i live in Brimfield MA and i just got my black bear tag,now i have seen ONE bear in my woods one time,so im not so sure i wanna hunt my woods,but here you cant bait,and i plan on using a longbow,is there any tips or anything for hunting them in MA or how to find out if there in my woods?the on encounter i had with the bear was while i was squirrel hunting,and in order to not ruin my broadheads,i hunt squirrels with fieldpoints,needless to say i was a little scared at 10 yards with only a fieldpoint knocked,but i have seen no real good sign,ill take any advise and ill post pics on what sign ive seen
FYI the season starts in a few weeks,and i have done the honey burn thing and i dont know if it has worked or not,how can i tell?
If you have beechnuts and bears they kind of go together like peanut butter and jelly. They also like apple orchards...just look for bear sign in them and skirt the perimeter to try and determine the trails they are using. Set up your stand and shoot straight.
I have always seen either bears or bear sign in clumps of mast in western Ma. White oaks, beechnut groves,etc. I've seen 5 bears in the last 3 years. Two in Mohawk State Park area and three in Otis/Lee area. Nothing big, but a bear in Ma. is not an every day occurance. My buddy in Blackstone has pictures of a bear this spring ripping his bird feeder down and running off with it.
Anise, right from the supermarket is a cheap scent that they come to everytime ive hunted. I've hunted everything from fermented barley, to donuts, to fish bait to dead beaver carcasses. They always chew on the anise first then hit the baits. Just my findings..from Maine to every province in Canada (except B.C.)where Ive hunted blackies.
Scratch the dirt up around your area clean and look for prints downwind.
thank you guys,how do i know what beachnuts look like?and i have an apple orchard 100 yds from my house that ive shot deer out of so thats perfect,and could you give me more specific details on what to look for in trails,its very leafy so i cant see prints well and deer populate that orchard so they have many trails in and out as well,how can i tell which is deer or bear?thanks
also ive never seen a vid of someone else doing it,but im using a longbow on the ground no blind,i 10-15 yds away
Beech tree images (http://www.google.com/search?q=beech+tree&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=UlX&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1680&bih=835&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=k2tMTpzuJZKTtweK3uSzCg&sqi=2&ved=0CDQQsAQ)
Killdeer
Also, I had a smallish black bear come by my cookshack at twelve yards last year. Just pretend that you are reading, and you'll get your shot! (JK ;) )
I have much the same aspiration as you, though I am not beneath taking one with a sidelock, either. Sweet eating!
Killdeer
killdeer,i cant say ive seen them in my woods but ill keep an eye out,and i am not beneith it either,after all at some point it gets a bit too cold to use the bow lol
Tradhunter,
We've got tons of black bears here in the People's republic. I have bears in my yard several times per week thoughout the spring/summer/fall BUT... we almost never find tracks. Bears feet are large and soft and they rarely leave tracks except in mud. There are much better signs to let you know that you're in bear territory - mostly piles of droppings. Bear scat looks just like racoon droppings but much bigger. If bears are spending any amount of time in an area there will be lots of droppings. Look for fresh damp piles because dry piles can be months old. The other things to look for are large overturned rocks and rotten stumps and logs that are turned over and/or shredded. Bears will also mark their territory by destroying saplings and small to medium sized pine trees. Look for saplings with the branches and often the tops snapped off.
As for trails, bears will often step in the same footprints day after day going to/from a food source or water. These trails can look like they're being made by Kodiak brown bears because after stepping in the same tracks repetedly, the footprints begin to sink into the ground. If you can locate a trail like this and lots of piles of droppings in the same area, you're in the right place! Good luck,
Ron
thank you,i think ill rake some leaves in a game trail so its smooth dirt and see what walking through
Try this....find an old rotten stump. Pour a jar of honey on it. IF at some point the stump becomes a pile of tootpicks you know you have had a bear in the area.
When you walk trails,looking for bear sign,look very closely.As Sharpster said,tracks can be hard to see,but there will be some.Often,a bare track registers as just a pressed spot in the dirt.It looks like you pressed your palm on the ground.If you pay attention,you will notice that most of the dirt's surface will look rather grainy but where a bear steps,it will have that pressed look,like a man with moccasins made it.Deer can't make sign like that.Sometimes you will find young seedling blades of grass pressed down into it.That's not natural.it tells you something has stepped there very recently.In a day or two,that grass will spring back up.
Bears will often skirt the edge of open areas either just inside the treeline or just outside.Sometimes you can make out tracks in lush green grass.It will look like a man walked through it and you can see foot impressions and can get a rough idea of size.You can even tell direction of travel by which way the grass is bent over.
In the summer,bears roll a lot of rocks and tear apart a lot of stumps and logs.Most rocks you find that have been flipped out,were done by bears.Pay attention to any rotten stumps or logs that would likely hold ants.see if they have been rolled or ripped open.
Look for prominent trees along trails that bears may have rubbed on or marked.The bark may just have a slight rubbed appearance or it may have claw marks,bite marks and bark peeled off.If they rub,they leave hair.Look closely.
On the real marker trees,a boar will stand up and claw and bite as high as he can reach to let others know how bad he is.In this country,most I find are on prominent cedars close to the trail and many lean into the trail.If he has been there recently,you will see the ground disrupted where his feet shifted while rubbing his back.Again,look closely.
