Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Calling in black bears

What kind of call are you using? I here some mention fawn in distress

bags of garbage sure seem to work in my area.

What’s your procedure? Do you slam the metal lid down on the can after placing the bag in, or do you “rustle” the bag periodically! memtb

I have called in a few just using a Circe rabbit in distress call and it worked well.

Dunno about blacks, but moose calls work on coastal brown bears on occasion. Ask me how I know.


I love the way they just kinda amble toward one, like, " Yeah, don't mind me - I'm just passing by, in your direction. No worries. Really. Would I lie?"

Rabbit in distress has called a few in for me while coyote hunting and one with a fawn in distress call.

They did seem to like constant calling, kind of like bobcats.

I'm not sure how far they will come to a call, as they all appeared fairly quickly once I started calling, so I suspect they were close to begin with.

I have known a few guys in PENN that called in black bears by accident while calling foxes. Most of this happened during the day time also.

I've called in a few in the spring with both rabbit and fawn type distress calls from a critr call.

Lots of good info here.

https://www.amazon.com/No-Bait-Just-Bears-Hunting/dp/1483425789

I'm testing it now.


Okie John

thanks guys am looking for both rabbit and fawn calls.

Wayne Carlton made a bear call. It came with a video and instructions, which, if you follow, works EXACTLY as advertised.They are still available. Googlle it.

When I lived in Beaufort and Hyde County, NC, the land of giant corn fed Black Bears, I knew two old boys who never wore shoes, never hunted deer only coons and bears and said you called in bears with their noses.

Rick

Good times in the bear woods.

Bears are like any predator, they'll come to a call imitating what they like to eat. Chicken eating bears will come to a chicken ruckus. Etc.

I’m thinking this year that if I sat in a tall tree and dropped a bunch of acorns in the dry leaves that would have brought them in for miles. We had a ridiculous amount of acorns and apples and once they dropped there was no bringing them in. Unfortunately where I hunt the oaks and apple trees are scattered and there is no one place to nail them down to. The grouse and woodcock hunting was fantastic though.

I called a black bear with a Weems wild call

Bears are nasty. I like hunting them but hate touching them and their parasitic bodies.

A Woods Wise Bear Call works extremely well.

A CUB in distress call, brings them in faster & w/o hesitation !!

Otherwise, calling bears is like calling cats & a 20minute wait may be required unless they are w/in 200yds from start of calling.

That's why you should always cook bear meat thoroughly. Kills the parasites.

L.W.

E-calls are illegal here, except for ordinary predators and crows. My chicken squawking is a little rusty, so I’ll probably just do some fawn distress calls on my adjustable grunt tube. Gotta get a doe down before I try for another buck, and the fawn call might work for that as well.

Not sure I want a bear. Guess I’ll decide when I see one.

Maybe then you could bring a live chicken in with you and get it to squawk, with a little training you might get it to follow you in so you would not have to carry it. YYou might not want to be seen with a chicken while hunting but not too many hunt bears so you probably would not be seen.

I'm next to Shenandoah national park in Virginia. Before the mange hit and wiped a bunch out a cooler opening or a box of Krispy Kremes worked pretty well 😀

Built a call after seeing it somewhere 20 some years ago. Cut the web off a 22.250 casing off and then crimped a double reed out of an old Holt cal into the otherUsed it to call dozens of blacktails in Kodiak, and a couple of non-desired Brownies as well. Called several coyotes and 3 black bears in locally too. One common denominator to the call I figured out to success on all of these was to not stop calling for more than a few seconds. Continued calling on the bears was more successful than not...

I am not an experienced bear caller by any means, but the couple I have ‘accidentally’ called in definitely responded positively to constant calling. If I stopped to take a breather they’d stop too, and easily get distracted. I presume they were more curious than hungry, but that is just a guess.

It really makes me wonder how many other bears I have had respond, which lost interest and never showed themselves as I tend to call very sparingly for coyotes/wolves.

I called in a big black bear while moose calling. I had a tag, but didn't shoot it being late in the day and alone in a wilderness area. Only big bears will come to a moose call as they've likely killed moose previously. You'll not get a 2 yr old bear wanting to tackle an adult moose!

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

https://www.amazon.com/Flambeau-Outdoors-Circe-Three-Calls/dp/B0000C6EEC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S4LA055CD652&keywords=circe%2Bgame%2Bcalls&qid=1702765364&s=books&sprefix=circe%2Bgame%2B%2B%2Cstripbooks%2C150&sr=1-1-catcorr&th=1

This will work in spades

Speaking of fawn calls. I don't do much calling but somewhere around here is an older electronic call with a fawn call on it. Dot it one time just for kick's to try calling in coyote's. Never called the first coyote in but did call in several deer! Figured they though it was their kid in trouble and came running!

