@@BowhuntingRoad, It was a good informative video you put out. 👍 I’m from way up north, only red oaks for us. We aren’t as spoiled being able to zone in on early dropping whites, I wish we were.
In my area of northeast wisconsin there are also many hazelnut bushes that ripen around september 1rst as well. I always notice that these nuts don't last very long as squirrels and chipmunks and mice eat them pretty quickly. Now I am wondering if the bears work on them too. I drew a tag to hunt bears this season and so far my bait location is being hit, hope the natural food doesn't shut me down! I have been bowhunting deer for 50+ years but this is my first go around with bears. Thanks for the info!
We were in a drought almost all summer, but received the rain we needed to help the row crops and had a bumper harvest with the corn and beans. The deer still have tons of food in the woods and whatever is left over from what the combines left. It has also been fairly mild making the hunting even more difficult. I was able to fill tags, just way more challenging.
@mikejohnson2874 I'm from Wisconsin. The DNR had a bait ban on deer for many years! I started hunting scrape line's. Game changer I have seen and shot several nice bucks this way. And in daylight hours. One was 153 inches one was a 8pt 140 inches. On public land.
Bernie you nailed it, I hunt in Maine, last season we had a crazy amount of if acorns in the woods, I took out two buckets full to my bait site. The bears didn’t touch them , but I put out trail mix, breads, donuts granola and other good stuff, and with all the natural foods in the woods, eco after I took a nice bear my first time out the bears came back to my site the remainder of the season 👍
We had such a huge number of acorns in the trees here in West Central Minnesota; that the trees started dropping them the second week of August.. All bear activity quit!! Like the bears disappeared off the planet- and i live in corn and soybean country.. They ignored every other food- even the best bear baits- to eat acorns.. And we have mostly white oaks here too
I’ve wondered how it would be if someone planted some type of a hard mast tree or even fruit tree, like apples in an area totally void of any sorta hard mast or fruit tree. Im sure one would have to plant a couple dozen for any effect. Sure it would take 8-10 years for any real production but would it bring in bears or would it be a waste of time? Thanks for the great video and as always Happy Hunting.
Crazy how this year we had so many acorns and beech nuts in the area and had no sightings or kills. They were there before archery started in October, then nothing.... So many nut riddled piles of scat, more than years past. Really thought there was gonna be a great kill and or sighting number in this years season, but was very much the opposite? I will just keep after it, till I get my next harvest. Good info within the video. Hope your feeling better. On another note, got a trophy Sika in Md and a great Pa Buck here at home.
I need to look for white oaks on my property then. Maybe clear an acre or two and plant some. I hear they like jack in the pulpit too. I’ll have to see if that grows up here in northern Maine
I planted burr oaks and scarlet oaks on my property to improve habitat. Mainly because the acorns are easy to identify with the caps covering most of the acorn. Bears like acorns with the least amount of bitter tannin. Chestnuts too. I would say they prefer chestnuts over acorns. American Chestnuts still survive in rare grooves in the northern parts of their old range.
That’s great info. Now I think it’s time to try and get good at identifying these trees. Seems like they are key to finding bears. Consecutively if they return to these areas because they have visited before. Thanks for the video 👍👍
Well, I'm going to stump you. We put acorns out in our bait (some mixed with the bait in the barrel and some dumped on the ground). They ate all the acorns up. But, we have Burr Oak up here near the Canadian border.
I've never hunted bear around areas with any or many oaks around. I have a lot of reds around me and there wasn't much of a crop at all this year but we had lots and lots of crabapples like I've never seen. Maybe we had lots of rain in June and July so maybe your rain story held true
@@BowhuntingRoad gotcha, I'm baiting up here in Alaska and am worried there might be too many grizzlies in the area. I guess we'll just have to see what happens
Actually had bears on my trail cams around my bait and surrounding area but never came to bait but had video of them eating acorns instead. When I say around my bait I'm talking within 50-100 yrds. I was placing cams on trails they were using when my baits were not being hit.
Bears eat acorns. Yup knew that.
LOL that's a start for you.
@@BowhuntingRoad, It was a good informative video you put out. 👍 I’m from way up north, only red oaks for us. We aren’t as spoiled being able to zone in on early dropping whites, I wish we were.
In my area of northeast wisconsin there are also many hazelnut bushes that ripen around september 1rst as well. I always notice that these nuts don't last very long as squirrels and chipmunks and mice eat them pretty quickly. Now I am wondering if the bears work on them too. I drew a tag to hunt bears this season and so far my bait location is being hit, hope the natural food doesn't shut me down! I have been bowhunting deer for 50+ years but this is my first go around with bears. Thanks for the info!
Good luck to you.
Czar, this video is packed with valuable information on Black Bears .
Looking forward to your next video.
Hammer Down Bernie
Wisconsin same thing every year. Get a lot of bears all summer September 1st acorns drop game over
We had a bumper crop in southeast Iowa as well. This made the deer hunting a lot more challenging this year.
Was it dry there?
