Most of the shows you see are bear hunting in Canada where baiting is the thing. Illegal to bait here in NY. Most bears in NY are shot during deer season as targets of opportunity with rifles.

The reason I have taken so many is because we used to be allowed 3 bears per year for the 3 different seasons.Now we are allowed only 1 per year and the 1 licence covers all 3 seasons.Whichever season you get your bear then you are done until the next year.

Legal to bait in MN, so I do. This year will be my first year hunting bear from a double bull blind, I'm usually 20+ feet up.

The aforementioned733 pounder was killed about 5 miles from my parents' house in '06- and only a stone's throw away from one of the areas that I bowhunt on SGL 51. It was definitely a whopper - PA State Record, actually. I spend a lot of time in a few different parts of that 16K+ acre chunk.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/outdoors/s_422836.html

Dang fran nice to know youve been walking around in the dark with that bruiser watchin ya!

Depends where you're from. Up here I'd say the "norm" is spot and stalk but that's because the coast is conducive to it in the springtime. However there is quite a bit of baiting that goes on. They each have their challenges, benefits and drawbacks.

quick,
not meaning to hi-jack the thread but how is the hunting up in game lands 51? I used to hunt up in there alot with my dad years back, but it was hurting bad as far as the herd. Has it made a comeback yet? We used to hunt up on the flats at the end of the game commision gate.

Ya know, Al - I actually think I may have seen that big bruin before he died that fall- actually in the late spring of '06. I hiked in to do some fishing for native trout (got about 1.5 miles deep), and ran into a really big bear on the way out. He'd just came down out of the ledges to chow on some skunk cabbages. They usually don't make me nervous, but it was almost pitch black, I had no light, no cell signal and he was a biggun. LMAO Usually they run, but that guy just stood there and let me walk by with my butthole puckered up to the size of your average decimal point.

I did have a really bad run-in with a smallish sow and cubs once in spring turkey season.In all honesty,Ialmost shot her.She was downrightangry.

Back on topic: Even in areas where baiting is "illegal" - I suspect there are a lot of people who do it anyway. I've found my fair share of bait sites over the years, despite it being 100% banned. People arejust too lazy to do it the hard way, so they cheat.

Ron - "graveyard" flats (on the dunbar side)is, and will always be, home to some of the best deer hunting around. The herd numbers are low, but the age structure is the best around. It's still a needle-in-a-haystack scenario. Lots of the cutoffs are really filling in. Thedeer (gun)hunting in there is marginal, b/c it gets crushed with pressure in bear season, which opens the preceding week.So, the big racks are already locked down tight on the beds once deer season opens. They've played that game before. That said, everybody I know who hunted that area really hard - they all tagged out on good deer. They're in there - they always have been & always will be. You know how it is though - nothing comes easy in there.

ya batin is norm

It is illeagl here in California or Arizona to bait bears or hogs or for that fact anything. Hounds can still be used in California, not in Arizona though. On taking a sow with cubs I think is it more of a ethical issue, I would not do it.