Best way to find black bears spot and stalk
 

Hey everyone, This spring I finally have some time to hunt black bear in the spring. I am wondering what’s the best way to spot them this early? I live in a lot of farm land with some crown. In the fall I can find thin in the fields but spring seems to be a different ball game. Should I stick to the river valleys and hike and glass the SW slopes?


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Also wondering the best time of the day to be out?


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I found late afternoons till dusk best for bears I’ve never had any luck personally in the mornings they love the greens and sun find cut lines or pipe lines tand cut blocks that are greening and watch and glass have some patience and you will get a good bear I don’t bait I spot and stalk myself


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As of farm lands I’ve never really hunted bears there but they follow the rivers and the greening sides too


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Out here south facing roads green up first

i like 9am to 11am as it is quite

the sun hits those slopes and roads along rivers

this guy was grazing along hi-way

take a drive and watch for poop/tracks

also slow down when driving they will run off edges of lease roads

once you have seen sign go back into area

also calling works if u have a fawn bleat or a reed for calling Elk

in the next few weeks they will be looking for fawns n calf's

pic n video are Gf with permission when i was there last week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs60rO3jRUM

as always this is

Food for Thought

Bears Eat Grass
 

Bears feed like people . Morning ,noon and evening. I see most of my bears at lunch time between 12 -1:30 May long weekend is the best ,for cut line /road hunting.
Before that long weekend bears do not come out to cut lines because grass is not green on cut lines yet. After the long weekend the grass turns green in the bush so they don't need to come out that often.
Follow the dropping and you will get a bear .

Not saying it’s the best way but certainly the easiest way is to shoot one in the ditch. Bears will leave an established bait to graze dandelions when they first pop. Usually around may long.

Best way to find black bears spot and stalk
 

Yup…we get them on the sides of lease roads pigging out on dandelions out here, you see them all shinny black and a few hours all grey cuz they are covered in dust!
Once you spot your target bear just keep the wind in your favour and it should almost be a done deal unless the wind swirls on you.
Good luck and post up a few pics of your success.



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May 20th to June 10th
Drive sally drive !!!

x2, don't waste your time hiking. Glassing yes, but you have to cover a lot of ground to find a big bear.

Nice video Speckle, love this time of year getting out!!

Good luck to all you fellow bear hunters. :sHa_shakeshout:

Drive and drop. Spot and stalk. Same same apparently.

Its the wave of the future

Not really. We rarely shoot a bear within sight of the truck, but 98% of the bears we spot are from the truck while cruising.
If I’m not looking at 10-15 bears a day I’m ****ed. On a 7 day hunt I want to look at 50-60 adult bears minimum to find 3-4 six foot plus boars.
I’ve had picky hunters that looked at 300 plus bears over multiple visits in consecutive years before finding the boar they wanted.

The truth is 10 plus year old boars are smart and are hard to kill. The vast majority of bears killed are under 4 years old.

Best way to find black bears spot and stalk
 

Since I’ve had couple back surgeries I’m sorta limited to the long hikes anymore but have hunted bears for years and this year was driving lease roads and pipelines finding the greens I’ve had success this year already and saw ton of good bears got this one the other night measured out to 6’ foot 6” I’m content with him


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You do you.

Don’t know anything about farmland bears but have taken lots in bush country

For bush find mature evergreens, water, and green feed odds are you will find bear sign. Rivers with big timber and feed are a go to for me

Covering ground by foot, ATV, or truck to find theses areas to start is great but once you find a bears you want to target or sign of a bears you want to target you don’t need to keep traveling. Bears are habitual and when they have good feed, water, and cover they hang around if not pushed too hard. The exception is the rut when the boars start to roam

Last week may till the end of the season is the rut. Just like deer find where the sows hang out and boars will appear. Sows without cubs are what you really want

