The Basics of Black Bear Hunting

by Keith Sutton

Keith Sutton
15601 Mountain Dr.
Alexander, AR 72002
501-847-9643
catfishdude@sbcglobal.net
American black bears live only in North America. These familiar bruins are primarily woodland animals, occupying forests as far north as forests grow in Alaska and Canada and as far south as Florida and northern Mexico.

When Europeans began settling the New World, they converted many forests to farms, and black bears were eliminated from large portions of their original range. Populations experienced a resurgence during the latter half of the twentieth century, however, as people abandoned marginal farmland and let it revert to forest. At the same time, human attitudes toward black bears improved as more was learned about them. The last bounty on black bears was removed in 1965.

 

“Black bear hunting is better now than it has been at any point in recent history,” says Brian Bachman, founder and President of the North American Bear Foundation. “Conservation efforts and management programs have been very effective in restoring the black bear. Populations are increasing and ranges are being expanded in most areas. This is being reflected in record numbers of bears taken and also in the sizes of bears being harvested.”

 

 

Today, black bears are managed as prized game animals in at least 28 states with huntable populations. States with the largest populations include Alaska, with 100,000 black bears; Washington, 25,000; Oregon, at least 25,000; Maine, 20,500-21,500; Minnesota, 20,000; California, 18,000-23,000; Idaho, 12,000-20,000; Wisconsin, 14,000; Michigan, 12,000; Montana, 10,000-15,000; and Colorado, 8,000-12,000.

You can improve your chances of bagging a bruin by following some basic guidelines. If you’re new at this game, you should first study several good books on bear hunting, research the sport on the Internet and/or pick the brain of a veteran hunter. The more tricks you have up your sleeve, the better your chances for success. Space limitations allow only a cursory explanation of basic bear hunting techniques here.

You’ll also need to do some research to pinpoint good hunting areas. Harvest statistics available from state wildlife agencies can help you find public hunting areas or counties with a healthy bear population. Then it’s a matter of homing in on good bear habitat and looking for sign.

In the mountains, bears like to move around near bluffs. Wooded stream bottoms also are attractive, as are clearcuts. Studies of bear stomach contents show their most important autumn food is acorns, hence a large number of sightings in oak/hickory woodlands and mixed stands of hardwoods and pines. The next most significant foods were pokeberries and leaves, which grow in forest openings. Other significant bear foods include hickory nuts, persimmons, insects and carrion.

Spend as much time as possible scouting for signs of bear activity in the area you intend to hunt. Look for some of the food sources mentioned above, take note of their location and check them daily to see if they’ve been visited. Watch for bear tracks around watering holes. Large, soft black droppings full of seeds and acorn shells also are an indicative sign. Droppings often are found on logs, along with hair left when bears sun themselves. A bear meandering along a stony outcrop often leaves a trail of overturned rocks where it searched for insects. Bears sometimes scar tree trunks with their teeth and claws, another sign that can help bear hunters locate a promising area.

When hunting, remember that bears have keen senses of hearing and smell, and are highly attuned to anything out of place in their environment. To prevent a bear from winding you, try one of the products deer hunters use to mask or eliminate human odor. Some hunters actually use the bear’s sense of hearing to their advantage by using predator calls that imitate injured rabbits. Bears sometimes are attracted to these.

Some hunters sit on a stand, waiting for a bear to come to them, but because a bear may roam over many square miles, some successful hunters say it is best to cover lots of ground, moving slowly and quietly as you might do if you were still-hunting for squirrels.

Selecting the right weapon for bear hunting is important, and knowing how to skillfully use it is even more important. Most experts recommend rifles .30 caliber or larger. Black-powder hunters have excellent success with 370-grain maxi-balls propelled by eighty to one hundred grains of FFG powder. Bowhunters shouldn’t use anything lighter than a 50-pound bow, and even presharpened broadheads should be honed to a perfect razor edge to penetrate bears’ thick hide, fat and muscle.
Knowing where to shoot a bear also is important. Broadside and head-on shots are the preferred choices for gun hunters. A bruin hit in the shoulder blade area won’t travel far. For head-on shots, aim for the center of the chest.

The best shot for archers is not a broadside shot, but one where the animal is angling slightly away. Try to place the arrow just behind the nearest shoulder, midway between back and belly. This gives a clear shot at the vital area without interference from the front leg or shoulder. Broadside shots behind the shoulder blade will also kill.

A bear’s heavy fat layer prevents free external bleeding, making it difficult to track. For this reason, many bowhunters use a string tracking device. Available from archery suppliers, each consists of a spool of thread with the end attached to the arrow and the spool attached to the bow. The line plays out as the game flees, leaving a clear trail to follow.

When you find a downed bear, approach it cautiously. If possible, approach the animal’s rear from uphill. If the bear isn’t dead and is aroused, it’s most likely to lunge forward and head downhill. If the bear shows any sign of life, finish it with a well-placed shot.

Bagging a bear is challenging, but most ardent bear hunters prefer it that way. To them, that obvious degree of difficulty is the reason for hunting. The hunt is a success whether they kill a bear or not, because they’ve faced the challenge and tried.

Still, the chance of success is always there. And every bear hunter hopes that maybe, just maybe, this will be their year to bag a bruin, one of North America’s most magnificent and storied game animals.