Archery bear tips???

[mauser06]

I am seeing a major influx of bear. Our archery bear overlaps with deer (and fall turkey) now.

I have the season off..or most of it..


We can't bait or anything. Right now, I don't have permission on private to hunt corn fields...


I do have big woods to hunt that bears inhabit.


Any pointers on upping the odds aside from just deer hunting and shooting a bear if the opportunity presents itself..?

[dan]

Do a lot of scouting and set up on bear sign. Tracks, rub trees, etc. You did not say which state, and don't have your state listed in your profile, and that makes a difference. There are different ways to hunt bear in the mountains than in the swamps.

[brancher147]

What Dan said plus locating main food sources in the mountains like acorns or hickory nuts, or grapes if no hard mast. Finding and hunting near bedding helps also, although bears move around quite a bit, I have seen primary type bedding areas. They bed similar to a mature buck, although they may bed in the middle of a thicket instead of thick to back, but use similar terrain features. I usually just happen into a bear while deer hunting, but if I were looking exclusively for bear I would do as suggested above.

[BassBoysLLP]

Best tip is to play the wind and thermals and use the terrain as much as possible. This will allow you to close the distance. I shot mine last year from the ground at 8 yards after having him at 5 yards for several minuted by knowing and playing the wind and thermals.

[Dewey]

Best tip is to play the wind and thermals and use the terrain as much as possible. This will allow you to close the distance. I shot mine last year from the ground at 8 yards after having him at 5 yards for several minuted by knowing and playing the wind and thermals.

No Ozonics?

[BassBoysLLP]

Best tip is to play the wind and thermals and use the terrain as much as possible. This will allow you to close the distance. I shot mine last year from the ground at 8 yards after having him at 5 yards for several minuted by knowing and playing the wind and thermals.

No Ozonics?

No ozonics, no film equipment, and nothing extra that would make noise or draw attention

[mauser06]

I'm in Pennsylvania. Mostly hill country...

Season is Halloween week or thereabouts.

Even just last year I wouldn't really consider targeting them...but man the population is going crazy. Used to be a rarity to see them around here. Every where I an seeing more and more.

I rarely see concrete sign though. Especially in the fall.

[Mike32]

Do lots of scouting, looking for track's and trails feeding area's and a water sorce. I've been doing a decent amount of scouting looking for sign like this and finding it. So I set a couple cams up to confirm that they was using the area and got a good amount of pictures. So I have a pretty good idea where to set up this fall. I'm in PA as well.

[Mike32]

Forgot to mention that I watched some videos on YouTube about PA black bear and their habits. It helped me a lot.

[Horizontal Hunter]

My state is a no bait; no dogs state so I'm going to focus on preadator calling for black bears this season.

The basic plan is to set up near sign/swamps/mast and call and see what happens.

Doug Bozes' the "Ultimate Guide to bear hunting" has a lot of information on calling bears and it is a good read. He is also a member here and his user name is Saylean.

I've never really devoted a lot of energy to bear hunting and I'm no expert but calling sounds like a fun way to go and any coyotes would be a bonus.

Bob