Wisconsin Bear Hunting

Mine was northern Oneida County- Gun was Winchester model 70 featherweight in .270. Bullet- 130 grain Nosler partition. The bear ran 20 steps before piling up.

Ya'll gatta tell us where you got the bears and what gun. That's half the fun

My Dad shot this Bear last night at 6:15 he was pumped up lots of time in the tree and at the the last hour he scored. 175lbs dressed.

I blew my chance to fill my tag on Saturday. I had three come in at 3:45. Brought the gun up, had one in the scope, squeezed the trigger. She spun and barked as she took off. I didn't realize that even though I had a clear shot through the scope, the muzzle of the gun was just below the top of the window sill and the shell grazed it when I shot. Fortunately it was a clean miss. Unfortunately, I have to live with that vision for the next nine years. Makes me puke just thinking of it.

Kudos to you guys. Glad you both got one. Tag soup sucks! I'd call her the "Buzzer Bear". I doubt any were shot later, legally.

Finally scored, last minute TD. A nice 275lb sow came in at 6:50 today. Will post pics tomorrow.

My 10 year old son got a bear on Saturday. It was a sow that dressed out at 142lbs and we got it with the hounds. It was my first time going with the hounds and it was a blast.

IH, your welcome here anytime. You can do that fun stuff while I supervise. I tell ya, it gets to be a looooong day. When you have all those chores involved. I am a bit lucky to have a family that is involved. So a lot of the duties are shared including the baiting. I do try to get everyone involved as much as possible. Just ask Landman. His father, and him did as much or more of the skinning than I did. My wife did all of the meat wrapping, and had another partner to help supervise as well. They did not have to, but were willing. So have at it. Dang daughter was working so I had to do the gutting.

I expect every year for someone to touch on at least one of my pet peaves. It is rare anymore to hear the second one. Dogs scare all the bear away, and dog hunting is easy. 10-15yrs ago I would have hit you with an f bomb. Now I try to educate everyone the best as I can. After that it is what it is.

Here is a good one for you folks. I had a guy chewing me out today. Ran into a grouse hunter. Asked how he was doing. Right away he barked. Would be doing better if them damm bear dogs didnt scare all the birds away. C'mon really! I asked to explain himself. He was dumbfounded. We talked a bit more then about the grouse and pointed him in the right direction. He had no idea that an open pine plantation was not the best place to be for grouse. He did say that maybe he was wrong about the dogs. i understand though. He was frustrated not seeing any birds. Just needed a little help is all.

I hope the good weather brings good things to all this weekend.

Citouis and Wildman, you're both right. I wouldn't even want to own a dog. For the price of one dog I can buy a Wyoming antelope tag, run my pickup there and back and still be money ahead. If I'm wrong it's cause I'd have money left over. Also, I don't like being guided because I feel I show up, the guide points to the tree stand, I climb up it to see what happens. If I shoot a bear in 2 hours I feel I just pulled the trigger. If I don't see anything I feel I may have been ripped off. Heck, some guides gut the thing for ya, cook the meals and wash your plate. I'd feel like ,,, I missed most of the hunt. I had a guy in Crane Lake Minnesota bait a bear for me. I gave him 450 bucks, kind of high for 2003. I insisted I go bait with him. He reluctantly agreed. He may have thought I'd steal his stand. He was a hack. He skinned my bear on the ground in the yard and when I got home there was chicken Chit all over the meat. He did an ok job otherwise but he didn't start baiting till I got there, two days earlier. This got me thinking, if he can do it so can I. Nothing special about his areas. Saw one bear, 107 lbs gutted. If I do it myself and see nothing it's my fault or hard luck. This is why I do it myself. If I have someone bait my bear I want to help him bait lots of bears!!! That is a lot of fun.

Now I am seeing your point a bit clearer. I think it is very easy for one to take credit for the kill when you are the one that pulled the trigger. People have been going on guided hunts for longer than I know. Probably all the way back to the cave man. They got 2 rocks and a pebble for a wooly. Guess it all depends on how you look at.

You know what is funny though. Is that I talk to dozens of people every year. That have no interest in a hound hunt because of the work involved. Odd isn't it.

ctious- I was going to edit my post to make it shorter and more direct. Without coming off condescending or making it seem like an attack. I think I will.

I dont think you and perhaps understand the process. We do all the same work the sitters do. Then more on top of it. It's not as easy as you seem to think. You just dont take a dog to the woods let it bark and tree a bear. To start we still have to find the bear. With baits that does make it easier, and allows for selection to some degree. Dont always work that way. There are times you make rig a track. Basically dogs smell a bear as you go through woods. Cannot always determine what it is. Then there are times we look for a track to turn out on that was not there the day before and such. That the dogs cannot smell on the air. Then there is the tactic that few WI hunters employ. One I might just have to use myself real soon due to the mushrooms popping. That is free casting. Where you take a dog or two. Then walk them into the woods looking for a bear. Obviously from the hiking standpoint there is more work. But also on the front side with training of the dogs to not run off game. A lot of time will be wasted otherwise. Also harder when you use dogs for multiple game. Not their fault then when they run a coyote for example.

