Western Black Bear Hunting

[nsimmons]

If you could pick any state to hunt black bear, spring or fall, where would it be? Which season do you prefer and why?

 

[Nykki]

Alaska, alpine bears in the fall after they've been in the berries. All of the units I hunt your allowed three to five bears a year with no closed season. I'm not interested in the hide, have no place to put it.

 

[ZAK13]

I've hunted black bear both spring and fall in Maine, and did have 2 trips to Wyoming in the fall and a Spring bear hunt in Idaho. I do prefer spring time over fall, less bugs and cooler temps. Also 2 completely different styles of hunting, definitely prefer going out west over east.

 

[nsimmons]

Alaska, alpine bears in the fall after they've been in the berries. All of the units I hunt your allowed three to five bears a year with no closed season. I'm not interested in the hide, have no place to put it.

Are you an alaskan resident? Have you hunted coastal bears?

 

[nsimmons]

I've hunted black bear both spring and fall in Maine, and did have 2 trips to Wyoming in the fall and a Spring bear hunt in Idaho. I do prefer spring time over fall, less bugs and cooler temps. Also 2 completely different styles of hunting, definitely prefer going out west over east.

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.

 

[ZAK13]

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.

Both baited and hounds in Maine, I hunt in eastern PA, get a bear tag every year, fortunately for the bears I’ve seen, they were all pretty young, so I haven’t filled a tag yet there.

 

[Nykki]

Are you an alaskan resident? Have you hunted coastal bears?

Yes I'm a resident, been living here since I was a teenager. I have a jet boat but don't use it in salt water.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

No spring bear anymore in WA (don't get me started on that one), but WA has more bears than any other state than Alaska. OTC, 2 tags.

 

[nsimmons]

Both baited and hounds in Maine, I hunt in eastern PA, get a bear tag every year, fortunately for the bears I’ve seen, they were all pretty young, so I haven’t filled a tag yet there.

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.

 

[IDVortex]

No spring bear anymore in WA (don't get me started on that one), but WA has more bears than any other state than Alaska. OTC, 2 tags.

That is something I didn't know. I figured it would be like ID, MT or WY.

 

[nsimmons]

No spring bear anymore in WA (don't get me started on that one), but WA has more bears than any other state than Alaska. OTC, 2 tags.

Nobody ever really talks about WA for bear hunting so that's good to know I'll be looking into it more for sure.

 

[ZAK13]

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.

Maine is closer. If you west, even if you don't fill a tag, it'll be worth the trip.

 

[nsimmons]

Maine is closer. If you west, even if you don't fill a tag, it'll be worth the trip.

I've been out west on vacation twice and I'm going in September for elk in montana so I definitely agree there. Might be more fun than a baited hunt.

 

[TheYukiYama]

No spring bear anymore in WA (don't get me started on that one), but WA has more bears than any other state than Alaska. OTC, 2 tags.

That is something I didn't know. I figured it would be like ID, MT or WY.

Nobody ever really talks about WA for bear hunting so that's good to know I'll be looking into it more for sure.

Nope. California has second most. Extremely underrated for bear hunting, especially when considering the various type of hunting possible. Sometimes feel like I shouldn't share it because it is so under the radar, but we have so many bears and population increasing so quickly that I share anyway.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Yeah, I think you're right. My info was from 25+ years ago. Still a very healthy population though here. My garbage can being nearly detonated every other month is proof.

 

[TheYukiYama]

My info was from 25+ years ago.

Makes sense. CA population in 80s was 10,000. Mid 2010s around 35,000. DFW came out a couple months ago and said it may be as high as 80,000 now! At this rate CA will have more bears than Alaska soon lol

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Makes sense. CA population in 80s was 10,000. Mid 2010s around 35,000. DFW came out a couple months ago and said it may be as high as 80,000 now! At this rate CA will have more bears than Alaska soon lol

Holy Moly! Does anybody hunt them? This might be the only reason to go to CA.

