brownies in bait

[geoff156]

Was wondering if I could get some responses from others reguarding brown bears in your bait station. I have been baiting blackies in the same spot on and off over the last 8 years or so and have had good success, always get different bears in and we have taken some good ones off of our site. the entire 8 yrs or so I have used this area, I have only had 4 browns come in while I was in the tree. Last nite we had a great black come in, but one of the people who is hunting with me, and trying to get one with his bow, couldnt make it out, so we let him go, in hopes he comes back for the arrow. Tonite we were set up, the bow hunter was there, and we were hopeing for the big black to reappear, but instead we had what appeared to be a sub adult brownie come in. I havent been around browns much in the wild other than these 4 times, but every other time I have had one come in, they quickly left never to be seen again, but this guy was different, he was pissed, he bluff charged and left, circled around and came back even more pissed and gave us a pretty bad time. He would drop his head and slowly move it side to side walking toward the tree growling and snorting etc, We eventually started woofing at him, and finally had to start yelling at him, to get him to leave, so we could leave, this all went on for quite some tiime, he didnt seem to be scared of us at all and im not convinced he went very far, I think just beyond the tree line into the brush. It was a pretty spooky walk for the first part out. Normally they just do thier business and go, but this guy was a lot more agressive and was looking for a fight.
Was just wondering if others have dealt with browns doing the same thing, and how you handle it. Let the bait empty for a few days in hopes he moves on? not worry about it and keep hunting? I will admit hes got me a little spooked just didnt seem to act "normal" if there is such a thing. Definitely dont want to meet this guy on the trail back in Hopefully we dont see him again. Dont worry I wouldnt shoot him uless I had no other alternative
Any advice?

[Blink]

When I have a brownie on the bait I usually stop baiting in hope that it moves on. I hate going into stations that I know has had a brownie on them. It definitly makes your hair stand up when walking to the station to check it out.

[M]

Unwanted guest at the bait

You did the right thing by hanging tight in the stand untill he left the area. There is not much you can do, stop baiting for a while and hope they move on. Don't push them, you may force a confrontation. I have had them move in on my baits in the past and I just leave the location for that year and move to anther bait. One year we kept baiting hope the Grizzly would move on didn't work all we did was make him fat, and he kept all the blacks on high alert. There is no predicting how they will react and I think most bears don't really know what they are going to do until they do it. The last thing you need it a set of claws scraping the bottom of your stand, or a DLP bear.
M.

[walk-in]

griz on bait

I had a similar situation a few years back. I was hunting a bait station that had been pretty productive for several years, and had not had any real problems with grizzlies up to that point. Since it was the only stand I had that year, I opted to keep hunting it and hope the grizzly would move on. He never did, and I ended up not getting a black off of my bait that year. My advice would be to quit baiting there for awhile and hope he'll lose interest. If you have another stand, just leave this one until next year.

[DR B]

Peper His Ass

Why Not bring a shotgun with some #8s and when he's 30 or so yards away shoot him in the asstwo or three times. It sure would some good negative reinforcement for him hanging around Humans. If you let him stay on the bait he will just ass. human smell with food.
DR B

[AlaskaCub]

griz on bait

In my experience you should not be completely discouraged by having that bear come in. I know it can be a little hair raising but it doesn't mean that you still cant kill a nice blackie off it. Here in the interior tanana flats , griz and blacks share baits sometimes. I will have a black come in feed for a while and then become alerted to another bear and take off, a few minutes later a griz will come in and feed for a little then he will leave and within 30 minutes or so a black will come right back in. Took a nice black last year not 30 minutes after having a very large interior griz on the bait. I wouldn't get to upset about it. Hope you dont have to shoot the brownie in defense but stuff do happen. Its hard to just quit a quality bait station because of an annoying griz. Might "hypothetically" have known a guy that would shoot a griz or 2 with 12 gauge bean bag slugs when they wandered into their bait. Be suprised how quick they leave, doesn't do any fatal harm but stuns them pretty good, especially when hit in the noggin! Dont give up but be aware.

[Kenaimike]

#1-It's stupid to use a firarm to "scare" a brownie away. You are not allowed to hunt browns over bait and if you shoot it w/ a shotgun (small shot or not) you are "hunting". Just don't do it.

I'm going to use a wrist rocket and marbles (we're getting a late start this spring) to chase 'em. I've shot the tree the barrel's attached to over the bear's head and the barrel itself - that seems to have limited effect. I think they need to feel something to get chased off.

Last year I had several different browns come in and still killed a 6' bear. The funny thing is, 5 minutes after the black hit the ground, a brown came to the barrel - stepped over the black, and layed down to eat bait! It was as if the dead black wasn't even there!