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Any bear reports

13K views 78 replies 43 participants last post by  Plumtree 
#1 ·
Let’s here some success stories and what counties bear where taken
 
#4 ·
There should but i was really surprised of the lack of hunters i observed yesterday morning. I was hunting on an SGL and only 1 car in the parking area. Saw no hunters and heard no shots except for the waterfowl hunters down by the river. I was only able to hunt until 9 but i was expecting a lot of guys out. I heard the northern tier had some hunter activity but not here in Perry.
 
#9 ·
No luck for me, but I was glad to get out for a short morning hunt. I hunted State Gamelands in 4D and did not see a lot of hunting pressure. Typically, there are more cars and some gangs that put on drives for bear in the area I was at, but none seemed to be there Saturday morning. I did see on the PGC Bear Harvest data that 237 were checked in so far from the early season.
 
#10 ·
Well I finally got my chance at 800 yesterday morning. At the shot the bear tumbled and then rolled as it was running away. It then ran out of sight. I was 95% sure I would find it within 100 yards. I waited till 10 to take up the track. 7 hours later I came to the realization that I was not going to recover this bear. I'm having a really hard time with this but I'm going to stay positive and keep after them. But right now I dont even want to think about bear hunting.
 
#13 ·
Hunted state game lands 39 yesterday. I was hunting for either doe or bear. I spent the morning stalking and looking for sign. Seen three deer none offered a shot. Acorns were scarce in this area but found two red oaks that were loaded and fed heavily underneath. Set up my treestand about 30 yards off the oaks in the afternoon. At 5:45 I seen a bear angling my way about 70 yards off in a old clearcut. With most of the leaves on yet and ground cover still high and green a clear shot would be difficult at that range but if he stayed on course he would cross a logging road. Well I lost sight of him just before the logging road and was never seen again. Apparently it turned and headed directly away from me at that point. I had high hopes that he would return to feed underneath those oaks but darkness killed my hopes. Still a great day.
 
#14 ·
Hunted 5A, southern Micheaux yesterday. No idea where I was going, scouted via Google Earth and played the wind. Worked north into a hollow on the sidehill adjacent to a clear cut up top where my cousin's gang got one last rifle season. They had 5 bears on cam in the area this summer.

At about 7:45 I was working out a logging trail and found a big rock to gain some elevation to see ahead. Snapped a branch getting up on the rock and spooked some deer. Not 30 seconds later a bear comes charging straight downhill at me!

Raised the gun and waited. He got to 15 steps and stopped. He filled the scope, facing head on. Not the preferred shot, but I dropped the crosshairs under his chin, center of mass and fired. He rolled back then turned right and ran back uphill.

After reloading I went to the last known spot and after a bit found great blood. I followed it up through nasty thickets and it turned right paralleling the ridge. Followed it on my hands and knees at times for over 350 yards and the blood petered out. Just a spec every 20 yards or so. Finally had cell service up top and called in help, but we were only able to find one more spec of blood and it looked like it was turning downhill.

I had to leave the trail to go to work so we planned on coming back this morning to follow up, maybe just backing out it would lay up and die? Well thanks to TS Nestor, all the rain today washed the blood away. I gave it a grid search for 2.5 hours and called it a day.

Still can't believe I even saw a bear, let alone got a shot...and flubbed it. Dang it's a tough pill to swallow. I estimate it at about 200 lbs, but it could have been 100-300. I don't know bears at all.
 
#16 ·
Saw a 300 lbs boar take two heavy hand loads from a 45-70 double lung and tracking by the most experienced guys so know was tough. I’ve seen these guys track a small deer with a leg hit 2 miles over mountains and recover. Enough can’t be said about the fat clogging holes. They also are much harder to follow on paths than you’d expect from a large animal. I’ve had one slip in behind me at a few yards and never heard him until he was that close. I was young and fairly new to hunting them then. Even the one that circled me this week was real quiet and the one I tracked that stole my buck managed to side cliff some rugged terrain mouth carrying a large mature mountain buck with very little disturbance to the ground. That was a surprisingly hard track. I’ve killed over 100 deer in the last 12 years and other critters. I’ve also mentored youth and adults in some thick NC swamp and southern pine thicket you can barely crawl in and any possible gap is prickers. One doe I tracked for 8 hours belly crawling the whole way and tore up with prickers. Bear are by far the hardest tracks I’ve had so far I think. Well I tracked a button buck someone hit below the ham that was a flesh wound through pine thicket and tall grass. I only found sparse droplights fairly high on the grass. Luckily, the hunter had a second shot and when I went to help drag(carry really southern deer are smaller and a button is smaller still, it initially looked like a young doe but had the faintest nubs) I found the leg wound and pieced it together. Bears have large chests slightly different vitals than typical whitetail, and a lot of fat to clog holes. I’ve yet to arrow one but would think tucked in low behind leg quartering slightly would be the hard target but best bet.

MZL in-line I’d personally steer clear of Powerbelts and aim for a CNS/High Shoulder. Not a PB hater like some but tend to be real close to game and I’ve had some expand too fast at those close ranges.
 
#22 ·
I’ll be interested to see what rifle season numbers look like compared to past years. Followed up with bear numbers over the next few years with the increased amount of pregnant sows getting shot durning the early season that might of been denned up during rifle season.
 
#31 ·
Thank you. This is my 6th poco bear. I've been successful with rifle, archery, and Now muzzleloader. I've got them driving, stand hunting, spot and stalk, and tracking in the snow. I put a lot effort into bear hunting my total should be into double digits but I've made some bad shots over the years. I have a love hate relationship with them. I love hunting them because they really are a crafty animal but I hate the headache of living with them.
 
#32 ·
Lot of pregnant sows getting shot. was always told most of those would be denned up by rifle season.. hope they dont destroy the bear population. I love hunting them and seeing guys have success.. Just hope it doesnt ruin future seasons.. Seen the game commission destroy the deer population in my area
 
#34 ·
Exactly where are these harvest numbers coming from? I haven't seen anything on the PGC web site, do you or anyone have a link?
 
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