Black bears are majestic creatures that command respect. They are enormous, tipping the scales upwards of 300 pounds and standing as tall as 5.9 feet on average. They inhabit heavily forested areas, as well as dense bush and wooded mountains, making Canada the perfect retreat for these creatures. Though their scientific name is Ursus Americanus, they are most abundant in Canada. In fact, Canada is home to the world’s largest population of black bears. Ontario has a population of around 100,000 bears while neighboring Quebec exceeds that number just slightly. Nearly all parts of Canada are inhabited by this majestic creature making black bear hunting in Canada truly a national sport.

The North American black bear is generally a solitary creature as well as nocturnal. The bears are omnivores meaning they eat a mixture of meat, vegetation, and insects. Approximately 1-5 cubs are born every second year per mature female, making these bears quite abundant and sometimes nuisance-causing, which has leads to the importance of hunting. The methods of hunting are quite numerous. All forms such as bows, black powder, and muzzle loaders are effective in providing a clean shot. It is important to get a good first shot because bears run once wounded. They will typically keep running until they die, which can be upwards of 20 miles if they’re bleeding slowly, making it quite difficult to track and find.

Black bears are no doubt beautiful creatures that exude regality about them that no other animal can. This is why black bear hunting is so prevalent; it’s about that trophy kill for many. There is quite possibly no better place than Canada to experience these majestic bears in their natural habitat. Bear hunting in Quebec Canada can help make the dream of having such a trophy a reality. You can’t go wrong with choosing a professional outfitter to help in your quest of acquiring perhaps the grandest trophy in your collection. They know exactly what you need to do in order to have a successful kill. They also have experience in tracking wounded bears to make sure that you get your trophy.

Harold Sterling is a hunting enthusiast with many years of experience. He enjoys hunting in Canada primarily because of the beautiful scenery and the abundance of wild game. Though he loves to hunt, he has a lazy personality and also gets fairly upset when things don’t go his way. To ensure he gets his trophy each and every time he heads out on a hunt, he looks to professional outfitters to provide him with the best experience possible.

You are sitting there motionless on your bear stand, the last time you shuffled yourself around was an hour ago (in reality it was 10 – 15 minutes ago), you see the head and shoulders of a black bear slowly appear, as if on a hydraulic post.

When a bear can’t smell you, but knows something is wrong, he will often react in this way. The black bear and most other species of bears as well will stand up and try to smell while looking straight at you, piercing a hole straight through you. The bear’s senses seem to work this way. If he can’t smell you, he seems to need more than one sense to back up the danger element.

When a bear stands up and pierces a whole right through you he couldn’t have smelt you and seems to have a delayed reaction in his brain to take action and go this delayed action last for 15 – 20 seconds. During this time a bear hunter can get away with a action of slight movements without inserting instant fear and the bear bolting.

The correct procedure, would be to slowly deliberately, take deadly aim and fire. If one was to wait much longer than 20 seconds the bear and especially a trophy bear would slowly drop out of sight in the thicket and 99 times out of 100 you would never see it again.

Another bear hunting situation that could arise is encountering a bear about to cross a trail in front of you and gets scared back. Knowing how to handle this situation correctly can bring success to your bear hunting trip. Here again, black bears are a creatures of habit and constant action to a danger element.

The normal reaction for a bear when, it encounters the bear hunter when crossing a trail and providing the bear did not make the intend crossing and bolted back. What he will do is scamper up along side the trail in the cover to the first corner or if it is a straight trail with no bends he will cross on the narrowest place but preferably if there is a bend he will be sure to cross there.

It seems, that if a bear has got it in his mind to cross a trail or road he is going to cross. The bear hunter knowing this, will hurry to the likely spot, get down on one knee and get ready, one thing for sure, when he crosses it will be soon ( within a minute or so) and he will be moving at full speed so it gives you little time to check for trophy quality and the type of shooting should be only done by well experienced sharp shooter.

