Darn Bears.

[northmn]

Not much to do with lever rifles, but thought I would share. Every spring my wife usually has a go around with bears in her bird feeders. They don't just steal a little bird seed but knock them down and smash them up. Seen some look like they fell out of a pickup on I94. Work swing shift and got home last night and saw a note saying that one knocked down her bird feeder while she was doing dishes. She opened the door and yelled at it and it took off. Our little rat terrier thinks its a bear dog and spent a couple of weeks yapping at where one went into the woods after it and my other two dogs chased it out of the yard. Second visit this year. Last year I tried to get a picture with my trail camera but no luck. Its a yearly ritual. I have eaten bear meat and it is not bad but I just don't care for it enough to bother hunting them. A few have been shot across the road where I live.

DEP

[Der Gebirgsjager]

I wonder if an electric fence charger as used for cattle would deter them? Perhaps you could wire the feeder, and when the bear grabbed it he would close the circuit. You know how birds can land on high voltage power lines without getting fried, because they're not grounded. But a cow touching the wire is grounded and gets zapped. Of course they're going to keep busting up the feeders until they get the message.

[pietro]

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Can your feeder be bear-proofed by suspending it from a tree limb ?


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[Salmoneye]

Saw one just down the road from me last week at dusk...

Not usual in this part of the state, so they have no fear of people...

[3leggedturtle]

Parents are by Bowstring Lake and have to bring feeders in every night before dark.

[OverMax]

My advice:
Once bear get into a feeder/s. {Decision-making time?} Pretty birds & bears or not in the yard.
Sows are the worst offenders & perhaps the most dangerous gender of the two during the Spring thru Summer months.
Plus. Chance your dog/s to taking a swat or worse due to (a) or unseen cub/s back in the brush.

Bear and weasels are perhaps the boldest wild animals in MN woodlands. I have experienced both owning 160 parcel & cabin North of Hibbing. i.e. (Bear-River)

[ReloaderFred]

We stopped putting out bird feeders because of the bears and the chipmunks, which are really rats in cute little costumes. When I feed birds now, I spread the feed on the ground over a large area, making sure there aren't any piles. The bears won't go after it that way, but the chipmunks sure do. I've got to get my RWS 48 pellet gun tuned in better and take care of those rats before they get the wiring on my truck again.........

Hope this helps.

Fred

[northmn]

Problem seems to go away after a few hits. I tried to get the picture of one and it did not come back. She does start bringing in the feeders at night when it happens. I find it kind of a commentary on how we like to feed the birds and watch them but begrudge the squirrels, coons, chipmunks and bears for wanting to eat also. I actually enjoy the squirrels more than the birds as we are getting quite a few black colored grey squirrels around. Dogs and cats take care of chipmunks but they are a nuisance as are the little red squirrels which my daughter and I decimated. Its a yearly ritual. One of the reasons I carry a rifle on my tractor or 4 wheeler when I go out in the woods. Never know what I might run into.

DP

[FISH4BUGS]

Bring in your bird feeders every night. Food removed = bears removed. Simple. We lost a feeder a few nights ago. It looked the bear used explosives on the feeder.

[Kim]

Here in central Mass., we either bring the feeders in at night or lose them to Smokey and buy new ones in the morning! I'm too much of an old Yankee to buy new ones. The hooved white tailed rats got my garden 2 years in a row but we finally ate three of them this last season. Critters have their place, but not causing damage in my back yard!

[markinalpine]

Here you go. Is this the problem?
Mark

[BrentD]

Not much to do with lever rifles, but thought I would share. Every spring my wife usually has a go around with bears in her bird feeders. They don't just steal a little bird seed but knock them down and smash them up. Seen some look like they fell out of a pickup on I94. Work swing shift and got home last night and saw a note saying that one knocked down her bird feeder while she was doing dishes. She opened the door and yelled at it and it took off. Our little rat terrier thinks its a bear dog and spent a couple of weeks yapping at where one went into the woods after it and my other two dogs chased it out of the yard. Second visit this year. Last year I tried to get a picture with my trail camera but no luck. Its a yearly ritual. I have eaten bear meat and it is not bad but I just don't care for it enough to bother hunting them. A few have been shot across the road where I live.

DEP

One of the privileges of living in the country with wildlife, is living in the country with wildlife. count yourself lucky and then go out and buy a solar electric fence unit and figure out how to set it up (WITH A GROUND) to give the guy some talk back on the feeder. But count yourself lucky. You could be living in town with nothing but rats and squirrels in your feeders.

[CLAYPOOL]

I know a older man locally that had a problem with his trash and dogs. He wired it to 110. When the dog hiked its leg.......

[BrentD]

You know an *******.

[starmac]

Wow......

[Good Cheer]

My grandfather did that at the package store he ran outside of Trinity, Texas to make people stop relieving themselves off the back porch of the establishment. Should work for sober critters as well.

