Big Game Hunting
Wisconsin Bear Hunting
3/24/08 @ 7:41 PM
i got a tag this year for bear hunting and i amm looking for some advice. i am wondering wear i should bait on my land. the last 2 years i have had a friend and a family member hunt the same stand and both have seen bear and got them on the trail camera at the same stand. my dad thinks that i should hunt on the other side of the land which is across a fairly messy swamp. do bears really travel that far and through that much just to get food. any advice is greatly appreciated. thanks. notice the screen name. that is literally the spot that the bear have been seen and that is not a joke. the spot is called bearhill and that is the name of the road we r closest to.
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You can partially blame the lower kill rate on the big acorn crop this year. But a comment that has been mentioned many times on the Facebook site and from bear hunters I know is that the bear population is down. Many guys have mentioned hardly any cubs which doesn't bode well for the future. One common complaint is the wolves hanging around bear baits. Bears open up the baits and the wolves run the bears off and eat the bait. Guys are saying wolves ate more bait than the bears at times and that they are pretty sure also that the wolves are liking the taste of greasy bear meat now !!
9/25 I killed a boar on my 13th sit. Dressed 210#. The third bear I had seen.
Talked w/ a friend who runs dogs. He said they had filled 5 of 6 tags w/ 285# the largest. He said one thing they have noticed the past couple years is the bear are much more aggressive, fighting the dogs, which he believes is a result of the bears encountering wolfs on a regular basis. Zone B.
Talked w/ a friend who runs dogs. He said they had filled 5 of 6 tags w/ 285# the largest. He said one thing they have noticed the past couple years is the bear are much more aggressive, fighting the dogs, which he believes is a result of the bears encountering wolfs on a regular basis. Zone B.
Yamatroller - pass through Forest County often , always looks like good buck country in places . I do know a crew near Hiles that does ok in gun season. In my rambling post I did say it doesn’t bother us , meaning even though there are wolves in the area , the deer camp enjoyable atmosphere is there year to year , some good & some terrible years for seeing deer. But the ones who put in their time & don’t sit at bait piles & actually hunt will have a good year . As far as cameras & bait piles , personally I don’t use them. Generally wolves travel , the bigger the woods the more they’ll travel & seen on many cameras , bigger bucks on camera usually are passing through . Bear season I had up 9 different bears at my bait , the 3 hours I hunted saw 3 , so if the wolves were in the area didn’t bother the bears to much for a month. Definitely not a fan of wolves in Wi &Mi , but we don’t let it interfere with our hunt . Any sightings are reported which in time there’ll be a wolf season I’m sure . Good luck to you this fall wherever you hunt
Steelhead, you are one of the lucky ones if you still manage a good deer season with wolves in the area. By us in Forest County on the National Fores the wolves have completely changed things, last year week b4 gun season I took a walk in the area we have hunted for many years and hardly any deer sign but wolf tracks and trails all over the place. We had put a trail cam on one of the few scrapes we found and put a little doe scent out. End of the week all we had was pics of wolves checking the scrape most every day. Trouble is between the Federal protection on the wolves and with the NRB now controlled by Evers and the tree huggers nothing is going to happen to have any wolf season.
We are hunting in zone C, I have run 3 baits on county land for 10 plus years(Clark County From Dam 2 up to to Ball Peak Area and back east), As usually the acorns started to drop and they just stopped hitting. Friend of mine had bear showing up on cameras passing threw between 2 large corn fields threw his woods.(Surprise acorns were a week behind) I put a bait out opening weekend Sunday at 530 PM bears were hitting by 615 PM(I have the trail cam picture to show it.) Between September 10th and 15th we had 8 different bears show up. Sat Tuesday, Wednesday no luck and Friday the wind, weather were perfect and it all came together. Yes that is a Ruger Deerfield Carbine 44 Mag using 265 grain hand loads from a Old guy that reloads near me. Gun was past down from my Mom to my daughter, That one will be in the family for a long time.
P.S. I had more shotter bears in 1 week on 1 bait then my other 3 all summer. Yes I think the wolves have pushed the bears out of the big woods and out further into Farm areas where the wolves are not as thick as the big country woods area. Will be interesting next spring as I plan to bait right away my county land baits as I have 3 sows with cubs this year. I sow has 2 cubs and 2 with 3 cubs. How Many will make it threw? There are bears out there just not were they used to be.
P.S. I had more shotter bears in 1 week on 1 bait then my other 3 all summer. Yes I think the wolves have pushed the bears out of the big woods and out further into Farm areas where the wolves are not as thick as the big country woods area. Will be interesting next spring as I plan to bait right away my county land baits as I have 3 sows with cubs this year. I sow has 2 cubs and 2 with 3 cubs. How Many will make it threw? There are bears out there just not were they used to be.
