Trail Camera Surprise
 

Black bears are fairly rare in Eastern Ohio even though we are I n the Appalachian plateau. This is probably a young male that showed up on my trail camera Saturday morning. I hope he hangs around for a while. This is only the second one caught by my cameras in the past 25+ years.

No worries Harold, they don’t eat grouse.





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Cool ! I’ve killed two blackies in my life , I doubt I live long enough to wanna shoot the third . When I cooked the darn things I could make them taste pretty good but I could never get the meat in a chewable condition , it was usually like what I assume chewing rubber bands would be like .

That’s cool, I’m in southwest Ohio- Next there’ll be lions and tigers!

They have become an every day occurrence here. Some will come right to the house, but none have become a problem. In fact, they are smarter than most of my neighbors. One has been a regular for 9 years. I used to put on a .44 when I was working on my firewood, a good couple thousand feet from the house, but never once thought to use it, so I don't bother anymore. I know of at least one winter den on the place.

We are over run with them in NH, especially Central and White Mt region, where I live. Bait season and stalking season opens tomorrow, Sept 1, then hounding in a few weeks. You can kill two with over the counter tags, and Fish and Game says we still do not kill enough. I have six clients coming in for bait hunting next week. Putting baits out tomorrow. Had a little guy check out our barrels waiting to be put out.

Is there any reasonable way to hunt them without baiting them? Just wondering.

Wonder if anyone hunts them with dogs anymore.

Thanks, Stan

Stan, yes sort of. Hounding them is usually pretty successful depending on the dogs, but stalking them is a tough proposition. You need to find a reliable food source to have any real chance of success. Acorns, beech nuts, berries or the best is standing sweet corn. They can really make a mess of a corn field and most farmers welcome bear hunters to hunt their fields. Most are killed over bait, next would be hounding and then stalking.

I consider them a nuisance animal that is about like a giant racoon. A couple years ago I got pictures of a 500+ pound giant. I wish I had seen it in person as long as I was way up a tree with a big gun.:shock:

giant bear
 

Here's the bear from a couple years ago.
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