Bear hunting

[Wingshooter]

Anyone planning on hunting bears this year? I have never done it, but I would like to. I have seen their sign in the woods while deer hunting and scouting.

I don't have dogs, so how do you hunt them since we can't use bait?

[ShaunM]

I have never done it but would love to. Be cool to kill one with a pocket knife.

[Garufa]

So how does bear taste?

[Guest joeharris]

Like tough Chicken!

[Guest Jcochran88]

Do you see enough Bears without dogs? Never have hunted them never really thought about it till tonight. How hard is it to get a permit?

[Smith]

I've heard that bear is extremely oily/greazy and not everyone can handle it. Everything I've ever read about bear hunting has used bait, so I am curious as well.

[rab1961]

i ate bear once and it was not so good. oily/greasy seems to fit the bill. I chalked it up to not being prepared properly.

[Guest SUNTZU]

i ate bear once and it was not so good. oily/greasy seems to fit the bill. I chalked it up to not being prepared properly.

I've had it twice. First time was pretty good. The second time it tasted like a tire tread soaked in axle grease.

[Wingshooter]

I don't think that I would want to hunt them every year, but I think it would be nice to do it once or twice, especially since I live in a state that offers it. I don't know the first thing about it except what I've read and seen on TV.

The bow season without dogs is 9/26-10/30 and the gun season is 11/26-11/29

[Guest SUNTZU]

I just want to watch someone hunt a bear with a bow for the first time.

[Guest MCRAIG]

I would just like to have a nice bear rug. A guy I work loves bear meat and said he would eat everyone I kill. Apparently he thinks its god's gift to man.

[Wingshooter]

I just want to watch someone hunt a bear with a bow for the first time.

+ = :panic::panic: then followed by

That's one of the reasons I wanted that bill to allow us to carry a handgun while bowhunting to pass this year. It would be nice to have a backup plan to keep me from being chewed on, like as in .44mag.

[Guest beefcakeb0]

im down..... provided its not too pricey. iv seen on the tube that they have to stalk them for miles and i would be scared sh1tless with a bow thats just crazy.... my m44 mosin nagant would make me feel safe......

[Wingshooter]

Looks like if you're licensed to hunt deer, you're also licensed to hunt bear. It's included in the Annual Sportsman or Big Game tag. Finding a place to go might be tricky, though.

I have seen a lot of bear sign in Polk Co. while deer hunting and scouting (also saw some hogs ), but I don't know if it is within the allowable region to hunt bears - I'll have to check. It kind of creeped me out a little when I stumbled onto a buch of bear sign with only a bow.

I would prefer to go with my bow, but I may chicken out and opt for the .30-06

Edited July 15, 2009 by Batman

[Guest GunTroll]

Had a buddy from WV who now lives in OR cook some up for me and darn it was good. He is the marinade master though. Injected it and rubbed it down. < I know. But real good! Then again I have had it and it was horrible. How big do they get down there?

[Wingshooter]

I'm still looking for the average bear size here, but these two articles are interesting.

HARVEST TRENDS

One of the biggest questions bear enthusiasts like to ask is about the trend toward larger bears being taken in the harvest. Brandenburg did say there were some big bears taken last season, but there's no real trend developing. It's really just a basic process: If males survive the harvest from season to season and have food, they'll get bigger.

In his time around Gatlinburg, Brandenburg captured several nuisance bears over 500 pounds in a two-year span. There were rumors last year of a 600-pound-plus bruin being harvested, but it was never confirmed. Brandenburg did note, however, that a 565-pound black male was documented.

Tennesse's Best Bear Hunting

Black Bear Harvest Record Set

Released on Mon, Dec 22, 2008 - 8:49 am under

• Wildlife Resources
  

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. --- With the close of the 2008 bear hunting seasons on Wednesday, Dec. 17, Tennessee has recorded a new all time record harvest for black bears, according Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) reports.

