Fall Bear Hunting Necessities

Sorry to say….Sold Out for a few weeks…..demand exceeded the supply .My apologies to everyone. I have kept one on hand for demo purposes so you can at least schedule a test drive if interested.

As a lucky recipient of a Mn tag, I’m sitting here wondering what the heck do I need for bear hunting. I’m guessing a couple thermacells to start off.

What else should every bear hunter have in his pack as he enters the woods?

One of those mesh type bug suits. Mine is a Bug Tamer. Not necessiarily for bugs but for those hot humid days. The suits are small enough so you can carry it in a pack. Walk into the woods in shorts and a t-shirt and put the suit on when you get into your stand.

Kooty, I have one of those mesh suits that you could use. Bought it for bear hunting several years ago and we never had a bear hit the bait so its never been used, you are more than welcome to borrow it for a or two

Bow or Gun ??? makes a difference…. for me.

I dont use thermacell’s, if i can smell it, the bear can, even tho bear hunters swear by them. Get yourself a good bug suit that covers your head, and some leather gloves that the skeeters cant bite through. If your bow hunting, the last half hour of shooting is the worst cuz you wont be able to see your pins with that black mesh over your head. If your gun hunting, id use a gun that has open sights that are very brite, and use a bigger caliber that will blow through bone, if something happens and the perfect shot doesnt happen. We have tracked wounded bear in the dark, it took a few cocktails to settle the nerves down after that one. The main thing ive found is something to do while your spending all the time in the stand.

I always put some sort of ground blind material around my stand so i can still take a ethical shot but be concealed enough to adjust my sitting position and have something with me to do. Small books, hand held games, or my favorite cell phone with internet so i can check IDO and send text msg’s when the service decides to work.

A good headlamp for the walk out, flagging tape to mark where the bear ran to after the shot, if needed. Depending on the weather rain gear, sometimes ill wear the rain gear under my bug suit if its calling for rain but if its to hot to walk out to the stand and get sweated up ill pack it up and change into it at the stand, or leave it in my back pack and put it on if needed.

I always have a seperate pack in the truck with field dressing items, your knife, sharping stone,heavy duty tarp to put the bear on to drag out, or if you can use a wheeler, a sled, you can never have enough light, laterns/mantles, parachute cord.

All this talk sure makes me wish i would have applied for a tag this year.

Good luck!

Great stuff guys! I’ll be archery hunting most likely unless something changes between now and the fall.

I know Gman will tell me everything I need to know, but he’s off fishing of all things and I simply can’t control my excitement.

Jason, thanks for the offer on the bug suite! I’ll definitely take you up on it.

BTW, if I do switch to gun for some reason, I’ll be shooting the 30-30.

I run 2 therma-cells in stand, the bears I see are not bothered by therma-cells… they are not deer. Your bait site should be so covered in human scent already… donuts, breads, pastries, licorice, circus peanuts, pasta, cookie dough (get the idea?)… believe me, the therma-cell is not affecting them. Plus in Manitoba, the bugs buzzing around your suit, would drive you nuts in a couple hours… I know Norhtern MN ain’t much better… Now deer, I would not be so quick to fire one up