Well, they are fairly liberal with bear tags, so I'm not sure bears are to blame.
Yes, but without the use of bait and hounds, I doubt that really very many are killed and there are lots of complaints around urban areas, since they banned those types of hunting. I wonder if they even do much population study on the bears?
Good point. Without bait and hounds, the success rate is probably not as high, but there is a LOT more bear tags out there in the Sept hunt then there was during spring hunting with bait and hounds prior to the ballot initiative.
Having said that, my son and I killed bears last year, and when I checked mine into the Montrose office with a few days remaining in the season, they had already checked in almost twice the number of bears than they ever have at that office for the September hunt. That may have been an anomaly though because of weather. Didn't hear anything abut this year yet. But there more tags in recent years. .
