Bear Hunting

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Mud
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Bear Hunting

Post by Mud »

I have hunted black bear the last 6 years with little success. In Pennsylvania the odds of getting one hover around 3%. The generally accepted method around here is driving. I like the solitude of hunting alone, so when there's snow I look for tracks and try to run it down. Got close 2 years ago but ran out of daylight. It was the last day. And one year I found a marking tree with some claw marks about 8' up or so. There was a deer hide and a torn apart log. The scat piles were close to the size of soda cans. A big boy had spent some time there, but not in a few days. In 16 years of hunting that's the only time I came across something like that. It was in the middle of some of the worst turf in that area.

This year I opted not to go out. Hell, I didn't even get out for small game. Too much work to do and all that. But some local guys shot a sow right in the middle of where I hunt. Glad they got something. It was their 7th year. Anybody else hunt bears? Someday I'd like to see Kodiak Island up in Alaska for a real predator hunt.
Or maybe hit the coast after a glacier bear.

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smokerscully1
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by smokerscully1 »

I'm pretty sure the glaciers (blue color phase)are protected. They are absolutly beautiful though. I know the kermode bears (white or spirit bears) are now protected.
I take between 30 and a hundred every year--but I got good hounds, good baits and I get paid to do it.
Mud
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Mud »

Glacier bears aren't protected, just near impossible to get. Their terrain is brutal from all I've read.
http://www.wildernessenterprises.com/Bi ... nting.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Saw some pictures of Kermode bears once. It's funny seeing white black bears. Or blue, for that matter.

Here in Pennsylvania we're not allowed to use dogs or bait. Even cover scents are banned. Do you guide for bears? Or is it a population control program? What sort of gun do you use? I use a Ruger Mk2 in 30-06 with a 3-9x Leupold Vari-X 3 or a Colt Anaconda in .44 Mag with an Aimpoint red dot scope. If I'm spending the day tracking or it's close cover the .44 is a nice option.

Most years there are a couple bears over 800lbs shot in our state,and often 8-10 over 700 lbs. Some of the best come out of the Poconos region. British Columbia's got nothin' on us. :wink:

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smokerscully1
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by smokerscully1 »

Ain't nuthin wrong with the aught-6--I'm in Canada so I hunt moose with a .303 Brit--use an ole '94 thuty-thuty for bear.
Can't hunt in Canada with sidearm. Here is a direct quote from a member of the 1951 Marine Pistol Marksmanship team.
"A pistol for hunting is one of the 3 most over-rated things in the world. The other 2 being Harley-Davidson motorcycles and teen-age sex."
Mud
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Mud »

1951? Optics have come a long way since then. A 1x scope does wonders for pistol markmanship. The 10" barrel helps greatly with accuracy, too, but I still prefer the rifle most of the time. You definitely need to know your limits before shooting at animals with a handgun. Can't hunt with handguns in Canada, huh? Does Canada just frown on handguns in general?

I used to have a 30/30. It was a Marlin. Shot great, but I sold it. Dumb idea. Miss that lever action.
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Uncle Remus »

You want to get a black bear, book a hunt in BC. We get em coming into town looking for apples this time of year. I used to guide for black bears years ago, but personally have only shot one bear that was being a problem. There's lotsa bears here but nobody really hunts them much, mostly Americans. You can hunt em in spring and fall.
We can't bait them here but there really is no need to, if you just get out drive around and glass you can usually find one.
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Mud
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Mud »

Yeah, BC is the place to go for sure. Every time I think about going on a hunt I'm torn. Elk, caribou, bears...Maybe I should see if any of them take credit card points. That might help me decide.

You used to guide? Guiding is just picking up in Pennsylvania as a service. We never had much of interest until recently. And of course we don't have the huge swaths of wilderness. Some locals guide for turkey and then there's the elk. Since the antler restrictions there are fewer deer but more good buck around. Probably won't be long 'til something happens with them.

What do guides do in the off-season? The guides I know farm mostly.
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Dutchmancreek »

A friend of mine in Pa. had a bear try to get into his place 3 weeks ago. It ripped lattice off his deck, left paw marks on the sliding glass door, and bit a chunk off the deck railing. See 'em all the time up there, but none of us is a bear hunter.

I spent the last week up there at deer camp.
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dukethebeagle120
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by dukethebeagle120 »

anyone wanna revieve this thread
i like to talk bear hunting
especially in oh canada
its better to think like a fool but keep your mouth shut,then to open ur mouth and have it confirmed
OtisT
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by OtisT »

dukethebeagle120 wrote:anyone wanna revieve this thread
i like to talk bear hunting
especially in oh canada
Here ya go. This is a black bear from So. Oregon. We did not have dogs, so bagging a bear for our family was a rare thing. We would always buy a tag and hope to get lucky when out deer hunting. We had a few bear on the mountain behind our home, but dad said not to take those as long as they didn’t cause us problems.

I have three funny stories about this bear in particular. All true. I’ll dish em out one at a time.

My dad shot this when out hunting with my cousin Gary, who was about 20 at the time and was from LA ( city boy). It was shot about 1/2 mile from the road, and Gary was afraid of and would not go near the bear. Dad gutted it and Gary would still not go near the bear. Dad was a very strong man and drug it to the road by himself with much effort, and no help from Gary. Luckily, dad had a come-along winch to help at times and to get it into the truck. Gary would still not touch the bear. Later, Gary confided in us that he had watched the movie “Grizzley” and he was afraid it would come to life and get him.

