kidso

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....

Great job! What time of day did you shoot him at?

Thanks for the preaching, but the sermon ended a month ago with the last minister and my confession that I wished my bear was larger, but it wasn't. Yes, the Fish and Game have sow quotas for people like me who choose to tag a sow, sometimes regardless of size. That protects the species and ensures reproductive survival for future hunting generations. I knew there could be negative responses on this site, but did not expect them to be so draconian in their content amongst fellow hunters. In spite of that, I posted the pictures and my story due to the personal enjoyment and odyssey I experienced on this hunt, which I wanted to share with others, in the hopes that they would enjoy it too. Most individuals appreciated my story, fewer did not. "Size" and "respectable" are all subjective to each and every individual. I do not trophy hunt, thus I could care less about size. I've tagged a near 21" inch bear and another 17+" bear, and now this 13-14" bear. Yet, this last bear means the most to me and is my most respectable trophy. And when it comes to ETHICS, the individual subjective nature of this beast is far greater than that of anything else. So please, don't espouse your own personal ethics to impinge on the personal choices and freedom of others. And don't expect every hunter to share the same goals and dreams. And yes, I take no offense and enjoy all the opinions stated on this community forum, for I am Goldilocks, and I approve this message...and here are my three bears!

Beautiful color! Looks like that guy was really low in elevation! Did you glass him up in prickly pears? By the way, it wasn't luck...40 days of scouting in the field simply paid off!

Nice bear. Is his back a lighter shade of brown, or is it just the angle of the photo? What unit did you tag the bear in?