This next bear hunting opportunity to get your trophy bear is common, but here again if not handled properly can end up in total disgust with oneself. The situation that I am referring to is a bear coming strolling down the trail and not aware of a hunter present. The time to shoot a bear is when you have a good opportunity, do not wait until it gets to the feed destination, bear bait or walks into a specific clearing where it will be broadside like the centerfold of Outdoor Life Magazine. But don’t of course, hasten a careless shot because there is plenty of time to get the job done right.

Quite often I hear a bear hunter say “I was waiting for the bear to go to the feed and it just disappeared and I never seen him again, I wished I had taken him earlier, when I had plenty of time”. Again, I will say, the time to shoot a bear is when you have a good opportunity.

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Hunting Black Bears Over Bait
By David Dukat

If you haven’t tried black bear hunting, these bulky black beasts will give you a thrill that’s tough to compare to a
typical whitetail hunt. There is just something about hunting a carnivore that gets your blood pumping. The great thing about a black bear is they are spread all over the United States and Canada, are a reasonable priced hunt, and normally are not an extremely physical hunt.

In my experience, a great way to start hunting for black bears is by finding an outfitter that hunts for bears over bait. Although you don’t have the fulfillment of back breaking hikes and spotting and stalking the animal, hunting over bait presents challenges of it’s own.

Normally the baiting begins before the season opens with sweets such as donuts, marshmallows, or any other sweet smelling tasty foods, supplemented with more fulfilling items such as dog food or meat scraps. Many outfitters will find an available supply of reasonable priced or soon to be discarded food and begin putting it out for the bears before hunters arrive. The bears grow accustomed to the food supply and often return year after year to the same area, sniffing around for the smell of sweets and a free meal.

The hunting is usually done from an elevated stand shadowed by the darkness of timber with an effort to keep it on the downwind side. In my opinion, the wind isn’t a huge factor as long as the outfitter doesn’t go to great lengths to remain
scent free when he is refreshing the bait. The more human scent he leaves when refreshing the bait, the better in my opinion. Once the bears grow used to the scent, they are not as spooked when they do catch the smell of a human near the bait. Granted this doesn’t work very well if you begin baiting several days before hunting, but if you give the bears some time, they will grow more accustomed to the human scent.

One of the biggest difficulties is sitting in a stand hour after hour and trying to remain quiet and with very little movement. Some people (often women more than men) have a knack for this skill, but personally this is a grueling workout for me. To complicate matters, many times the areas where black bears flourish are thick with mosquitoes during the late spring, as well. Even if you are covered from head to toe with mosquito proof netting, they find a spot to reach you ,or never let you rest with continual buzzing in your ear. For me, it’s nearly impossible to remain still with these pestering bugs swarming the entire time.

Black bears are extremely weary of odd sounds or movement, so this is a necessity. Occasionally you will hear a bear
coming to stand, but many times, sight will be your first contact with a bear. Keep still and quiet and you will have a good chance at killing a bear. One option to slow down the mosquito swarm is a Thermacell. They are quiet, relatively scent free and do a fairly good job of keeping the mosquitoes at bay.

The second challenge is keeping your calm. When a bear comes into the bait it is very tempting to rush the shot. Bears are extremely difficult to judge, but if you spend a little time, you can often tell whether it’s a male or female. Males are blockier with a square face and often a sagging belly. You don’t want to shoot a sow with cubs and boars are normally larger, so take the time to judge the bear. A great reference for judging bears is watching some bear hunting videos before you go. I recommend Cave Bears on the Pacific Rim by Jim Shockey. There are numerous black bears taken on this video of all shapes and sizes. Another very important factor is placing the shot in the right place. I’ve found it’s easy to shoot a bear too far back. Be patient and wait until the bear has his front leg angled forward toward the front of his body. Place the shot right as you would on a deer, just behind the shoulder. Don’t take the shot if he is in an odd position or his leg is vertical with the ground. You may miss his vitals and have an injured bear on your hands. They will head for deep dark cover and it’s no fun tracking an injured bear.

The main thing is to get out and have some fun. Black bears are exciting to hunt and hopefully you’ll have a beautiful bear rug when you return.