Bear hunting

Can you elaborate? Any info helps me as well!! I plan on hunting 3.5 solid days over the holiday weekend
Since Tony has not replied my only mistake was saying no bear in southern CA. I should of said San Diego county.
The big male bears tear up the trees marking their territory.
Warning smaller bears. Seen this first hand. And seen bear dens first hand. Bears like freebie meals. That's why other states permit bait. California does not.
But this is hint. To look for areas
Close to camp grounds with legal hunting. Campers attract bears.
 
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Since Tony has not replied my only mistake was saying no bear in southern CA. I should of said San Diego county.
The big male bears tear up the trees marking their territory.
Warning smaller bears. Seen this first hand. And seen bear dens first hand. Bears like freebie meals. That's why other states permit bait. California does not.
But this is hint. To look for areas
Close to camp grounds with legal hunting. Campers attract bears.
I’m in a bit of a unique situation...I have a bear tag on Tejon ranch where I hunt pigs. I’m on a lot of track and some scat but it seams like there fairly nocturnal...I’ve been staying up really high glassing down into the traffic areas I’ve marked hoping to catch one out in the open long enough to put a stock in...
 
In the beginning of the summer Archery season for them... Find a place where some water sticks around in a pool they can dunk themselves in. They'll go to those pools first thing in the morning after they wake up. Quite groggy too, I might add. Also pay attention to the content of the scats. Like sometimes at the beginning of the bear archery season late august they'll have a TON of choke-cherry pits in their scat. So find places where there's still a bunch of the choke-cerries for them to scarf down. Those things taste really good too. In shady water-way areas find places where raspberries and blackberry vines grow and have some fruit on them. Be advised, they have very sharp pokeys in them that can be harsh on your clothing, and they grow about waist high some places.

Right about now though.... they are probably at places where a ton of fat green acorns are falling like crazy. And you're going to have to definitely pay attention to the wind and make sure wherever you take your sit spot at is downwind of where you think they'll be approaching in from. Them and many deer will be smart and go foraging for these acorns at places alongside roads and trails where the droppings of several trees roll down steep slopes and converge together on the road/trail for easier pickin's.
 
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I’m in a bit of a unique situation...I have a bear tag on Tejon ranch where I hunt pigs. I’m on a lot of track and some scat but it seams like there fairly nocturnal...I’ve been staying up really high glassing down into the traffic areas I’ve marked hoping to catch one out in the open long enough to put a stock in...

North of bear trap canyon. We used to see bears every time we would go in The deep shaded canyons that had water troughs or ponds. Not sure if they stay in those areas during the fall though. We also saw a couple at the top of bear trap canyon
 
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I'm going out next week to try to bag a late season bear for 4-5 days in the backcountry.

Even getting up towards the south Sierras/bears' southernmost CA range, the winters are much milder than in the Rockies proper. Bears hibernate when it gets cold AND there's no more food for them to find. Just being winter isn't enough, there needs to be snow and a fair bit of it, as long as there's food and water they'll keep eating. I've talked to some hunters out here who say there are often years when the bears don't hibernate at all (speaking to areas closer to us, I'm sure Norcal is different).

Regarding WHERE to go to hunt them, they're literally everywhere (once you go away from SD haha). Low country, high country, scree country, high desert, timber. I'd go where the bears have the least access to people if you want to eat the meat. A bear that's made his summer digging through campsite/town trash is going to taste like trash. A bear that's been eating berries and acorns is going to be the best meat you've ever had. Keep in mind that when "the west was won" - people killed bear for the meat, and killed deer for the market. Also find water and stick close to it. Large predators don't have the luxury of going many days without drinking water like deer can. They need to drink from a source pretty much daily especially when they're hyperphagic (ravenous to fatten up before the food gets covered with snow), and will tend to be closer to water than deer.

Don't forget to brush your teeth while out there. Bears love mint :D
 
I'm going out next week to try to bag a late season bear for 4-5 days in the backcountry.

