Surprise....

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elkman06

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I went back up to where I have the camper sitting for elk season and got quite a surprise. A bruin had tried to gain entrance to my camper. It only got it's claws behind the water heater door and power cord door and ripped both off. Anyone have any ideas other than a hot lead injection as to how to keep them away? Assuming the bear season is still open, I will be buying a license though.
elkman06
 
Back when I was rifle hunting in the mountains alot, We would take a small sprayer with some gas in it and spray the snow about 6 feet away from the tent all the way around. Never came back to a tent they got into. This how ever may not be a good idea if their is not snow yet. Just an idea.
 
Back when I was rifle hunting in the mountains alot, We would take a small sprayer with some gas in it and spray the snow about 6 feet away from the tent all the way around.
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Best way to keep bears out of camp is to keep a clean one. Remove all food and keep it in bear proof containers or off the ground where a bear can't reach it, away from camp. Just don't keep anything that smells good to a hungry bear in your camper. Other than that I don't have a whole lot of suggestions.

While I'm not a tree hugging greenie, I can't believe the above recommendation for spraying a pollutant on the snow or on anything for that matter no matter how small the quantity. Plus I can't imagine the fine if a Game Officer caught you doing this on public lands. You could get a fine from the State, Federal or worse both, plus have to pay the costs of a Haz-Mat clean up as well as any court cost involved. Always try to leave your campsite in better condition than you found it, and only camp in approved areas.
 
I went back up to where I have the camper sitting for elk season and got quite a surprise. A bruin had tried to gain entrance to my camper. It only got it's claws behind the water heater door and power cord door and ripped both off. Anyone have any ideas other than a hot lead injection as to how to keep them away?
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In previous posts, you have said you hunt Elk on public land. If so, what is your camper doing sitting there, unoccupied? Best remedy for bears: don't leave the camper where they can get it.
 
Not uncommon where we hunt for people to drop their camper or park their trailer and leave it there for the season. Only "legal" issue is it is not supposed to sit more than 30 days, but I have not seen it very strictly enforced.

Only thing that chaps me about it is they sometimes squat the better campsites, but that is a minor irritation - unless they sight it such that it blocks off an area.
 
In previous posts, you have said you hunt Elk on public land. If so, what is your camper doing sitting there, unoccupied? Best remedy for bears: don't leave the camper where they can get it.
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Don't know where you live and hunt, but in Wyoming, its not that uncommon to park your camper in the area where you intend to hunt. Kind of a long ways to a camper park.

I hunt the Big Horns, there are some camp grounds but I hunt with horses and the FS don't like horses running around their camp grounds. So I just find a likely spot and set up camp.

As far as the orgianal question, I put up a portable electric fence to keep my horses home. I don't know if it works for bears or not, but none have gotten to my camp.
 
The fall bear seasons are usually pretty long and generally run concurrently with the elk and deer seasons where I have hunted. It used to be that nearly everybody I knew would go ahead and buy the bear tag just in case they saw a black bear. Back then it was only $10 extra. But in the past 15 years or so, I see way more grizzlies than I ever do black bears. I'd hate to get in trouble for shooting a griz by mistake and actually I don't have a big hankering to shoot a black bear anyway, so I just leave the bears alone.

I used to use elecctic fence for my horses in the back country. Now I hobble or picket them, but I often wondered if the electric fence was serving as a bear deterrent. It wouldn't hurt to try it. Could you tell from the tracks if it was a black bear or a grizzly that got to your camper? I know some of those juvenile delinquent bears in the Sunlight Basin and Crandall area got to be real troublesome several years ago. They would scratch vehicles at the trail heads and sometimes even chew up tires.

I know the USFS is real proud of their "bearproof" storage boxes they put at various sites for food storage, and they generally do a fairly good job. But I've seen a grizzly bear yank on one so hard that he broke the cable holding it to the tree. Then he drug it back aways into the woods away from the barking dogs and gun-toting hunters and eventually got a claw underneath the lid and peeled it open like a can of sardines.
 
Think I would go with the fence idea, it seems to be the best so far. Not sure I would do the gas thing, I saw a guy get a fine for changing his oil and letting it dump in the sand at the sand dunes one year, it was in the thousands and that was about 1993. But I have also seen pics of bears that have dug up high voltage lines and chew on them till they found the sweet spot.
 
The electric fence is a pretty good idea.

