Your best bear hunting tip

[gimmedachimi]

I am getting ready for my first north GA bear hunt with a bow. What are one or two tips you would give a novice to keep in mind? Gear must-haves, scouting tips, where to set up...I know, I know, look for white oaks, but anything else?

I've got good experience hunting from a tree saddle for whitetail, but that's about it. Been reading a lot on bear hunting, but curious to know from this group.

 

[chrislibby88]

Walk walk and walk. Take pictures of sign and ask questions on here. Don’t get too bogged down in a particular area. If the sign isn’t dense enough move somewhere else, like miles away.

 

[whitetailfreak]

Go deer huntin' in bear country

 

[Killer Kyle]

Hunt the white oaks.

 

[Killer Kyle]

Sorry. Couldnt help myself.

 

[Professor]

Gear must haves: mountain hunting boots and a pack made to carry game.

 

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

Apparently you have to do a LOT of running!
The guys on YouTube.....
Run this kinda pack
Run these kinda boots
Run this knife
Run this water filter
Run Forest Run!

 

[Unicoidawg]

Yeah I don't get the whole "run" this thing deal. It's "use or used" this type of boots, tree stand, etc.... etc..... I guess I'm just getting old.

 

[tree cutter 08]

I don't watch you tube so I don't know how those guys hunt. Best advise I could give is spend as much time as you can. Don't be fiddling with your phone cause you'll miss something. Take your time. Watch and listen and walk. It's in man's DNA to hunt. Just get out there and it will all start to make sense

 

[splatek]

Apparently you have to do a LOT of running!
The guys on YouTube.....
Run this kinda pack
Run these kinda boots
Run this knife
Run this water filter
Run Forest Run!

Don’t forget you have to be an ultra marathoner as well, otherwise you’re useless and should stay at home playing video games. lol.

I don't watch you tube so I don't know how those guys hunt. Best advise I could give is spend as much time as you can. Don't be fiddling with your phone cause you'll miss something. Take your time. Watch and listen and walk. It's in man's DNA to hunt. Just get out there and it will all start to make sense

I do watch YouTube to learn. Being an adult onset hunter with no old guts having walked me thru the woods as a little one, YouTube has taught me a lot. That being said, it’s taught me almost more what not to do than what to do. I’ve found a few channels on YouTube that are usable for the way we hunt; and some that are just fun. My three year old loves Gritty films.

I totally agree with the comment that hunting is in a man’s DNA. There is a primal feeling in the woods, your senses come alive in a way that doesnt normally happen. Famous conservationist, Shane Mahoney, once said something like “you’ll never know the extent of your senses until you hunt. You will see a single lead flutter in the wind at 100 yards. You’ll smell things that the modern world has eliminated. You’ll hear noises that have been drowned out by civilization” He was essentially saying Time in the woods, hunting, activated are ancient hunting mind
I wish I could be out there all the time but kids, job, … tough but I’m going to be out as much as humanly possible.

 

[gimmedachimi]

I don't watch you tube so I don't know how those guys hunt. Best advise I could give is spend as much time as you can. Don't be fiddling with your phone cause you'll miss something. Take your time. Watch and listen and walk. It's in man's DNA to hunt. Just get out there and it will all start to make sense

Very true. Like @splatek, I'm an adult onset hunter who had to mostly figure everything out by myself (little to no hunting in my family) or with Youtube, but I'll be dang if they aren't constantly trying to sell product to you. I get the business model, but it does compromise the advice.

Thanks to everybody who contributed so far. I will share my successes and failures on here as I venture out this weekend.

 

[ChidJ]

Don't get discouraged. I go up every year for the early gun hunt. This will be my 4th year. Still no bears on the ground. Seen bears but haven't pulled the trigger yet. My success isn't tied to killing a bear, though. Its having an adventure with friends and learning. Every year, I learn a little bit more about NoGA mountains.

 

[Timberman]

I'm no bear pro though I do have a few under my belt.

