Bear hunting on your deer hunting land

[BJE80]

So who has ran baits on your deer hunting land? How did the pressure of keeping baits fresh and increased bear traffic affect the deer hunting?

 

[kabic]

The one time I tried bear hunting I failed miserably. I mistakenly thought that none of the neighbors where bear hunting so started baiting late....never got a bear to hit any of my sites. That being said I did try to keep them in somewhat easy to reach places because I didn't want be slugging bait up and down steep hills,

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

We ran bear baits on my land in Rusk County WI the last two years and it did decrease the deer seen during daylight while we were actively running the bear bait site. We had our bear bait site on the swampy corner of a food plot and we always drove an ATV to the bait site so the bears got used to that sound. I'm sure the sound of the ATV and the human smells caused some deer to stay away and I'm also sure having more bears in that specific area made the deer nervous. We killed 2 nice bears and quit baiting after the 1st week of the season and everything seemed to get back to normal in a couple weeks.

In my case the deer hunting is mediocre at best, so I really wasn't concerned about the impact of bear hunting on the same property. In my opinion the bear baiting did hurt the deer hunting temporarily, but everything went back to normal within a few weeks after the bear baiting ended. And hopefully the deer hunting will get better in the long term since we removed some fawn predators from the landscape.

 

[shawnv]

I have a couple times. Bait where they both can get used to you coming and going and they seem to be fine with it. In all honesty, the deer activity did not drop off but it was also not in the main area of travel for them either. Bears like to be screened but don't feel you have to be way back in their with the set up. *Note, I was not running bait in with the ATV.

 

[Terrific_tom]

I t did reduce the amount of deer I saw early season. I think it was more me going in and out to bait as I had deer pictures going by bear bait when bear were not present. Also had deer walking around bait while bear hunting. I think if you locate bear bait on edge of property to keep human presence to a minimum on rest of property there shouldn't be a problem. Up north where I help bear guide out the deer will stand 40 to 50 yards away waiting for bear to move off bait and then come in when bear leaves.

 

[ruskbucks]

We have baited bears the last two years on my land. I really haven't noticed any less deer. In fact I saw a lot of deer while bear hunting, just not any bears, although they were coming in almost every night. My friend shot a #330 on his first sit last year. We have bears on our land all the time even when we don't bait. I wouldn't worry about it at all, maybe to be on the safe side don't bait near your best deer spots.

 

[bat man]

Scared all the deer out the area we baited but we did not care. Baits were in spots we did not want the deer to be. Used trail mix and the deer really liked it when spread around the cabin but absolutely zero deer pics on baits the bear were using.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

Bear Hunting on your land WILL decrease your deer hunting opportunities for archery hunting. I used to bear hunt a lot more when I got a license every year. A good bear bait will create a zone where the deer will vacate. For me it seemed to be about a 25 plus acre piece would be devoid of deer. Once I quit baiting and the bears left, the deer would come back, but it still took several weeks to do so. By Mid October at the latest, everything was back to normal.

 

[bat man]

Bear Hunting on your land WILL decrease your deer hunting opportunities for archery hunting. I used to bear hunt a lot more when I got a license every year. A good bear bait will create a zone where the deer will vacate. For me it seemed to be about a 25 plus acre piece would be devoid of deer. Once I quit baiting and the bears left, the deer would come back, but it still took several weeks to do so. By Mid October at the latest, everything was back to normal.

May have to start feeding the bear by my brown its down neighbors - maybe sell a DIY package for those spots

 

[sandbur]

Batman-did the bear hit those crab apple trees this year?

 

[Satchmo]

I have a lot of bears around my place all year long. This year i had 11 different bears on 3 baits each a half mile apart along a large tamarack swamp. Running those baits with the wheeler doesnt seem to bother the deer as much as the influx of regular bear activity. The deer that were using the area along that swamp seemed to move up on to the ridges to bed and worked my plots from the opposite direction than they normally do. After we quit baiting, things slowly went back to normal. Gonna try to bait with less impact next year. Don't like the deer getting pressured out of the bedding areas we are trying to establish.

 

[dogghr]

I don't buy in to the idea that bear spook deer much except during fawning time. I typically have 4-7 resident bear on my property and if that were so, no deer would remain. I have cam pics of deer standing in fields watching bear pass within 20 yds. I have a pic of a huge bedded boar with a doe passing within 10 yds behind him headed to the food plot. They respect them, but don't panic. I have video this year of deer paying more attention to a double striped skunk feeding near them and obviously the deer were quite concerned about him. I think most the deer affect, if any, of bear is the human scent that may get left behind. If my deer panicked every time a bear , yote, or bobcat showed, they'd die of fright long before I could shoot one.

 

[Steve Oehlenschlager]

I think it is the smell of the bait sites that cause the deer to be alarmed. A good used bait site smells pretty intense of bears and that concentrated of bear smell is not normal. Your right that Bears alone don't cause the deer to leave. My one piece of woods almost always has a sow with cubs in it and the occasional boar, but that's where the vast majority of my deer also spend the most time. My cousin noticed this years ago and always tries to bait away from areas he might hunt deer. He has killed about 14 bears in his life in about 25 years so he has spent a lot of time in the woods in early September.

 

[SD51555]

We used bird seed for our camera survey this year. We routinely had bear and deer in and out within the same day or two of each other. That being said, we didn't have any fawns on our property this year either. Not one pic.