Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Are Black Bear nocturnal where you hunt?

I get a whole lot of trail cam pics of Black Bear on the farm I hunt, but in the last 5 years, I have only seen 2 during shooting light. I was able to kill one of them. We do not use hounds on the farm, but they are a very popular way of hunting Bears in Eastern NC with a crazy high success rate. I can see why!

For the first time in a looong time, we can bait for bears for the first week of the season (no processed baits, just natural bait like corn), but I don't see how that's going to get em out during shooting light.

Besides hunting along the edge of their bedding areas, any tips to up my odds?

I hunt with several clubs in Beaufort, Martin, Bertie county NC. I would say it depends on the property and how much pressure you have on the property and how close you are to their bedding areas. Yes they are less likely to appear in the open fields during daylight.Some of the small farms have no daytime activity while the large timber tracts seem to have activity very early or late in the day. Bears like it thick and wet. Being able to use unaltered bait to "attract" will certainly help create a feeding pattern. You still are not permitted to harvest them over the bait. You should start your stations now and use the cameras to figure out what paths they are using to figure out where they are bedding. We hunt the thick timber in the afternoon to catch them moving to and from. I don't like open fields unless its a really remote farm.

It is quite common to see black bears out during daylight hours on the ranch where I hunt elk in Colorado. As far as I know, only two have been taken in the fifteen years that I have hunted there--both taken with a bow by a son of the owners. He has put out game cameras at several of the dirt tanks and gets mostly daytime pictures of bears coming to water.

Around here, no one hunts them that I know of. I see them regularly when I hunt in the mountains, but only rarely when I hunt the foothills. When we lived up the valley in a more remote area, we occasionally saw them near the ranch headquarters during the day, or crossing between the eastern and western mountain ranges.

I've seen many bears out in daylight.

They are a lot like deer in their movements, but there are far fewer of them so you won't cross paths with them as often.

They also cover larger territories, so you won't see them in the same places as you do with deer.

Baiting may help some, but I'd be surprised unless you can dump a truckload to keep them coming back

You sir once again know nothing about what you speak . Bear are like deer and water is like gas.

And baiting will never work unless you have a truck load of bait . You dream this crap up in your apartment.

Bears are not particularly nocturnal where I hunt them in BC and sometime going along with family in WA State. There is some hunting where we go but not enough that the bears feel pressure. We see them mostly from midday on with the majority in late afternoon and evening. Bears in BC are like teen age boys: sleep late and eat all of the time. I haven't seen many at night and only recall seeing one at dawn. We see them fairly often in farm fields but never hunted farming areas.

I have set up within a few hundred yards of a guide's bait barrel stand in Saskatchewan and successfully called bears, after the guide was done for the season.

I love how every thread on this forum turns into an argument.

We see a lot of bear in the daylight.

I used a trail cam this year and bears came in about 10 pm until season opened then vanished.
I did have a small bear in my bird feeder from 9am - 9:30am in my back yard.
whelennut

No argument but if you don't know the first thing about a subject don't contribute. Just read and learn, bear have fur and walk on all fours after that the similarities stop saying crap like deer are a lot like bear is just stupid and shows complete lack of knowledge of the subject.

I will second this. I can't remember seeing but one bear before noon, and that one was female with three cubs in tow (about 11:00 AM). Virtually all the rest were afternoon sightings, with late afternoon being more common than earlier.

LOL
Tell someone who cares
I happen to live in the area beng discussed.

What are you "contributing"?
All I see is you trolling

http://www.bearbiology.com/fileadmin/tpl/Downloads/URSUS/Vol_6/Ayres_Chow_Graber_Vol_6.pdf



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepuscular



http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/fish-wildlife-plants/mammals/white-tailed-deer-about.html



Maybe you should follow your own advice:

Just pointing out you are a [bleep] idiot that's all. Post what you want but bear and deer are not even close to alike. I have bear hunted for a long time and never in all the years did I think man bear and deer are a lot alike. Not trolling just pointing out you are clueless. Bear can and have been baited very successfully with a five gallon bucket of bait every four to five days (no truck load needed). How many bear have you killed or even seen in the wild not counting zoos.

So if you live in an are that makes your BS right. I am very aware of what nocturnal is thanks for the links hope you read and learned something. You must care you took the time to read up and try to back your bs up did not work but you tried little man.

"I happen to live in the area beng discussed."

seeing bears while driving in your car in summer is one thing. Targeting them during limited hunting season on your property and being legally successful is something different.
The big bears in the areas we hunt are very timid,smart, shy or whatever term you wanta use. It aint hard to kill a small bear. Heres a few from the past two years.

508lbs


503lbs

Nice those are good ones. they shut our hounds down about ten years ago wish we still could chase was a lot of fun. your right I have been after a good bear in my area for two years but he is not stupid. Keeps his head low seen him a couple of time to far to shoot with the wind conditions that were present. I will get him my best was 350 locker hung no pics on hand to show .

The 500+ did they tree or shot on the ground just wondering all the big ones we got never tree they would just wear out or corner. Also did the one on the red truck end gate make the book it's had to its a real real nice bear you guys have your dogs dialed in well. What score if you had it measured ?