My advice to an energetic newbie bear hunter would be get on the high ridges, get the wind in your face, and walk. If you see fresh bear sign sit down for awhile. If nothing shows after awhile get up and keep walking. If you do that enough you'll A:learn a lot about what constitutes bear sign and where to find it and B: stand a good chance of walking up on one.

 

[NCridgerunner]

This time of year find you a ridge of hickory trees. You can literally hear a bear a good ways off that’s busting hickory nuts. They will be up in the tree lapping them. Walk as quiet as you can and you can get under them and they never even know you are there. You can hear them lapping white oaks too but they don’t pop like hickory’s. Lapping will be over any day now though as everything starts to fall

 

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

Like @splatek once said, "You gotta hunt where the bears are. Not where you want them to be". And that also means thinking like a bear. They won't travel far from sanctuary if food and water is near. Why waste the energy? Now calculate water and food and cover. Look on maps and get ready to get sweaty and nasty and go check for sign. It will crush your hopes and dreams until you find it though. But it's awesome!
Everything I've learned started in this forum and went from there. I'm fortunate to have established good friendships with some serious bear killers. And even they are still trying to figure it all out. Don't get frustrated or you will fail. Ask questions. Remember it's supposed to be fun. And finally safety comes before anything and everything.
I'll go back to yelling at my neighbor's dog now.

 

[twincedargap]

Keep walking until you find the answer to, "does a bear poop in the woods?" Then make sure you have 2 or 3 answers to the same question w/in close proximity. When you find this cluster of poop , sit down and wait, downwind.

 

[gimmedachimi]

Ok, I owe you guys an update. Thanks so much for all the feedback on here, I went out for a few days on my first bear hunt. First, let me get it out of the way that I didn't kill a bear, I didn't even take a shot, but I did see one!

Day 1 - on the trail before sunrise, moving slowly and listening intently. First sign I ran into was a dug up yellow jacket nest, and I was so excited I reached down to investigate, only to find that some of the residents were still pretty ****ed! Got a sting on my hand before I knew what happened, so I high tailed it out of there. Kept on moving and came across a camp-site that had what I later realized were deer trails, complete with fresh scat and (maybe) some climbing marks on the bark of the tree. I am still pretty new at identifying those. Kept moving when I lost the deer trail and found a couple more dug up nests, but this time I kept my distance. Later came upon a grove of ferns that had some clear game trails going through them and found a scrape. I don't know what made it or how long ago, but the tree had been pretty roughed up. Reached an area that had some oak tree and plenty of acorns on the ground when I looked down and almost yelled with excitement. BEAR SCAT! It wasn't the absolute freshest, but poking it a few times with a stick showed that it was still very soft and had bits of acorn. I decided that tomorrow I would hunt from the tree saddle along that trail and identified my tree. On my way out, found some old sardine cans with obvious claw marks, but they were old enough that any odor had left them a long time ago.

Day 2 - got into my tree well before sunrise. I wasn't crazy about the wind direction, as I was upwind of the flat part of the trail when I had seen the scat. I sat for about 1.5 hours with my eyes playing tricks on me (was that a bear?! no, just a dark patch of leaves), when I saw something black move noticeably about 30 yards away and downhill. I had nocked an arrow, so I picked up my bow and waited. A small black bear, an older cub that I would estimate weighed 40-50 lb, emerged from the brush and immediately jumped into a tree, took 2-3 pulls up, then like a cat that realizes it doesn't want to climb its cat tower anymore, it scooted back down and ambled off into the woods without a sound. My heart **** near beat out of my chest.

Though I didn't see anything for the rest of my sit, it felt great to see one at all, get a better understanding of how to read signs, and convince me that I want to keep trying. Thanks again, what a rush!

 

[KentuckyHeadhunter]

Ok, I owe you guys an update. Thanks so much for all the feedback on here, I went out for a few days on my first bear hunt. First, let me get it out of the way that I didn't kill a bear, I didn't even take a shot, but I did see one!

