Some of you who follow my journal know that after wolf trapping ends, I will be transitioning to an attempt to harvest my first brown bear. I plan to put in a couple of baits, and see what I can do.
I have been successful baiting black bears back in MN (a couple of decades ago). It wasn't that difficult. Find an area with bears. Make a pile of food on the ground. Get them coming. Sit in a tree and pick your bear. Not once did I ever hunt beyond opening day. But I imagine baiting here in AK is different in many ways - especially with brown bears, which I have no first-hand experience with. So, I am looking to get tips from those of you who have done it. Not so much the where, but what when why how. I'm starting from scratch here in Homer, Alaska. I may also be up for some spot and stalk - so open to discussion on that as well.

The only advice I can give is shoot until it’s dead. Don’t put too much importance on the one shot kill story. Tracking a wounded bear through the jungle is no fun. I stopped an attack one year but the bear managed to get into the timber and willows with two shots in it. It was already too dark to follow so the next morning me and a couple CO’s tracked it and put another bullet into the noggin. The two wounds from the night before were packed with dirt and leaves. Tough animals. Don’t stop shooting until your certain he’s dead.

Ryan - I've been having good success shooting Blackies with the 30-06 in the high shoulder. I try to break the shoulder and get the lung. Surprisingly, they just go right down and stay there (so far). I have not needed to do a follow up shot or track them at all. I'm a big fan of Hornady ammo. I like them to stay on the beach when I shoot them there. The alpine has more room, but that is a different story altogether. I prefer the beach!

Having said that, I am going to upgrade to a .338 - which is more beefy and appropriate, I think. You can bet I will set up so I can keep shooting, and I will if it is moving. We can stitch up a few holes :-)

Just be sure you are legal with the bait station

I have never hunted over bait, but have taken my share of bears. Best advise I can give you is to look at as many bears as possible. It is un-likely that the first brownie you see will be the bear of your dreams. They all look big from a distance, but with practice, and patience, you will KNOW when a truly big bear is in front of you.
Also, big bears tend to be old bears. They have seen a thing or two. They don't make a lot of mistakes.

I don't know that I'm going for "the bear of my dreams" the first go around. I think I would be thrilled with a good sized boar - just like I was with my first wolverine. I can build on that.

So what is a "respectable" brown bear boar? 8 foot plus?

An honest 8' plus bear is a good bear. However, the difference between an 8 foot bear, and a 9 foot bear is dramatic. I have only laid eyes on one that I know was a 10 foot bear, that was alive. It was un-real. I didn't kill it. Would have, if I could have, of course.
Kind of like an honest to goodness 8' black bear, ( only maybe even rarer). I have tried for a true 8 foot blackie for 3 decades. My best was 7'-8", squared, and several others between 7' & 7'-4". I have, however seen at least a couple that where 8' bears, but could not close the deal.
All that said, I now take any decent adult black bear in the spring with my first tag. I love sausage.

I helped skin a 10 foot bear that one of our hunters took in PWS. Biggest I've taken myself was an honest 8' sow. I hunted more for coloration rather than size.

How exactly do you measure?

The “dumb” end of the tape represents zero and you read the tape in whole inches and fractions as you move away from the dumb end. Duh!

This pretty much sums it up....

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/80416-how-do-you-measure-YOUR-bear

Hope you find your bear. I have become less picky over the years of the bear that I put chin down on the turf. It does not diminish the experience, at all, for me. Actually I have come to enjoy being present when someone else dumps a bear and I am only a spectator or a second shooter.

Never bothered to do it before. I have a couple that I tanned that I will have to check. And of course, the brown when I get it...

Thanks for the link...

Very good advice on what goes down after the first, second, third...
I have no hesitation of adding an additional burning hot hole through a bear. I expect anyone who I am with to do the same.

This is a side topic - but I thought it worth mentioning.

Back in MN - the FIRST thing people do is weigh their bears - if they are big. People go through great lengths to haul their black bears out whole, so that they can be weighed in their entirety. We have had several blacks up over 800#. They almost always make the news all over the state.

In MN, you MIGHT hear some talk about skull measurements, but there is NEVER any talk about how many foot square it is. That is why this is so foreign to me. It's a different world up here!

"What the bear squares" is western talk, and Alaska talk, and perhaps Canada talk. I have only seen it in magazines and books. I'm finally experiencing it firsthand.

I need to get my hands on some 55 gallon drums, or similar container. You guys got any advice?

I also want to put up some trail cams. I've seen some information over on the Alaska Outdoors Forum because they have a "Bear Baiting and Stands" topic. Seems some people are having trouble with cameras taking photos of the brown bears - perhaps because of the thick fur and sensor issues with the camera?

I do know that several guys on here use them at their bait stations to keep track of furbearers, and I'd like to hear from you on what works best for you. Especially Mr. Bushman...

Square this one pilgrim and I'll get you another!

I've been purposely passing up small bears. Hunting for the biggest ones I can come across in any given year. I would love to shoot a giant brown, but won't set that expectation for myself the first go-around. If it happens, it happens.