Have called in a couple while using Randy Anderson calls for predators. One bear was so raunchy ripe from over 100 yds I knew not to shoot.

I prefer clean bears on a vegetarian diet and declawed.

I'm told that in AK a gunshot works. Once on another forum a guy wrote he was thinking of rolling in dead salmon before making a stand, I asked if I could watch.

Here is a Bear Tag from 2 years ago, it came in slow, kinda my speed.



yielded a fair amount of meat



I thought the teeth looked a little odd.



And the head was longer than usual but it eats good and it was a short drive.

I had a big old cinnamon black bear sow, and her 2 cubs just about jump in our laps while cow/calf calling a bugling elk in NM a few years back.

Damn near sheet myself that day. Ran her off without having to kill her and then killed the bull.

That was one of those hunting days you never forget.

T Inman;
Good morning from the still dark south Okanagan my friend, I hope you're well rested whenever you read this and overall well too of course.

Thanks for your thoughts on what's been an educational read for me.

We've never and I do mean ever, never had a coyote come in to one of the electronic calls that just keeps going.

Granted it's only been a handful of times with my friend's new toy, but so far we've had nothing at all called in with it.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it to you, but after our chat here about wolf calling - awhile back now I realize, but once again thanks for taking the time - anyways I had one answer me this fall and it came in, circled us in the timber and then either winded or saw us before we saw it.

It was a perfect morning for calling T, with not so much as a bird fart for wind, but there was a fair bit of fog which didn't help us see any distance. Regardless, the young fellow I was showing the area to and I heard a wolf howl, so I responded with my voice, attempting to imitate it and continued just answering it back with as close to what it said as I could.

For any calling we like to do it with no wind as mentioned, then usually if we can call down into a bowl, draw or even a canyon that's our preference. I believe all things being equal, sound travels a bit better downhill, but can't prove that. When there's much wind at all, the sound both gets lost in the wind noise and it seems it's not nearly as easy for the predators to triangulate where the sound is coming from either.

As for calling bears, we've not tried that yet but I'd think that they'd come in to what they like to eat as has been suggested. According to a study going on here, our Okanagan black bears kill more mulie fawns than the wolves, coyotes, cougars and bobcats, which I'd not have guessed but that's what the data shows.

With calling coyotes, deer and elk, I'll usually call an area and if I get no response within a half an hour, I'll head out another drainage over as I've yet to have anything come in on the 3rd or more rep of calling. Perhaps others have had different experience, but that's been ours.

Hopefully that is of some use to someone out there who loves calling anything as much as I do.

All the best to you all this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

Just be careful when using fawn distress calls. You never know what will show up. I first started with a Haydel’s and a Primos. I was bow hunting from a Summit Ole Man and liked to have got hit by a Great Horned Owl. Missed me by inches. I was in camo with a headnet for mosquitoes. That year the following responded : does, bucks, 6 coyotes, bobcat, coons, and a Cooper’s Hawk. I did kill 2 does, 1 coyote, and 1 bobcat with a bow. It seemed to work best in early bow season - October. I always carry one in my pack.

25 years ago I called in a bear with my bugle. Not on purpose. It was dark. Scared the begeezuz out my client and me.

I've yet to have any luck with electronic callers. I wore one out using it's various calls for coyote, and never a response. I still have another, but no luck with that one either. On the other hand mouth calls have worked much better: both manufactured ones and my hands cupped to my mouth for wolves/moose. It helps if you have a musical ear that can realistically mimic wildlife sounds with your vocal cords. Some can't reproduce what their ears hear. The main probllem with electronic callers is that every call they make for a particular game or varmint is identical, without variation - it has a phoniness to it. A creative hunter can vary his calling of moose, for example, in tone, duration, and adding some brush breaking and grunts - which is much more realistic. To me, some variables thrown in makes sense, as a dying rabbit crying has several variables in tone, duration, loudness and weakness, etc. With a mouth call you can do that, if you can simulate their distress so it sounds real. The same of course in all calling.

In calling bear, it's best to have a partner for obvious reasons, if calling in thick bush or forest. A bear may come charging from any direction - from behind you as well as from any angle.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Northern MN a fawn or cub whining works well.
I don’t do it anymore as it’s very bushy country and I’ve never had a good bear come over open country in any decent shooting lite.
They come in using all cover, and do not stay around long enough for a good size assessment generally.

Osky