It took a few years before Gary was invited back to our home, and Dad never took him hunting with us again.

Enjoy.
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Deerhunter
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Deerhunter »

Not a bear but this guy walked right to me while I was looking at an old grave stone In the middle of the woods. My father always hunted this spot. Haven't hunted there in 20 years. Was reading the head stone, looked up and saw this guy walking right to me. Thanks Dad! Going back to that spot in the spring to put the stone back on its base.
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Deerhunter
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Deerhunter »

OtisT wrote:
dukethebeagle120 wrote:anyone wanna revieve this thread
i like to talk bear hunting
especially in oh canada
OtisT,

Is that malted corn in those burlap sacs..........LOL..........Nice bear!
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dukethebeagle120
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by dukethebeagle120 »

yeah baby
good shit
its better to think like a fool but keep your mouth shut,then to open ur mouth and have it confirmed
OtisT
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by OtisT »

Deerhunter wrote:Is that malted corn in those burlap sacs..........LOL..........Nice bear!
Malted Corn?:
Not malted corn. Dad never drank, though he did teach me how to ferment fruit, make a still, and distill. I loved to burn and blow up things, so he showed me how distilling several times would make alcohol strong enough to burn. By 11 or 12 I was already making black powder, thermite, and more. Doing dangerous things safely was also taught at our home, though I am still amazed I have all my digits :-)

Nice Bear:
Thanks. It’s a nice rug now. :-)
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contrahead
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by contrahead »

I was raised with the notion that you should only hunt things that you intend to eat. Eating predators or just omnivores that occasionally eat meat like bear and raccoon has never appealed to me. So I've never hunted bear but I've had a friend or two that has.

I've had to run bears out of my camp at night. I've encountered bears that didn't notice me in the wee hours of dawn, as I was camouflaged and scented up for bow hunting elk or deer. I've almost run over other bears with a car and have had a friend who's house was invaded by a bear while he was away in town to shop for groceries. In dry or lean years, hungry bears will come down to more civilized environs to forage. Some parts of Colorado have a growing bear overpopulation problem and not as many people hunt them as once did.

On top of that Colorado changed some of its hunting laws a while back. They made trapping and baiting illegal. In the 1980s -before that change, a friend who hunted bear would go out and dig a pit in the ground perhaps a month before the season would open. Every other day or so thereafter he'd place stinky old meat scraps and suet into the hole, that any bear could smell from a great distance. But he would also go to a bakery and acquire old stale donuts and sweet confections to put underneath the stinky meat. Observing with binoculars from a hill several hundred yards away he would describe scenes where bears would come in to raid the pit. They would sit down, reach into the hole and fling the suet or whatever high into the air so that they could reach the sweets.

Another old bear hunter that I knew was explaining one time, how remarkably much a sow bear, once skinned out on the ground– would resemble a human woman. I confess no firsthand knowledge of what the underside of a sow bear looks like and so had to resort to Internet pictures for corroboration.
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OtisT
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by OtisT »

contrahead wrote: Sat Jul 04, 2020 2:29 pm I was raised with the notion that you should only hunt things that you intend to eat.
+1. Same rule in our home. Had to eat anything you killed, except for vermin and predators attacking your animals. We enjoyed eating and sharing bear sausage for a long time. Filled an entire freezer. Otis
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Tom Kat
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Tom Kat »

I shot my bear in Manitoba. Great experience. We did eat him.

I enjoy coyote hunting here in Kansas. No I don't eat them but they wreak havoc on ranchers who love what I do.
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Tom Kat
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by Tom Kat »

Yesterday
IMG_1041.jpg
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contrahead
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by contrahead »

Sometimes the bears hunt back.

This just happened less than two weeks ago.

It was done by an 11yr old Black bear sow that weighed only 204 lbs. In the Rockies a "Black Bear" might not be black at all; but range from a muddy brown to a light tan brown or a reddish cinnamon color. The woman was out walking her dogs at dusk, not far from her own house (which was adequately remote). She probably wasn't singled out and attacked by the protective sow and yearling cubs, but she might have intefered in what began as a dog and bear squabble.
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by cob »

Tom Kat wrote: Sun May 16, 2021 8:39 am Yesterday IMG_1041.jpg
Were not in Kansas any more are we Toto.
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contrahead
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Re: Bear Hunting

Post by contrahead »

No need to start a new thread over this little bit of trivia. It wasn't as easy as it should have been to dig up this particular (e-mailed) video using 'google-fu'. But in the process of finding it I ran across some engrossing videos about 'ratting' with minks...



Now I've had wild weasels and ermine almost crawl up my leg on occasion. I had to drive them off by throwing rocks. They are just about as creepy as a water moccasin that's trying to crawl into your canoe in the middle of the night (while gigging frogs). I've also experienced minks and pine martens at a fur farm. It's never, ever occurred to me to pet any one of these damn things. That's why I include this video. (And the dog works with the mink without biting it). In other videos this same guy shows teams of just dogs, cleaning up rat colony s.
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