In essence you are only talking about the end result of a hunt. I don't care if you have pointers, flushers, or trailing dogs. The end result is because of many many hours of hard work to get to that point. Again I dont care if you are hunting birds, bear, or other small game. You know when you are hunting with a poorly trained dog. The hunt does not go as well.

If all you are doing is hunting with someone with dogs of some type. It is hard to understand the amount of work that it takes. If you want to hunt with good dogs they need to be trained and hunted hard. Which is why even without a tag. I am out every single day running the baits and working the dogs. It's not about the kill. It's about the dogs.

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Bait activity this week has really taken a turn for the worse. I mean drove that bus right off a cliff. I know that activity levels in the woods, and the war on ducks is having an effect on it. But as always the biggest factor is food. Mushrooms are popping like mad again. Acorns seem to be drying up, but I;m sure there are pockets of them still producing.

Couple of things that have been suprising. Is that half of the baits hit are still being hit during the day. Then also seeing sows and cubs walk right past baits they hit a week earlier. Normally these will hit the baits anyway. When you see them walk past a granola filled bait to go to something else. You know you are in trouble!!!

Hopefully the stable warm weather will get them moving again. Although the full moon could have them moving more at night. Regardless it is still always better to be in the woods.

VERY well said Steve!!

Some people just don't have a clue!!

Patchick, you are close. Watertown and baiting near Phillips. 4hrs there, 4hrs back. I posted a pic a while back. Not the big one I wanted but I ran out of time and took what I could. Here is the one I got and the one I did not.

ctious- I am really having a hard time finding the right words. In order to not come off like I am attacking you. The best I can come up with is, YOU ARE DEAD WRONG!!! By far and in any way you look at it. Sitting over bait is the easiest form of bear hunting one can do. Yea, Yea, you have to start the bait. Then keep it baited. Then put up a stand maybe. Then hunt.

Dogs well that is a whole different story. Just you go buy yourself a pup or two. Then care for them, and train them. Then tell me how easy it is. WHAT? train them? Nope, cant just go to the pound and buy a mutt and turn it loose. It takes the right breeds, and lots and lots of training. Both in and out of the field. Depending on who you talk to, and each dog. It will take 3-5yrs to have a finished bear dog. That only leaves a couple years of peak performance. Before they begin to slide. These are not bird dogs. Many bird dogs do not go through the punishment a bear dog does in a day during the course of a whole year. Then even if you have some dogs that might run a bear does not mean you have bear dogs. You cannot train a top performing athlete by working out a day or 2 a week. It takes daily hunting for a couple of months to get dogs in the top rock hard chiseled condition. That is needed come the harvest season, and one is going to hunt on a daily basis. Which is why some of us start the conditoning process long before training season even starts. If you dont think this does not matter much. Just bring them dogs you might hunt on weekends only if lucky up by me. Wont be long at all before you realize the importance of training and conditioning.

Bait sitting lasts a few months at best. Dogs are year round work. Even just during the season. You bait. You go sit in stand. You go home. Not much more than that. With dogs you need to load them in the morning. This takes me about 30 mins. I can do it in less,, but have a process I like. Which involves letting as many as 12 dogs loose in the yard at once. Many people have a hard time keeping one dog in the yard. Try 12! The you hunt all day. Care for the dogs has to be done during this time as well. Then you get back. Tired and worn out. You still have to put the dogs up in some method. Clean kennels, feed, water, and take care of any injuries. Not done yet. You still need to make sure all collars, and batteries get charged.

Then there is the whole in the woods thing. It was mad mention already of a big bear on the ground. Does not matter the size of the bear. Many small bear will stay on the ground. Fight and walk all day. Any houndsmen that cares about his dogs. Is going to be right in there with them. This may mean for many miles, and through stuff many folks wish they never new existed. Nothing better that belly crawling into thick stuff after your dogs. Knowing there is a bear somewhere in front of you.

Granted we get those easy days. Bear trees fast, and close to a road. Does not happen often enough. A well trained pack will make it look easy at times. Still there are many times. You need to help the dogs in some fashion.

So it's not just the dogs bear. There was a lot of hard work and time spent. In order for them dogs to be able to do their job. Then there is all the money spent on it as well. My tracking equipment is worth more than my truck!! You have vet bills, feed bills, repair bills, and of course bait. I do a lot of my own vet work. Still got over $700 this month alone. Truck repairs has cost me over $1000 in just parts this month. Cant afford to pay anyone to fix them. so that cost is down. Bait, well that all depends on the baiter. I cracked barrel number 84 today!!

There is nothing easy about dogs. If anyone really believes that. You are more than welcome to come be my handler for 1 week. I'll feed and house you for free. Your only job will be to care for and hunt the dogs. After a few days a whole new outlook on the matter will be had.

OHH SNAP! That's all for now. Rooster crows in 4hrs for another day of the bear hunting grind!!

Coon hunting??? That aint about sport- that's income brother!