kidso

Great job on the lion! I also love Jim Hartsock's work at his studio. He has done one lion and one bear for me and is working on another bear. I love how he wrinkles the face! Here is the lion he completed.

That is a cool feeder that the bears are hitting. Is it something you manufactured or bought somewhere? It must be soild enough as the bears didn't rip it off the tree.

Did you see any bears at all during your hunt? Was their much left of the fox hide after smacking it with your .270? I shot a bobcat that came in with my .300 while calling bear and it blew his back out. I sewed it up and home tanned it and use it in my classroom for science lessons, but it sure blew out a large exit wound!

After 45 minutes, if I have not seen or heard any response, I move on. I start calling at just about shooting light in case something comes in quick and will keep calling 45 minute stands until about 11:00 on a clear day. On a cloudy day, I will call longer, and may not stop at all. I then begin recalling around 3:30 and keep going until dusk. So on a hardcore hiking bear hunt, I may call 6-8 stands, depending upon how far I hike between them. Like Reed said in his seminar..."stick to what works for you." I have called in bear with both the Tally-Ho and the T-Rex hand predator calls. I have tried several others, but they never produced bear or lion for me, personally. The Tally-Ho is open-reed so you can produce a wide range of vocables, which I do. The T-Rex is closed reed and I wail on that call like something being ripped into pieces! I once had a chocolate bear coming into a stand in the morning, when it winded us and turned uphill and out of decent rifle range. We watched it move up into a high thick part in a canyon and bed down. We moved into position around 3:00 pm and waited for it to come back down for an evening watering or snack. It started coming down about half an hour before dusk. We were laid up on a bench across a narrow part of the canyon he had entered and had scoped out several nice shooting lanes around 200 yards. When the bear was at about 700 yards, the canyon opened up with rifle fire as someone else started shooting at the bear from several hundred yards behind us and above us. They missed four times and bear disappeared. The only reason I share this is that the bear did come down the same basic drainage it used to work its way up the canyon in the morning. They can be creatures of habit.

If you have them visiting your spot that often, you must have your cam in a hot spot within their home range. I'd bust out on the predator call and try to tag one.

Yep, I saw you come in with the tire pressure gauge stuffed in your shirt! I think I felt more out of place in my wing-tip shoes, slacks, long-sleeve-shirt, and tie! I just got off work from my 5th grade teacher position. I did record the seminar and am considering transcribing some of his stories and posting them if anyone is interested. I just need to finish my progress reports first.

Just returned... It was good to hear Reed after 20 years (I think). His seminar was not delivered in a prepared speech format, but rather in question answer format, which which was completely dependent upon audience participation and querry. He did discuss some bear hunting/calling basics, such as food sources, elevations, water access, and stand selection, but it was more interesting to hear about some of his own calling experiences that were interesting and unique. He is indeed the bear guru and is a grandfather of predator calling in our state...especially for bears. I believe he said he was directly responsible for the calling in and tagging of 63 bears and 3 lions. A fun and informational evening!

Nice color! How far was the shot, and what time of day did you tag him? Did you get his on the east or west side of the main highway? I know a lot of guys head on the east side and hit the Pinal Mountains. My buddy went on the west side and saw one towards Haystack Butte two weeks ago.

For those of you who have had game cameras stolen, how far away from a road were they located? I'm curious to know if most are stolen within a short hike hike from a road or a long hike from a road? I think this could provide us with some interesting data. Please post your data in average minutes it would take to hike to your stolen camera. I wonder if placing cameras further from roads provide greater safety or not from thieves?

Very amazing pictures. Can you educate me more on what a "scratch" is and how it might be used? Those lions sure seem to spend time on it!

Finally went out to check my three cams that I've had up in 23 N since the last week in July. Wish I had an elk tag! All cams were still there, but I think someone deleted all the pics off of my second cam. I had a bucket of water there and it was dumped over and was pulled out of a rock cairn that I made to protect it. The first elk pic is a nice tease! One bear bit a hole in the side of my water bucket making it useless.