 

[yellowbeard]

CA only has a fall season, one bear max per person, no bait, no dogs. Also it's a big state. What most hunters probably should care about is bear density on accessible public land. I would guess Washington and northern Idaho have more bears per square mile on public land than CA does, although the best areas of CA might compete.

 

[TheYukiYama]

CA only has a fall season, one bear max per person, no bait, no dogs. Also it's a big state. What most hunters probably should care about is bear density on accessible public land. I would guess Washington and northern Idaho have more bears per square mile on public land than CA does, although the best areas of CA might compete.

I said CA has second most bears and that it does… never compared one to the other by any other metric. However, majority of the state isn’t open to bear hunting. The area that is, is a similar size as Washington and the VAST majority is accessible public lands. Further, majority of the bears are in a much smaller subset of that. CA has around 3x the bears of either state. Bear density in CA does more than “might compete” in those areas. Divide the bear count in Alaska by the area, you going to tell me Alaska isn’t good for hunting black bear? lol and yes, if you’re trying to sit over bait, or use dogs then CA isn’t the place, but neither is washington. But to me (and likely OP who is asking), no bait or dogs is actually a pro for CA as you don’t have to compete with bait or hound hunters. You also have very few people in Ca actually hunting for bears. Most are just taken by deer hunters that stumble across a bear. This results in very little competition in the state for dedicated bear hunters. I also think fall bear often tastes better and can have even better hides in rifle season. All of these states are very good for a competent hunter and imo trying to say one of better vs the other is a fools errand. I think it makes more sense to decide what kind of hunt you want to do, what time of year you are available, and what logistics make more sense in your situation.

 

[yellowbeard]

I said CA has second most bears and that it does… never compared one to the other by any other metric. However, majority of the state isn’t open to bear hunting. The area that is, is a similar size as Washington and the VAST majority is accessible public lands. Further, majority of the bears are in a much smaller subset of that. CA has around 3x the bears of either state. Bear density in CA does more than “might compete” in those areas. Divide the bear count in Alaska by the area, you going to tell me Alaska isn’t good for hunting black bear? lol and yes, if you’re trying to sit over bait, or use dogs then CA isn’t the place, but neither is washington. But to me (and likely OP who is asking), no bait or dogs is actually a pro for CA as you don’t have to compete with bait or hound hunters. You also have very few people in Ca actually hunting for bears. Most are just taken by deer hunters that stumble across a bear. This results in very little competition in the state for dedicated bear hunters. I also think fall bear often tastes better and can have even better hides in rifle season. All of these states are very good for a competent hunter and imo trying to say one of better vs the other is a fools errand. I think it makes more sense to decide what kind of hunt you want to do, what time of year you are available, and what logistics make more sense in your situation.

Good points, you thought it through a lot more than I did. Biggest negative of CA in my view is the one tag and no spring season. In Idaho (and I think also Washington?) you can get two tags. I also believe WA rifle bear season opens in August, which seems a huge advantage, and just blows my mind.

Looks like more bears are harvested in WA than CA, and by fewer hunters, but as you say, in CA many bears are taken by deer hunters (perhaps a bit over half of the take according to this). Presumably also some WA bears are taken incidentally by deer hunters, although there is less overlap in the seasons there. Super rough numbers, but WA is around 1.8k bears a year by 20k hunters (averaging last three years) for a success rate of around 9%. CA takes about 1-1.2k bears by about 30k hunters. About half those CA bears were taken incidentally by deer hunting, but we don't know how many of those 29.5k remaining hunters were specifically targeting bears. I would guess well under half. A success rate for targeted hunting in CA of 9% would imply ~5.5k targeted bear hunters in CA, which sounds ballpark reasonable to me? Not sure if CA has stats on "Did you specifically hunt bear regardless if you took a bear or not" - but would be good to know that in order to compare success rates in CA to e.g. WA.