Hey tabthc,

Attached is a couple pictures of ours that shows the opening of our barrel so you can get an idea of how big. It's a 55 gallon drum. The opening should be pretty large, otherwise the bigger bears won't be able to "scoop" out what they want to eat.

The pic with the bear in it, you can see how big his head is compared to the opening. Any smaller and he'd have a hard time getting all the food out.

Hope it helps.

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Hi tabthc and welcome aboard !

if bears not coming at the right time that mean one thing, the bears know u r there , and waiting for u to leave !!
once the bears know u left they come out from their hiding and feed. u gotta change that .

There is many diferent reasons why the bears not coming to ur site during the time u r there, it could be the smell, the cover, the location ,etc....

I suggest u read BEARS ONLY AT NIGHT post , i am sure that will answer all ur questions , if u see u r doing something not suggested in that post so u fix it

read that post and if u still have more questions or something that still unclear then we will dig in for more details !

for the honey burn part, i would only do it on the day i am hunting ,, i sneak to my site and burn honey and then get on my tree stand and wait for bears to come out ,, there is many different things u can do other then honey burn to hlp get these bears out while u r there, again read BEARS ONLY AT NIGHT post and if u have more to ask then we will be waiting for You

read the last post in that thread,, the one in details on how to sneak and what to do and what to use, that will help u a alot

This is the post I meant

OK let's start from the begining !

1- Rubber boot
2- Plastic sled
3- camouflage clothes used for HUNTING ONLY
4- Scentless soap
5- normal clothes to use for BAITING ONLY
6- Camouflage gloves
7- camouflage headnet or face paint
8- bug reppelent

When baiting,, bait around 10 and try to finish 6 hours before sunset . Use the same clothes u wear when u bait everytime . do not use any other clothes ,spray bug reppelant around ur tree stand everytime u add fresh bait, once finished place the baiting clothes in a plastic bag and hang it outside ur house . Sing or talk on ur way to ur site .
Add baits the same day and the same hour once a week wearing the same baiting clothes . use the plastic sled to haul baits to ur site and use the same trail on the same day same hour everytime !

What bait to use :
use the baits u been using and add the following :
fruits, meats, sweets, grain and cooking oil .

Grain
dump 5 gallon of corn, 5 gallon of oak, 5 gallon of water, 5 gallon of wheat, 5 pound of sugar and mix together and store them in a big clean gallon for 10 days with the cover on stir well every now and then , then dump it in the barrel at ur site .

Sweet
on ur hunting day u take 10 lbs of apples and cut them into small peices using rubber gloves while doing this then pour some chocolate and honey all over and store it in double plastic bags to keep the smell in and only take it out of the bag and place it at ur site , always use rubber gloves. ( the rubber gloves should be wiped by scentless soap before touching the sweet bait. Do this with extreme caution if u r alone and try not to make any noise at all, if a friend is walking u to ur stand on the opening day let him do it while u go on ur stand without any noise from ur part.

Meat
any meat scraps u r allowed to use.

Cooking oil
speard them all over ur site and on top of ur meat scraps

Fruits
smashed watermelon, apples.

Opening day.
the day prior to opening day u add fresh baits 6 hours before sunset , spray bug reppelent on ur tree stand then u leave and go home and wash ur hunting clothes and all hunting gears with scentless soap including ur rubber boot socks, underwear and leave them outside ur house to air them out, make sure no weird smell next to them like gas, cooking, etc.. once they dry out u wrap them in clean unsmelly pastic bags.
now going to ur hunt, u take ur hunting clothes and gears with u , DO NOT WEAR THEM YET , once u stop ur truck and ready to go , u take off all ur clothes and wash ur body with scentless soap and dry urself after, then wear ur hunting clothes and spray Yourself with bug reppelent and start walking SLOWLY toward ur bait site, once u r within 200 yards start the stalk and tip toe and get on ur treestand as quite as possible 6 HOURS BEFORE SUNSET , and wait without any movement , look only with ur eyes do not move to see what's making the noise behind or to ur left, ur concentration should only be at ur bait crib. DON'T MOVE
If u r using the 2 man approach then let ur friend walk u to ur stand while singing (him alone) and get on ur stand quitly 6 HOURS BEFORE SUNSET .

Do not bait on the day u hunt, wash ur whole body with scentless soap and rinse urself after ,, dry ur body with a towel that been washed by scentless soap also.

Everytime u enter or leave ur baiting site u let these bears know that u are coming or leaving by singing. If ur friend gonna walk with u to ur site let him sing on the way there and on the way out .
The rubber boot is sooooooo important for bear hunting, cause if u r gonna wear anything other then rubber boots the bears will know how fresh ur trail is and they will not come, if u wear rubber boots they will not know, the rubber boots will block all ur stinky feet smell ( to bears standard ) and won't be able to know how fresh or old ur trail is !

If the Bear did not show up on the first day repeat the whole thing the next day for 4 or 5 straight days.!
Do this and u get ur bear , the secret of bear hunting is out .

Now who said bear hunting over bait is easy ?!!!!
Enjoy ur Bear !!

u should still read the whole post , there is lots of priceless info about bears over there !

[url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=414481&c=500&z=1"][/url]
If I was to redo my barrels I might even make the holes slightly smaller. When the bears are really hitting the bait hard they can clean out a full barrel overnight. A hole that you could just get a gloved hand into would be about perfect in my estimation.

ditto to that

Thanks for the picture, this gives me new light into my barrel designs. I can tell that my barrels have two large of holes. Is it better to put the hole on the end of the barrel or in the middle.

Thanks

I'd go with the smaller hole. to keep them there longer
another thought get the bears to start feeding and then bring out bait only when sitting in stand otherwise they think its a free meal. I used a honey burn alot, never worked for me. My wife was getting tired of me gone every weekend so she came up with this: a raspberry burn made up of country time sweetend raspberry tea, water, some raspberry jam heated over a vanilla candle
went into woods at 4:15 shot bear at 4:45. and lastly read Dr.Ken Nordbergs book.

thanks for this information. I will try this type of burn this fall.

So will i actually tonight i will try that!