On point #6 - if I know bears have hit the bait. And it’s raining the next opportunity I have to freshen the bait, should I still bait, or wait a day or two until the rain stops?
There's not much point in putting out scents and bait right before a rain when you are opening a new bait, but if you have an established bears coming, just bait and keep bait there for them. Unless it's a real downpour of course.
I am running 2 baits this year and use a 45 gallon drum on both of them, my go to baits are bread, donuts, marshmallows, cinnamon rolls, and dog food mixed with pancake syrup. I also spray down my sites with vanilla extract and take in about 2 5 gallon jugs of used fryer grease almost every time I check on them. I do not use any meat or fish as I find that it drives the bears away and it’s very hard to get them back. The amount of bait I use depends on how long I leave it alone for. If I decide not to come back for a week then I will fill the barrels right up. But if I plan on going to hunt the next evening then I will not put in so much. A trick that I have learned from another bear hunter was to take a shirt, wear it for a week, bring it to your bait site, place it into your tree stand and then leave. The bears will become used to your scent and will be more inclined to show up while you’re there waiting for a shot opportunity!
I know people who swear by the shirt strategy and none of them have ever shot a mature bear they only shoot little ones. I think there is a correlation. Meat is one of the beat attractors to bears, they love meat but it has to be used right or you'll screw it up. I wrote quite a bit about this in my book.
I don't have the liberty to bait in the morning due to work and how much i have to bait. So I bait between 4 and 5pm after work. The bears seem to come in around 7pm because of that but still in day light. So the bears adapted to the human pressure and the zone i hunt has a lot of Hunter's.
A buddy of mine swears by success because of raccoons. He claims they track the scent all over and lead the bears to the bait. Not sure if that's true or not
@@benhisted I wish there was an easy answer to this but the only thing you can do is keep pouring the bait to them. If you're in a state that limits the amount of bait you can put out, it can be a serious problem. One thing about coons is that they gobble up a lot at first then they slow down the consumption after a few days.
Great tips!! Love watching your videos. Subscribed. Where we are, we dont have access to bait shops, so i have just been buying bags of feed corn and oats with molasses and mixing in some other tasty things. it worked this year, we got one. We don't have much bear hunting pressure in our area, so just lucky I guess, they'll probably eat anthything. What are your thought on using corn? Not popcorn, feed corn. Its cheap here, and I like the fact that they cant grab a bunch and run with it, they usually hang out for a few hours a day.
I have used corn and they do like it. it definitely works better when it is "sweetened" with something like fryer oil or molasses or sugar. It works best when there is not a lot of natural foods to compete with it.
@@BowhuntingRoad fryer grease definitely made it more interesting for them, mixed some in with it, and all over for a grease patch. I though they would have been all over marshmallows, but not so much,
I have been using a barrel with a 7" hole in the side and filling it with pastries for the past several years. I strap the barrel to the tree so it is immovable. This past spring, I switched my set up to barrels with several 1" to 1.5" holes and fill it with small candies and trail mix. I have the barrel tied to a tree with a 10' cable so they can roll the barrel to get the bait to come out. I am doing MUCH better as far as not going through bait as fast. The bears are definitely not getting as much filling from my bait as previous years however. Do you have an opinion on the trickle feeder vs. the big hole and fill em up? It's very nice to carry in a 5 gallon bucket every day or so vs. big garbage bags of breads and donuts constantly and feeding so many dang ravens. The birds love the breads and give me 2,000 pics a day. The down side is they eat all my bait and use up my trail cam storage and batteries but I feel that ravens can also let bears know there is a food source with all of their feeding frenzy sounds. Thoughts?
You basically nailed the tradeoffs. Free feeding, you go through a lot of bait. If they have to work for the bait, you use less bait and they are at the bait site longer, which is good for competition. What are you setting the camera at? Maybe switch to at least a 5-minute interval.
Excellent video, I live in Ontario Canada. I have a question about your granola or trail mix that you use. You have it by the 45 gallon drums. Is this product past it’s due date? It must be quite expensive. Where do you get it from if you lived in Ontario. Thank you in advance.
Thanks for the great info! One question, I live about 5-8 hours from my potential bear sights and can’t take three weeks off work to bait two weeks before season opener, and I can’t make that drive every two days either. I read a forum where a guy in my same situation had success two different years by taking vacation the week before and baiting heavy every day and then hunted it and harvested a bear within the first two days (both years). Do you feel this is a good option or would you pay a guide to bait your sites (which is also costly)?
Great question, I would do what ever it takes to get the bait out there and keep the bears coming. If that means you have to bait every day because of restrictions on the amount of bait then so be it. Keep in mind that bears get very accustomed to the smells around the bait site and they get somewhat habituated to the scent of the person doing the baiting. Introducing a new person's scent might take a couple days for them to accept it and settle down. When I was hunting Ontario I was about 7 hours from my bait sites, I would load them up about once a month during the summer and they would be out when I arrived, but then I would show up a week before the season opened and get them going again, making sure they did not run out. My friends and I shot several bears the first day or within the first four days doing it this way. Hope this helps.
