Almost everyone who comes here to hunt believes there is no point in hunting black bears until afternoon.
The fact that hunters report most sighting and kills between 1PM and dark, has more to do with the hours that hunters hunt, than with black bear habits.

Richard P. Smith, in Bear Hunter magazine, July 2012, says "The truth is that black bears can be just as active in the morning as evening in both spring and fall hunt." He then goes on to give several pages of reasons for this.

One reason that impressed me as holding very true in S.E. Alaska is that bears are used to pressure in the afternoon. They experience this pressure at all the famous hot spots. Talking to people who have driven bear hunters out to fairly high profile spots before dawn, the road home from the hotspots, after dropping off the hunters, has produced many sightings of bears along the way, some of the them very huge ones that have figured out that morning is free time. Anyone who has driven up the logging road system in mid morning for firewood or to fish, etc., also sees bears.

Smith's article is about hunting over bait. So only so much applies to S.E. But I have heard of hunters heading home from Alaska without a bear, who swore up and down there are no bears until noon, and then wouldn't head out early to find out. The whole S.E. fair chase syle of hunting complicates things. The hunter has to think about feeding patterns, weather effects and the whole picture of the day in order to find out where the bears are. It also is necessary to think about when, where and why the bears must be, if they aren't being found where one would think they are. This includes thinking about times of day. If they aren't out on the afternoon, would it hurt to leave camp earlier, or to walk down a logging road at a time you have never hunted? If you aren't finding them, you have done a good job of discovering where they aren't. You are self guided, so you have to do the analysis. If you have checked everywhere you've been and haven't been yet, and looked there carefully, maybe it is time to throw some doubt on the old myth that it is no good hunting in the AM. Maybe beefing up the coffee will do it.

I can't answer for anywhere else, but I've killed two Black bears in Calif., both in the morning. One, a 275 pound boar was about 9:30 a.m., north of the Eel River in Shasta County. The other, a 400 pound boar I killed about 10:00 a.m., in the central Sierra on the western slope, Tulare County.

Both were killed in mid-October, separate years.

Hunting bears in the morning paid off for me.

L.W.

I have had bears come into baits at all times of the day and night but the most of them come in the evening hrs.

Shot my biggest blackie in the morning. 6'10" nose to tail, skull 19 7/8".

Two trips to SE AK and one bear, both trips, two different operators, neither one would leave the boat until 1:30-2:00. Between the two operators probably 40 yrs of bear hunting experience in SE AK, so I listened to the pros. But when my first hunt came up short you can bet I was wondering about hunting the earlier parts of the day. On my second trip(2012)there were four hunters on the boat, all four got bears, and I don't think a one was taken before 7:30 PM, with no hunting occurring prior to 2 in the afternoon. Also would have to say that virtually all the outfitters that I have contacted regarding bear hunts in the past few years in this region follow the same hunting pattern, be curious if any of the locals who hunt there do things differently.

Been hunting SE for years - never over bait. Sure, you can see bears in the morning, but very few compared to later. I still hunt some areas in the morning, but my experience tells me that most are seen after noon - and the later it gets the better the odds. Those experienced guides were doin it right.

One thing to consider in this equation. If you hunt hard till dark (somewhere near 9pm), you won't get back to the boat until late (after midnight sometimes if you're recovering a bear). So after a few long days hunting daylight to dark, it's easy to see more value in getting a full night's sleep and hunting late. Just my experience.

An outfitter that tells you bears come out in the evening is a lazy outfitter.

quote:

Originally posted by Antlers:
Been hunting SE for years - never over bait. Sure, you can see bears in the morning, but very few compared to later. I still hunt some areas in the morning, but my experience tells me that most are seen after noon - and the later it gets the better the odds. Those experienced guides were doin it right.

One thing to consider in this equation. If you hunt hard till dark One thing to consider in this equation. If you hunt hard till dark (somewhere near 9pm), you won't get back to the boat until late (after midnight sometimes if you're recovering a bear). So after a few long days hunting daylight to dark, it's easy to see more value in getting a full night's sleep and hunting late. Just my experience.

Went up in 2011 in late May, bit late for Black Bear season I understand, but still saw several over the course of the hunt, just no shooters. But while we were there we hunted until well past 10 and on the last 2 nights hunted til past 11 and didn't get back on the boat until after midnight, and easily could have been hunting again by 4 am, this would have made for some very long days. And for what it is worth in the 12 days I have spent hunting bears there, I have only seen one during the early part of the day, spotted from the boat while moving locations, around noon when it was raining like hell, the rest of the time moving locations, motoring in and motoring out was spent glassing empty beaches.

Chilcotin, I would not label someone who hunts in a very different area in a very different fashion as lazy, might just figure they do it different, possibly even right for their area.

If one does not like to hunt in the morning. Or if the hunter isn't one to hunt hard I would tell them hunt he afternoon evening.

If a hard working hunter is around I would tell them shooting light to shooting light because unless your out there you well not shoot anything.