[dragonrider]

Last night at a little after 10 PM my wife and I heard a noise outside, did not know what it was so look out on the deck and there was a bear. A black bear. 200-225+ lbs, good lookin animal. This is first for this area in many, many decades. I was very excited as was my wife. Called animal control just to let them know that there is a bear in the nieghborhood. He/she was after the suet feeder we have hanging on steel bar that is clamped to the deckrail and hangs out over some pave of the driveway, the bear tore the feeder holder of the deckrail that was the noise we heard. Bear heard our surprised voices and he headed down the steps and passed in front of the garage which has sensor lights that came on and we go a real good look at him then . What I don't understand is why did he/she not go for my trash cans. I have good, yummi trash can, why did he/she not go there would have been a fantastic photo opportunity. We have been hearing for years that bears are moving into the area. Never expected to see one on my deck. I hope the bear comes back I need pictures.

[bouncer50]

Air horn that will scare them off.

[northmn]

As I said its a spring ritual. After the woods get full of natural foods they seem to pretty much stay away. I have a few wild blackberries on the place but don't get very many because both the bears and deer like them. Same for wild raspberries. Kind of interesting to see some of the rotten stumps they rip apart. Saw a sow and cub high tail it out of an oak groove one fall when I was bowhunting. BrentD does have a good point. I have also seen a bobcat when bowhunting and it was a surprise. About the only real critter I consider as a true varmint is the coyotes. Like to shoot them off to keep them away from the main place. Daughter lost a couple of pet cats to them. Had neighbors that lost cats to Bald Eagles but generally they are well fed on road kills.

DEP

[Mtnfolk75]

Living in the area we do, we have bears & other assorted critters that visit us nightly. We have been here 15 years and learned long ago to keep all trash, bird & pet food secured indoors. Last fall I had a problem bear that tried to get the trash by forcing entry to my storage area under the cabin, fortunately the door is a slider. Mr. Bear was trying to pull it open, I've since re-enforced the door and locking mechanism as well as driving a 60" rebar rod about 30" into the ground to prevent the door from being pulled out.

The feral cat population seems to run in cycles, we will get a bunch and then a Mountain Lion or two will move in and there will be none. We have to secure our bird feeder bowls to the deck rail with fender washers and long deck screws to keep them for any period of time. When we first moved here we tried hanging feeders and learned pretty quick that it wouldn't work, it got expensive replacing them. BTW, we use a song bird mix that has about 60% oiled sunflower seeds, more bird seed than that just gets wasted by the marauders. It does make for some interesting greenery below the deck though ....

Also, last fall Mister Bear tried to steal my ATV ...... I had been out late after stalking another bear until nearly dark, I was well into the back country and didn't get home until an hour or so after dark. I had driven my ATV up under the deck and had neglected to put it in Park, only setting the parking brake on the handlebar. Anyway, a couple of nights later I was awakened at about 0030 by a banging sound that also riled up the Dawg, who sleeps on our bed with us. I assumed it was just Mister Bear doing his usual pawing around trying to get the now re-enforced slider door open and get to the trash. Stella the Wonder Dawg settled down quickly and I went back to sleep easily.

I woke again about 0700 and got up, heading straight to the pellet stove and then the coffee maker. While the stove was starting and the coffee was brewing I went into the bathroom and took care of my morning ritual. About 0715, I make it back out to get a cup of coffee and go to stand in front of the stove to warm up. It is just getting daylight and as I'm standing there I glance down the drive. Some SOB is marked in my drive ..... I take a better look and find it is my ATV laying it's right side facing south ...... I let out a little girl scream and SWMBO comes running, after getting dressed we went out to recover it.

The investigation revealed that Mr. Bear had been pawing around on the ATV and had knocked the hand brake lock off, resulting in the ATV starting to roll back down the 18% incline. Apparently the DOOFUS who had parked it had left the handlebars turned slightly to the right in addition to not putting it in Park. It appeared from the resulting tire and impact marks that the ATV had turned facing the north as it rolled down, now being sideways on the 18% incline did 2 1/2 Gainers before coming to rest in the street on it's right side and facing south.

Resulting damages were some scuffs and dings in the fenders and racks, right handlebar bent down to the fuel tank, rearview mirror bent down to the top of the let handlebar, a small electronic thermometer and digital clock knocked off the left lever perch and completely SHATTERED, rear rack bag torn off at 5 of the 6 anchor points and a badly bent ski pole that had been tied across the rear rack.

I was able to bend the bars back into a suitable position, replaced the mirror, installed a hard box to replaced the un-repairable rack bag and found a new ski pole. I haven't replaced the thermometer/clock yet and can live with the scuffs and dings .......

Living in the mountains is definitely different but is SO MUCH BETTER than anywhere I've ever lived, dealing with the critters is something you adapt to PDQ .......



BTW, I carry a ski pole on both ATV's, one in my UTV & two in my Jeep. I walk with a cane most days and have found the ski poles to function well as a walking stick when on uneven ground. They also come in handy in the winter, for trudging up the driveway in the snow. In the snow SWMBO & I have to park down the hill and walk up to the cabin, I also keep two pair of Yak-Tracs in the Jeep for the same reason.