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Bear Hunting.

An Outfitters Wife by Cacilia Wardale

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Bear Hunting in Alberta Canada

An Outfitters Wife – Cacilia Wardale

I’d not grown up around hunting, but in the last year it has become a sport I have lived vicariously through my partner and best friend Al. Although I’d grown up spending much of my time outdoors, the dream of a chance at a beautiful blonde bear has been born recently of hearing hunting tales and experiences from Al. I decided to borrow this sport as I wanted to try this new sport and exciting test of nerves for myself!

Following my Hunter Education course this past winter, and much time at the range in early spring, I got my first hunting license, and obtained two bear tags. We were going Bear Hunting! Our first day out showed 6 bears, including a sow with three cubs but the evening ended without a shot fired. An day later that week though turned out much more interesting. The kind of evening I’d always heard about over roaring campfires…

Our first stalk on a feeding bear ended with the bear losing patience and slipping back into the woods and with us beside a borrow-pit encircled with aspen. While hoping for the black to return, we listened to beavers slapping tails feverishly in the water 50 yards away, and figured that there was either a bear or wolves at the pond. While walking in, a grey wolf flashed passed in the dense tangle of willow about 10 yards away followed by another! We caught glimpses through the trees, and since I hadn’t yet the courage to make a shot on a running wolf, Al worked his way to the borrow-pit while I went back to the trail. After a few minutes of waiting I finally watched as the wolves made their way back across the trail and off into the brush on the other side, glancing curiously at me as they did. A first encounter for me!

Alberta Black bear Hunting

Cacilia Wardale with an Alberta Bear Limit!

Not long after that through, we spotted another black at 400 yards and feeding towards us. With the wind in our face, we snuck closer and moved single-file when the bears head was down. At 200 yards we decided that was as good as it was going to get, but the bear was still feeding closer. We watched and waited and the bear closed to 150 yards. From a crouched position, I steadied my rifle on Al’s forearm as he held the shooting stick low and braced for the shot. Coached to “break its shoulder”, I fired when the bear turned broadside, sending the bear into the air and running for the woods, jumping a 6’ wide creek in the process. I had been terrified of the kick of the rifle as well as the blast, but with the blood rushing through my ears and my heart pounding it all happened so swiftly I couldn’t believe it was over. We found the bear just inside the woods, dead and with one broken shoulder, “shot perfectly” as Al would say. Although slightly rubbed, the bear squared 5 ½ feet and a fine first animal. One of the best things for me was hearing the love of my life and long time hunter giggle gleefully with pride and amazement as we packed the bear out of the woods. Already a perfect evening and yet we elected to load the bear up whole and keep going as there was plenty of hunting left in the evening. And we were right….

10 minutes passed after we got moving again, and we spotted another black bear at 350 yards. We got out and moved to a better vantage point to deliberate, and as we watched, a blonde colored black bear surfaced from a depression, feeding towards us at 75 yards! I was so excited and couldn’t help jumping out of my skin at having found my blonde on only my second day! We deduced that it wasn’t a grizzly, although the color could have been, and Al told me it was just the color I’d hoped for. He was sure right about that! Using my forked shooting stick again, I fired, hitting the bear on the near shoulder, and exiting on the neck as the bear held its head low, facing away. It dropped in an instant and never moved. A beautiful bear, taken again with one shot from my .270. The exceptional colored bear was right on 5’, no rubbing and will make a beautiful mount.

We loaded the second bear and drove to a quiet spot to swat mosquitoes and skin them out. I couldn’t help giggling to myself “first time hunter, one-shot kills…” Al said he wished all his clients shot this well.

I really enjoyed my first experience with hunting, and feel good about the way I went about it. Al was there throughout the experience and coaching towards success, but the choices and end results were ultimately my own. This sport that I “borrowed” is full of rewards for those that participate and I feel lucky to have taken part. I think this is one borrowed item that shouldn’t be returned, but is best when shared.

Al & Cacilia Wardale run Moose Country Outfitting in Alberta Canada and offer Black Bear Hunting in the Peace River area. You can get more information on Alberta Black Bear Hunting by following this link.

The Bear Hunting Blog

How to Bait Bears And What To Use

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How to Bait Bears And What To Use By Naomi K. Shapiro

By Naomi K. Shapiro

Bear baiting is a “tricky subject.” Rules and regs vary greatly from state-to-state, and indeed, can vary from year to year – even season to season. Be cautious, and check out your state or area regulations carefully before baiting. In a previous article we mentioned that you want to start baiting in early spring. In Wisconsin, that means after April 14th – - not earlier, and you can’t bait from the day after the previous bear season closes until April 14. But that’s Wisconsin. Your state or area may very well be different. We can’t overemphasize the need for strict adherence to baiting regulations. It’s tough enough getting a bear tag, and you don’t want to jeopardize your bear hunting status by “dissing” the regs. What we’re going to do is tell you generic methods of baiting which you can readily adapt to your own local bear regulatory system. The regulations and requirements we cite are for WISCONSIN.

