I am looking for a bear hunt next year. Has anyone taken a guided bear hunt? I have never hunted with a guide, so I am looking for all kinds of advice. Thanks in advance.
Where are you thinking of going? I would avoid any state that allows dogs for bear hunting. I would say based on the exchange rate and bear numbers look at Canada.
I bear hunted in Minnesota once I read a book by Dr Ken Nordberg and drew a tag my first draw. I was young and single and spent a lot of time driving up to bait. Bear hunting over bait is what it is but they move thru the woods like black smoke the do not crunch a branch and when you get a glimpse of black 50 yards out and you sit motionless and you can't see the bear because good bear stand sites are in thick brush. It is stimulating, also after the shot they run into the thickest brush to die, usually right at last light. Also a good part of using a guide it is important to get the pelt under 50 degrees within 8 hours of death, you start losing hair if you don't get it cooled down. As far as the meat you will watch a bear eat maggot infested bait, so there is that.
Curious why no dogs? At one time, I was of that opinion, but around NC, where dogs are used, it’s commonly THICK THICK.
I would check a guided bear hunt in Maine. Lots of bears there. But i believe almost all the hunts there will be over bait stations. Which is great if thats what your looking for. I was in Allagash this spring and i believe the guy from Allagash guide service said they took close to 75 bears last season. Think he was almost 100 percent success rate for the season. But i didn't see pics or anything, so he could have been lying to me. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
If you have a bait site set up you can expect other hunters dogs to come thru a few time during the season.
Oh and another reason for using a guide, dragging a bear is nothing like dragging a deer, it is like dragging 5 deer at the same time.
I head to Maine August 23rd to hunt bear over bait. First bear hunt over bait, they all say they have high success rate. My guide says he stays between 85%-90% that doesn't include misses, seen bear, and never recovered bear/bad shot. I went to Virginia on a bear hunt about 7/8 years ago and it was tough. Can't bait there so trying to locate/pattern a bear was difficult. Ended up only seeing a cub on the last day. Hoping to see more than that and get an opportunity at shooting a black bear in Maine.
