How Have the California Bears Reacted?

[Sierra Hunter]

Yes. Had a guy shoot a sow within 100 yards of me. Kinda discouraging since I had followed the bear for about a mile before I ever had a chance for a clear shot. Saw 4 on Friday and a TON on Saturday. 2 with cub/cubs.
There's more bear than I've ever seen. Let's do our part to help the deer population.

Were you finding them around a particular food source or elevation?

 

[Sierra Hunter]

Made it out and took a good boar, had a collar too. Would be great to hear the history

 

[blackshuk]

Made it out and took a good boar, had a collar too. Works be great to hear the history

Awesome bear! What elevation and food did you find them on?

 

[Sierra Hunter]

Awesome bear! What elevation and food did you find them on?

About 7.5k and he was in the bitter cherries along with another smaller bear.

 

[Muleyczy]

Made it out and took a good boar, had a collar too. Works be great to hear the history

Beautiful bear, congratulations!

 

[Sierra Hunter]

Beautiful bear, congratulations!

Thank you!

 

[TheYukiYama]

How did others end up? Will hopefully be getting out a couple weeks in 2024.

 

[COLD SMOKE]

Had a smaller black bear that I couldn’t get a good shot on. He was maybe 150-175 #.
Other than that I didn’t see many other bears while hunting this year. Which surprised me because it was definitely bear country.

I could have definitely hunted a lot harder but was working quite a bit this season.
That’s life. There was a fairly good size bear that was lurking around my neighborhood. I just disnt put enough time into tracking him down.

I had a blast hunting new spots this year and was in some really big old growth down low and scenic granite up high so no complaints.

2024 I have plans to get into a remote canyon system. I’m going to bring a partner and need some new gear ( quilted bc sleeping bag, new mountain boots, and a good hunt specific backpack. New bow )
plan is to go in for deer archery if we get a mulie that would be amazing but just mainly scouting/ camping/ hiking peaks and the fly fishing should be excellent.

Then back for rifle/bear..

Lessons learned.

Opening deer rifle is ridiculous. Your best bet is to get in 24 hours early set up a nice shot and let them get
Pushed to you. Multiple times it just felt crowded, lots of hunters who seemed out of place ( mallcrawlers, out of shape looking, or just being unnecessarily loud )


3rd weekend I was on a nice trail and it was early am. Big trees and thickets of buck brush interspersed. Had a shoot spot with a good FOV. Between the brush and a little creek with lots of browse. Fresh deer and bear sign Perfect spot and I was going to sit for a few hours hoping to see who would come through to get water or head towards bed. I had a park about a 1/2 mile away as the road was washed and a 2’ deep mud pit. You would have to rev and rip to get through.

Sure enough 20
Mins in. Someone screams past my truck and through it. Then gets out. They are about 200 yards away across the creek but I can hear them loud and clear talking. Next they proceed to set up targets and shoot .22s.

I was hoping a deer would jump and run towards the brush ( and me ) no luck there. They then turned around and went back through the pit. It felt pretty blown out so I waited about 10 more and called it.

Spot felt good and was deep back there, have no idea if they were messing with me as rhey saw my truck, or just clueless. Either way it was PITA.


Lesson 2 if your on a remote logging road and you hear a car in the distance… set up a shot. I’ve seen bear racing down the road ahead of the car. You might get lucky. But his happened later this day. Checked a spot no fresh sign so I hiked back to the rig to pull out.
Hear a car in the distance and figured I’d wait, might be someone I know, no sense in rushing.
I unloaded and was tailgating. 5 mins later a bear explodes past me. The way I was parked he didn’t see me until about 5 yards away. He was running as fast as a dog. WTF.. immediately after a jeep rumbles by. I wave figure they’d stop and notice the tracks or ask me if I just saw a bear.
NOPE they didn’t even look at me. They had a tire cover that said
Foothill firearms Newcastle CA.

Then a second rig went by, I waved and they at least waved.

I went and tried to find that bear but he was gone deep. Idk if I would have had time to shoot but now I know. Next time I’ll get set.

That’s all I got from this season ( besides a 3x3 blacktail )