Good choice JP.
Exact way I look at it.

I can solve your darkness problems! Move to interior Alaska. After about May 15th it will be light enough to shoot most of the night! Climb tree May 15th, climb down end of season or when you shoot a bear. Whichever comes first.

Too many people having never taken a bear shoot the first one that shows up at a bait. Typically around 4:30 p.m. and it's usually a juvenile bear as these stats show. This guy came in just about the time you climb down.

Getting a client out of a stand and hunting for yourself are totally different scenarios.

Yep.

This thread is about him hunting alone!

A buddy and I did a remote river hunt using a motorized canoe. Tim dropped me off in the early afternoon with plans to motor in after dark to pick me up. Fairly early into the hunt I heard water splashing in the stream behind me and I assumed it was a beaver. A short time later I glanced back and saw a bear moving through behind me.

It was pretty slow going from that point on until just about dark. I had about ten minutes of good light left when I saw a big bear come in from directly behind the bait. I was twenty or twenty-five feet up in a big spruce. I should have had my bow in hand but I'd left it hanging beside me on the tree. Surprised, I moved too quickly and the bear spotted me, swapped direction and went tearing out of there. I could hear its feet pounding the ground as it went.

Shortly after dark, Tim came motoring in just as planned. I could see his headlamp as he made his way in and all of a sudden he started yelling and swearing. Unbeknownst to me, that bear had come back and didn't want to leave. He was right there on the ground with it twenty yards away.

Good story Posco! That’ll wake you up!

Oh brother!!! You really did it this time JP!

So you’re saying our luck has run out?
Figures.

Osky

That feeder reminds me of a three holer croc pot. lol. I know nothing about bear hunting, not sure I've ever seen one actually. Whats the idea with these feeders? Small hole to keep them around longer getting at the bait I guess right? Makes sense. Why a three holer? Just more bait I guess? 3 varieties even probably. Are those three 55 gallon drums welded together? How the heck does that support a bear walking on them like a tight rope? The horizontal trees lashed are blocking to keep them on the one side or you kind of give them a perch to eat out of the honey hole on? Interesting. I might have to go shoot a bear somewhere. Good post. Nice pics. Isn't there a slam for all the diff color phases of bear? Aren't there like 5 diff ones? Looks like the one ol boy is about there or is that complete?

Great post as long as JP stays off photo ops

I sit till full Dark...then climbers down with my .44 Smith ready

Great thread. Looking forward to more of you Canadian guys photos. No spring season here, but this guy got a few bird feeders early April(that was the end of feeding the birds) and been hanging around. Come fall he’s gonna be real nice. Good luck Jurassic!!

Headed to bait today and if the weatherman is wrong on his wind predictions sit.

Hay the best bear bait is a red plastic full gas can that you left next to the mower. You can't hide them or put them up to high for them to reach......jk

If ya'll scared...say 'ya scared!

Lol

Ask Clay Creech about head shootin' a biggun at near point blank range in these southeast Georgia swamps with hounds on one end of the bear and him on the other end...the end with teeth.....

Lol a 3 holed croc pot is right!


I’ll see if I can answer all your questions. The idea of having 3 barrels welded together and anchored to the tree is so I control where the bear stands and presents me a shot. Also I get some really cool pics of bears.

A hole in each barrel at the top of the barrel like mine prevents the bears from scooping all the food out onto the ground easily. They need to scoop upward and takes a while to get a belly full.

Some guys will put a hole at the bottom of the barrel, and we know how gravity works. So now their 30, 40, 50 gallon barrel is only capable of holding 10 gallons of bait, and the bears have it spread all over the ground the first time they come in.

I like 3 barrels welded together because it holds a good amount of food. There’s a lot of bears coming into the baits and I don’t want to run out of food or need to bait often. 3 barrels also gives length to chain up against the trees like I have.

I call these 50 gallon barrels. They might actually be 55 gallon.

The logs on one side of the barrel are to prevent the bears from feeding on that side of the barrel. A bear could come in and stand there for 2 hours and eat then leave and never give me a shot.

I think Bernie has shot all 4 color variants of the black bear.

Good luck Sask Hunter! That looks like a good one!