Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Why do people hunt bears?

Jerry, thanks for the sincere question. Glad to answer that for you.

I do quite a bit of bear hunting and enjoy it more than even the beloved blacktail deer. I have a ton of respect for black bears as a predator. I've called them in using fawn in distress bleats, had them stalk my campsite after I go to bed, had one watch me as I set up a tent in his berry patch.

To answer your question as to how they're different, when was the last time a bull elk sat on his haunches at 20 yards and watched you set up your tent in his meadow? Or a deer? Or a caribou? Or a moose? Or a cougar? Or a coyote? Or a bobcat?

Rest assured, a bear uses a different thought process than other game and it includes considering whether or not you are on the menu! They weigh hundreds of pounds but can survive for months at a time flipping logs and rocks eating insects. Or they can stalk and kill a bull elk. This black bear was half done eating a 5 point bull when I tracked him to his kill.




As I was cow calling my way along trailing the bull, this bear was waiting for me and trying to decide if he should kill another elk even tho he was stuffed with elk meat from the first one.

Another year I had a pair of nice spring bears picked out in two high meadows about a mile apart. After a 1600 foot vertical climb and calling session, my buddy hit one of them poorly, and he took off downhill. When we trailed him John spotted him waiting for me at the opposite end of the log I was walking along, about 20' away. These chompers were looking to exact some revenge on the wrong guy! This was a real smart old bear that wasn't ready to cooperate with our hunting plans.

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My wife wanted to see a bear so I took her to some honey holes. She got to see quite a few up close and personal (15 yards) from the ground lounging in mountain pools cooling off. Lots of hours spent watching bears behaving as they do in their natural environment (bait free environment) and you just realize they aren't like other game animals. They are super smart, able to plan and execute, and are not just brute animals responding to stimuli.

This ain't Walt Disney and no they aren't humans, but they certainly aren't deer. All the guys that criticize my opinion of bears just reveal their own ignorance. Seems to me bears can be a whole lot smarter (and certainly more thoughtful) than some people.

Of course, people like sitka deer et al are more concerned with jumping on any bandwagon that advances their agenda than thoughtfully considering that maybe just maybe, somebody might know something they had never fully considered, or have done things they haven't, or can view things differently but still be a perfectly legit person. To guys like that, all that they're proving is their own brand of stupidity and ignorance, which is spectacular when on full display btw.

To whoever the hell it was up there that said I'm the enemy, that retard has not ONE fucquing clue even though he's drowning in a pool full of them and is swinging two salmon nets to try to stay atop of them all.

Sometimes the campfire is nothing more than a flaming bag full of dogsheit. If people that have not ONE fucquing clue could shut their pie hole for half a damn second they might absorb a real gem here and there. Did you ever notice that the loudest azzholes do the very least amount of contributing anything of relevant to an outdoor forum? Never a photo of a gun, a hunt, a fishing trip, nothing at all. Just bitching and character assassination. Absolutely nothing outdoor related.

You guys go ahead say whatever gets you off about me but this spring I'll be hunting bears while you're still bitching about AOC or Pelosi or whoever is on your radar that day. Find yourself something constructive to do and pull your head out of your azz. And for gawds sake post a photo of yourself doing something without a couch sticking out of your [bleep].