I've gotten a bear tag the past few years but I've never seen one in season to have an opportunity yet. Maine is on my mind but so has new brunswick. And I think I'd like to go west a little more.
In pa we have to take the bear whole to a check station for the game commission to age and weigh the bear. Plus most guys do bear drives and people have a tendency to see black and shoot at a moving bear so it's common for guys to get 100lb bears because of how they hunt.
Unless I jump scare a black bear or run into a mom and cubs I've never been too worried about them. Just always cautious, so I guess I'm a little surprised at that but it makes sense.
I'm from pa so I don't understand or have much knowledge on the situation, why are grizzlies hated so much? Are they that mean and nasty? I've always thought they're part of the ecosystem as long as they're managed then for the most part they're just bears doing bear things.
Were the Maine trips baited? I live in pa we have a good amount of bears but we can't bait for them or use hounds which I think is a good thing for pa.
I think my main determining factors, without having any experience in this topic, would boil down to other hunters and if there were bulls that I would be willing to shoot.