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North Carolina bear hunting

If considering a baited black bear hunt in North Carolina, stay clear of Lickstone Outfitters. I've been on nearly 20 bear hunts and this was undoubtedly the worst hunt I've been on. The week I was there , there were 6 hunters hunting and by day 3 , 5 of us had headed home. It was that bad.

You hunted behind his hounds or his stand hunts? If hounds, is it that they could not find a track to put dogs on or what. Out of your 20 bear hunts you've been on, how many included hounds.

I missed the "baited" part of your comment. Tell us about it. I've hunted the Roan Mountains and Burnsville area a few times but used hounds.

We were promised active bait sights with food and a place to stay. The food and the place to stay was sub pare at best. That would have been tolorated had we had good active bait sights. The baits were not established more than a few days before our arrival. The leaves weren't even smashed down around the baits much less muddied up as they should have been for December. There were 6 hunters in camp all hunting with in a 40 acre section of woods. Way to close for anyone to have a good chance at a bear. To much human activity for such a small area. When asked about more areas to hunt we were told this was it. No one saw a bear the first day of hunting. After arriving to our hunt are on the afternoon of day 2... we found a pickup truck with an empty dog box on the property, no o e else was suppose to be here. One hunter had decided to hunt that morning. We met him at the parking spot when we got there. Apparently he got bored about 10 am and started walking around looking for bear sign. He soon got lost and continued walking around the our hunting area for 2 1/2 hours. He wondered off onto another property and hitched a ride back to our parking area. With the conditions that we had and what had just happened we decided to leave and go home. There was 3 hunters in my group. 2 of the other hunters left after hunting one more day. The outfitter had told us that 2 previous hunters had left on day 2 of their hunt as well. That's 7 hunters leaving before their hunt was complete, that we knew of. Back to the house we were staying in. There was only 3 beds for 6 hunters. The house was one of those vacation rentals that was in rough shape. Our cook / assistant guide was fired the evening we arrived. Even though the sleeping conditions weren't adequate, he did have his wife come to cook. He warned us that she didn't have very good cooking skills, he was correct. Those things could have been tolorated had the baited bear hunt been good. I discussed our concerns about the baiting situation with the outfitter. He apparently thinks what he's doing is fine. I've been on 20 bear hunts over the years and have never seen a worst set up. I believe it is only far to warn people about his baited bear hunts. .

If you want to hunt bears in WNC in 2022, call my buddy Johnny at 828 243 0510

He has some terrific bear areas! Bordering Pisgah, a bear sanctuary. Also has areas in polk and buncombe county as well. One of his guys killed a 400lber with a bow this past season.

What I noticed is that when they bait bears, its mainly to strike bears off of them for the hound hunters. Bears might have been weary of the site because of that. Sorry to hear of your experience. They are much more of a hound hunt than a bait hunt.

Did you check out the outfitter prior to booking? Hard to believe he would have any good references.

I was going to ask the same thing when you get some of these horrendous experiences you just wonder what due diligence was done upfront and that’s not the blame on hunter…..it’s just a question

is there a due diligence done and it all was misrepresented or do you wish there would’ve been in more conversations with more people and more reliable sources before booking because it doesn’t sound like this guy was remotely close to acceptable minimum standards.

Either that or he decided on your hunt to cheap out big time and change his whole model , logistics, and offering..............which is far less likely than you having gotten his normal experience. no reason to think a guy with a good approach and operation track record and client base would decide for one week he's going to blow it all up and ruin him reputation just for chuckles.

Bou has a valid argument. I was guilty of not doing due diligence on an Iowa whitetail hunt and it bit me in the ass big time. I blame him for being a crook and a liar, but I blame me for not checking him thoroughly. I also blame the Iowa DNR for not doing anything about him.

Years ago had bad experience on 1st baited bear hunt. But hardly the extreme you describe. Six hunters hunting forty acres? Ridiculous!

Thinking back now I suppose I could have asked more questions but after the conversations we had I felt comfortable at taking his word on his operation. He doesn't appear to have a clue on how a baited hunt should be conducted. I am not posting for the purpose of slamming Lickstone Outfitters, I'm just wanting to warn people of how he conducts his bear baiting operations.

I still can't believe I was taken in, especially since I've been on so many hunts in the past. I really hated that I talked two hunting buddies in to going with me. That's what really really stinks.

lone eagle feel your pain I did the same thing this year on an Elk hunt never again

Sorry to hear this. Be aware that NC, unlike many western states, has no outfitter associations or state controls on outfitters. Anybody can guide/outfit by just buying a license over the counter. This obviously makes it nearly impossible to perform due diligence when researching an outfitter. Over the years, I've seen some fly-by-nighter's screw hunters that either trusted the "outfitter" based on his folksy voice on the phone, or fell for a slick facebook page. If anyone wants to come to NC and enjoy our phenomenal bear hunting, shoot me a pm and I'll try to help you.

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