Even getting up towards the south Sierras/bears' southernmost CA range, the winters are much milder than in the Rockies proper. Bears hibernate when it gets cold AND there's no more food for them to find. Just being winter isn't enough, there needs to be snow and a fair bit of it, as long as there's food and water they'll keep eating. I've talked to some hunters out here who say there are often years when the bears don't hibernate at all (speaking to areas closer to us, I'm sure Norcal is different).

Regarding WHERE to go to hunt them, they're literally everywhere (once you go away from SD haha). Low country, high country, scree country, high desert, timber. I'd go where the bears have the least access to people if you want to eat the meat. A bear that's made his summer digging through campsite/town trash is going to taste like trash. A bear that's been eating berries and acorns is going to be the best meat you've ever had. Keep in mind that when "the west was won" - people killed bear for the meat, and killed deer for the market. Also find water and stick close to it. Large predators don't have the luxury of going many days without drinking water like deer can. They need to drink from a source pretty much daily especially when they're hyperphagic (ravenous to fatten up before the food gets covered with snow), and will tend to be closer to water than deer.

Don't forget to brush your teeth while out there. Bears love mint :D
Awesome right up, thanks for the info.
LB
 
I'm going out next week to try to bag a late season bear for 4-5 days in the backcountry.

Even getting up towards the south Sierras/bears' southernmost CA range, the winters are much milder than in the Rockies proper. Bears hibernate when it gets cold AND there's no more food for them to find. Just being winter isn't enough, there needs to be snow and a fair bit of it, as long as there's food and water they'll keep eating. I've talked to some hunters out here who say there are often years when the bears don't hibernate at all (speaking to areas closer to us, I'm sure Norcal is different).

Regarding WHERE to go to hunt them, they're literally everywhere (once you go away from SD haha). Low country, high country, scree country, high desert, timber. I'd go where the bears have the least access to people if you want to eat the meat. A bear that's made his summer digging through campsite/town trash is going to taste like trash. A bear that's been eating berries and acorns is going to be the best meat you've ever had. Keep in mind that when "the west was won" - people killed bear for the meat, and killed deer for the market. Also find water and stick close to it. Large predators don't have the luxury of going many days without drinking water like deer can. They need to drink from a source pretty much daily especially when they're hyperphagic (ravenous to fatten up before the food gets covered with snow), and will tend to be closer to water than deer.

Don't forget to brush your teeth while out there. Bears love mint :D

They also love garlic potatoes. If you are back packing cook some up at camp! Lol joking aside I did that once to be woken up being nudged by a bear nose in the middle of the night while camping. I was 12 and it scared the shit out of me but taught me a valuable lesson about bear country.
 
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The pool guy... was telling me... his Dad would tell him... that you fry up a big ol' batch of Bacon.

Then... you go on a hike-in within the area you believe there to be bears in.

You keep on hiking in, at a relaxed pace, leisurely munching on that bacon the whole way in.

Then... where ever it is you arrive to when ya run out of bacon. You chill out there a while, BUT get your gun at the ready.

After waiting there however long you care to, start back-tracking your steps, the idea being that by this point, the bear is hunting for you.

Can't say I've personally ever had the balls to try it. But I have to admit the logic and reasoning behind it makes sense to me.

I'd have to imagine touching on trees as you pass them would help too no doubt, HA!
 
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Hold up.... so does that mean a person never actually gets completely cured from trichinosis? Cause Rinella said he has the calcified cysts still !!

That would suck big time because I'd imagine if you ever got very ill again from something else... those cysts could conceivably open up at a later time when your system is compromised and the larvae start to figure they need to find a new host pronto, no?
 
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Hold up.... so does that mean a person never actually gets completely cured from trichinosis? Cause Rinella said he has the calcified cysts still !!

That would suck big time because I'd imagine if you ever got very ill again from something else... those cysts could conceivably open up at a later time when your system is compromised and the larvae start to figure they need to find a new host pronto, no?
Doesn't appear to. But I had the same question. I heard of people eating pork with the same issues.
 
That's why you have to be sure to cook it well enough... so the heat can penetrate and denature the walls of those cysts so that the larvae become cooked as well. As long as it's cooked, your body is not going to care that some extra protein is coming from larvae instead of bear.
 
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