Through the various seasons this fall, hunters have checked out 436 bears, which tops the previous record of 370 set in 1997.

The 2008 harvest by county: Blount 29, Carter 69, Cocke 40, Greene 34, Jefferson 1, Johnson 44, Monroe 61, Polk 44, Sevier 37, Sullivan 21, Unicoi 40, and Washington 16.

Tennessee’s black bear population has been steadily increasing over the past 40 years due to several management practices put in place by TWRA. These practices include establishment of a series of bear reserves throughout the bear habitat, protection of females and cubs, and setting the majority of the bear hunting season later in the year when most females have gone to the den.

Harvest totals have varied over the past 60 years from less than 10 animals to the record of 436 set this year. The annual harvest has been more than 300 bears the past four consecutive years.

---TWRA---

[Guest beefcakeb0]

69 in carter and 21 in sullivan heck yea

[Guest GunTroll]

Big enough!

You know all my years of living in Jackson WY or the greater Yellowstone area and now in CO I have never seen a black bear. Plenty of grizzlies but never a black one. I have to say I really didn't enjoy my encounters with the griz. Mean bastards!

Any attacks? Often?

[Guest SUNTZU]

+ = :panic::panic: then followed by

That's one of the reasons I wanted that bill to allow us to carry a handgun while bowhunting to pass this year. It would be nice to have a backup plan to keep me from being chewed on, like as in .44mag.

Exactly. I'll record it for posterity's sake.

[Wingshooter]

Exactly. I'll record it for posterity's sake.

I'm sure it would do well on youtube.

[Wingshooter]

Big enough!

You know all my years of living in Jackson WY or the greater Yellowstone area and now in CO I have never seen a black bear. Plenty of grizzlies but never a black one. I have to say I really didn't enjoy my encounters with the griz. Mean bastards!

Any attacks? Often?

There have been 2 fatal attacks since 2000, and a non-fatal last year.

http://www.twraregion4.org/TWRAHunting/files/BearArticleNumberofAttacksGrowsWithBlackBearPopulation.pdf

The first fatal black bear attack on record in Tennessee or in the Southeast occurred in 2000, when a black bear sow and her cub killed Sevier County schoolteacher Glenda Ann Bradley.

She had been resting near the Little River, where her ex-husband was fishing nearby. The bear and her cub would not be driven off by other people who threw rocks and shouted. The bears were shot when rangers arrived on the scene, and there was no food involved, park officials said.

In 2006, a large adult male black bear killed 6-year-old Elora Petrasek near a swimming hole in the Cherokee National Forest. It first attacked her 2-year-old brother, Luke Cenkus, and his mother, Susan Cenkus, then 45. The bear had Luke's head in its mouth and was dragging him off. Luke was critically injured by the bear, which punctured his skull. Susan Cenkus was critically injured and unconscious when rangers arrived, Bradenburg said. The bear, found standing over Elora's body, "might have killed the whole family had rangers not arrived so quickly," he said.

[Guest Swamp Rat]

I just want to watch someone hunt a bear with a bow for the first time.

They took a 550+# bear just down the road from me in Coopers Creek with a bow. My boss kill a bear every year, allowed one per year, and he says the hardest part is the drag out. I have yet to see a bear, lots of sign but no animal.

He says to cook it just like pork. I gave him a jar of my rub and he smoked the shoulders(deboned/fat trimmed) and it was wicked good pulled.

[Guest SUNTZU]

I bet dragging a 550 lber out of the woods would be a challenge. I still want to see someone do it for the first time. That grin would reach their earlobes.

[Guest Swamp Rat]

The way I understand it, they were hunting deer over a USFS food plot and the blackie stumbled in. they took the shot and it only ran about a hundred yards. They got it back to the food plot and went and found the area manager. because of the size he unlocked the access gate and let them drive down to retrieve it. TALK ABOUT LUCK! it would SUCK to drag 550# of dead bear!