We were in a drought almost all summer, but received the rain we needed to help the row crops and had a bumper harvest with the corn and beans. The deer still have tons of food in the woods and whatever is left over from what the combines left. It has also been fairly mild making the hunting even more difficult. I was able to fill tags, just way more challenging.
@mikejohnson2874 I'm from Wisconsin. The DNR had a bait ban on deer for many years! I started hunting scrape line's. Game changer I have seen and shot several nice bucks this way. And in daylight hours. One was 153 inches one was a 8pt 140 inches. On public land.
Bernie you nailed it, I hunt in Maine, last season we had a crazy amount of if acorns in the woods, I took out two buckets full to my bait site. The bears didn’t touch them , but I put out trail mix, breads, donuts granola and other good stuff, and with all the natural foods in the woods, eco after I took a nice bear my first time out the bears came back to my site the remainder of the season 👍
We had such a huge number of acorns in the trees here in West Central Minnesota; that the trees started dropping them the second week of August..
All bear activity quit!! Like the bears disappeared off the planet- and i live in corn and soybean country.. They ignored every other food- even the best bear baits- to eat acorns..
And we have mostly white oaks here too
I've known this for a long time. That's why we bait near oak ridges.
Great info, thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
The bumper acorn crop had a dramatic impact on our hunting in Wisconsin this year. Neither my neighbor nor I got a single bear on camera this year.
Wow that's crazy sorry to hear that.
What about scattering them around bait area so they are more like when they fall off tree naturally.
I’ve wondered how it would be if someone planted some type of a hard mast tree or even fruit tree, like apples in an area totally void of any sorta hard mast or fruit tree. Im sure one would have to plant a couple dozen for any effect. Sure it would take 8-10 years for any real production but would it bring in bears or would it be a waste of time?
Thanks for the great video and as always Happy Hunting.
There are old overgrown apple orchards in the northeast that attract a lot of bears every year.
Crazy how this year we had so many acorns and beech nuts in the area and had no sightings or kills. They were there before archery started in October, then nothing.... So many nut riddled piles of scat, more than years past. Really thought there was gonna be a great kill and or sighting number in this years season, but was very much the opposite? I will just keep after it, till I get my next harvest. Good info within the video. Hope your feeling better. On another note, got a trophy Sika in Md and a great Pa Buck here at home.
Lots of people saying the same thing in the Midwest, the harvest of bears was really down.
@@BowhuntingRoad went out collecting my stands other day and found fresh scat after season. Smarties!
We don't have White oak or Red oak in the Desert West States. We have Oak Brush. Not sure how all of this information plays out in that setting.
Do they produce acorns?
@@BowhuntingRoad Yes
Hail to the king 🤴 knowledge is King is it not. Now, to find those Oaks in Michigan's U.P.
Scout scout scout....😊
I need to look for white oaks on my property then. Maybe clear an acre or two and plant some. I hear they like jack in the pulpit too. I’ll have to see if that grows up here in northern Maine
You can plant them but it takes a lot of years for them to mature enough to produce.
I planted burr oaks and scarlet oaks on my property to improve habitat. Mainly because the acorns are easy to identify with the caps covering most of the acorn. Bears like acorns with the least amount of bitter tannin. Chestnuts too. I would say they prefer chestnuts over acorns. American Chestnuts still survive in rare grooves in the northern parts of their old range.
That’s great info. Now I think it’s time to try and get good at identifying these trees. Seems like they are key to finding bears. Consecutively if they return to these areas because they have visited before. Thanks for the video 👍👍
Absolutely. Here's a really good video on oak trees by a fellow TH-camr: th-cam.com/video/FIKGm4VSKDQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5pBPgHuGiAdUwuVP
Who knew bears were so picky. I’m going to try to collect some acorns the next time I bear hunt and see if the bears will eat them
I wonder if you could use some acorn oil like what you can buy from Funke Trap Supplies?
Interesting idea!
Well, I'm going to stump you. We put acorns out in our bait (some mixed with the bait in the barrel and some dumped on the ground). They ate all the acorns up. But, we have Burr Oak up here near the Canadian border.
Interesting.
Great info 👍😉
I've tried acorns as bait also
With the same results as you always wondered why interesting info
great video!!
Thank you!!
No bears at my bait this past year
Sorry to hear that.
I've never hunted bear around areas with any or many oaks around. I have a lot of reds around me and there wasn't much of a crop at all this year but we had lots and lots of crabapples like I've never seen. Maybe we had lots of rain in June and July so maybe your rain story held true
Tried and failed twice
Do you find that brown/grizzly bears will run black bears off of a bait? Or can they coexist frequently?
From my limited experience I doubt if a black bear would ever come near a bait site if a grizzly was there.
@@BowhuntingRoad gotcha, I'm baiting up here in Alaska and am worried there might be too many grizzlies in the area. I guess we'll just have to see what happens
Actually had bears on my trail cams around my bait and surrounding area but never came to bait but had video of them eating acorns instead. When I say around my bait I'm talking within 50-100 yrds. I was placing cams on trails they were using when my baits were not being hit.
Interesting thanks for the info.