Bear Baiting Tips from Team BoarMasters

Our team has baited bears for nearly 3 decades, We have learned a lot about what it takes to kill a trophy bear. Below are a few of those tips.

LOCATION

• Search your area, find old, deep and dark forests. Looks for big old timber, moss on trees, Bears crave thick dark areas for comfort, away from roads but near water and food sources.
• Placing your bear bait on ridges or valleys is personal opinion.  Some prefer valley’s to fill the area with scent, some prefer ridges to make the scent travel. Both ideas are fine the main thing is to have areas the bears can access easy without exposure, and you can access without disturbing large areas of the forest. The easier you can move in and out when baiting the better.

     QUICK TIP:

• Stay away from ATV trails, roads, and popular camping areas. Busy weekends in the woods will slow the bear bait activity, and that is usually the time you will be hunting the baits. The less human access and travel the better.

CONTAINERS

• Some states allow barrels, and some don’t.  Know the baiting laws for your state. If you can use a barrel I do recommend it.  It will keep the bear bait dry, and helps to keep smaller critters from eating all the bait. Small hole in center only large enough for the paw is all you need.   Plastic or metal bait barrels are fine, Plastic is lighter but some states don’t allow plastic.  See our building a bait barrel video for more info.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT TO USE FOR BEAR BAIT 

• Bears are scavengers and will eat almost anything. They do prefer lots of sweets. Donuts, candies, cookies, flavored popcorn, anything super sweet! Check out our BoarMasters feed additive. Its 100+ times sweeter than sugar and will super charge your bland baits with a super addictive sweetness they cannot resist. Simply pour a little on your bland breads, popcorns, grains, granola, feed mixes, dogfood or anything you want to super charge with sweetness.
• Use a lot of syrups and oil for pouring on the ground. The more tracking scent the better. The bears step in the sticky oils and makes trails all over the forest for more bears to follow. This drives more bears to your baits.

WHATS NEXT

• Once your bait is set, put out as much scent as possible and leave it for a week.   If its not hit after a week put out more scent, Walk around a 200 or more yard radius spraying bear attractants everywhere,  hang scent rags, and wicks.  Get as much bear attractant out as possible.   The BoarMasters 32oz bear spray attractants are great for this.  You can spray high in the trees for better scent drift. 

SET UP YOUR AREA

• Set your area, ground blinds or tree stands are great.  Set up so they are easy to access without crossing the bait site. Bait in mornings, come back in evenings and head right to the stand. Do NOT go to the bait before the hunt. keep your scent out of the bait area on hunting days or nights.

BEAR ATTRACTANTS DRAW BEARS TO YOUR BAIT 

• Here at BoarMasters we offer some excellent bear attractants to start bait sites and really get the area saturated with an over powering scent that bears love.  Our Bear attractants are extremley powerful, they lure bears for miles, non-evaporative formula, waterproof bear attractants that really stick and bears love. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HUNTING BEARS 

• Big bears will come in seconds before dark. Get into the bait site around 3 p.m. And sit until dark. Do not leave early as those last few minutes are key to harvesting a big bear. Be consistent. Keep the area full of fresh scent each time your hunt. We also have convenient spray attractants for this to help on nights you hunt. The fresher you can keep the scent the better. Reapply each night you hunt.
• Rubber boots also are great when baiting and hunting. Helps keep the human scent down and don’t leave trails alerting the bears that your in the area.

SHOT PLACEMENT

• Shot placement on a bear can be a little tricky. Please take a look at this shot placement chart before. Practice, practice, practice!  Rule of Thumb is MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE.  Cut a bear in half length wise and in half vertical.  Aim for middle of the middle.  
• That is all for this quick tip section. We have mounds of information for hunting and baiting bears. Feel free to search through our website for even more good bear hunting and baiting articles