Hunting ain't easy pod cast
Listened to the Huntin ain’t easy podcast series on black bear. Here is what stuck out to me. Do these track with everyone? Anything major missing? I’m out of Bakersfield so plan to hunt the Sierras, probably spend some time both on east and west side.
Bear are much more adaptable than many other animals I’ve hunted, and therefore
where and when you’re hunting is important. Mike did a good job having guests from different areas on, but generally bears will be where the food is, so based on your area and time of year find that.
3000-8000’ seems to hold most bear. They eat grass or fawns in the spring. Late summer they’ll eat berries based on what’s ripe. Then usually acorns or nuts in the fall if they’re in the area.
Very important to learn your berries and when they’re ripe. Common target berries include service berries, currants elderberry, manzanita and snow berry. Not only do the berries ripen at different times of year, they’ll vary with temperature which varies with elevation. Knowing berries will help you know where to be. Bears may spend a few days in a berry patch.
Learn to identify bear scat. This will tell you what they’re eating, but knowing how fresh it is can be quite difficult unless it is very fresh.
Bears will flip rocks and tear apart logs looking for bugs. Can sometimes be easier to tell how recent it is.
There are a lot of bears in California. You seem better off picking an area and getting to know it well rather than bouncing around trying to find a bunch of bear.
Common tactics include sitting at known bear locations, such as water, food sources, or routes. Another major one is spot and stalk. Find an access point with ability to reach multiple ridges with spotting ability at areas you’ve scouted and know there’s food sources. Early morning they move around more so glassing improves your odds of catching one. As the day heats up they’ll often slow down when still hunting areas you know bear hang out can be best.
Areas with wildfires 2-5 years prior can be good as the regrowth can have good food sources. Bears can particularly be found around areas with pockets that didn’t get burned.
Bears also eat a lot of human food. They can often be found near popular camp grounds, day use areas or popular trails where they steal human food.
There are a lot of color phase bears in CA so you aren’t only looking for black when spotting.
Talk with a biologist. They spend a lot of time studying these animals and will often be helpful and answer your questions, though unlikely to give you directions right to a bear.
Tracking bear can also be valuable. Can find tracks on soft dirt of closed roads. Stomp trails are heavy indents in the ground. You can learn the areas bear use and where they’re eating. It’s usually easier to tell how recent a track is
Before taking a bear, make sure you know how to process it. Getting the meat and hide and getting it out.
The few main areas are below.
Western Sierra- major target here (during hunting season) is acorns. Just because you’re in oaks, doesn’t mean there’s good acorns. Can be good berries also. Water can also be a good resource here. There are bear in the thick timber but down below that likely is the best hunting. I’m foothills will find bear near juniper berries. Typically somewhat close to water.
Eastern Sierra- knowing where the berries are, when they’re ripe, and then glassing those big hillsides will get you on bear in early archery season. As October rolls around, may still have some chokecherry that’s ripe. As you get higher up to 10000’ food sources are less common so beats prefer to be lower. Bears will be high early season and move down as things ripen and then move up as higher ripens later and then moves back down. Later season pinyon pine nuts can be very good which are often around 6000’. Bears seem to get thirsty when eating pinyon pine nuts so water sources may be popular. Scat is easy to identify as you can see the seeds. Tree scrapes can also be identified. East side bears are typically in hibernation by mid November, so need to get it done by then.
Northern CA
Often tighter areas. Less spot and stalk and more sitting in common bear areas or still hunting or spotting bears which will likely already be in range when you see them. There’s a lot of bears up north. The trinity area seems to have bears everywhere. Most bears killed in CA are up north. If sitting, beats will often try to flank an area to make sure and approach from down wind. You might be signaled by other animals that will make warning noises as bears approach that could key you in that one is coming, grey squirrels in particular.
