If this bear ranged 50 miles from where a single man had fed him, and a different man shot the bear in the woods on public hunting ground, several miles from the feeding, how could anyone make a distinction?

What if that same bear was shot in NJ? 50-60 miles away and across the Delaware River? If he was shot in the food-man's backyard, you can make a case.

A re tired game warden in west Virginia goals my cousin and his bear hunting friends that if they shot a bear in a corn field he was going to cite them for baiting. And a mother man in wv got a hearty fine and got jail time for just feeding bears.

I'll bet anything this bear didn't act like a wild bear, and was an easy kill.

Did he have a right to kill it? Yes. Does he get respect from those who know about the bear. Hell no!

I also don't like the fact that state record fish can come.from a farm pound. Where the p public don't have a chance.

Muley Hunter - do you care what I think? :D

In PA, fish caught in private waters do not count as state records.

I think we are starting to split hairs here.
Only the guy who took the shot really knows if this bear behaved like a wild bear or like a fed bear.
That's the nature of hunting. We have no crowd present to boo when we are unethical or to cheer when we do something great. We have only our personal code of ethics and our own conscience.

If this bear walked up like a garbage dump bear and got killed the hunter will know it every time he looks at that head on the wall.

Personally I can't imagine a fed bear fleeing at the first whiff of human scent but I wasn't there.

I was not there either. But, the game commission is very strict about baiting and about feeding bears. They knew the history of this bear and conducted an investigation. I would assume this guy was pretty far from the man's house.

The other thing I can add as a PA bear hunter is this: if I see a bear in the woods, I say "holy crap!!!! There's actually a bear!!!!!". Just seeing a bear is huge. There is no time to decide whether it's a fed bear. You shoot now, or wait another 50 years for lightning to strike again.

Sounds like you guys need to work on your bear hunting skills.

You do know you can call them in like a coyote? You can even use the same calls.

Hunting bears in PA and out west are apples to oranges. Our success percentages range from 2%-3%, and most of those are camps that put on drives with 25 guys.

Our bear season is short and late in the year. Around Thanksgiving. There is no bait, there are no hounds. The bears live in the thickest imaginable cover.

Sure, you could try calling them. You would have to use mouth calls because electronic callers would not be allowed.

We don't have spot and stalk. There is not vast openings. You have laurel tangles you can't even see into. If you have a ton of private land, you could try calling a bear in. But, you're probably somewhere that other hunters are pushing so the bear will be spooked from the get-go.

No bait, or dogs here either. We do have millions of acres of public land timber to hunt, and there lies the problem. Finding a bear in all that land. A bear has the best nose of all the game, and mountain winds swirl a lot.

We do have the whole month of Sept to get it done, but it's in no way an easy hunt. I'll be doing it next year with a muzzleloader.