I think I want to go bear hunting...
Contributors to this thread:Massachusetts
From: Sosso
01-Dec-17
Some of you said that you see bear on a regular basis. Where is this place?
From: MaBow
01-Dec-17
Just about anywhere in the Berkshire's. West of Northampton.
From: Belchertown Bowman
01-Dec-17
I have a friend who is a guide in maine. Think i am going next year. Check out shamrock guides/hunting on facebook. Small bait op. 8 customers last year. 6 took a bear home. Bout 1200 for the week all inclusive lodging food atv etc. ask to speak with Tom the owner
From: spike78
01-Dec-17
I’ve been at it for 5 seasons now in bear infested areas and I have yet to see one. It seems hopeless without bait. I think if I had 5 straight days in a row I’d get one. Before the season starts I’d throw down bait and a cam and get bears hitting it in less then 24 hours and usually 12 hours. I even had one where I had one hit the bait 20 minutes after I left!
From: Murphy31
01-Dec-17
Spike you never burned anise oil?
From: spike78
01-Dec-17
Murphy I did try one of the incense sticks a few times but MA is so wacky who knows if it’s even legal.
From: spike78
01-Dec-17
I know Anise is specifically mentioned in the prohibited scents to use. Here in MA you have to go to the law and research it as it is way more thorough then what you read in the abstracts. I guess they expect us to be lawyers.
From: Murphy31
01-Dec-17
Where do you see that? I'll I see is no baiting
From: spike78
01-Dec-17
You have to go to the MA general law. It would go something like MGL CMR 1234.4 Section 2 for example. Pain in the ass. I also found out in the MGL that dead coyote was illegal for bobcat and fox. Talk about entrapment.
From: Sosso
01-Dec-17
Thank you all for the info. I think I may make a plan for next year.
Spike, i see nothing wrong with putting out some donuts or a sheet cake for the squirrels. Just make sure the bears know that it’s for the squirrels.
From: Pi
01-Dec-17
Yep , I eat 20 donuts for lunch and 10 more for dinner. I don't bring em up a tree with me cause I need the exercise . Is that bait ? Is artificial sugar real bait ? Hmm ? dunno!
From: Oneday121o
01-Dec-17
You have to bait them and this state doesn’t allow that, I would suggest hunting them over bait for the first time. Unless you know of a bear and it’s regular pattern, then they will be hard to find and hunt.
From: spike78
01-Dec-17
Oneday I tried that up in Maine and no bear sightings either. I swear I believe in bears like I do a unicorn lol.
From: xi
01-Dec-17
Any of the Hamptons in MA. Find a corn field and your on the bears. Stop and ask the farmers, they will turn you lose.
From: huntskifishcook
01-Dec-17
I've been baiting bears up in NH for a few years. Haven't killed one yet, but I've had 7 or 8 sightings. They are an incredible animal, smarter and with a better sense of smell than a whitetail. Really fun to watch from the stand.
From: spike78
01-Dec-17
Xi I got permission to hunt a cornfield last year and still no bears. I can’t explain how cursed I am I’m talking zero luck at all times.
From: Will
01-Dec-17
I've seen at least 1 per hunting year (turkey and deer seasons combined) during the past 8-10 years in North Eastern Z6. I've seen a couple in eastern Z9, broadly speaking between 495 and routes 140/31/12.
Never tried to hunt them actively, but get a tag every year in case a legit shot op occurs and I really want to do it...
Last year had a Bear at easy archery range while on the ground calling turkeys. Um, not gonna lie... I may have needed new undies. :)
From: Belchertown Bowman
01-Dec-17
https://www.facebook.com/shamrockoutfitters/
I am going next year,.. i got an angle,.. if anyone wants to join give a yell over the next year
From: jdrdeerslayer
01-Dec-17
ha....i took this week off for shotgun season. as of today I've seen 7 bears....we are seeing more and more every year. my buddy hunting with us also got one.