I'm not a bird man at all, but in July while bear hunting I came across four groups of about 5-10 birds near Horton Creek and three groups near Dick Williams Creek. Almost all of them had little ones with them too.

That cam is only about 5 feet off the ground and is on the primary trunk of a large pine. There is a set of three or four claw marks from a large scratch beneath the photo eye on the camera. I'm pretty sure a bear swiped it. There was also mud and dirt on it as well.

Not unless water is bear bait! The bucket was ten feet to the left in that pile of logs. Something knocked over the log pile and moved the bucket to the spot in the photo. When I got to the spot, the bucket was another 15 feet further away on its side with bear tooth puncters in it. I think they went to it out of curiosity.

Nice pictures, very clear!

Took a neighborhood 14 year old boy out with me yesterday. We left at 1:00 pm and got back at 9:00 pm. We had enough time to make it into 23 north and check the three cams we set up back in July. We made one stand at dusk, but no responses to the predator call. Trail cam one had only 37 pictures centered on a nice pool in a creek bottom that was still flowing. All we had was triggers from moving shadows and branches. On cam number two, we had a mineral salt lick and a 5-gallon bucket filled with water. There was a large bobcat or small lion scat, all white and full of fur right next to the bucket. Sadly, the bucket had been knocked over and there were no photos on the SD card. I think someone came and deleted them. I left the scat there and reset the system with fresh batteries to see if the scat bait works for us. At our last cam, we had another mineral lick and 5-gallon water bucket. We had 637 photos. About half were triggered by shadows or vegetation, but we had tons of elk, some deer (only does), one bobcat, and two bear. I'll post a few pics on the Trail Cam Subsection of the forum. We still had a blast and the boy wants to go out agin in October, but on an overnight camp/hunt. Probably the opening weekend of rifle bear in 23 north.

I'm running out for half a day Saturday afternoon to check my trail cameras. Hopefully they will still be there and I'll be able to post some pictures on the Trail Camera sub-topic of any critters that were snapped!. I'm also looking to salvage any lion scat to prep a camera with it to see how that pans out for attracting lions. That will be interesting! I'm taking out a little buddy of mine, so I'll call a late afternoon stand or two as well to see what comes for dinner.

Well, not the biggest by any means, but a beautifully-colored sow, which is also my first ever archery bear! Unit 23 north, two weeks ago.

If that is the guy, I would hope that he would think twice before interfering with someones camera and stockpile after seeing his picture on a wanted poster! I would be afraid to go back into that same area knowing that an upset hunter could be stalking me with a paintball gun or something! I've had three cameras out in 23N for about 5 weeks now and need to retrieve them. I hope that they are still there!

Ditto on Crittergetter. However, I do lots of blind calling, especially if I have fresh sign in an area and know that bears are present. Although the mornings and evenings are the best, I have called a few bears around 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, but those were on cloudy and overcast days. I would continue to work the area especialy if food, cover, and water is available nearby. Even though they can stick out like a sore thumb, they can also be nearly invisible in the thick stuff and you can go days without ever seeing them as they move around in oak and manzanita thickets just feeding away. If I were hunting that spot and had no luck glassing and calling, I'd ramble over to an adjacent canyon and do the same things there, just in case he moved over.

I heard Reed give such a seminar about 16 years ago at a meeting of the Mesa Varmint Callers, which introduced me into the world of predator caling bears. I highly recommend it. He is a great story teller and excellent orator and has TONS of experience.

Nice shot! Great color. Seems to be more color phase bears being taken than block ones this year.

Nice color, good size, and great story! If you were driving that far, what unit did you tag in? It is always a bear hunting alone, but sometimes those hunts turn out to be the best! ...especially the impromptu ones! A six-pack of Mountian Dew and a package of hotdogs! I still do that, but with a half-dpzen Gatorade bottles!

A lot of us have probably been there. Mr. Jonathan's photos remind me of a cliff I nearly died on in the Sierra Anchas during a rain storum while pursuing a bear. Good story Mr. Jonathan and I liked your hunting success, even without tagging a bear! ...waiting for Coosfan's story now....