Bears love thick stuff and sometimes you find bear trails through low hanging brush that you just know deer are not crawling through.The surface of these trails won't be pock marked by deer tracks but will be smooth like a human foot path.
They have to have water daily and in hot weather,need to actually dunk themselves frequently to cool off.They love all water sources but especially beaver ponds.They like to bed in thick,dark,cool places.swamps can be good for this.
This time of year till a couple weeks before hibernation,they will search out every food source and will try to eat every waking minute.Apple trees are bear magnets in early Fall.They will also be hitting white oak acorns and beech nuts if you have them.
You can make a simple dirt sifter out of 1/4" hardware cloth stapled over a wood frame and sift dirt in patches on your trails.They will leave good tracks in that.If you don't have to travel far,you could even dump sand in them.
Reading sign is like CSI work.If he was there,he will leave sign.It may be very subtle but it will be there.Finding sign like that can be as much fun as any other aspect of hunting.
And lastly,investing in a good trail camera can sort out a lot of stuff for you real fast.You can use bait with them but I prefer to read sign and find good places to put them,just like hunting.
(http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a140/jbrandenburg/P1010616.jpg)
That is a 56" bow.You can see a bite mark just above the bow tip app.2' higher.The bark has been clawed and peeled,about 30" above the bow.That was a big boar.
well if im not mistaken i have seen the pad marks,i was coyote hunting and i found a track in a trail where it was two almost circle indents in front and two almost small human like indents in the back,but the tracks werent that clear.and ive been walking in a trail and found my self crawling through a tunnel through thick brush,but i cant be sure if a bear made it,but i will scout today and post what i find,thank you for your input jimB
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj283/jimihendrix1995/201108181223481.jpg)
i took a picture of the front mark,next to my boot for sizing,could you tell me if thats a bear?i will also post a picture taken 4 hours later :thumbsup: FYI this was before i got into trad hunting
well i went in the woods today and found a little bear sign,ill post some pics and id like some input on them,feel free to correct me if some are not bear sign
bear scat(could be old)
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj283/jimihendrix1995/bearpoop.jpg)
possibly bear print?
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj283/jimihendrix1995/0818111505-001.jpg)
bent sappling
(http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj283/jimihendrix1995/0818111421-011.jpg)
Looks like moose sign in the pic. Got any of them in your woods?
i hope so!i cant hunt moose in MA but id sure love to get a look at one,and which sign are you refering to?
A couple years ago my wife spotted some black fur on the trail during her daily dog walk. This is what I found nearby:
(http://gallery.me.com/cxtranslations/100152/IMG_0051/web.jpg?ver=13137097820001)
and in case you didn't get the message:
(http://gallery.me.com/cxtranslations/100152/IMG_0052/web.jpg?ver=13137097850001)
and yep, he was in no hurry to leave:
(http://gallery.me.com/cxtranslations/100152/IMG_0055/web.jpg?ver=13137097940001)
The trees in this location have several years of bite marks on them in some cases. It's a real pleasure to watch the turf being claimed and reclaimed over the years.
QuoteOriginally posted by tradhunter1995:
i hope so!i cant hunt moose in MA but id sure love to get a look at one,and which sign are you refering to?
Pretty much all of them. The bent sapling could be the work of a buck, though.
I talked to a biologist at Mass Div Fish + Wildlife today. Studies bear activity. In Mass, bears are not long residents living in set areas like up north where you can trip into a deep bear trail. He said they are EXTREMELY nomadic, and will hang sporadically in areas, but predominantly are on the move. They have tracked individual bears moving from New Hampshire to southwestern Ma. in very short time.
Your apple orchard sounds great if they are in the area!
Call Ma. Fish and Wildlife, they will fill you in better than me being a middleman.
thank you for doing that,your really helping me out in my dream of killing a bear with my longbow.
The sign I was referring to is the pic of the boot pointing at the turds. Looks kind of like something that came out of a browser. The moose doo doo Ive seen isnt always in the pellet like form. At any rate good luck with the bear, I know theres a mess of them on the NY/MASS border.
if im not mistaken,i saw that poop a few months ago so it pretty old,and ive heard moose calls in my woods and a woman hit a moose on the mass pike 200yds from my house some years ago,it was the first MA moose fatality
also a neighbor told me the guy who hays my orchard saw a bull moose,black bear,and white coyote
If there is standing corn and bears in the area you hunt the bears WIll be hitting it. Maybe not every night but they will be there. Look for the trails in as the bears will go in several (sometimes many more) rows before starting to feed. They know where the good corn is. When the bears hit the corn it looks like a bulldozer drove through the area.Very easy to identify.
Can't wait to hear the outcome of this one. Getting excited!
This bear has been raiding my neighborhood all summer. I found a few trails he uses and sat on one in a ground blind. Today he winded me at 60 yards and parted company. Maybe we'll meet again.
(http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u128/CentMasLEC/th_Bear.jpg) (//%5Burl=http://s167.photobucket.com/albums/u128/CentMasLEC/?action=view¤t=Bear.mp4) ]MA Bear[/URL]
:campfire: