When it comes to food, bears have no finesse and no patience at all. Sometimes, particularly when the acorn crop is thin, bears will go up in the trees and get the acorns before they fall to the ground. They will, in the process, inevitably break some or nearly all of the small limbs in the tree. This is what bear hunters call "lapping" a tree. If you find a number of trees that have been lapped, you've found a place that a bear is using heavily. Scout around and find out how he is coming and going to the area.

Bears are particularly fond of the fruits of the blackgum tree, which happens to have numerous small and somewhat brittle limbs. If a bear has been feeding in a blackgum tree, it will be lapped from top to bottom and you can spot it from some distance away. Sometimes you can tell from the scat that you find in any given area if a bear is feeding on blackgum. The scat will be jam-packed full of little oblong seeds shaped like a football. If you find scat that fits the description, look around for the blackgum trees. The bear that is feeding there likely won't be far way.

DOG HUNTING
Some dog hunters may feel that scouting is not necessary. After all, the dogs will find the bears. Right?

Well, that is true to some extent, but bear hunting with dogs is a team sport. Each member of a dog-hunting party should help out in the overall effort. Just as in still-hunting, it is a race against time. With only six days to hunt, knowing where a bear is feeding, or how it travels to and from a feeding site, is critical. On any given morning, the huntmaster must decide where and how the party will hunt. If the members of his party have not been out scouting, they can't add much to the aspect of the hunt.

ALONG FOR THE RIDE
It is important to point out, however, that not everyone in a bear hunting party even desires to kill a bear, and they can be as vital to the overall effort as those that tromp through the woods behind the dogs. Someone has to stay back at the truck to monitor what's going on, and perhaps deliver men and dogs in short order when the race gets hot. Some even stay back at camp and cook for the dead-tired hunters when they come dragging back into camp at dark. Someone has to take care of the dogs when the hunt is over, and although no one likes the job, somebody has to wash dishes.

But for those who actively hunt, scouting is fundamental. Perhaps the real benefit to scouting for rank-and-file members of a bear hunting party is that you not only learn where the bear sign is, you learn your way around the woods. If the dogs have a bear bayed up over in Pig Pen Gap and you don't know where Pig Pen Gap is, or how to get there in double-quick time, you're not pulling your weight, so to speak.

All members of a bear hunting party who wish to contribute to the overall effort should study maps of the area where they hunt, and spend some time walking logging roads and scouting for bear tracks. Sure, a number of bear hunters are there each year just for the camaraderie and the fellowship and listening to the dogs, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, a bear hunter who knows his way around the woods and has good scouting information to provide the huntmaster is a real asset.

Above everything else, all members of a bear hunting party should keep up with what is going on at any given time. They should know where their party's dogs are and whether they are on a bear or not. Who knows, you may be called on at any moment to be the one to go to the dogs and a treed bear.