Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Finally........what I was looking for....

Here's a 600+ lb bear from eastern NC from a couple of years ago. They go up and over 800 lbs here. But those are few. 500 lbers are aren't all that uncommon. 300+ lbers are all over the place.

That's probably the beAr Donny SteAr the greAt white hunter killed....

You KNOW you wanna be me, Luther.

Several years ago I was doing some work on the Pinecastle Range in the Ocala National Forest and every morning we’d find bear tracks around the work sites. One morning we pulled up and a couple of bears were hanging around. I was surprised at how small they were and was told the small size wasn’t uncommon for the FL bears. If I’m not mistaken, the handful of people I know that have killed bears all shot them over bait which doesn’t sound that fun to me.

Yoder, it's probably the same as in Pa, but bear populations in Va have increased expontentially. I don't think many people hunt them. Maybe in the mountains, but east of the Blue Ridge I don't think so. I remember back in the 80s and 90s, the only counties with bear seasons were west of the Blue Ridge and in Suffolk and Chesapeake, where the Dismal Swamp is. There has always been some bears in between, but not many. Now, there is a hunting season in every county in Va, except on the Easterm Shore. I remember years ago it was rare to see a bear where I grew up, but occassionally one would swim 4 miles acorss the James River and show up in our neighborhood. Now, they aren't uncommon at all. We hads a news article about a bear that was prowling a bus stop. You can see them in the marshes eating crabs and shell fish. Kind like coyotoes, they've pretty much re-expanded acorss the whole state.

They're every bit as adaptable to populated areas as a whitetail. Yep.

It's not all that much fun. My grandfather's brother in law owned several bear hunting lodges in Maine, the last one being The Driftwood. He was a master hunting guide specializing in bear. I hunted there in the 80s and in the 90s. All the hunting was over bait. They put 55 gallon cans full of bacon grease and left over supper. There were big permanent stands in the trees, complete with a seat and bucket for relieving ones self in. His lodge assistants would load hunters into a big trailer with huge tires attached to a big 4x4 John Deere ag tractor and take you on a circuit and drop hunters off at their stands. They came back in the afternoon and pick up the hunters. He has his tracking dogs in the afternoon in case one had to be found. The good part is if you had to get a bear out of the woods it was easy since everyone helped, and the crew at the lodge cleaned it and skinned it and would send it to a taxidermist for you.

I've been applying for a tag 11 years now - no joy.

PA is OTC.

Over the years, I've ran across more than one set of black bear tracks on my buddy's property south of Mauston, WI. This past spring finally saw a couple. One set up, watching a creek bottom below a great roosting area, saw a sow and a cub come up out of the creek bottom. And where there's a sow with a cub, there has to be a boar around as well. And a couple years ago, saw the first wolf on his property too. Every couple years a +/- 200" buck is killed in the area as well. As I've said before, his property is a slice of heaven!

The wolf needs to GO.

It was just out of a 12ga 3" #5 nickle plated turkey loads range... if only I had had my 20ga with the fairy dust in it!

When I started it was 3 years on average for pull as a MI non-resident. Then it just kept getting longer and I just said "may as well keep going, stopping now makes no sense" - I've the got 11 points and from what I hear, might be another 3 years or so -baring some wild change in Lansing policy. And that pretty much guarantees it's the only/last bear tag I'll pull in MI.

No kiddin'............

Watched a “hunting” show a few years ago of a guy from Christensen hunting in Alaska. The used a snow mobile to push a running bear up a snow covered slope until it tired out and they shot it. Supposedly it was a management hunt of some sort but nevertheless seemed like a BS hunt to use for a show.

Seems hard to grasp that MICHIGAN.........of all places.........would be ANY kind of a draw for a bear tag. Michigan is covered UP in bears.

Exactly but bears, well the idiots in Lansing have this Disney idea about them and thus, they find it hard to allow them to be killed.

Understood.

It's the New Jersey mentality.......... They're covered up in bears. But they shut the hunt down............until destruction or human attacks raise public outcry. Then they cave for a year.

Try Maine. As far as I know non-residents can still buy over the counter licenses there for bear. Hunting lodges there aren't that expensive (or didn't used to be). And many will get you to your stand and process your kill. It's just not that challenging. Sitting in a stand and shooting a bear that comes to eat a ham bone and old pork fat. There bears I saw there never topped 300 lbs. They probably get bigger, but I never saw one bigger.

NC has over the counter bear licenses, too. Easterm NC bears get huge because they have plenty to eat. You can hunt on the game lands. But you'll have to deal with bear hound hunters. And the bears know when it's hunting season, because they move to the refuges where they can't be hunted. But if you're lukcy, you can nail a huge bear. Getting it out of the swamp will be a major under taking. Some of the rednecks there will "guide you" and their own, or leased, lands for a few hundred bucks. They'll get the bear out for you and back to their garage and clean and skin it for more money.

After I hunted bears in Maine, I never really appealled to it again. Would much rather go out with my camera and shoot them that way.

Another good friend has a place up in the UP by Amasa, just West of Iron River. Been applying there for way too long, a NR really doesn't have a chance, IMO. I have a ton of preference points, but year after year, no tag, while the same residents, year after year, continue to draw. But that's okay. My friend's place up there is right on the Paint River, nice fishing!