Baitless bear hunting

[rhagenw]

My state for the first time in a century has open up bear hunting...this is in the southern half and several hours away...no baits or dogs allowed...how would I go about hunting bears in Mark Twain’s/Ozarks mountains?

[justdirtyfun]

I'm running through the same thing. But not serious about bear hunting since I'm FOR SURE getting drawn for a MO elk tag.









You could travel gravel roads for hours while watching for bear track. Like Benoit and snow trackers up north. Cut any track and give it a shot.

[VilasCo]

Clay Newcomb has a youtube channel (Bear Hunting Magazine) with some cool hunts. He shot one over a water hole with a recurve.

[headgear]

2nd traveling old roads or trails trying to cut a track just to put you in the right area. After that is kind of a guessing game of food water or bedding and trying to get close, hopefully this is a gun hunt because a non-baited archery hunt would be quite the challenge. I would probably try some spot and stalk stuff too or mix in a little still hunting if you think you have a bear in close. I bump into them all the time in the fall and spring scouting, maybe a couple of times out of 25-30 encounters I could have gotten a clean shot off with a gun, no chance with archery but one time was a pretty close encounter, 20 yards in some tall grass, wouldn't have even had a shot because of tall grass. I would say you have your work cut out for you but that is what makes it fun! Good luck.

[dan]

if you have crop fields or acorns you can set up on sign at food

[Maverick1]

I have shot a couple of bears while sitting over waterholes high in the mountains in hot weather, called in and shot one using a calf elk in distress call, and walked up on several in the fall as they were feeding on berries, fattening up for hibernation (haven’t filled a tag that way though). Also shot several while sitting over an elk carcass, but likely not an option for your situation.

[rhagenw]

Thanks for the replies! There will be plenty of acorns down there and probably isolated patch’s of crops here and there...I thought about driving and cutting tracks and probably will do so but a majority of that portions public ground is fairly rocky...I plan to use the ole 06 unless I find a spot that screams 25 and in...the hunt is in October and we can use mouth calls so may give the a whirl as I am an avid yote hunter and always have one...do bears use hill county/ river bottoms similar to deer or??

[Horizontal Hunter]

[218er]

Acorn covered ridges will concrete the bear activity. We regularly position our bait sites on the edge of the oaks and swamp. They bed in the swamps and feed on the oaks. Typically there is bear scat in the areas. I’m in mn for reference.

[dan]

[PaPublicLandHunter]

In Pa we are not allowed to bait or use dogs either. If you are hunting in a group, you could do drives. Most of the groups I know hunt this way. If you’re solo then I would try to find sign by acorns and Ag fields like already said.

[Edcyclopedia]