Regarding the wolf posts - talked to a logger last week in passing on a national forest road , he was born & raised north & lives & breathes the north woods & has been a lifelong logger . An avid deer hunter & has enjoyed bear hunting with dogs for years . Working & traveling different tracts of land frequently he’s seen alot with population up’s & downs of deer, bear , wolves & upland birds . Along with that knows some dnr personnel & a wildlife biologist or two well . I enjoy & respect talking to people with knowledge like this vs reading something on fakebook. Conversation started with bear hunting as I had just harvested one , he was on his way home from dropping off a buddy at a bait . As we talked he said he gave up on running dogs in the area we were in due to losing several pups to wolves the last 5 years & it’s not worth it . Said bear population has spiraled down over time . Last spring he counted 15 piles of wolf scat that contained bear hairs & explained cubs are a common food . He knew of various packs of wolves & which packs had collars & explained which one had a collar that didn’t work anymore & an area where a huge wolf hangs out all which I found out interesting as I know the area well . He did say the dnr takes alot of heat from the public about wolf hunting but it’s out of their hands & a Large Carnivore Biologist that reports to the Feds about wolves quit . With wolves on the endangered species list whatever the biologist would recommend about being over populated was shot down by Feds . The logger commented although there’s a lot of wolves & it needs to be controlled the amount of cameras in the woods far outnumbers the amount of wolves & blows it up that much more . Wolves need to be controlled for sure but doe permits , violated deer & bear , tens of thousands killed on roads far outweigh what wolves do to a population . We’ve hunted in wolf country for 35+ years with an active pack in our area it hasn’t bothered us . We understand how tough it is for deer & bear to survive the seasons & wolves in the north woods . Some good years , some years we don’t see much between 3-5 hunters, some never see a deer but if you put your time in & hunt (not on bait ) you’ll get one , took 11 years to get a bear tag & hunted 3 hours. Enjoy the camaraderie from year to year & the endless stories at deer camp . In time there will be a wolf season , many will get killed and then the bunny huggers will be on Facebook complaining . Currently the bear harvest is down 30% where i registered the bear I shot & the butcher has cut up 64 so far the biggest 347lbs an average of 150 . I learned a lot from a bear guru prior to hunting . I knew there sense of smell was exceptional & how smart & secretive they can be . Learned on average hunters see many on camera leading up to the hunt & then disappear for many reasons during season. How Wisconsin is the only state that allows hunters from other states to run bears so they can train their dogs at no cost & how that changes a bears behavior before season .How city slickers as he called them get all bent out of shape when they see a bear in the spring at their bird feeder or in town when all the bear is doing is looking some chow after a long winter & then they complain that there’s to many bears. Its as easy as taking feeder down for two days & the bear will continue on their way. 90% of the bears that he butchered over the years had a bullet in them from hunters , violators , & people that are uninformed how harmless a bear is and shoot at as a pest or mostly out of fear .
Hunting zone B. Took tonight off. I have hunted every evening since Wed the 13th. On Saturday evening I saw my only bear a decent one probably 250+. I blew the shot, nerves, I rushed it wanting to shoot before he layed down at the bait.
That bait has not been hit since and there were at least 2 decent ones hitting it regularly.
My second bait on public land continues to be hit, but by smaller bear and a sow and cubs.
A third bait a friend has going for me since the beginning of the month has started to get hit more regularly but I don’t think they’re much over 100lbers.
I did help a friend get his bear out of the woods on Thursday a sow that probably dressed close to 200. He never weighed it.
I know quite a few people w/ tags in this area and there are a lot of bait piles around here. I got about 19 days left. Hopefully I can get it done.
Wolfs: One bait site I have pics of wolfs on 3 different days and on Fri I saw one there while hunting. That same morning I saw a wolf on public land while driving on logging road after baiting. That bait site I got 1 photo of a wolf so far, but boy do I see lots of wolf track on the sand roads in that area.
That bait has not been hit since and there were at least 2 decent ones hitting it regularly.
My second bait on public land continues to be hit, but by smaller bear and a sow and cubs.
A third bait a friend has going for me since the beginning of the month has started to get hit more regularly but I don’t think they’re much over 100lbers.
I did help a friend get his bear out of the woods on Thursday a sow that probably dressed close to 200. He never weighed it.
I know quite a few people w/ tags in this area and there are a lot of bait piles around here. I got about 19 days left. Hopefully I can get it done.
Wolfs: One bait site I have pics of wolfs on 3 different days and on Fri I saw one there while hunting. That same morning I saw a wolf on public land while driving on logging road after baiting. That bait site I got 1 photo of a wolf so far, but boy do I see lots of wolf track on the sand roads in that area.
Displaying 1 to 15 of 2,912 posts