Day 1 - on the trail before sunrise, moving slowly and listening intently. First sign I ran into was a dug up yellow jacket nest, and I was so excited I reached down to investigate, only to find that some of the residents were still pretty ****ed! Got a sting on my hand before I knew what happened, so I high tailed it out of there. Kept on moving and came across a camp-site that had what I later realized were deer trails, complete with fresh scat and (maybe) some climbing marks on the bark of the tree. I am still pretty new at identifying those. Kept moving when I lost the deer trail and found a couple more dug up nests, but this time I kept my distance. Later came upon a grove of ferns that had some clear game trails going through them and found a scrape. I don't know what made it or how long ago, but the tree had been pretty roughed up. Reached an area that had some oak tree and plenty of acorns on the ground when I looked down and almost yelled with excitement. BEAR SCAT! It wasn't the absolute freshest, but poking it a few times with a stick showed that it was still very soft and had bits of acorn. I decided that tomorrow I would hunt from the tree saddle along that trail and identified my tree. On my way out, found some old sardine cans with obvious claw marks, but they were old enough that any odor had left them a long time ago.

Day 2 - got into my tree well before sunrise. I wasn't crazy about the wind direction, as I was upwind of the flat part of the trail when I had seen the scat. I sat for about 1.5 hours with my eyes playing tricks on me (was that a bear?! no, just a dark patch of leaves), when I saw something black move noticeably about 30 yards away and downhill. I had nocked an arrow, so I picked up my bow and waited. A small black bear, an older cub that I would estimate weighed 40-50 lb, emerged from the brush and immediately jumped into a tree, took 2-3 pulls up, then like a cat that realizes it doesn't want to climb its cat tower anymore, it scooted back down and ambled off into the woods without a sound. My heart **** near beat out of my chest.

Though I didn't see anything for the rest of my sit, it felt great to see one at all, get a better understanding of how to read signs, and convince me that I want to keep trying. Thanks again, what a rush!

That counts as a GREAT hunt!

 

[ddd-shooter]

Ok, I owe you guys an update. Thanks so much for all the feedback on here, I went out for a few days on my first bear hunt. First, let me get it out of the way that I didn't kill a bear, I didn't even take a shot, but I did see one!

Day 1 - on the trail before sunrise, moving slowly and listening intently. First sign I ran into was a dug up yellow jacket nest, and I was so excited I reached down to investigate, only to find that some of the residents were still pretty ****ed! Got a sting on my hand before I knew what happened, so I high tailed it out of there. Kept on moving and came across a camp-site that had what I later realized were deer trails, complete with fresh scat and (maybe) some climbing marks on the bark of the tree. I am still pretty new at identifying those. Kept moving when I lost the deer trail and found a couple more dug up nests, but this time I kept my distance. Later came upon a grove of ferns that had some clear game trails going through them and found a scrape. I don't know what made it or how long ago, but the tree had been pretty roughed up. Reached an area that had some oak tree and plenty of acorns on the ground when I looked down and almost yelled with excitement. BEAR SCAT! It wasn't the absolute freshest, but poking it a few times with a stick showed that it was still very soft and had bits of acorn. I decided that tomorrow I would hunt from the tree saddle along that trail and identified my tree. On my way out, found some old sardine cans with obvious claw marks, but they were old enough that any odor had left them a long time ago.

Day 2 - got into my tree well before sunrise. I wasn't crazy about the wind direction, as I was upwind of the flat part of the trail when I had seen the scat. I sat for about 1.5 hours with my eyes playing tricks on me (was that a bear?! no, just a dark patch of leaves), when I saw something black move noticeably about 30 yards away and downhill. I had nocked an arrow, so I picked up my bow and waited. A small black bear, an older cub that I would estimate weighed 40-50 lb, emerged from the brush and immediately jumped into a tree, took 2-3 pulls up, then like a cat that realizes it doesn't want to climb its cat tower anymore, it scooted back down and ambled off into the woods without a sound. My heart **** near beat out of my chest.

Though I didn't see anything for the rest of my sit, it felt great to see one at all, get a better understanding of how to read signs, and convince me that I want to keep trying. Thanks again, what a rush!

This is what climbing sign should look like on a tree.

 

[gimmedachimi]

View attachment 1257393
This is what climbing sign should look like on a tree.

Yep, I would say that one is pretty unambiguous.