bowtruck

4evrhtn
I have got my bear tag the last couple years. When they started letting us hunt them in the first leg of deer season. Only have seen one little cub while hunting the last few.when i can kill them . But i didnt he was just a little fella probably only weighed 50 60 pounds. I dont go out for just bear very often. there meat just isnt my cup of tea.
Thou it wouldnt go to waste. And the wife doesnt think i need more taxidermy in the house. I beg to differ

R.S.B.

Your lack of knowledge concerning the realities of nature is showing once again.

Hunters simply can’t ever harvest fawns that die within days of being born. Some studies have shown that fawn mortality in poor habitat can be as high as 92.9% from just nutritional factors and before predation even gets to play into reducing the number of fawns even more.

Hunters will not only not harvest those dead fawns in their first year of life but never in their second, third or later years either.

You simply have no idea what you are talking about when you make such ridiculous comments.
R.S. Bodenhorn

R.S.B.

Late standing hay fields are great for improving not only fawn recruitment rates but also rabbit and pheasant populations. Thank you for considering the wildlife in your farming practices. I wish more landowners gave wildlife such consideration.

Bear season is structured for a time period that is intended to have most of the bred females in their dens (they are first to den) along with a high percentage of the sows with cubs also being denned. Sows with cubs are the second bears to den though the number of them denned is very dependant on the amount of available food during any given year.
There are always years when we have more bears denned then is desirable to bring the populations down to the desired level. But, there are also years when we have a good mast crop that we might harvest more bears then desired in some areas too. It all kind of equals out in the long term management of the species and bear populations are pretty stable in most of the traditional range.
Bear populations are of course expanding into areas that once didn’t have bears, much as the deer populations have already done. That of course increases the statewide bear harvests while sometimes resulting in lower harvests in some of the old traditional big woods bear areas.
I believe we will probably see some expansion of the areas open to bear harvests during the first week of the concurrent deer seasons. Some hunters fear that will result in over harvest and the detriment of bear populations. I actually think it might have the opposite affect in many areas for the following reasons.
Where we have bear season run concurrent with the deer season fewer hunters take off work to hunt during the traditional three day statewide bear season and of course that lowers the bear harvest during those three days on those areas. That week then means even more of the bred sows and sows with cubs will avoid being harvested and be denned before the deer season occurs. That would then increase the harvest on the older male bears that tend to be out roaming later into the fall. That thus provides more hunting opportunities without adversely affecting the long term bear populations. Of course if there is any indication the longer bear season is adversely affecting an area the season can always be shortened as needed, just as recently occurred in parts of the northeast.
R.S. Bodenhorn

4evrhtn

Thanks Again, I am new to bear hunting and I am just scratching the surface of what I need to know about them in order to hunt them effectively.

4evrhtn

Yeah, I had the same luck last year. I saw bear on different occassions before the season came in but after that not a one.

ManySpurs

More signs of the PGCs succesful bear management program.

http://www.bradfordpa.info/?p=721

[/align][/align]http://www.tiogapublishing.com/articles/2009/07/02/news/doc4a4b98cc06483364431343.txt[/align][/align]
A bear in the air








(photo by KELLY STEMCOSKY) This bruin headed for high ground, climbing a tree on Main Street, Wellsboro on Monday evening. The animal was subsequently tranquilized, captured and eventually destroyed because of its aggressive tendencies.[/align][/align]
by Kelly Stemcosky
[email protected]
Published: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 12:24 PM CDT[/align]A bear found its way up a tree around 8:30 p.m. Monday night, June 30, in front of Subway on Main Street in Wellsboro.

Crowds of people watched from the sidewalk as the borough police, members of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Game Commission worked to get the bear down safely.

Jacob Brink, 11, and Branden Enck, 10, said they saw the bear near Austin and Purple Streets just minutes before.

“It was walking right down Purple [Street]. It was huge,” said Brink.
[/align][/align]

BTBowhunter

Actually, handled right, black bear is extremely good table fare!!
You do have totrim outevery last bit of fat and cook it thoroughly but it can be fantastic.

The fat is the enemy. One bite of bear fat and you'll never want another bite[:'(]

4evrhtn

Having worked in Taxidermy and skinning so many different animals I would compare bear flesh to that of a ground hog in smell. It's tough for me to get past that after having skinned so many of them. I will take your word on the table fare, don't need to prove you right. I will donate any meat from any bear I shoot to someone who enjoys it.

4evrhtn

If I find my dog getting attacked by a bear I will shoot first and worry about the consequences later. I am not going to wait for the police or anyone else to do it if I can save myhunting partner and best friend. My neighbor's goats had been killed by a black bear not too long ago. I do not feed bears, so they don't become dependent on mysupplied feedand less fearful of people resulting in cases such as these. Butbears are definitely increasing in numbers whilehabitat and resources are being reduced. Conflicts like these will undoubtedly increase. I feel we have enough bear and do not need their population to grow any further (at least in my area).

BTBowhunter

AMEN! They don't smell so good! Mostly it seems to be the hide that smells but the fat is disgusting too.

My first experience with bear meat came several years ago when I shotmy first bear. While watching me skin it when my dad asked me what I was going to do with the meat. Since I've never been much for killing things and wasting them, I told him I was going togive it a good try and if it wasn't any good, I'd at least feed it to my dog. The dog never saw a bite!!!

I'd bet that we didnt get 75 lbs of meat from a 300 pound bear oncewe trimmed out all the fat. It hadseveral inches of fatacross the back and was a nightmare to butcher but the meat was fantastic.

We made sausage by mixing 60/40 bear/pork and did roasts by cooking em very slow on low heat. Never had anyone try it and not aks for some more.