Please remember that I lived in far Northwestern Wisconsin for 15 years, on a lake, right in the middle of a national forest. As far as I know, this particular area still has the largest per-acre black bear population in North America. And yes it is true – the largest “on-the-hoof-before-dressing-out” black bear I’ve ever seen came in at 675 pounds. So there are some “biggies” out there. And while I personally don’t care for bear as a food, my husband and many others love it. He describes the taste as “delicate, sweet pork.”

In Cheesehead Land (Wisconsin), you can’t use more than ten gallons of bait at any one site. The bait itself must be totally concealed and closed, with rocks, or natural logs over it. The reason for this is to insure that deer can’t get at the bait (deer baiting is prohibited in many areas anyway).

Your bait cannot contain any animal parts or animal residue. That means no meat, no bones, or fish, solid or liquid animal fat, bacon grease, or any animal carcass part; and, NO HONEY!

The bait station itself must be ALL NATURAL. No metal, glass, boxes, plastics, or containers. Nothing that has been humanly-processed.

As to the baits themselves: We use one of two sources, and, I repeat from previous articles – we try to champion the use of the least expensive methods possible. In these economic times, if you can save a buck, “go for it!” And saving money doesn’t mean you’re going to be any less successful than the person who spends a lot. Indeed, you’ll probably do better.

Hunting Black Bear over Bait

Go to a local bakery or grocery store. Get outdated pastries, doughnuts, buns, old bread — whatever. And, friends, we promise you that there are usually places that will give you this stuff FREE. You can also go to an area bait dealer who specialize in baits — including bear. Use some of this stuff to complement and enhance the “freebies”. Legal things like cinnamon chips, different flavors of frosting — lots of stuff. If you keep your bait different or “fresh”, you’ll keep the black bearsinterested and saying to themselves: “Wonder what I’ll find today?” We won’t go to McDonald’s every day; we want a change of pace — so we try Burger King or Hardee’s. Bears are the same. And what this “different bait” approach also does is prevent another hunter who may start a bait station just a couple of weeks before the season opens from “glomming” your “bear faithful” to his bait station, just because his stuff is new and different, as opposed to your “same-old-same-old.” Keep your bait station changing — and start baiting as early as the laws in your particular state or area allow you to do so.

We also make our own concoctions, which have proven extremely successful. Get a lot of old bread, put it in a five gallon drum, and mix in molasses, or a cherry or butterscotch-flavored syrup, then dump it all in a bait station hole and cover it. Then douse the whole “covering” with liquid smoke (which is legal — scent or liquid doesn’t have to be covered). This scent diffuses through the whole woods – and you can smell it a hundred yards from the bait station – and if you can smell it a hundred yards away, a black bear will pick up the scent a quarter of a mile away! The bears will be attracted to the spot, and voila, they’ll discover your bait.

By the way, you don’t have to use ten gallons at any one site, even though it may be legal to do so. Five gallons at any one site is more than enough. Don’t overdo. You’ll save money, effort, time, and accomplish the same things.

So, grilled “bear chops,” anyone? Yummm!

-(Phil Schweik of Hooksetters Guide Services contributed to this article).

Source: ForemostHunting.com by Naomi K. Shapiro
The Bear Hunting Blog

Tips For Black Bear Hunting Success

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Hunting Black Bear

Tips for Bear Hunting Success by Naomi K. Shapiro

By Naomi K. Shapiro

Bear hunting is quite different from most other hunting. You’ve got to mentally come in with a clean slate as to what you want to do to ensure your chances of maximum success. First off, you start your hunt months in advance. You do your scouting. You check out population density, stuff like that; and that is like most other hunting. But that’s often where the similarity ends.

With bear hunting you prep and bait your stand area. With bear, you want them to pattern you and that’s the total opposite what you do for other game, particularly deer. You want the bear or bears you’re targeting to get used to coming in to your bait station, and in close proximity to where your stand is located. You want to make sure the bear comes in every day, and that everything is always the same. You make sure your bait station is ready at the same time every day. You make sure that your bear uses the same path, same approach, same everything. This is the exact opposite of deer hunting.

