ORIGINAL: Steve863
Unlike deer hunting and growing trophies, I think Bear hunting is PA is a sport of population control. A few years ago, I passed up a 40-50 pound bear traveling alone and later in the day while talking to a warden, he told me that I should have shot. The PGC wants to reduce the numbers and keep the population in check. Shoot all bears. Maybe not what we hunters have in mind but we have ethics and we also are conservationists working for the good of all. JMHO.
Deer hunting is population control also. In the scheme of things it doesn't matter one bit if it's a small bear or big bear or small buck or big buck as long as the herd is being reduced. Of course you will have some of the mighty hunters come along and tell you how they only shoot mature animals and let the little ones walk. I have a hunch that these hunters care more about their egos than they do about helping control the bear or deer populations for which the states issue us hunting licenses first and foremost.
steve, please dont take this as insult.
its story time from the sproulman.
our family was raised as hunters and sportsman.
our dads taught us to have game you have to take care of it.
this means not shooting little bucks and fawns.
we only took mature doe if there was to many,NEVER FAWNS or small spike bucks..now hunters cant tell difference on fawn or doe...
now, on to bears, we were never allowed to shoot cub years ago,we would not even shoot mother with cubs.
usually the young mothers will stay out longer to help feed the cubs.
this is why you see so many small mothers and little 40 pd cubs shot..
the big mothers, like 300 and above with cubs or without will go to sleep sooner,so they make it through..
some say its trophy to get any size bear.
most that say that were never in woods enough to learn size of bear or trying to protect the little bears .
we were forunate to have great dads that took time to take us into woods.
we hunted in gangs in bear season, you were allowed 1 bear for every crew of 25.
no cubs could be shot or were.
my dad was gang leader, he would say at camp,KIDS AND DADS, REMEMBER DONT SHOOT BEAR UNLESS YOU HAVE CLEAR SHOT AND YOU KNOW ITS A BIG BEAR WITHOUT CUBS TAGGING ALONG.
i knew WCO here in clinton county for all my life,he was great person.
my uncle was very poor, wco would bring him a cub bear that was shot by mistake.
after taking to him, he would tell us how many cubs were shot by mistake.
it was not more than 2 or 3,yes 2 or 3.............
now onto today.
hunters dont wait to see if bear is big or small, they dont have to,its legal to kill cub .
do you know that most cubs are killed laying on mother or they go up tree next to her, mother trained them to do that.
what kind of people do we have that are shooting cubs laying next to mother or that go up tree?
do you know that a lot of cubs are shot by 1 person,then they get on radio and call for others to come tag the cubs..
i bet wcos have heard it.
they hear it all time on deer, hey fellas, bring over some tags.
as long as hunters can shoot cub legally, many will but i dont feel its something to be proud about.
now, we hear some say, sproul there is to many bears..
well, i disagree, if so, those 10,000 bear hunters that hunted clinton county would have shot more than 125 bear or so.
think about it, all those hunters thousands and they only get 120 bear each year?
as for complaints on bear damage, we had very few complaints this year.
now that complaints are down,they say,WELL WE NEED TO KILL BEAR CUBS BECAUSE NO FOOD..
so, its food now, not complaints.
just think of nice bears we could have each year if mother/cubs were let go.
canada is doing this in certain areas, you cant kill mother with cubs.
i passed on mother and 2 cubs last year in hyner run area.
i also know a hunter from lock haven also passed on mother and 2 cubs, maybe same bears as we were hunting in same area.
so, you see there are hunters that hold to belief that we are giving bears a chance to grow up and be nice size bear to harvest.
thats why they did not let you kill cub years ago.
today, its kill off deer,thats happening in WMU2G.
it seems that management of deer/bear is only to try to sell more licenses.
more hunters getting bear means more money taken in..
i feel that we should go back to old way,1 bear per crew ,no cubs as most bear are killed by crews driving them.
1 bear if person is hunting alone.
i feel season should be longer so the bear population could be kept in check as cubs will now be turning into adult bears,which means more bear to hunt.
so, they could make the fri/sat before buck season 2 extra days to hunt bear.
this would be 5 days to hunt them BUT no cubs to be shot.
thing that bothers me with hunters that shoot a bear cub.
they say, well he was running at 150 yds, could not tell size.
he was in laural, could not tell.
i believe they are telling truth, they dont know because they never had to learn what a cub looked like in wild.
we had time to be in woods, saw bear all time..
today, no one has time ,so they dont know.
and law says,YOU DONT HAVE TO KNOW SIZE.
thank god we have hunters that DO LOOK.
if not,you would not have many bears left.
i believe this is reason we have bear here in pa.
many are leaving cubs go,you just dont hear about it.
i hope this helped and understand, you have to be raised to look at game as trying to make sure there is game in future for us and kids that will follow.
without sportsman like this, our future does not look ver y bright.take care......