From: Will
01-Dec-17
J - is that pic Ben's or did you get one too? COOL!
From: huntskifishcook
01-Dec-17
Wow! Hard to tell from that pic, but that bear looks like a giant!
From: spike78
01-Dec-17
Jdr, nice bear! Gps coordinates please ha. What zone?
From: jdrdeerslayer
02-Dec-17
nw zn5 , yes will I got one too. yes it was huge.....
From: xi
02-Dec-17
Spike, if it's where we talked about in 4S. I don't know what to say, that's bear ground zero!
From: Oneday121o
02-Dec-17
Bait makes all the difference! You have to bait them at least three weeks in advanced before you hunt over it and I guarantee you will see them.
From: Oneday121o
02-Dec-17
I took this nice 150 pound crested sow in NJ with my bow. I didn’t want a bigger one because dragging these things is a nightmare and the terrain they are in is typically mountainous. I dragged this about 1 and 1/2 miles through uphill country and it took me and my buddy three days to recover and a bottle of ibprophen
From: spike78
02-Dec-17
Xi, your telling me. I’m baffled. If you saw my spots it’s like wtf where are all the bears. I just need to put in more hours a day I guess.
From: jdrdeerslayer
02-Dec-17
oneday....no baiting in mass...... that s why our bear population has been taking off....
From: fmoore
02-Dec-17
I would look into whether or not it's legal to sit over a gut pile where someone has killed a deer. In a lot of states a gut pile is not considered bait because it was not placed with the intent of attracting bears. Because of that, it's legal to sit over it. Not sure about Mass though. Found a gut pile in the snow in zone 5 last Dec that was picked clean and there were two different sets of bear tracks around it.
From: Moons22
02-Dec-17
Smart man
From: Belchertown Bowman
02-Dec-17
So carry your deer out whole. Remove gut bag and carry back in. Just saying
I can see the nod from moons now. Lolol
From: Ungie01201
02-Dec-17
Here’s one of mine. I have shot a bunch in the Berkshires and put many of my friends on them. I have seen 4 In mass during deer season this year and have had a bunch more on cam. This one dressed 313lb
From: Jebediah
02-Dec-17
For what it's worth, I can't imagine that a gut pile--extracted and deposited right where the deer died--is bait, any more than a deer carcass that was killed by a coyote, or any more than a patch of wild blueberries. Bears eat blueberries, right? I read this in a children's book.
From: muzzy
02-Dec-17
My buddies sister bought a house in Palmer late summer. They knew something was creeping around the yard and finally put up a cam. Pretty big.
4 years ago in Richmond Ma. Another buddy of mine shot a 427 lb bear.
Some big bears out there.
From: Ungie01201
03-Dec-17
Tons of bears in Richmond. All over Berkshire County.
From: Wardens Worry
03-Dec-17
Ungie, I am curious how you go about getting set up for bear. I'm confident in my deer sets based on scouting etc but wouldn't know the first thing about a bear set. What do you look for etc? I grew up in the Berkshires and my my parents farm has one (or several) that visit fairly often to smash their bird feeders. I'd love to give it a shot at some point.
From: Ungie01201
04-Dec-17
All of the bears I have seen this deer season have been very random... Not in spots that I would assume would hold the bears.. Tons of beach and oaks, but no berries etc. Usually I hunt bears near places with berries. Whenever I find bear scat in the woods they are full of berries. There are tons of blue berries on the powerlines by my house and down in a public hunting ground near by too. I can remember hearing "someone" picking blueberries by my father and I a couple of times when I was young, only to walk into a bear stripping the bushes. My cousin has a small berry patch (half acre) that is always terrorized by bears and there are a couple of farms that have Blueberries scatter around here that have fantastic opportunities in the pieces next to it. You can actually find bear runs going to and fro. The hilltowns are loaded w/ bears here in Berkshire County... They just wander through the thick nasty stuff and swamps.
From: Will
04-Dec-17
Congrats J!
