn material is better than straight honey or bacon grease and combined with sterno can in a metal coffee can are safe to use too


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[IdahoCTD]

I have used the bait balls mentioned above and they do work well. Old pastries and doughnuts work really well too. I worked at Eddy's bakery in college and all I used back then was old doughnuts and pastries. One year I had a pile about 4 feet tall. I saw a lot of bears on that bait. If you can't use dog food horse/cattle feed with molasses works well too and it's fairly cheap for a large quantity. I also pour a lot of fryer grease around a bait site, along with bacon grease, syrup, etc. One year we had about everything you could imagine for bait and the bears ate the strawberry Jello, marshmallow, and popcorn combo first followed by the anise, marshmallow, and popcorn combo. You just melt the marshmallows and add in the strawberry or anise and then mix in the popcorn. It makes a mess but the bears love it. I've also used butterscotch pudding mix and it works too. I made it up, dumped it in a small plastic garbage bag and then froze it. When it's frozen it comes out of the bag easier.

We can bait every year in the spring and the fall but it seems like my wife and mom always plans a vacation around the peak baiting time in the spring. That's how it's been the last few years anyway. In the fall there is other stuff to hunt so bears aren't a priority plus when the berries are ripe you can't hardly get a bear to come into a bait. I saw a really cool strawberry blonde bear 4 or 5 years ago that I wish I would of got a shot at. We never saw it again that year or the next year. We've shot about every color phase there is except that one. I've never seen another one like it even in pictures.

When I started baiting we couldn't use barrels so we dug a shallow hole and threw everything in it. Then we'd cover the whole thing with logs and pour the syrup/molasses/grease on the logs. If you can't use meat I'd probably get a bunch of fryer oil from a fast food place and pour it on everything in the area to try and get the scent to carry. The strawberry, marshmallow, popcorn balls have a ton of scent to them as well. If you add Karo syrup to the mix it will make the balls get hard. You could hang one in a tree to try and get the scent to carry better.

 

[wisconsinteacher]

Just talked to a former teacher that has 40 acres next to some big ag fields and he said I could put a bait on his land. So that is 2 properties that I can bait on and they are 5 miles from each other. Time to start saving sweets and treats for the bears.

Toying with the idea of using my 50 cal Hawken this fall. Do you think a round ball from 25 yards would do the job on a big bear??

 

[Guy Miner]

I'd think so. Buddy of mine hunts elk, successfully, with his T-C Hawken and round ball loads.

Guy

 

[Thebear_78]

Amax I ball or maxi hunter would make a better hunting projectile


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[BretN]

I think I'd use one of those shoulder punishing 385 gr buffalo bullets, but a round ball at 25 yards would probably do it. I've only hunted bears twice, once in the BWCA and once with bait, and no bear either season. They say it doesn't take much to kill a black bear, but I sure wouldn't want to track a wounded one into some tangle. It's a different kind of hunt that's for sure and a ton of work to keep the bait site going. Good luck with it.

 

[Thebear_78]

The maxi hunter from T/C weighs 275gr. If your barrel is twisted fast enough to shoot them I strongly recommend them. They will expand and penetrate much better than a round ball.


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[wisconsinteacher]

I believe I have a 1:48 twist.

 

[Guy Miner]

I haven't done any hunting with my muzzle loader (T-C White Mountain Carbine - a real short version of a Renegade more or less) since the mid 1990's - but it did GREAT with the 385 grain hollow point Hornady "Great Plains" soft lead bullets.

Two shots, two mule deer, complete penetration and instant drops... Ranges were about 30 and 40 yards, I think. Been a while.

I had a bear in my sights with that rifle, at about 20 yards, but she had a cub with her, so I elected to not shoot.

Guy

 

[Thebear_78]

I think you would be fine with the 275 maxi hunter, it's fairly short. In my experience they kill much better than a round all load


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[Polaris]

Get your molasses from the feed store. They sell it in 50 pound dried bags really cheap. You can either work the powder into whatever "filth" bait you are using already, reconstitute it to make a syrupy paste or use your creativity. Beet pulp is another feed store ingredient that could come in handy. Also really cheap, soaks up water and expands to about 3x original size. Never tried it for bear yet, but I think it would be very useful for cheaply bulking up your piles and as a carrier for higher value ingredients. That's what we use it for with horses.

I like to mix the dried molasses with water, cracked corn, black oil sunflower seeds and crawfish oil (Minnesota trapline products) and slightly ferment to make a gooey, stinky, sticky paste. Smells kind of like fishy stale beer when it's right. I use this paste to make "bear suckers" from rotten logs, sticking a bunch of molasses powder to the log and around the area so they track it around the woods. "sweet" raccoon trapping lures also work well for an attractant.

And the roundball will kill a bear, I'd feel more confident with a heavy conical though. There are many to choose from, they all do pretty much the same thing, turn flat and burrow a hole on impact. Try a couple and use the one that shoots best.

 

[BretN]

Yep, Hornady great plains bullet, that's the one I was referring to. Thanks Guy. My cousin in Colorado uses those in his TC for elk. They work great. If you are sitting in a stand 25-50 yards from the bait, shouldn't be any problem. They're no fun at the range though.