Cheaper Ecaller for spring bear

[freediver111]

Living in OR, we can’t bait or use hounds.
My buddies and I drew some Eastern OR spring tags, but they aren’t great tags with low success. There are bears around, just not as open as some Snake River units and harder to spot them.

I usually stick to the Snake area, but just didn’t have the ability to take any time off this year so decided to stick closer to home.

So that being said, I’m thinking an ecaller might be a good addition for this hunt.
I don’t really do any coyote hunting so this call won’t get used much, therefore trying to stay lower budget.

Looking at the ICOtec GC300 Gen2 caller. Has only 12 sounds, but the basic rabbit and fawn in distress calls are there. Plus it can do two sounds at once like a coyote on a wounded fawn.

Thoughts? Will that be good enough for some spring bear hunting? For $80 it gets a lot of good reviews and seems like it will fit my needs.

Never done any bear calling so that will be new. Always just did spot and stalk. Hoping the ecaller idea and sticking to some burned units will give me a decent shot.


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[JohnnyB]

Not sure about Oregon but make sure to check and see if electronic calling is legal for bears. The states I hunt bear in do not allow electronic callers so I use some mouth calls.

Edit: It doesn’t look like Oregon comments on electronic calls in the e-regs. Good luck!

 

[freediver111]

Not sure about Oregon but make sure to check and see if electronic calling is legal for bears. The states I hunt bear in do not allow electronic callers so I use some mouth calls.

Edit: It doesn’t look like Oregon comments on electronic calls in the e-regs. Good luck!

It’s a legal method.


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[slick]

Interested in this method as well. Would love to try and pop one with the 10mm after calling it in

 

[swampokie]

Living in OR, we can’t bait or use hounds.
My buddies and I drew some Eastern OR spring tags, but they aren’t great tags with low success. There are bears around, just not as open as some Snake River units and harder to spot them.

I usually stick to the Snake area, but just didn’t have the ability to take any time off this year so decided to stick closer to home.

So that being said, I’m thinking an ecaller might be a good addition for this hunt.
I don’t really do any coyote hunting so this call won’t get used much, therefore trying to stay lower budget.

Looking at the ICOtec GC300 Gen2 caller. Has only 12 sounds, but the basic rabbit and fawn in distress calls are there. Plus it can do two sounds at once like a coyote on a wounded fawn.

Thoughts? Will that be good enough for some spring bear hunting? For $80 it gets a lot of good reviews and seems like it will fit my needs.

Never done any bear calling so that will be new. Always just did spot and stalk. Hoping the ecaller idea and sticking to some burned units will give me a decent shot.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have an icotec GC300 new in box for 50$ tyd. Great call

 

[Saylean]

Ultimate Predator Calls app for iOS or Android. 5 bucks. Just push it to a Bluetooth speaker, done deal.

 

[mooster]

Ultimate Predator Calls app for iOS or Android. 5 bucks. Just push it to a Bluetooth speaker, done deal.

I downloaded it but it won’t play very loud, even on a Bluetooth speaker. Did you have that experience?

 

[Wrench]

What bluetooth speakers are you guys using that are LOUD?

 

[syoungs]

That Icotec will get it done. If you keep your eyes open you may be able to find a used call with a better remote and sounds for not much more. I paid 90$ for a FoxPro inferno.

Swampokie's offer would get you going pretty easy, for a good price. I would think you would have more then 40-50$ wrapped up in a Bluetooth speaker and app. When I tried it thru Bluetooth I was never happy with the voume, plus the fact that any system noise will end up going through the speaker. I would hate to ruin a hunt because some inadvertent "ding" popped up!

 

[Islanderflyer]

Look at the foxpro patriot. Really happy with mine and you can order it with sounds that you want from the factory.

 

[BackcountryBloodline]

Personally I would just use a hand call, in my experience calling bears isn't like calling yotes or bobcats. If one is going to respond you'll generally know within a minute or two at the most and there's not much point continuing to sit that spot, just move on unless there's large amounts of fresh sign in which case a call probably isn't really necessary (albeit always a great tool to have on hand when spring bear hunting.) I'm sure there are outliers that will come in slower from a distance but the mature males that are generally the ones that come running into a distress call don't seem to be very cautious and also aren't too interested in covering all that much ground in the hopes that whatever is squealing might still be there. Blind calling can work (if the bears are already within 100 yards or so) but I've watched bears lose interest within 50 yards of a distress call if it stops for a couple seconds. In my opinion that's the main benefit to an e-caller for bears, can keep the call playing as you range, draw back etc. Take all this with a grain of salt since e-callers are illegal for bears here, I've spent a lot of time blowing blind calls in prime bear spots though and the only time I've ever had it work was when one I couldn't see was feeding in a small depression about 40 yards away. Huffs are a good way to bring them in too, they take it as a challenge from another bear. If you're calling and they hold up at some point a huff can piss them off enough to make them throw caution to the wind and come out to play. More of a 50 yards and under kind of thing to get them out of thick timber but can be done with just your mouth while drawn back. Best of luck and keep us posted!

PS I've had condensation issues with the plastic hand calls, if you go that route the wooden ones are far superior.

 

[mooster]

Personally I would just use a hand call, in my experience calling bears isn't like calling yotes or bobcats. If one is going to respond you'll generally know within a minute or two at the most and there's not much point continuing to sit that spot, just move on unless there's large amounts of fresh sign in which case a call probably isn't really necessary (albeit always a great tool to have on hand when spring bear hunting.) I'm sure there are outliers that will come in slower from a distance but the mature males that are generally the ones that come running into a distress call don't seem to be very cautious and also aren't too interested in covering all that much ground in the hopes that whatever is squealing might still be there. Blind calling can work (if the bears are already within 100 yards or so) but I've watched bears lose interest within 50 yards of a distress call if it stops for a couple seconds. In my opinion that's the main benefit to an e-caller for bears, can keep the call playing as you range, draw back etc. Take all this with a grain of salt since e-callers are illegal for bears here, I've spent a lot of time blowing blind calls in prime bear spots though and the only time I've ever had it work was when one I couldn't see was feeding in a small depression about 40 yards away. Huffs are a good way to bring them in too, they take it as a challenge from another bear. If you're calling and they hold up at some point a huff can piss them off enough to make them throw caution to the wind and come out to play. More of a 50 yards and under kind of thing to get them out of thick timber but can be done with just your mouth while drawn back. Best of luck and keep us posted!

PS I've had condensation issues with the plastic hand calls, if you go that route the wooden ones are far superior.

Thanks, good info here. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.