Bear Calls?

[Bobcat]

OK, all you call makers and bear hunting guru's, what makes a bear call a bear call? How do they differ from an open reed predator call? This fall will be my first bear hunt, so help me flatten the learning curve. I haven't learned anything new so far today, so I need a boost! ;D

Bob

[Bearmanric]

Bobcat I've only called in one that was with a johnny stewart pc7. it is a raspy call .from what i've been told they like raspy sound's. open reed's seem to make a raspy sound's.were I live there's canyon's big canyon's. you need that loud sound to get out. there's alot of closed reed call's I would use. in brushy area's. it's getting them to hear ya. is the big thing you have to keep calling steady like for cougar's. or they lose interest. I'm no expert that's just what I've found out. . Rick

[SLYDOG]

Bobcat,
The better calls will make your head hurt from the sound. Rick is right on track with the non-stop calling, bear will stop comming when you stop blowing and its hard to re-start them once they loose intrest. One thing that I look for is a easy blowing call that is loud as heck and raspyer than anything els that I use. The reason you want a easy blowing call is that you may have to blow on it for some time and when that bear gets there you don't want to be seeing chrisler emblems or be blue in the face from blowing a call that takes alot of air to make the sounds.

Rich C makes the very best bear call I have ever used and I know for a fact that it works... OOO yes and I like them handshake close when I let the 50AE bark, if you are out of breath at that close range its not good.

Remember if you call enough bear in to close range, someday one will eat ya.

sly

[Krustyklimber]

Bob,

I don't have a lot of experience either, but I did manage to get a bear to circle last fall without presenting a shot... boy was I excited, I dunno if I coulda stopped shaking to shoot!
Sounded like a Jeep with a tire rubbin', crashing through the overgrown clearcut... rummph rumphh rumph... with small trees (x-mas tree+ sized) shaking as it went through!

You have two basic calling options, fawn distress type sounds, or bear cub distress types of sounds.
Bear cub distress is said to be more effective, but can sometimes evoke some very aggresive bear response... be ready for that.
You might get more bears to respond than you are allowed to shoot, so a protected position (like a treestand), if possble, is a good idea.

What I did is, I got a wav file of a bear cub, it's from some video tape someplace and the cub has his head stuck in a bucket and is bellerin' like a stuck pig...

I used this and my computer to practice with.
The big thing I found in being able to make that bear cub sound, is you need a huge bell tube.
This can be accomplished a few ways... one buy a Cronk Bear Call, that has a big body and a great sound. Two get some kind of "extension" for the call you have... I kept looking at using a section of a transmission fluid funnel.
The third is to used your hands to make a big closed "air chamber" just like you use one hand ordinarily (but you can't let any sound "leak out" anywhere except your whaaa whaa's).
But this takes two hands (as will most of these wide bodies) and is probably best used with a caller/shooter stand set up.

I was able to make the bear cub sounds equally well with a TnT closed reed, one of my open reed calls, and a production closed reed call

The cadence and cry of a bear cub is unlike the ones we normally use too. A bear cub seems to have a lot more to say... not just waaaa waaaa.
I used the cadence "whee-eere oh where oh-where did my mama go-ooo" and "ohhh I'm sooo sad... so sad... I want my mama" and "when-the-bear coooommmmess, don't for-geeet the safe-ty"
This sounds funny I'm sure, but it helps me sound pitiful, and I'll never forget the safety! And most of all it helps to keep my mind from wandering and focused on trying to watch and still being able to call for an hour, or more.

I need to add "nev-er-never neve-eerr-rr aim-high" ...after my little miss-hap last weekend. LOL

Good luck on the Spring Bears, all of y'all... we gotta wait 'til August, and I'll be ready... I think I'm onto a really big one... well at least one that can leave a really BIG pile. LOL I'm waiting for him to get up and movin so I can find him again.