Find bear crap fresh crap is greenish in the spring not black. Bigger crap is often a bigger bear but not always. If you find a front paw track measure the width of the track and an inch and convert it to feet this will give you a good judgment of tip of nose to tail length. If you are looking for mature boars 5+inch tracks is what you are looking for

Time of day is really anytime but late afternoon they are prone to be more in the open. But mid day they will be near water feeding in shady small pockets or going for a drink. Remember they are still wearing a winter coat and it’s getting hot. I have been highly successful targeting bears going for mid day drinks during hot sunny days. First thing in the morning has never been great for me but they are still around. Personally I prefer 10am - last light

There is some basics go hunting

Oh and when you start realizing all they trends to the places you find bears you stop covering ground so much and just pocket hop to see what bears are around. In some of my past areas I targeted the same mature boars in the same areas each spring

So judgemental.... For every mature bear I shoot, I drive hundreds of km and pass on 40-60 bears. Good luck achieving that on foot. Bears are the only animals I primarily hunt from the truck, simply because they're very low density.

Road hunting works and will often result in far higher numbers being spotted but you also bump a lot of bears. Some mature boars will also never be taken road hunting because they get wiser with age. Road hunting works on the shear numbers game for sure

Personally I will ditch the truck once I have keyed in on potential target bears. I also will target many small pockets that can’t be seen from the road because I have had much better success locating big boars in these locations. Even mature boars that do feed near the road I have had far greater success actually taking that bear by ditching the truck a good ways away from his know feeding area and walking up the edge of the road.

Walking is highly effective but not hiking all day trying to cover ground. Instead jumping from pocket to pocket doing short walks to locate good bears and then setting up game plans for following days is down right deadly. There is no lack of bears that are in small pockets not far from the road but out of sight

No argument if you want to see lots of bears road hunting will do it but in the end you are looking for a bear or two at the max. There is definitely advantages on foot too if you key into your spots

Setting up in ambush on there feeding locations can also be highly effective

Plan B, search out places bear frequent, density may be low, but the density of preferred hang outs is low as well. Saves on gas. :lol:

Grizz

I do that too, that's why I mentioned glassing in my original post. I kill 1 or 2 big bears every year and also help a few friends get their bear, I feel I have a good method. The only year I didn't harvest a bear, is the year I didn't want to road hunt, cause it's not my preferred way to hunt, but getting the meat is import for me, so I stick to what works.

We do. For the last 22 years in fact. I’ve got over 500 happy bear clients that agree with the high success rate on mature bears 👍

Yes but your location does play a roll too you have to agree. If my understanding is correct you’re territory is in northeastern BC where you will have very little competition from resident hunters and a very healthy bear population

I know from experience there is many locations in the northern 1/2 of BC the % of mature bears is very good. I am a firm believer that the world record black bear has died of old age in Northern BC many times do to the lack of pressure. A good portion of the guide territory’s don’t even run spring bear hunts or very few

No argument that road hunting is effective and not taking anything away from your success but in some locations mature bear numbers are far greater then others

I have taken mature bears out of every region in BC except region 4 when I lived there and it definitely very’s how effective road hunting bears is according to the population of bears

Personally I will take Northern BC over the island when seeking quality bears even though Vancouver island has the reputation for giants. But the QCI would be my top choice

You are hunting in BC no?

I’m not saying you are not successful, just that some may prefer to get out of the truck.

Where I hunt driving roads is a waste of time generally.

BC and Alberta. We outfitted in Alberta for 15 years before moving into BC.

Generally I find there’s very very little pressure on spring bears anywhere I’ve hunted them.

And unless there are no roads, driving is the most efficient.

I have had hunters want to put miles on the boots in the hopes of finding a bigger bear off the beaten path, they all change their minds quickly after maybe seeing 1 or 2 bears instead of 15 per day.

But definitely hunt how you want to, the OP was asking what was most effective

With the price of gas now, bear hunting sure sounds expensive. Almost need to have a group of people to go hunting lol.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!


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