Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Black Bear, Who's In?

Some fine bears in this thread.

Never had an opportunity. Bears are around, but kinda catch-as-catch-can. One made off with a rabbit pen (and rabbit) from my neighbor's yard some years back, and others have been spotted crossing the fields across the road. Never seen one in the woods except on Skyline Drive.

Used to buy a Damage Stamp every year, our version of a tag, just in case, but now on my Geezer License it's not needed. If I ever get one, I hope I can get one of my sons on the phone! (We can cut-up and pack out, but still!).

Great bear pics! Makes me want to get after them. More pics to whet our appetites.

I love to hunt bears but am at an age when I enjoy taking younger men who are hungry to get a bear. I've taken three grandsons after bears and loved every minute. We are two for three. The oldest grandson was determined to get a bear with his bow, and though he stalked 8 bears, all within easy rifle range during general open season, he never got one with his bow. He has no regrets.

Below is second grandson's bear taken with my 06 at 57 yards, a little over 7 foot hide.







The bear below came to a call till it hung up and hid behind a bush.



Badly rubbed spring bear wading and swimming a few strokes across a tidal creek.

Nice bears guy's. The clock is ticking...

Okanagan, what kind of critters are you imitating when you're calling? We've got a high number of Mtn Lions in my area so I've been a little hesitant on doing much calling for bears.

tipmover, I'm no expert but have called quite a few black bears. A guy from Montana, Dober I think is his handle, has called a lot of them. Best of luck if you go for it!

My most used call is jack rabbit distress. Virtually the same sound is marketed as fawn distress and bear cub distress, so close to the same that I can't tell the difference and I don't think predators do either. They just know it sounds edible and in trouble, and if they are not sure they come out of curiosity. I vary the cadence, tune etc. with hand calls to imitate fawn vs rabbit, etc. I have used recorded fawn distress, recorded black bear cub distress, and the closest I've called a black bear was with lip squeaks.

The called bear in the previous post came to a Rainshdow custom closed reed call that sounds jack rabbitish, and I was whimpering on it. The bear was within 100 yards when I started calling so I called softly and watched it come in to 25 yards. We had decided not to shoot it so experimented with calling.

We have lots of lions as well. I set up differently when calling cats, and rarely get a non-targeted animal coming to my call, other than the usual crows, magpies, doe deer. A big exception was in northern BC where my biggest problem when trying to call a moose or wolf during early Fall was grizzlies coming to the call. I quit calling. Adding Rainshadow cougar vocals will up the odds of calling in a lion, may decrease odds of a bear coming in, not sure.

For lions and bears when calling alone, I set up so that nothing can get to my back, even if it degrades the ambush a bit. One time at an ideal spot I took a few minutes to build a lean to of poles behind me so no lion could get to my back.

Bears have a reputation for responding to calls inconsistently. IMO that means we haven’t figured them out as well as we have coyotes. Some run in, some sneak in, most move downwind of the call sound as they get close, some pretend to ignore while moseying closer, some look longingly and don’t come any closer, and I had one run away as soon as I blew the call. The young bear below was leaving so I called with a jackrabbit hand call to get him to hang around and let us look him over.



The one below, in rain, was close enough to have the auto flash reflect in his eyes.

Okanagan, great info in those posts and your pics are over the top good. Much appreciate the insight and experience that you've shared. Out of all the calling you've done, do you think the Rainshadow was the most effective no matter the locale?

Rainshadow cougar vocals are the best lion call I've used. I combine them with jack rabbit distress or fawn bleats. I'd like to say that Rainshadow hand calls are the most effective I've used for bears and other predators, because Steve at Rainshadow is a friend and he let me try out some prototype calls, such as the one that called the bear in my first post above. But since 1968 I have used a Weems Wild Call more than any other call, so much that I haven't used any other call enough to compare it fairly. You won't go wrong with Rainshadow. (This has turned into my opus on calls! )

I've used enough calls (25 or so, Mexico to northern Canada) that I am skeptical about any claim that one hand call is way more effective than others. I like some better. Closed reed calls are easier to master. Open reed calls make a variety of sounds with one call. Diaphragm calls have good sound, short life. Some thick walled plastic calls are harder to break than finely crafted wood calls of similar design. That is a factor in hard hunting, crawling over big coastal logs, rolling on a call when sleeping on the ground...

On the first bear above, first we tried a Psycho Tweety double reed call blown very loud. The bear jerked up his head and ran off a ways, then paused and eventually went back to grazing. We did that twice. We gave him several minutes, then I tried a Rainshadow closed reed call with an experimental shape, and I blew it as soft whimpers, like a small injured animal. The bear came right to it.

My personal preference is that a hand call start a soft sound with minimal air flow, no blast required to start it, and that it go to loud and back to whimper without pause nor “cracking.” I thin the edges of reeds on open reed calls to achieve this if they don't work that way when new. I do that also on some closed reed calls but there is great risk of ruining closed reed calls

Another friend gave me a closed reed hand call to try and the first bear I used it on ran off at top speed. The next day a second bear stopped running away and looked back at us. Same song, different bear. May you find the second kind of bear when you call, whatever call you use!

I have my best luck calling bears the last two weeks in May while fawns and calves are dropping...Mostly because it gives me confidence calling then..Confidence is everything.

Bear I called a couple years back..Nothing I wanted to shoot,but I scared the Hell out of him.

Great video!

Ditto re confidence: the best call is the one you have confidence in. Dunno all of the why but is true.

Love those dark chocolate bears! The prettiest hides IMO.

Thank 's Okanagan! Those are some great pointers.

You are welcome. Thank you for the good words.

On thinking more about calling bears, a problem is that in heavy cover it is often hard to tell the size of a sneaky bear that comes to a call. We've had that problem in brushy Saskatchewan forest and in Vancouver Island brush. Also, it is hard to see a small cub if a sow with a young cub comes to the call.

For these reasons most of my bear hunting is by spot and stalk. I always have a call along and use it more to position a bear for a shot, get one to stop moving and stand still for a good shot, or call one that we have chosen to shoot close enough for a shot. I don't do much cold calling for bears, though have done it and called in bears. I prefer to call a specific bear if possible, either one we can see, have seen, one working on a specific food plot or carcass, or at least one that has left multiple BIG fresh sign in a small area.

One more pic: a friend and I who came along to fish were camped with some bear hunting buddies. The two of us codger fishermen kept camp, cooked, fished, and decided to go to town one noon. The bear below was 350 yards off of the logging road. My friend has killed big bears, some over 7 feet. We watched this bear for awhile and decided it was a HOG. It was stalkable with a little thigh deep wading. Then we drove on to town.




Y'all are a bad influence. I over focus and you have me thinking about bears instead of prepping for a business appointment today.

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