I was wondering if anyone hunting western Ma has been seeing any bears? My area ussually has a lot of bear sign right up until it snows, but this year I'm not seeing any sign. It's been so warn that I doubt that the young bears have denned up yet. I figure the lack of sign either means that this bear isn't frequenting the area ( abandoned orchard, still with apples) or was shot by another hunter, and a new bear hasn't mover in yet.

Haven't seen one yet!

I don't know about western mass, but in Southern Vermont we have a lot of beech nuts in the woods. Tends to keep bears at elevation instead of coming down to orchards and such.

last (sat) my buddy and i went to his camp and we had another running with a thisbear he had ripped down our meat pole .after hunting is over for the yearhe put up 3 bird feeders for winterbefore the start of hunting season heforgotaboutthe bird feeder on themeat polehook . the bear climed up the tree and ripped down a 2 x 6 with 6 12 penny nails in it to get to the bird seed. after lunch we put the camp back together went out for the afternoon hunt my buddy is in a tree stand that he built. at 3:15 my buddy said that he though that his truck was comeing up the hill to his stand.it wasthat bear itwasaround and underhis stand for about 30 mins. he has taken bear off this mountain before. but he said this was the biggest black bear he has seen in person in the wild. he said that it went 6 or 7 feetlong and went 500 plus pounds.i said to him are you sure maybe it went 300 or 350 he said no wayit would fill the back of my f-250 and some.

ccr,
Sounds like a nice bear. Say, if neither of you two have a bear tag I'd be happy to come out and help make sure that bear doesn't ruin any of your deer hunts. BTW, I hunt zone 2, Plainfield, and Cummington.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your story, and good luck.