Bears here in northern central Minnesota respond to calls in the fall during season. The only issue is even tho I am very off grid remote, they are incredibly wary. They will not cross any sort of opening/clear cut if they can get around it.
I have called from raised stands and during our early fall season with leaves and underbrush still thick they get in awfully close before detection. They disappear even faster.
I have found it too difficult to make an age/size determination in this country with such a short time for the shot. Don’t do it here any more. Fawn bleats.
Osky
Found the same problem with calling bears: if a bear coming to the call is in brush, it is often hard to tell how big it is. I have called some in open enough country to get a good look however. I prefer to call inside of fairly open forest for almost any kind of critter rather than try to call them out of cover into the open.
Calling bears works but to work well it takes some thinking before the first call sound. My grandsons called several this Fall. On his first bear one grandson killed an average adult at 58 yards that they did not get a good look at till it was dead. Other grandsons combined spot and stalk with a predator call to get a stalked bear to position himself better for a shot or get him to step into a more open spot.
I like to use a call along with spot and stalk, but for spotting we have open alpine berry patches up high and clear cuts at low elevation. If a hunter wants a big bear, it would be good to locate some big bear sign and target that specific bear rather than call cold or in general bear sign.
