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MrTom

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We spent a few days at the cabin just inland from the shores of Lake Superior and had this fella show up thru the day, evening and mornings. He seemed to know when the sunflower seed hit the open feeders and came to nibble. The feeder post to the right of the critter is 4 1/2 feet tall for height reference. He was a frequent visitor last summer/fall too so not a vagrant. He kept up his mild manners over the winter and we could work in the yard while he hung around to eat seeds. I think he's right around 230 pounds and should be a real chunk come the September 1st opener for our bear season.

 
He is a nice looking bear. But he will probably come in some night and tear down your feeders. I had eight feeders wiped out in one night. And sometimes they can appear tame but I never trust a bear. I run them off if they get near the house.
 
Healthy looking critter. He sure hasn't skipped to many meals. We had a momma bear with 2 cubs come through the yard last weekend. Those cubs couldn't have been more than 10 lbs.
 
I had one bear bold enough to come up, onto my front porch near my gas grill. He even looked in the kitchen window at me. I ran him off twice. I didn't like him looking into the room windows. Finally I fixed him good. I went to the dollar store and bought those cheap magnetic alarms people put on windows. You know open the window breaks the circuit and it gives out a piercing high scream! So I taped the main part of the alarm to the railing on the front porch then with fishing line ran it across the porch steps, which is how the bear got on the porch. Well he came up them stairs, hit the fishing line, pulled the magnet off the alarm base and triggered the broken circuit. That alarm scared the bejebers out of that bear and he never came back.
 
cayuga said:
I had one bear bold enough to come up, onto my front porch near my gas grill. He even looked in the kitchen window at me. I ran him off twice. I didn't like him looking into the room windows. Finally I fixed him good. I went to the dollar store and bought those cheap magnetic alarms people put on windows. You know open the window breaks the circuit and it gives out a piercing high scream! So I taped the main part of the alarm to the railing on the front porch then with fishing line ran it across the porch steps, which is how the bear got on the porch. Well he came up them stairs, hit the fishing line, pulled the magnet off the alarm base and triggered the broken circuit. That alarm scared the bejebers out of that bear and he never came back.
My sister and husband have a house on Long lake by Shell Lake Wisconsin. We were crappie fishing there last week and a bear came up on the deck after the bird feeders. They see the same bear every year for about the last five.
 
rangerod said:
cayuga said:
I had one bear bold enough to come up, onto my front porch near my gas grill. He even looked in the kitchen window at me. I ran him off twice. I didn't like him looking into the room windows. Finally I fixed him good. I went to the dollar store and bought those cheap magnetic alarms people put on windows. You know open the window breaks the circuit and it gives out a piercing high scream! So I taped the main part of the alarm to the railing on the front porch then with fishing line ran it across the porch steps, which is how the bear got on the porch. Well he came up them stairs, hit the fishing line, pulled the magnet off the alarm base and triggered the broken circuit. That alarm scared the bejebers out of that bear and he never came back.
My sister and husband have a house on Long lake by Shell Lake Wisconsin. We were crappie fishing there last week and a bear came up on the deck after the bird feeders. They see the same bear every year for about the last five.


Shell Lake is up in my neck of the woods, a little west of me. Its a nice area. Good fishing over there.

I had one bear around the house many years ago. I kid you not he had to be over 500 pounds. I say this because when he'd walk by a 55 gallon feed drum chained to a tree, his back was taller then that standing drum. And his belly almost rubbed the ground. He was a huge well fed bear. There is a bear in the Park Falls WI DNR office that is 550 pounds (mounted but that was live weight) and that bear around my place was bigger then that one. Friends that would stop over would watch him out in the yard at my deer feeders, eating every thing there was. Some guessed 600 pounds or more. My area is home to some really record size black bear. We tried to hunt that bear that year but the guy with the kill tag took what he thought was that bear just behind my house. Well he shot the wrong bear and it was the only kill tag we had. The one he shot gutted went 286 pounds. In tact it would have easy been a 330+ bear. And I knew it wasn't the big one because his belly didn't run deep enough. I later heard dogs put the run on that bruiser and he ended up killing two dogs. I never heard if they got him or not but they did run him off. And no one claimed shooting a monster that year.
 
Over the years we've had a ton of bears come to the yard , it is theirs after all. We don't see any problems from bear. People, yes. Bears, nada.

The evening before we left I was out at the van getting things straightened around for the morning's pack up and this bear came into the yard from the road and walked right past me within about 20 feet. He stopped and eyed me and then continued on for the food [sunflower seed and bacon grease along with stale bread] in the back yard. We have steel food trays mounted on 4X4's around the yard for bird seed. One post can be seen in the picture to the right of the bear's head. Its at 4 1/2'. The bear just stand and lick the seed off the trays. We have deer feeders filled with corn and as long as we don't use whole shelled corn in those the bear won't even look at them. No have no hanging bird feeders.

There are no oaks where the cabin is at so in the early fall when acorns drop I go to city parks and the back yard where I rake and bag acorns to the bear. I can put out 100 pounds of acorns at 8 in the morning and you won't find one 2 hours later.

When you're in the midst of bear like our cabin is you learn their body English and which ones can have attitude and adjust your activities to those in the yard. Moose are way less predictable and I have had some headaches with them. Three times we have had cougar in the yard and wolves countless times. The cougar are un-nerving, but they tend to be passing thru. The bear? We enjoy their company.

One of the few bears I have taken while hunting the property was the second oldest bear recorded in Minnesota at 17 1/2 years of age. I think that still stands. When I was skinning and dressing her out I found three different sizes of shot in her fat layer across the rumps so she must have agitated at least three homeowners over the years, lol.
 

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