Bears are where you find them

[Oregonhunter5]

You want to shoot a bear??
Go west of Corvallis towards the coast. There 400lb+ bears all over there.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

Now,, the black berry's are ripe.
Bear are a lot like people, after 10am seems to be the time you'll see most of them.
As oregon hunter5 said "look for the black stumps", good advise.
Between the kids and I we've literally taken a few tons of them.

Once you've figured out that you've actually been seeing bear but didn't know it, easy deal.

I prefer to still hunt them, but spot and stalk wins the day with pure numbers of bear seen.

By the way, do you know how long it took to get that bear to hold still for a picture with my Granddaughter ?

 

[Dungannon]

I've always heard that a pic-a-nic basket will bring them in, but that may be just on park land...

I see what you did there Yogi.

 

[Quartermaster]

More than once I've come home from a day shivering in the rain with my rifle in my numb hands and no buck, only to find 6 pointers eating apples in my back yard.

They're there alright. I see furry berry sh¡t all over the place. Problem is they're just never where you can shoot them.

You can legally hunt with silencers in Oregon. All I'm saying.

 

[Member 5605]

oh bubblegum, I just skip down the freaking road wearing a red hoodie and go to grandmothers house. I always see three of those bastards.

actually I've never seen one in my 25 years in the woods.

 

[jbett98]

I was headed up into the hills one fall day to pick some huckleberries near Odell, OR. when I come drifting around a corner in my built up VW bug and find a big black bear taking a dump in the middle of the road.
He looked over his shoulder with surprise and took off way faster then I thought a bear that size could run. As soon as he could, he took a stage left exit straight up a steep hillside without even slowing down.
My Doberman was in the backseat with her head out my window and she made some of weirdest sounds I ever heard come out of a dog. I thought she was going to jump out and tear after that bear while I was still blasting down that gravel road.

 

[Koda]

I mostly see bears when hunting in eastern Oregon. I know they are in western Oregon but I have never personally seen one in 30 years of hunting western Oregon.

But I know they are there cause my trail cam just took a picture of one last month...


sorry, I have no tips on how to hunt them cause I don't. I got one once by luck during deer season (eastern Oregon), he was a beautiful animal and so I decided deer and elk were sufficient for me to hunt. Bear tasted good though.

 

[BillGabby1]

Here in the Illinois Valley, in SW OR Bears are plentiful. They are nuisances to the local vinyards, wine grapes are yummy when ripe.
Several years ago I was keeping an eye on the neighbors property and was walking up to check on it with my faithful Vizsla dog trailing along behind me by a step or 2.
They have a 5 car shop building and just as I was approaching the corner maybe 1 or 2 paces,
she let out the most God awful Roar, I never knew a dog could sound like that, and charged past me and around the corner, by the time I could look to see what was going on I saw her driving a sow with half grown cub at a dead run up the mountain behind our 2 propertys. For the rest of her life she wouldn't let me out of her sight if she was outside with me. I think she may have saved me from a bad situation in a close encounter of the bear kind. I have her photo as my walpaper to this very day!
Another bear story from last week, another sow and cub decided to break into our trash shed, by splitting a 1 1/4" X 5 1/2" by 8 ft board that the cleats that hold the drop bar and sliding bar are attached to. That was a chore I didn't appreciate having to repair. My new repairs are heavier duty than the old ones. We'll see how long they last.
I haven't hunted them but if you have fruit trees near by, that would be a good place to set up a blind as long as the fruit is getting ripe, we have pear and plum trees in our dog yard and last year a medium sized bear broke down the fence getting in or out as well as breaking severaal branches on the mature plum, I saw and scared that bear off as well. More repairs too!
Gabby

 

[Oregonhunter5]

I mostly see bears when hunting in eastern Oregon. I know they are in western Oregon but I have never personally seen one in 30 years of hunting western Oregon.

But I know they are there cause my trail cam just took a picture of one last month...
View attachment 306640

sorry, I have no tips on how to hunt them cause I don't. I got one once by luck during deer season (eastern Oregon), he was a beautiful animal and so I decided deer and elk were sufficient for me to hunt. Bear tasted good though.

Nobody sees bears in western Oregon cause it's thick, and 95% of us aren't patient enough.

 

[The Heretic]

I am sure they are out there - as I mentioned, I've seen their scat around here on the mountain, on my property, even, I think, on my driveway and private road (why bears and coyote feel they need to take dump in the middle of the road when they have thousands of acres of woods to do it in, I don't know).

 

[Oregonhunter5]

I've often wondered why we see crap on roads. My thoughts are, there's a lot of bears, and they crap all the time eating that diet. Very little ever gets crapped on the road though.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

Crap on roads? It's the path of least resistance and it's also easier to notice the scat due to lack of vegetation.

As a side note, all but two bear we have taken have been within 20 miles of the coast and most of have been on blackberry patches.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Any of mine also have been shot in blackberry brambles.
( Or coming from or going into said brambles )
Andy

 

[Oregonhunter5]

Deer hunting is awesome.
Elk hunting is challenging.
Bear hunting is different. And very fun!

 

[The B]

Couple of my most exciting hunting moments have come from bear "hunting"

In particular, the last season I hunted, I was stilling through some brushy, older clearcut.. could move around sorta OK, but visibility was only like 15-50' in any direction.. I heard something LOUD ahead of me behind some brush, and noticed still-steaming bear scat. I happened to have grabbed a bear tag, just for the hell of it - maybe I got it for free for being a vet? Don't remember... whatever the case, my heart-rate jacked up to about 160BPM, I brought my rifle up to high-ready, and I followed the noise, carefully stepping through branches and debris, breath ragged in my throat, sweat pouring off my brow despite probably 40 degree temps, for probably a good solid 45 minutes.

Pretty damn intense..

Never did see what I am assuming was, in fact, a bear... never really got any confirmation it wasn't just a really big, loud, clumsy doe or who knows what... but that fresh berry poop really made me think it was a bear.

Anyway... that's the closest I've ever gotten. It was scary fun. Too bad it didn't end in me capping my first black bear!

Man, I need to put my rifle back together and get out there again this season.. haven't hunted in probably 5-6 years

 

[jbett98]

My neighbor wounded a big male bear last year and after hearing it screaming and tearing up the woods he ran into, nobody in his hunting party would go into the thick brush to try and put it down.
It took more then a hour before he stopped making noise and even then they were afraid to climb down into the thicket to check and see if it was really dead.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

@Ben Beckerich, right now is the best time to go!
It's an odd year in that Salal, apples, blackberrys and chittum have all came to ripeness together for the first time that I can remember.
I've taken them With rifles, bow and handguns but hunting them on the ground with a bow is by far one of the most intense hunts I've ever done.
By the way Ben, thank you for your service Sir.

 

[mrblond]

I hear that in the fall and winter, you can find bears in Chicago. You should look around in the Soldier field area.

 

[salmonriverjohn]

I hear that in the fall and winter, you can find bears in Chicago. You should look around in the Soldier field area.

View attachment 306715

I don't know about that as fact, they seem to be hibernating all season lately

 

[brokenarrow]

I am sure they are out there - as I mentioned, I've seen their scat around here on the mountain, on my property, even, I think, on my driveway and private road (why bears and coyote feel they need to take dump in the middle of the road when they have thousands of acres of woods to do it in, I don't know).

Because if they don't do it in the road the age old question couldn't be answered because most people wouldn't be able to find it...