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Black Bear season

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Black Bear season

Postby GPelkhunter » 06 06, 2023 •  [Post 1]

Bear.jpg
The season is open in my area until June 15th. I am going after this guy with a bow in a couple days. Hopefully I can provide some close up photos of him soon.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Swede » 06 06, 2023 •  [Post 2]

Best wishes on your hunt. I am sure the bear would love to be photographed real close up. :lol:
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Lefty » 06 06, 2023 •  [Post 3]

Whats that bear munching on!

My daughter had plans to kill a bear today,,, but last night they had toilet plumbing problems.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Lefty » 06 06, 2023 •  [Post 4]

Well the bears will have some good eaten to feast on

5lbs of lamb,700 lbs, Wagyu, scrap, and trim,10 lbs of deep fried peas, 50 lbs of shelled sunflower seed, and maple flavored buttercream frosting
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 06 07, 2023 •  [Post 5]

Wheres your area? You in idaho?
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Lefty » 06 08, 2023 •  [Post 6]

You asking GP or me
I'm along the Idaho Montana line, Beaverheads to Yellowstone
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 06 08, 2023 •  [Post 7]

Lefty wrote:You asking GP or me
I'm along the Idaho Montana line, Beaverheads to Yellowstone


Askin op what his area is. Guessing northern idaho. I know where youre at mr pocatello. Watch out i may drop in sometime
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby ishy » 06 11, 2023 •  [Post 8]

Way too open for North Idaho :lol:
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby GPelkhunter » 06 21, 2023 •  [Post 9]

The area I hunt is Alberta, Canada. I didn't see this bear while I was out which is too bad because it's a nice looking bear! I did have a momma bear encounter but luckily both parties are fine and she's still roaming around with her cubs.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Lefty » 06 21, 2023 •  [Post 10]

The mosquitos have been eating me up when Ive gone to place baits.
I just cant seem to get enough time to spend in the woods
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 06 22, 2023 •  [Post 11]

Westbound approaching kodiak. Stuck on this boat for another month or so, then taking all of august off to hunt bear. Time is really dragging right now. Just hoping for a good berry crop this year. I should have several days to run around and scout out berry conditions before the opener.
A friend texted me and said his 5yr old twin girls are asking him to take them bear hunting. They want him to get a bear. Im going to try to help make that happen. Thinking about places where that might be doable, as i dont suspect 5yr old kids can hike very far.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Swede » 06 22, 2023 •  [Post 12]

If you are stuck waiting around Kodiak, why not go bear hunting there? I hear the bears are bigger and better on that island.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 06 24, 2023 •  [Post 13]

Stopping off for a kodiak bear hunt is not an option, but i would love to do an interior grizz hunt someday. Unfortunatey, being a resident of the lower 48, there is nowhere i can legally hunt grizz without a guide. And im not interested in a guided hunt. Sure would be cool to call a grizz in and knock him down with the .444.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Lefty » 06 25, 2023 •  [Post 14]

wawhitey wrote: I know where you're at mr Pocatello. Watch out i may drop in sometime

You're Certainly welcome.

Do you know any Alaskan-Pocatellians,,,or Mankato Minnesotans ?
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 07 08, 2023 •  [Post 15]

Word from home is the berries are on early this year and its a real bumper crop. Should be great bear hunting right out the gate august 1st. I should be home in a little over a week. These last 2 weeks of july are going to drag.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 07 11, 2023 •  [Post 16]

Getting home saturday, just called the office and confirmed im off until september. There will be a couple bears going to freezer camp.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby 7mmfan » 07 11, 2023 •  [Post 17]

Good luck Dean, go get um!
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 07 21, 2023 •  [Post 18]

Just came home from town and almost ran over a pretty good looking bear just a couple hundred yards from my house coming up out of the creek. 10 days from now ill be heading up to the cnf with pack and boomstick.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 01, 2023 •  [Post 19]

Well opening day isnt shaping up too good here. Got one calling session in this morning in my favorite area, wind got all kinds of wild and unruly so i backed out about a mile, laid in the shade trying to sleep for a while, wind still all over the place so i figured i may as well head back to my quad and get off the mountain before every bear around knows im here. So back at my truck early, with hours of daylight to kill. Just not a good idea to be in the woods right now. Wont accomplish anything but putting critters on high alert.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 05, 2023 •  [Post 20]

Got my bear today about 50 yards downhill of me, and when i was looking for a clear shot, after deciding to take her, i could hear another bear in the brush nearby at about my 4 or 5o clock. Coulda been a big boar, or i couldve lost my chance at the sow and never got to see the other one. I figured a bear in the hand is worth two in the bush. First bear ive seen this season, been really slow. Bout the only action ive had has been hearing wolves howling several times. Sounds like weve got some very foul weather coming up, may be a few days before i head out to work on tag #2.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 06, 2023 •  [Post 21]