Krusty

[Bearmanric]

Bobcat I'm going to make you a bear call this week end. so you can play with one. I have a cassette with bear sound's. I'll check it out.when I call bear's I dont do any fancy stuff. I wish Bobmc would see this. it seem's like he's called in a few bear's. Rick

[LoneHowl]

Ive called in a couple of bears her in the Sierra Nevadas. One with a cottontail type call and one with a fawn bleat. Both times I was just cold calling, just because the immediate area looked good, with lots of tracks. Talk about suprised when they show up, thats me.One was right on my back door, the other I could here woofing and coming thru the brush. Kinda scary in the tight quarters I was in. But great fun.

[SLYDOG]

Bobcat,
I've been calling bear with a distress sound for 10 years, The cub distress is by far the best for spring bear hunting. It will call all bear, just remember that the reason the boars come to the sound is to kill the cub so the sow will come fresh and want to breed, the reason the sows come is to protect the cub, either way they come mad as hell and ready to do some damage, You will hear them grunt and hear their jaws snaping quite a ways off and TRUST ME they mean buisness.

Along with my handgun I carry the BIG can of pepper spray,, its your best line of defence at under 15 yards,,, Just get it in their eyes and nose and they are done.

The best method of calling them is to spot and stalk to with in 200 yards, keeping the wind right, set up with a good size tree or rock pile at your back, with ample exiting ability, to put the tree or rock pile between you and the bear. NEVER TRY TO OUTRUN A BEAR... flat out can't be done. The tree stand and calling thing will work but not 1/2 as good as on the ground.

Faun distress will work but with mixed results and primarily in the fall. in the spring it seems to call lots of yotes and that messes up your stand befor you get started.

Of corse there are exceptions to the rule and in the right spot at the right time you could probly call in a bear with a rubber duckie. If you want to have the best chance at tagging a bruin, use the Cronk bear call and be prepaired for hell comming to breakfast.. You have friends,,,, get one you trust with your life to back you up with a 45-70, 444 Marlin, 450 Alaskan, something that will break that bear down in a hurry and don't let it get as close as I do ;D

I'm an adrenalin junkie, I like to swap spit with them just befor I send that 275 grain Barnes MZ into the boiler room. Makes for some interesting campfire chatter and a high that lasts for days.

Get ahold of Rich and order one then call me and I'll walk you through the sounds to make. Then save your money and come hunt Idaho bear with me, if ya got the nads,,,LOL

sly

[BobR]

