Baiting far From Home

[Cedarsavage]

I'm thinking about hunting an area about an hour and 15 from my house and a 1-2 mile hike in. I was thinking of baiting 1-2x week. I can't use barrels in the area I'm looking at. Would that volume and frequency keep them in the area or would it all be gone in one day? My wife can help me carry in bait once on the weekend, so we can probably get 25 gallons at each spot once a week, and 15 once, total no more than 40 gallons a week. Seems like a big undertaking with the drive and loading bait etc. Otherwise I can hunt within 10 minutes of my house, but there's some hound pressure, a fair amount of bird hunting pressure, and the biggest deterrent is that time of year the winds are always swirling in that area; makes it darn near impossible to keep the wind your face. They're different units on a draw tag so I can't hunt both in the same season. What do you experienced bear guys think? I think the longer drive and hike in spot has much better potential as far as animal size, and hunt quality but the logistics will probably be tough, considering baiting from August 10th to September 16th.

 

[Chris S]

Totaling up gas and hours spent driving round trip to farther spot adds up quick. When I had a MI tag I ended up paying a guy I found through an add I put in local paper. It was still cheaper and he baited regularly. I ended up buying 50 gal barrels of granola from a supplier and dropped it off up there. That was in 2001 now you can put add online or Craigslist may be able to find someone local or a high school kid looking for beer money to help you at the cost of your gas money. Good luck.

 

[Bryan B]

I would try very hard to find some bait sites close to where you live. Try to find some kind of natural barriers so bears can’t circle easily. By baiting close to home you can bait more often and you know it will get done right and on the schedule you determine. You could also hunt more often. I’d be leery of having someone bait for me that I didn’t know well and trust. If you can’t find good bait sites close to home then do the drive.

 

[Wassid82]

I have a bear bait with 3 other guys. I don't think I would do it anyother way. I live 90 minutes from our cite but we rotate who baits on which day an we do it 3-4 days a part. It allows for us to stay married and not lose our jobs. one way to make the bait "last Longer" is to use lots of oil. and throw it everywhere around the bait. on the tree bark and ground. that way the bear track the sent with them for long distances. that keeps more bears coming in throughout the season. good luck

 

[LK2HNT]

my bait station is about an hour and fifteen minutes away. Yeah it sucks but to get away from others is worth it. Its about a mile or so hike back in also. I strap a 50LB bag of dogfood on my freight pack, grab my rifle and a 5 gallon bucket with stinky shit in it and just get to walking. I did that AT LEAST once a week and sometimes twice (once to re-bait and once to sit all night weekly). It got old after 2 months of having bears coming in but never when I was sitting. It got a little pricey driving a 6.0 Silverado all those miles, but the experience I gained and that beautiful black bear rug hanging from my wall over the fireplace makes it so goddamn worth it. The struggle makes the prize that much sweeter.

 

[Islanderflyer]

Last fall I baited a spot 3 hours from my house. I tried to get there twice a week and had bear come in. Put out as much food as you can with each trip.
A couple problems made me decide to try for a tag closer to home from now on. First, when you put out a ton of food, most of it gets eaten by other critters and it gets wasteful if you can'tuse barrels. Second, the big bears would only come in at night. They are smart and knew that they didn't have to risk it during daylight since there was so much food. Its better to put a little out each day so they have to compete for it. That makes them come out during shooting hours.

 

[LK2HNT]

Last fall I baited a spot 3 hours from my house. I tried to get there twice a week and had bear come in. Put out as much food as you can with each trip.
A couple problems made me decide to try for a tag closer to home from now on. First, when you put out a ton of food, most of it gets eaten by other critters and it gets wasteful if you can'tuse barrels. Second, the big bears would only come in at night. They are smart and knew that they didn't have to risk it during daylight since there was so much food. Its better to put a little out each day so they have to compete for it. That makes them come out during shooting hours.

Shooting hrs............Im lucky because here in Alaska its shooting hrs in summer almost all night I shot my bear about 2 AM and could see it fine, not sunny out but twilight

 

[AK McF]

Your not crazy! We bait three hours away and we try to see the barrel once a week until they hit it. Once they’re on it we get out there at least twice a week.


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[Unclemoe]

last year I got my first bear tag in Wisc and i live in Illinois, I drove 4.5 hours each way every 3 days for 2 months to bait, and the bears were hitting the site like clockwork until 3 day before season and then i never saw another bear..... couple more years and ill have the points to do it all over again! sure i could pay someone to bait for me or paid a guide and both would probly be cheaper when you pay for bait gas and time, but its not about whats cheaper or easier most times.

 

[Nick Muche]

I bait one spot that is 3 hours from home and another that's closer to 6 hours. It's a lot of work, I bait the closer one 2 times a week when things are going well. The only reason I do it is because the hunting is incredible and it's worth the ass pain of driving. An hour is not bad at all!

 

[LK2HNT]

I bait one spot that is 3 hours from home and another that's closer to 6 hours. It's a lot of work, I bait the closer one 2 times a week when things are going well. The only reason I do it is because the hunting is incredible and it's worth the ass pain of driving. An hour is not bad at all!

Hmm a 6 hr drive from Fairbanks area would put you in my neck of the woods assuming you drove South. Nick I better not catch you or Tyler on my Turf or its lights out!!

 

[jasonwidaho]

I think the biggest question is how many bears your feeding. I use a 50 gallon drum and typically get anywhere from 5-8 bears on it a week. You want a good way to make sure the bears have to work at it a bit. If its too easy they can eat through bait really quickly. They usually have every scrap eaten easily within a week (sometimes they have it all gone in 3 days) and if you run out of food you may not see them again for awhile and the bait will last a bit longer because it takes a bit for them to come back. The other question is are you trying to hunt the bait from a treestand or is the area open enough for spot and stalk. Just having the bait helps get bears in the area and if you cant bait it consistently enough to keep them on the bait you might still have opportunity spot and stalk. I would try to bait every five days at a minimum to have the best odds of continuously attracting bears to the bait. If that isn't plausible it doesn't mean baiting will be a waste of time all it means is your odds may potentially decrease. Doing whatever your capable of is better than nothing. Things have come up to were I didnt get to the bait like I would have wanted but have still been successful. I would add dont be afraid to pick up and move if your not getting the results you want or the bears are being to finicky. I have had situations when the bears have been predominately coming in at night switched to a spot about a mile or two away and I swear I got the same bears but they started coming in during shooting hours regularly. Even if your not successful just seeing them on camera when you are not there is worth it.

 

[Cedarsavage]

It’s fairly flat and incredibly thick here. I think I’ve decided on a unit that I live in. One spot I can drive to in 5 minutes and take a 20 minute boat ride too. I’ll check it out once the ice is out. Trouble I’d see with once a week here is we can’t use barrels except private and state. The area in question is federal,no barrel allowed

 

[Nate Akers]

Its a long way to go and a lot of work. Depends on how hardcore you wanna be.....