When you get to your stand, bang on your tree; put the cover on your bait and the logs or whatever concealment you use back exactly the same way. Get the bear comfortable. The bear knows you’re there and gets used to you being there. And believe it or not that bear will come in to your bait station every single day, at the same time! Indeed, a bear will to come to your bait station within 10-15 minutes of your leaving, and that’s what you want.

OK, it’s the day you’re going to hunt. Bring along an extra person with you; family member, hunting pal, or friend. You’re going to do the hunting, and this other person is going to help you get started. When you get to your bait stand, you have your friend rebait the pile, while you climb the tree. That conceals the noise of your climbing up the tree. Don’t kid yourself, you will make noise and that can spook the bear. He’s not used to someone climbing up a tree. They’ve got superb hearing and smell. After you’re in your stand, and your partner has rebaited the station, that person leaves.

And what does that do? A lot! The bear hears you come in and also hears you leave. Except the person who left wasn’t you! That way the bear is totally relaxed and comes in within 10-15 minutes, just like always. On paper what I’ve just said sounds real good, and it does work, but some days a bear just won’t come in. What you need to do is play the wind when bear hunting… big time. You see the bear has one of the best noses in the woods. That’s how it found your bait in the first place. Bring a spray bottle of bear attractant scent with you, and spray it around yourself and your stand at different intervals. What this does is it keeps the scent aroma going out into the woods, while still concealing your scent. Many bear hunters lose their chance, when for whatever reason the wind direction suddenly changes, and instead of being upwind form the bear, you’re downwind, and that’s not good. Using this scent technique will at least provide you with some cover if the wind does change. And of course, you want to make sure that your stand is situated in such a way that from what you’ve scouted, you know will be in an upwind situation regarding the direction the bear is coming in to your bait station. You may indeed have to change your stand position, if you find that the initial site becomes downwind to where a bear is coming in.

What you need to do, particularly if you’re a bow hunter is bring the bear in to within 20 yards of your stand. Believe it or not, a bear kill zone is very small, and you must be accurate with your shot. With a rifle, you can be successful at 50 to even 70 yards or so, depending on your line of sight, and of course accounting for trees & brush and the like that may hinder or block your line of sight.

Novice bear hunters don’t realize the need to be mentally prepared to suddenly see a big bear within a few yards of where they’re located. People don’t see a lot of bears in real life. You’d better be mentally ready to see a bear standing right in front of you without any warming. You might think this wouldn’t freak you out, but it can, and often will. And while all of those “bear horror attack” TV programs or movies are not always accurate, those images might be ingrained in your mind. One big thing is that you often will not hear a bear coming. As big as they are, they’re very quiet in their approach. Be prepared mentally. It will help a lot.

Source:  ForemostHunting.com by Naomi K. Shapiro
The Bear Hunting Blog

Black Bear Dog Food Recipe

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Dog Food

Black Bear Dog Food Recipe

Black Bear Meat- A Healthy, Natural Dog Food.

Black Bears are abundant in the province of BC, but for most hunters the meat isn’t something they are interested in eating, and quite frankly I don’t really have a taste for bear meat either. Having been in on a recent black bear hunt my friend was not interested in processing the meat, so he gave it to me under the premise I would use it to make a natural and healthy food for my dog.

Bear Meat is safe for humans when cooked to specific temperatures, so I really couldn’t see any reason that it wouldn’t be fit for my dog, when cooked properly.

I hit up Google and started looking for some basic dog food recipes, and what to include for veggies and the like:

  • Bear Meat
  • Carrots
  • Mixed Grain Rice
  • Celery
  • Sweet Potatoes

It seemed to be widely suggested that you mix your meat and veggies in a 4:1 ratio. 4-Parts meat, to 1-Part veggies.

The process was pretty simple as goes as follows.

1. Cut up bear meat. I took my time and cut most the fat off the meat and then trimmed it into thin strips that would easily fit into my Waring Pro meat grinder.
2. Cut up veggies (Carrots/Sweet Potatoes/Celery) and put in big pot of boiling water. Boil till they are somewhat soft.
3. Prepare Rice – I bought a big bag of mixed grain rice from Costco. I think I used about 6-cups of rice and the appropriate amount of water.
4. Grind up meat.
5. Put meat in pot and boil outside! – I let mine go for about 3 hours, and there was 40lbs of meat or so in the first batch.
6. Once meat is cooked, stir in veggies and rice. Let cool.
7. Once cooled, scoop into Ziploc bags or containers of some kind and freeze.

Your average back bear should easily provide 200+ lbs of natural, healthy dog food that your pet will love. Your only problem is going to be finding freezer space!

Source:  BC Hunting Blog
The Bear Hunting Blog