I have lived with the bears for going on eleven years now. I am around them from April til November every year. We find bear scat in our yard and they sometimes raid our trash cans. I have had five extremely close encounters with bears, but none were life threatening.
Two of those encounters were because I was doing something stupid.
I watched a program on the Discovery Channel six or seven years ago where biologists took newborn cubs out of a den and weighed them. That gave me a brilliant idea. There is a large sow that has had a den for at least eight years up on the hill, just across the creek, about 150 yards from our house.
It was January, so I decided to go up on the hill and video the "sleeping bears" the next day. That was the day that I learned that bears are not "true" hibernators. They are fully aware of what is going on around them when in the den. I almost got my camcorder stuffed in my face.
Bears are much easier to call in the spring. When they come out of the den they are feeding on grasses and vegetation. They will also feed on rotten carcasses left over from lion kills or winter kills. In late spring when the deer fawns and elk calves are hitting the ground, bears are out looking for them. We go up and watch the elk calving every year. I have videos of bears doing systematic searches for newborn calves. It is very obvious what they are looking for. The calves have no scent, and the bears know the calves will just lay there motionless. All they have to do is search for them. My son and I witnessed a big boar killing an elk calf.
Any distress sound that is close to an elk calf or deer fawn will bring the bears in quick in the spring.
Bear cub distress also works best in the spring because the cubs are very small. They are inexperienced and have a knack for getting into trouble.
A few years ago, Dee and I were on a logging road on our ATV's hunting mushrooms in May. I was driving along slowly and looking for good mushroom hunting areas, when I saw a very small bear cub scampering down a slope through the timber straight towards me.
It ran down onto the road and stood up on its hind legs looking at me at five yards. It had never seen or heard a Honda before, and it came to investigate this strange new sound. When Dee pulled up beside me, I reached over and turned off her ATV. Then I pointed at the cub which was still standing there looking at us.
She said, " Oh, isn't it cute, I wonder where its momma is? " I reached into my pocket and pulled out my call and said I would try to call her up. She started screaming, " Don't do that. " That frightened the little cub, and it took off and went up a tree about ten yards uphill from us. Small cubs are unknowlegeable about the dangers in the woods, and momma gets busy feeding and they can wonder away from her because of their curiosity. Momma is always on the alert for danger when she has newborns. In the fall, the cubs are bigger and wiser to the ways of the woods. The bear cub distress will still work, but not as well.
In the fall, food is abundant. Wild berries and fruit are the bears favorite food, and you have to call in areas where these are abundant. A bear will not travel great distances to a distress call, so you have to be somewhat close to them. Almost all of the bears I have called show up in the first half hour. That is why spot and call is a good method. I use loud calls and make frantic desperate cries. I call loud and continuous for a couple of minutes. Then I taper off. I call a few seconds and then pause to listen a few seconds. I have only had one bear get in really close that I did not hear coming. You can hear them even when they are in the "sneak mode". They are big heavy critters with big feet. Even when they are moving slowly and deliberately, you can hear pine needles and leaves crunch. Twigs snap. If you are blowing your brains out with the call, you can't hear these things. Rich Cronk and I were on a bear calling stand together four years ago. I was mixing up fawn distress with bearcub distress on my WT caller. We heard a bear just uphill making slow deliberate steps. We were in heavy timber and the ground was covered with pine needles. We could hear crunch, then silence, crunch, then silence. After a couple of minutes the bear just went away.
I have learned how to get a bear like this to come on in. It is hard to do with an electronic caller, especially if it is out away from you. You have to switch to loud desperate screams and grab a bush and shake the heck out of it. Try to create the illusion of a struggle and the bear will usually commit to coming on in.
Another thing to consider is that any animal, a fawn or whatever, is not going to scream at the top of its lungs for an hour or more. I start off this way then taper off to sound like the distressed critter is getting tired and weak. I call just enough to keep interest but I also like to hear what is going on around me.
Bob

[Bobcat]

......glad I asked!

Man, you guys are a fountain of knowledge! I appreciate all the info!

I will order one of Rich's bear calls before the hunt this fall!

Bob

[Bearmanric]

Got Bobcat's Bear call done It's pretty cool. will take some picture's of it as soon as I can take better picture's. made some extra reed's for it. Bear's will be out in the next couple of week's going to do some calling. take care. Rick

[BobR]

Rick, You make nice calls, Bobcat will like it I am sure. I was hunting elk sheds today and I found a bear den. The bear has not come out yet, but I will be keeping an eye on it. I found a nice big six point elk shed not too far from the den
Bob

[Bobcat]

Hey Rick......What can I say, you da man!!

I know it will be a screamer! ;D

Hey BobR,

I am glad you have been able to get back out there! Don't go pokin' mamma bear on the nose to see how soundly she is sleeping! ;D Congrats on the shed!!

Bob

[BobR]

Bobcat, I don't think this den belongs to a moma bear.
It is one of the biggest dens I have ever found.

Rick, I have been scouting some new country that I have never been into. From the looks of things no one else has been in there either. I have found five elk sheds, all last years antlers. I know there is at least five more in there because I have not found a matched set yet. I am going back in the morning. This years antlers do not start hitting the ground for another week or so. I know you like elk antlers to make calls.
Let me know if you want any of these.

This is the den I found today. the bear has dug a huge hole back into the hillside under the trees.



I found an elk trail down this long ridge that I can ride my Honda down. This will cut down on my walking. The biggest shed I found today is leaning against the tree

[Bearmanric]

Here's a picture of the Bear call I made for bobcat. It's loud.

[Bearmanric]

BobR it's sound like you are having a blast. maybe tomorrow I'll run up to Mt St Helen's to look for Elk horn's. sound's like your having fun as alway's.Good Luck. Rick