Tennessee Bear Hunting info

FangAgainstBullet

Lil-Rokslider
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Thinking about doing a bear hunt in Tennessee this year and wanted to ask if anyone here has any experience hunting there. I live in northeast Alabama so I don't live far from where I'm looking but this will be my first time hunting in Tennessee. This is something I've wanted to do for awhile now and I'm hoping this is the year I can get it done.
 
I've been bear hunting in TN 3x. It is a very, very difficult proposition to do without dogs. My experience is in Cherokee Ntl Forrest where The Bears tend to hole up on the bear refuges and den up in impossibly thick mountain laurel. I have yet to actually see a Tennessee bear while bear hunting. Some guys do kill them on private land during archery season by simply patterning them, but the public land open to bear hunting is big woods. The deer rifle opening weekend in Nov is a great weekend to go as the dog season is temporarily closed to not interfere with deer hunting. Identify the bear refuges and hunt the borders. Cover a lot of ground and don't expect to see a bear in open area -look in the thickest stuff you can stand to walk through.

Oh, and if you kill one, bears do have to physically checked in at a handful of check stations. Several of us wrote letters a couple of years ago during the game agency comment period and managed to get the regs changed where you can check in a quartered bear (used to have to be whole). Whatever parts you check in must collective weigh 75 pounds (with or without the guts). Feel free to hit me up with any questions. The bear population is growing. Some counties saw harvest increases of over 100% this year. I'd say 90% of bears are killed using dogs, another 9% are archery hunters on private land. Maybe 1% actual spot and stalk. Good luck.
 
Not trying to hijack but I'm watching this with interest as they have a bear season in AR just south of where I live. I've often thot about getting tag and taking a stab at it but really have no bear hunting knowledge. It's hard to find much about bear hunting in the eastern half of the country.

Most bears down there are killed off bait on private land but its illegal to bait on public. Not sure I want to do the bait thing anyway but I would love to kill one stillhunting!
 
I hunt bears in n Ga every year. It's very doable without dogs or bait. It takes a TON of work, but it's a blast. I see bears almost every time I go. I usually don't get a decent shot, but it's amazing to get so close to such beautiful creatures.

In a nut shell, you have to find their food. Usually it is acorns in the mountains. They prefer white oaks. If it's a good oak year, your chances go way up. There are also what I call resident bears. There are a few that seem to hang out even if it is a bad acorn crop. As a bonus I usually end up with a pig at some point.

I'm hunting on public land. Archery hunting. And still hunting. I might move less than a mile in a day. I usually take 5 slow steps and stop, then scan the woods for a minute or so. I'll repeat this all day. Morning and evening are the best times. Anyway, good luck. It's very doable. Just get out and start hiking the ridges.
 
One more thing, you have to find fresh sign. It took me awhile to get this one drummed in my head. If the sign is more than a day old, keep moving. There will be huge sections of the forest with no activity. Find fresh scat, over turned logs and rocks, etc. then slow way down. He is around someplace.
 
I have had some guys tell me that if you can find a bee nest in a log during archery season, it can be worth sitting over, but again, the WMA in TN you will be bear hunting in is 700,000 acres of big woods with some bear refuges throughout (You can hunt other game in the refuges, but not bear). From the time I've spent up there, hunting food sources seems like an absolute waste of time. There are simply too many available food sources, too much area and bear refuges for bears to escape pressure. 2014 was an absolutely INSANE mast year in the Smokies. It was literally like walking on marbles. This year was a mast failure year up there which likely contributed to the increased harvest. On an average year, though, there is an abundance of available mast. Also, that area has the lowest deer population densities in the entire state. It is really weird to go into those woods because there is just very little deer sign anywhere. If you live anywhere else in Tennessee, you can walk into literally any patch of woods and almost certainly find deer sign, most likely an abundance of it everywhere. Its really weird up there to walk around perfect hardwood funnels and out on benches and see no rubs, acorns on the ground with no deer droppings etc. If you do find a deer track, its usually only a single deer where you are accustomed to sign from herds. The deer density is less is 1-3 deer per sq mile while much of the rest of the state is 15-20+. Point being, there is far less competition for the mast up there. There are some hogs. Like bears, the best way to hunt them is with dogs (thankfully, baiting is not legal in TN), but if you see one, you can kill it. Like bears, they tend to hole up in the thickest nastiest thickets imaginable and are all but invisible once the pressure is applied.

Also, that can be some very tough terrain in those mountains. Sure, the altitude is only 2,000 feet and the elevation gains are often more like 400-600 feet differences rather than thousands, but it can be just as frustratingly steep as hunting out West and the thickets and undergrowth can be very difficult to negotiate. Mountain Laurel will become the bane of your existence. I've climbed mountainsides so steep that I was on all fours kicking footholds in the dirt for hundred of feet. Packing a bear out solo will be no joke. When the fog banks set in, visibility can be problematic -they don't call it the Smokies for nothin'

If you find yourself there during a dog season, there may be a lot of hounds running around. We tried to use the dogs to our advantage and went hightailing after them several times they started congregating and barking, though it never panned out. The houndsmen we talked to basically told us to feel free to shoot a bear or hog that there dogs are on. I can't say that every houndsmen is going to necessarily be ok with that, but most of these guys are all about working the dogs more than anything else. Killing a bear is just a lot of work. Since these guys turn their dogs loose and sit at trailheads tracking them, it could literally take them hours and hours to get to a bayed up bear. Honestly, we just kind of had fun with it. Some of the hounds slept in our camp each night (backcountry camping). Those dogs will often stay out there for 2-3 days at a time, sometimes longer, before they get rounded up. I don't feel like the presence of hounds hurt us one bit. Having them in the area likely presents a better chance of a bear being on its feet and/or getting ran out of a refuge. I'd have 0 problem shooting a bear that has been purused or bayed up by dogs. I would not be the least bit interested in hunting over bait, though. Anyone that think that that bear hounding is easy or lazy has no concept of what is involved with hunting bear in those mountains. I approach these hunts as mixed bag hunting: Bear, deer, & Hog. I've yet to see any of those 3 while hunting up there.

A legal bear is 75 pounds at check in. If your bear is a questionable weight, bring the gut pile out, too because that can count towards the weight. You also cannot kill a sow with cubs.


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Thank you guys for the great advice. I really do appreciate it. I'm excited to get out there this year and every bit of info helps.
Thanks again.
 
I grew up in SE TN right outside of the Cherokee, all of the successful hunters I know killed their bears with hounds. I'm fortunate that I know most of the hound guys so I could go with them if I find myself back there during the season, but that means there's also a season going on out here and I'm not going to pass that up!
 
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