You can go ask the local wildlife biologist - who has registered the two biggest black bears in this area in the past two years. A bear hunter himself, he is always incredulous at how I am consistently doing this. Not bragging - just saying, these were some pretty special bruins, and I was fortunate to harvest them. I will tell you, I worked HARD, and put in a TON of time. More than the average man can even think about doing. I have the pleasure of "being out there amongst them" all day, every day during spring, summer and fall. I am always watching.

But here's the point. I don't know if either of those bears would measure six feet square? I just measured the biggest one. The rug looks like the one posted in the photo above. Hard to get a good measurement from a dried up, crinkled up skin. If it were wet and laid out, as in - just skinned, I might be able to squeeze 6-6.5 feet out of one of them. That said, the skull was over 19 inches. Not record book, but pushing it. It was a gnarly old bear with broken, worn down teeth. So, I can see where having a bear that "squares out big" can be impressive, but that ain't everything either. Skulls and weight are equally impressive to me. Just my opinion.

I will HAPPILY take a tubby brown with a big noggin - no problem!

Well this is gonna be long but I hope you don’t mind . Here’s my bear baiting tutorial. I should post this with pics some time, but I’d have to locate them. Maybe I’ll take some fresh pics this spring. This is how I bait black bears, but it works better than I’d like it to for brownies. I bait almost exclusively with popcorn. There are lots of other successful ways to do it, but so far I like this one. It’s very easy, quick and cheap to get going.

1) Locate your bait site, compliant with all applicable laws.
2) Go to an auto shop or other source and get 2 used oil drums.
2b) Round up 4-8 ft of chain and a couple shackles or bolts and nuts to fasten it.
3) Go to a restaurant or the dump and get used fryer oil.
4) Go to a warehouse grocery store and get a bulk bag of popping corn.
5) Remove bungs and pour any remaining oil from the drums into a bucket, then into a jug. There are plenty of uses for clean motor oil.
6)Stand the drums upright and pour in some king of good degreaser (Dawn soap etc), add water, put the bungs in and roll the barrels around. Dump out soapy water. Repeat if you want, but I don’t think bears care too much about their eating surfaces.
7) Cut one drum in half around the middle. This gives you a fire ring and a cooking pot.
8) The half with the bungs is your new fire ring, if you don’t already have one. Flip it over and cut a circle out of the end, leaving a 2”-4”” flange around the edge. Keep this cutout piece. It also helps to put some air holes in the sides of any fire ring.
9) Start a fire. Put some bricks or rocks on the flange of the fire ring, put your cooking pot (the other half of the barrel) on top, dump in some used cooking oil and start making popcorn. Dump each batch of popcorn into a trash can (or a 3rd barrel) and when it cools put it in a heavy duty trash bag. That’s how I transport it.
10) While you’re waiting between batches of popcorn, make the bait barrel. Stand the remaining drum bung-side up. Remove the bungs. Drill or cut a hole in the SIDE of the drum next to where the large bunghole is. When you attach your chain, run it through the large bunghole and out the hole you cut in the side. This is the most reinforced way to attach a chain, since it goes through the threaded bunghole and around the crimped corner of the drum. This prevents bears from ripping the chain out, as happens when someone drills 2 holes in the side with nothing but sheet metal in between.
11) Get the piece of metal you cut out in step 8. Lay it on the bung end of the barrel and trace it. Now cut a hole 1”-2” smaller. This is your fill hatch, and the scrap of metal is your hatch cover. Attach it with a few sheet metal screws.
12) Make the feeder hole in the opposite end of the barrel. I like feeder holes centered in the end because it doesn’t let all the feed out when the barrel rolls. It forces the bears to sit there and eat one handful at a time, which is the goal. Don’t cut a hole. Draw the hole size you want. I use a 5” hole for blacks. Cut a star across the circle you drew, then fold the tabs inside so you have a smooth folded edge instead of a sharp cut edge.
13) I cut a few little 1” holes in the sides of the drum to let a little bit of popcorn fall out when they roll it around, but not a lot.
14) As soon as you’ve got a batch of popcorn made you’re ready to head to the woods. When I’m hauling the barrel out I’ll duct tape the holes and fill it with popcorn at the house to save space. In the future I just haul popcorn in trash bags.
15. Fill a gallon jug with extra cooking grease.
16. When you get to your bait tree, chain the barrel to the tree. Fill with popcorn if you didn’t already. Dump the gallon of grease you brought in the barrel to soak the popcorn. Bears love calories.
17. I always leave the barrel standing on end “upside down” with the feed hole on the ground. This serves 2 purposes: 1. Helps reduce loss from mice and squirrels, 2. Provides an easy visual indicator when something big (a bear) has knocked the barrel over. If you can’t leave the barrel on end for some reason, always put a big stick in the feed hole for the same reason. You can easily tell when you come back if a bear has been there.

Hope this didn’t bore you, and happy hunting!

Great tutorial, Kid!

KK - this is exactly the stuff I was looking for of course you didn't bore me! Thanks so much. I never thought of popcorn before...

I also never heard of "bung" and "bunghole" used in that way. I guess I don't know much about oil drums haha. I will definitely be following some of this advice. Thanks!

Do you use cameras?