It's between NC and PA pretty much in the black bear size department. Northern PA has produced some pretty dang big blacks. Even bigger than most of your BC and Canadian bears. The mountains that create the boarder between Tn and Nc produced some fairly big boars for me years ago. There are a lot of places in Pa and Nc both that wouldn't put that huge of a strain on your finances Kellyguinn. Some pretty reputable places in Tn up in the Smokies as well. One advantage to the Canadian and BC bears is color phasing. They seem to have a much larger variety of color phases than here in the states. I saw one in BC a few years back that I had to look twice because I thought it was a dern Panda. I wasn't bear hunting at the time or I would have taken that bugger for a wall hanging. I still know a few folks that like bear meat.