Hopes dwindling for my “NJ Crossbow Slam!”😩

[Pathman]

So, this is my third (and last!) full day in a box blind up in Sussex attempting to complete what I call the “NJ Crossbow Slam.” I have a gobbler, and a buck, just need the bear!

I swore off this maddening bear hunting two years ago when trying this bear hunting stuff to no avail after having bears responding to bait like clockwork till the day I started hunting them from a natural ground blind. 
Ok, so I get it, they’re smart and likely would circle around a smell me in the blind, so I chalked that one up to being on the ground with smart bears. 
However, this year I’m in a wooden box blind that’s sealed pretty well, with the bait 103 yards away on a kinda/sorta trail through the property.  Of course there’s no guarantee that the bears will come down the trail, but that’s a chance I have to take right. 
So, I have 4 bears coming like clockwork again, and I figure one of these bears has to come down the trail at some point, the odds are simply in my favor. 
the pics at the bait that I was getting prior to the season starting were crazy, these bears were there all hours of day and night for hours at a time. It looked like damn romper room for bears (for the guys old enough to know what that is!😁),  but starting on Tuesday, not a bear in sight, but they would show up 45-60 minutes after I left the woods. 
the bears don’t live on the property as far as we can tell. It’s 60 acres of mainly open hardwood ridges, with a small section of pines at one end. 
I wasn’t going in in the early morning because the bears were there till an hour or two after daybreak, so I would come in at 10:00, bait, then make my way to the box where I had a clear view to the bait and sit till dark. 
 

So, I’m again swearing off this friggen maddening bear hunting after today, but I’d love for someone to make sense of what I described, and how the damn bears know I’m in a box 103 yards from a bait pile, and also know when I’m leaving! 
I’m reaching out to you all with a cry for help before I decide to seek professional counseling to stop the madness!😂

PS, the date/time stamp is off by a day and an hour. 

[Swamprat]

No idea but if they are coming in right after you leave they can smell and maybe see you.  Get downwind and put a stalk on.

Or just smear peanut butter all over your body and watch your back! Lol. 

Good luck. 

[Deerslayer21]

3 minutes ago, Swamprat said:

No idea but if they are coming in right after you leave they can smell and maybe see you.  Get downwind and put a stalk on.

Or just smear peanut butter all over your body and watch your back! Lol. 

Good luck. 

lol

 

[Pathman]

7 minutes ago, Swamprat said:

No idea but if they are coming in right after you leave they can smell and maybe see you.  Get downwind and put a stalk on.

Or just smear peanut butter all over your body and watch your back! Lol. 

Good luck. 

Downwind of what?!!! I have no friggen clue which way they’re coming on a given day!🤔🤪

And I don’t appreciate the heckling from a guy with the name of deer slayer! If your name was bearslayer, then I’d have to accept that!😂

Edited October 15, 2020 by Pathman

[10deer]

as the season get closer more bait is put out by others the biggest best pile wins you are second on the list happens every year  

[hunterbob1]

1 hour ago, Pathman said:

So I have 4 bears coming It looked like damn romper room for bears (for the guys old enough to know what that is!😁),  

And I see Johnny.lol

[hunterbob1]

I wasn’t going in in the early morning because the bears were there till an hour or two after daybreak, so I would come in at 10:00, bait, then make my way to the box where I had a clear view to the bait and sit till dark. And there's 2 of  your big mistakes!!!!!

[Pathman]

30 minutes ago, 10deer said:

as the season get closer more bait is put out by others the biggest best pile wins you are second on the list happens every year  

Unlikely, but plausible. No state land close and not many hunters locally that we know of. 
And both times two seasons apart, the day I started hunting they stopped coming in, so that makes me think it’s not other bait, it’s something to do with my set up or the way the bears enter this property. 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Pathman

[Pathman]

18 minutes ago, hunterbob1 said:

And I see Johnny.lol

And you’re no help to me right now Bob!😂

[Pathman]

10 minutes ago, hunterbob1 said:

I wasn’t going in in the early morning because the bears were there till an hour or two after daybreak, so I would come in at 10:00, bait, then make my way to the box where I had a clear view to the bait and sit till dark. And there's 2 of  your big mistakes!!!!!

How so Bob? Please elaborate. 

[Deerslayer21]

1 hour ago, Pathman said:

Downwind of what?!!! I have no friggen clue which way they’re coming on a given day!🤔🤪

And I don’t appreciate the heckling from a guy with the name of deer slayer! If your name was bearslayer, then I’d have to accept that!😂

i was just laughing at the peanut butter comment thats alll LOL  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hunterbob1]

1 minute ago, Pathman said:

And you’re no help to me right now Bob!😂

Sorry John you should have contacted me prior to your hunt! Didn't know you were going after bear or I would have helped!.. harvesting myself in Jersey takes work it was learning experience. They sat and patterned me,I adapped. Hang in there buddy!!👍

[Pathman]

2 minutes ago, hunterbob1 said:

Sorry John you should have contacted me prior to your hunt! Didn't know you were going after bear or I would have helped!.. harvesting myself in Jersey takes work it was learning experience. They sat and patterned me,I adapped. Hang in there buddy!!👍

Ok, so I would buy that after the first day Bob, I understand patterning an all that. 
but the first day? There is no pattern on the first day! That’s what makes me crazy. 
o went in at 10:00 when nothing was on the cell cam for two hours at least. I sit 9 hours and no bears. There was no previous pattern because I’d never sat there before, so what made them not come in on the first day after nine hours, that’s what I can’t understand. 

[hunterbob1]

10 minutes ago, Pathman said:

How so Bob? Please elaborate. 

Just my experience I saw most of my bears on bait at daybreak. I Never overbated. Once a week.

[hunterbob1]

3 minutes ago, Pathman said:

Ok, so I would buy that after the first day Bob, I understand patterning an all that. 
but the first day? There is no pattern on the first day! That’s what makes me crazy. 
o went in at 10:00 when nothing was on the cell cam for two hours at least. I sit 9 hours and no bears. There was no previous pattern because I’d never sat there before, so what made them not come in on the first day after nine hours, that’s what I can’t understand. 

You may be had been cut off by another Hunter.