@@BowhuntingRoad thank you very much for your advice! That sounds like a great option as well! I love your content and enjoy learning from your experience! Keep up the good work!
So I know your supposed to not make a trail on public land but im now running into the problem that the bears are making the very obvious trail. So question is do I try to cut one trail off or just leave it
Really not worried about trails the bears are making, they are not usually coming from somewhere that a person is going to follow them to your bait. My concern is a trail that a person might find and follow you, so I would not disturb the bear's trail.
@@jordanlittle5391 A gunshot will scare everything away but bears are individuals so some will come back sooner than others. Now shooting a bear and leaving a bunch of smells and activity around the bait while recovering the dead bear is likely to slow things way down for a few days.
I like to mix in popcorn to keep them occupied longer. I pour my honey burn mix when done along the branches above the bait. They will shred the branches up to get as it all.
Well you should contact the game departments in the 39 states and provinces that use bear baiting as their primary bear conservation method. Tell them to stop it. Ignorant fool.
Yes you are right...best videos ever
Great job
Thanks alot for taking your time and knowledge and sharing
Glad it was helpful!
Your content is the best ! Just getting into guiding for bear appreciate the knowledge!
Glad to hear it!
Just found this!
Liked and followed!!
Here in Newfoundland if you pay for your tags, you get 2 bears a year. If you want 4 tags… buy a second licence.
Wow nice!
On point #6 - if I know bears have hit the bait. And it’s raining the next opportunity I have to freshen the bait, should I still bait, or wait a day or two until the rain stops?
There's not much point in putting out scents and bait right before a rain when you are opening a new bait, but if you have an established bears coming, just bait and keep bait there for them. Unless it's a real downpour of course.
I am running 2 baits this year and use a 45 gallon drum on both of them, my go to baits are bread, donuts, marshmallows, cinnamon rolls, and dog food mixed with pancake syrup. I also spray down my sites with vanilla extract and take in about 2 5 gallon jugs of used fryer grease almost every time I check on them. I do not use any meat or fish as I find that it drives the bears away and it’s very hard to get them back. The amount of bait I use depends on how long I leave it alone for. If I decide not to come back for a week then I will fill the barrels right up. But if I plan on going to hunt the next evening then I will not put in so much. A trick that I have learned from another bear hunter was to take a shirt, wear it for a week, bring it to your bait site, place it into your tree stand and then leave. The bears will become used to your scent and will be more inclined to show up while you’re there waiting for a shot opportunity!
I know people who swear by the shirt strategy and none of them have ever shot a mature bear they only shoot little ones. I think there is a correlation. Meat is one of the beat attractors to bears, they love meat but it has to be used right or you'll screw it up. I wrote quite a bit about this in my book.
Been waiting for you to post a video! Thanks
Second to none - Bernie Barringer’s Bear channel.
I don't have the liberty to bait in the morning due to work and how much i have to bait. So I bait between 4 and 5pm after work. The bears seem to come in around 7pm because of that but still in day light. So the bears adapted to the human pressure and the zone i hunt has a lot of Hunter's.
Do what you have to do.
What cameras are you using?
I have been using coverts for quite a few years but I am replacing them.
Great points Bernie, Good Luck this year
Are you opposed to using 55 gal drums for bait? I'm trying it on all 3 of my sites this upcoming season.
Not at all, I use them a lot.
Love your stuff.
Respect private property taxes payers good luck this season 👍👍
My biggest issues is keeping the racoons away.
A buddy of mine swears by success because of raccoons. He claims they track the scent all over and lead the bears to the bait. Not sure if that's true or not
I can see the advantage of having coons track the scent around but they sure eat a lot of bait
@@mattwilkie9713 Ya I can see the logic in that.
@@BowhuntingRoad Yes this is my problem. They can eat bait almost as fast as I put it out.
@@benhisted I wish there was an easy answer to this but the only thing you can do is keep pouring the bait to them. If you're in a state that limits the amount of bait you can put out, it can be a serious problem. One thing about coons is that they gobble up a lot at first then they slow down the consumption after a few days.
Great tips!! Love watching your videos. Subscribed. Where we are, we dont have access to bait shops, so i have just been buying bags of feed corn and oats with molasses and mixing in some other tasty things. it worked this year, we got one. We don't have much bear hunting pressure in our area, so just lucky I guess, they'll probably eat anthything.
What are your thought on using corn? Not popcorn, feed corn. Its cheap here, and I like the fact that they cant grab a bunch and run with it, they usually hang out for a few hours a day.
I have used corn and they do like it. it definitely works better when it is "sweetened" with something like fryer oil or molasses or sugar. It works best when there is not a lot of natural foods to compete with it.
