Mike Calls Bears

Mike Calls Bears

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
One of Western big animal guide, Mike Jenkins' specialties is calling in bears. He shares some of his secrets and gives us a perspective on what bears are thinking. "I first started calling in bears in Alaska. I used to go every year on a spring bear hunt to Alaska and I'd tried to time it when the fawns were being born and oh my goodness. What an exciting time that was. My favorite call is the distress call and usually this time of year it is a fawn in distress or a wounded fawn call. Just a crying baby fawn. At this point those bears want some protein. They have been on grass diets. Berries. So now after all summer they need some protein. Those fawns are on the ground and that's a great way to get these bears excited. I use a mouse diaphragm, just my elk call. During archery season I call a lot of bears in. Many bears I call in just using a cow call. If I want to get real aggressive I just use a fawn in distress call. We have shot many bears at 12 to 14 yards, just with a bow. With my archery hunters I noticed in New Mexico when I hunt bears down there, I noticed that the number of bears I would call him during that September archery hunt. So I thought, wow, this is really something as far as how aggressive they are to those calls. Then I carried that call into Washington and it worked the same. But you need to be ready because when they hear that they are coming in and their intention is to eat.
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