Franken, don't just be poking your nose in to give me a hard time.
It is public land,, it is legal for me to be there,,,,etc,,etc,,

Anyway, the G&F investigated today and he couldn't help but compliment me on my clean camp. They just have a inquisitive(hungry) bear out there. At his behest, I will be putting up a trail cam to try and ID the bear for them. They are interested, they have assured me that if he tries to break in that I can defend myself and property. Unfortunately, it is not a bear area so purchasing a license is not an option.
Gas would probably not be an option although I did make it a point to whizz around the area. I will see if he came back in a couple days. Otherwise the Game Warden will be checking as he goes through for the next couple.
Thanks for the ideas.
was a black bear or a grizzly that got to your camper?
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Pretty sure it was a med-smaller sized black. Standing, I would guess his muddy prints on the camper were about 4ft up.
elkman06
 
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Franken, don't just be poking your nose in to give me a hard time.
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Maybe he was just trying to point out that many public lands (which, as you stated, you have every right to use) have limits on the time you may camp or leave your trailer in any one spot (Forest Service in central Utah can get quite nasty about it).
 
Franken, don't just be poking your nose in to give me a hard time.
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No. No. It wasn't like that.

As Crankylove said, the areas I am familiar with have camp site limitations that are, apparently, shorter than the Forest Service / BLM standard (such as 7 days, 14 days, 21 days). Because some of these areas have serious problems with squatters, greedy "that's my hunting spot" hunters, and meth heads, the rules are strictly enforced.

However...
While typing up this post, I realized I shouldn't have brought up the subject. If you are breaking the local regulations, it is a matter for the proper authorities to deal with (regardless of time restrictions, etc).
I'm sorry.

At any rate; good luck on the hunt.


kraigwy said:
its not that uncommon to park your camper in the area where you intend to hunt.
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I was referring to legality, not "standard practice". There is often a great disparity between the two.
 
have limits on the time
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Umm, nope, he didn't say a word about time..just trolling....
Seriously, it is common practice up here for folks to set their rig out. Just look at the camps on Flaming Gorge on the Wyoming side. I've seen camps sit there all summer. Of course that doesn't happen so much on the Utah side so the Salt Lake crew moves north.
There are time limits, I didn't say I didn't respect them, typically 16 days on public, 21 on FS from what I have seen. At any rate, the question had to do with bear detterance,,,,not camp limits.
elkman06
Franken, Cranky, I haven't tried to continue the fued,,you guys are reaching here...knock it off, please.
 
here in northern sask, some of the lodge owners line the walls of their cabins with plywood with lots of nails in it. put them near the windows and door. It seems to work for them. After an encounter like that, i would be sleeping with my rifle or a shotgun. even if there was a fine involved, i would not hesitate to shoot a bear thats in my camp. The area where i live is kinda out in the boonies, and there were some bears spotted. I keep the rifle and the ammo close buy just in case.
 
I agree w/andrew&I believe you stated elkman they verbally gave you permission to defend yourself/camp, I would take him out if you see him despite the fine. the bear #'s are up most everywhere this yr though I think hunger madness might have been last yr. you seem fine, but some people dont realize how quick these things can escalate sometimes(you could be saving someone else)

ps- bear deterrant question- its in your sights
 
Talked to a local bear guru.... he said when he is trying to break a bear from frequenting an area he sprinkles powdered capsasin(spelling) around the area and usually within a couple days yogi quits poking around.
 
therealdeal said:
I agree w/andrew&I believe you stated elkman they verbally gave you permission to defend yourself/camp, I would take him out if you see him despite the fine. the bear #'s are up most everywhere this yr though I think hunger madness might have been last yr. you seem fine, but some people dont realize how quick these things can escalate sometimes(you could be saving someone else)
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Just because "bear #'s are up", doesn't mean you should see the need to go vigilante, and rid the world of the things. I would also like to point out, you are on the other side of the country. "Bear numbers being up" is a totally different concept here. An increase of 50 bears in the entire state of Wyoming would be massive. There is also an exponentially higher amount of undeveloped land out here. A bear can be seen just curiously poking around the same dwelling for weeks at a time, then suddenly vanish for months (or forever).

Evidence of a bear being curious about a camper is far from sightings of a bear trying to get into inhabited structures.

"You could be saving someone else" is a horrible way to justify poaching. (That's what you're advocating here.)
 
doesn't mean you should see the need to go vigilante
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Very true. Although the G&F warden reassured me of those things, I very much believe it would have to be a very justified shoot. I absolutely believe that this officer would be true to his profession and job if he were to think I had crossed an imaginary line. You have to realize that this is a very large chunk of real estate w/ no bear season or area. That and the fact that there are probably only 10-20 bears in a 5-600 square mile area might just make some folks touchy if we were to bump a few off. We are fairly remote out here but there are still a lot of pairs of eyes.

I will continue to have a clean camp, and will move it farther down the hill if necessary. I plan to see about using a trail cam to ID it if possible.
elkman06
 
Originally Posted by kraigwy
its not that uncommon to park your camper in the area where you intend to hunt.

I was referring to legality, not "standard practice". There is often a great disparity between the two
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It's legal in this state.
 
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