@@BowhuntingRoad fryer grease definitely made it more interesting for them, mixed some in with it, and all over for a grease patch. I though they would have been all over marshmallows, but not so much,
I have been using a barrel with a 7" hole in the side and filling it with pastries for the past several years. I strap the barrel to the tree so it is immovable. This past spring, I switched my set up to barrels with several 1" to 1.5" holes and fill it with small candies and trail mix. I have the barrel tied to a tree with a 10' cable so they can roll the barrel to get the bait to come out. I am doing MUCH better as far as not going through bait as fast. The bears are definitely not getting as much filling from my bait as previous years however. Do you have an opinion on the trickle feeder vs. the big hole and fill em up? It's very nice to carry in a 5 gallon bucket every day or so vs. big garbage bags of breads and donuts constantly and feeding so many dang ravens. The birds love the breads and give me 2,000 pics a day. The down side is they eat all my bait and use up my trail cam storage and batteries but I feel that ravens can also let bears know there is a food source with all of their feeding frenzy sounds. Thoughts?
You basically nailed the tradeoffs. Free feeding, you go through a lot of bait. If they have to work for the bait, you use less bait and they are at the bait site longer, which is good for competition. What are you setting the camera at? Maybe switch to at least a 5-minute interval.
Excellent video, I live in Ontario Canada. I have a question about your granola or trail mix that you use. You have it by the 45 gallon drums. Is this product past it’s due date? It must be quite expensive. Where do you get it from if you lived in Ontario. Thank you in advance.
Check out www.thesugaraddict.ca, located near Barrie, lots of bait options.
I pay $340 USD for a pallet (4 55 gallon drums) of trail mix from Lucky 7 Bear bait. They ship anywhere.
BowhuntingRoad Thank you very much for the information that helps a lot. Happy hunting
jacklegjames Thank you for the info and I will get in touch with them and figure out all options. Have a great day
Thanks for the great info! One question, I live about 5-8 hours from my potential bear sights and can’t take three weeks off work to bait two weeks before season opener, and I can’t make that drive every two days either. I read a forum where a guy in my same situation had success two different years by taking vacation the week before and baiting heavy every day and then hunted it and harvested a bear within the first two days (both years). Do you feel this is a good option or would you pay a guide to bait your sites (which is also costly)?
Great question, I would do what ever it takes to get the bait out there and keep the bears coming. If that means you have to bait every day because of restrictions on the amount of bait then so be it. Keep in mind that bears get very accustomed to the smells around the bait site and they get somewhat habituated to the scent of the person doing the baiting. Introducing a new person's scent might take a couple days for them to accept it and settle down. When I was hunting Ontario I was about 7 hours from my bait sites, I would load them up about once a month during the summer and they would be out when I arrived, but then I would show up a week before the season opened and get them going again, making sure they did not run out. My friends and I shot several bears the first day or within the first four days doing it this way. Hope this helps.
@@BowhuntingRoad thank you very much for your advice! That sounds like a great option as well! I love your content and enjoy learning from your experience! Keep up the good work!
So I know your supposed to not make a trail on public land but im now running into the problem that the bears are making the very obvious trail. So question is do I try to cut one trail off or just leave it
Really not worried about trails the bears are making, they are not usually coming from somewhere that a person is going to follow them to your bait. My concern is a trail that a person might find and follow you, so I would not disturb the bear's trail.
@@BowhuntingRoad from what I see is they use a logging road that I also use and have basically flattened the grass to my bait
I wouldn't worry about it. Must be several bears using it.
yo so i stumbled across your video where you are hunting the bears with a bow. and i have a question: does it only take one arrow to kill a bear?
One arrow through both lungs or the heart and the bear is dead in 7-10 seconds. Chances of a second shot are near zero on any game animal.
@@BowhuntingRoad does a gun shot push the bears off or will they come back withing say 3 days
@@jordanlittle5391 A gunshot will scare everything away but bears are individuals so some will come back sooner than others. Now shooting a bear and leaving a bunch of smells and activity around the bait while recovering the dead bear is likely to slow things way down for a few days.
What’s the promo code for that BACKCOU bike big guy? Great channel btw!
They are making some changes to the promo codes process. Just tell them you were sent by Bernie Barringer.
I don't have time to pay attention to other hunters.
I like to mix in popcorn to keep them occupied longer. I pour my honey burn mix when done along the branches above the bait. They will shred the branches up to get as it all.
Bear baiting should be flat out ILLEGAL.
Well you should contact the game departments in the 39 states and provinces that use bear baiting as their primary bear conservation method. Tell them to stop it. Ignorant fool.
Rick, thank you for your absolutely useless comment.
I will sleep better at night after reading it. 🤦🏻♂️🤣
@@nickybigg1773 Of course you sleep well at night. You have no conscience.
@@rickydiggler7950
🤣
Rick are you anti hunting, or just anti baiting?
Have you ever used dog food and gold rush ? Or sweet feed and gold rush which is better?
I have only added Gold Rush to corn. Definitely improved it.
How does that ball work that north woods sells ?
It drips so it is constantly putting out fresh scent. Lasts a long time. Take my advice make sure the bears cannot reach it!