Second washington tag filled today. I think this one will make the 20yr club.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 13, 2023 •  [Post 22]

Guess its past my bed time. Getting up way too early to go help a friend on a bear hunt with his 5 yr old twin daughters in tow. Theyve been begging him to take them bear hunting. This ought. To be interesting
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby 7mmfan » 08 15, 2023 •  [Post 23]

wawhitey wrote:Guess its past my bed time. Getting up way too early to go help a friend on a bear hunt with his 5 yr old twin daughters in tow. Theyve been begging him to take them bear hunting. This ought. To be interesting


Interesting is right. It ought to he one hell of a good time. Other than it's going to be hot as blazes. I love taking my kid hunting. Those days are never productive from a hunting standpoint but the exploration and awe he experiences at everything he finds is great. Thanks for the reminder, I need to get him out when it cools off just a touch.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 15, 2023 •  [Post 24]

No luck with the kids along (theyre 4, not 5) but we are heading out thursday morning without the kids, one of my better honey holes, see what we can do about finding a bear for him.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby Lefty » 08 16, 2023 •  [Post 25]

Dean what did your bear weigh?
A buddy questions me about how little and slow-growing some of our Idaho bears
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 16, 2023 •  [Post 26]

No idea. I never weigh them. Have to skin and quarter where they fall. Ive heard the same complaints from idaho guys about bears being small there, but i have to think a lot of that is people having unrealistic expectations as to how big bears actually are. Pretty typical adult weights for adult western bears are 150f / 250m.
Also, it seems to me the bear hunting in the baiting units over there is pretty poor. I really think people would find thqt bear hunting would be drastically improved without baiting and hounds. For one thing, all the bait sites disrupt bears natural behavior. This is why, when i hunt idaho, i hunt unit 1. No bait or dogs allowed. Ive never had success buying a 2nd tag and hunting the baiting units. Been in a ton of great bear habitat down in several of those units, only ever seeing 1 sow with a cub. Compare that with having done 3 hunts in unit 1, and filled tags all 3 times. Havent got the tooth age results for my springer from unit 1 last year, but im guessing maybe 10 yrs old, and he was certainly not small.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 16, 2023 •  [Post 27]

Theres a really good book, called a shadow in the forest. These guys studied bears in 4 regions of northern idaho through the 70s and 80s. Tons of data in there. Out of the 4 study areas, with hundreds of bears captured, aged and weighed over the years, at no age class did the mean weight of males exceed about 260, and at no age class did the mean weight of females exceed 160. Both of those were from the council study area. Other areas had smaller bears. Priest lake study area having the smallest. For example, mean weight of male bears aged 11-15 in the priest lake study area was 195lbs. Black bears just arent as big as people think. They captured only 1 male bear in the 16-20 age class, in the priest lake area, and it weighed 230. Also one male in the 20+ age class, weighing 205.

Now look at this pic. 70 sows measured in the priest lake area. Highest mean weight was 140, in the 20+ age group. The 10-15yr old age group had a mean weight of 133lbs. Western black bears just arent all that big (usually)
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 16, 2023 •  [Post 28]

Here is a chart, showing average weight by sex /age class, for 397 bears captured through all 4 study areas in northern idaho.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 16, 2023 •  [Post 29]

Heres some data from f&g of which state i cant remember, but its an eastern state known for producing big bears. But still, this is what hunter harvest looks like.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 16, 2023 •  [Post 30]

It looks like over the course of their study (referencing "a shadow in the forest") they captured nearly 1400 bears. So these guys know their stuff. Somewhere in the book, the author said that after years of capturing hundreds of bears and weighing them, they started having a competition to see who could guess weight the most accurately, and even after weighing hundreds of bears, they were still regularly off the mark by 50 lbs or so. This is why im hesitant to guess weights of my bears, at least publicly. Guys that have weighed hundreds of live bears in the field still cant hit the mark, so i know my estimates would need to be taken with a few grains of salt at least.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby 7mmfan » 08 17, 2023 •  [Post 31]

That's really interesting data, but it jives with most of the anecdotal averages I've heard from experienced bear hunters. Black bears just really aren't that big most of the time.
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Re: Black Bear season

Postby wawhitey » 08 17, 2023 •  [Post 32]

7mmfan wrote:Black bears just really aren't that big most of the time.


Except every bear that some hiker sees, ir every bear that somebody sees getting into their chicken coop, or every bear that a hunter failed to get a shot at, those are all 500+ lbs, without fail. Like every cougar somebody sees was 200lbs. Had a guy tell me last august, there was a giant cougar in his yard, musta gone 230, 240 he said. Then a houndsman came out and ran his dog on the scent and got a 90lb cat, which he said means there were 2 cougars there :lol:
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