Baiting Bears in NY

[covert]

21 hours ago, The Jerkmann said:

I don't think that's a bear.  I've never seen one push a shopping cart.

[BizCT]

21 hours ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

I would absolutely love it if we could bait bears in September. No deer season then so baiting deer isn’t an issue


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I, too, would like this. But actually would like May or June also as a spring season.

[Uncle Nicky]

It is tough to say if it will ever happen.

North Jersey has a BIG bear problem, every other year someone seems to get killed or injured there due to a bear attack, but the antis are relentless in getting bear season stopped or modified. Being as NY is run by a liberal government (same as NJ), I don't see a lot of support for baiting or bear hunting unless a lot of people are injured or complain about nuisance bears.

They almost voted hunting bear with bait & dogs down a few years ago in Maine, that would have been a huge mistake IMO.

I've killed 3 in my life, and really have no desire to shoot another one; the meat is OK, a little chewy. I don't need any more mounts or rugs in my house, I'd rather let someone who has never killed one get an opportunity to kill one. I definitely noticed an increase when I had my camp in western NY, but I let 4 go in the last 3 years I owned the camp, even though I had a tag.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Uncle Nicky

[rjrdomer]

A spring season would make a lot of sense, but NY doesn't do anything that makes sense. I can go on and on but the fish and game department should be separate from the environmental department for starters.  Then maybe the game seasons would make sense. I digress..

If NY (or even NJ) really wanted to control the bear population, they'd have a spring and fall hunt. Spring hunt with bait, fall hunt as is (Basically incidental to deer hunting).  They could limit the spring hunt to areas where there is a perceived bear problem....perhaps the same WMUs that have the early season in the fall.  This way you don't have to worry about people baiting the  deer since again, for some reason, that's a cardinal no-no in NY parlance.  Many northern states and Canadian provinces have spring bear seasons with good results. I've hunted Alberta in May and had a blast. The meat may not be good, but maybe the state could setup some program where the carcasses can get donated to something...even swine feed. In Canada they use them as wolf/coyote bait.  The hides are great in the early spring..nice thick coats and great for making rugs.  If NY had a spring hunt, a cottage industry of guides/outfitters may even spring up and add more money to the local economies in an otherwise dead time.  April/May....before summer vacation seasons, before deer hunters take over the woods, and after ski season.  

But like I said, why would NY do anything that makes sense?

 

 

[Al Bundy]

A few years ago for some reason there were bears on my hunting buddies place. He got a younger bear to which i had some sausage he had made with the meat. That was hands down the very very best sausage I have ever eaten. I cant understand why people are saying the meat is not so good.

[steve863]

8 minutes ago, Al Bundy said:

A few years ago for some reason there were bears on my hunting buddies place. He got a younger bear to which i had some sausage he had made with the meat. That was hands down the very very best sausage I have ever eaten. I cant understand why people are saying the meat is not so good.

Some people don't like venison either, but it's probably because they ate some that wasn't prepared too well.  Same thing most likely applies to bear meat.   For me, the biggest turn off to bear meat is seeing a skinned out bear.  Damned thing looks almost human when you compare it to other skinned out animals like deer, cows, pigs, etc.. 

 

 

[Fletch]

26 minutes ago, Al Bundy said:

A few years ago for some reason there were bears on my hunting buddies place. He got a younger bear to which i had some sausage he had made with the meat. That was hands down the very very best sausage I have ever eaten. I cant understand why people are saying the meat is not so good.

From what I understand bears meat can vary widely. The taste is consistent with what they eat. I had a friend take one down in GA a few years back, it was young and eating corn and crops. He said it was super. Rinella has said some of the best meat and fat he has taken was from a bear living off of pretty much blueberries. So much that the fat tasted like blueberries. I have also heard some have real bad tasting ones, ones from eating rotting fish or garbage....

Edited September 10, 2019 by Fletch

[crappyice]

From what I understand bears meat can vary widely. The taste is consistent with what they eat. I had a friend take one down in GA a few years back, it was young and eating corn and crops. He said it was super. Rinella has said some of the best meat and fat he has taken was from a bear living off of pretty much blueberries. So much that the fat tasted like blueberries. I have also heard some have real bad tasting ones, ones from eating rotting fish or garbage....

This ^^^ and I am also a bit skeeved by the trichinosis discussions that come with bear meat .


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[G-Man]

9 hours ago, Biz-R-OWorld said:

I, too, would like this. But actually would like May or June also as a spring season.

Sept fur isnt prime yet

 A spring season with baiting would be prime fur . And fat is all gone

[G-Man]

41 minutes ago, crappyice said:

This ^^^ and I am also a bit skeeved by the trichinosis discussions that come with bear meat .


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That's solved easy by cooking to 140 degrees . I had nephews bear made into bacon sausage and cuts. The guy that made the bacon said he had to smoke at 140 vs 120 for venison to make sure it was all safe. 40 lbs of bacon later everyone that had it is still here and healthy

[The_Real_TCIII]

That's solved easy by cooking to 140 degrees . I had nephews bear made into bacon sausage and cuts. The guy that made the bacon said he had to smoke at 140 vs 120 for venison to make sure it was all safe. 40 lbs of bacon later everyone that had it is still here and healthy

I don’t want cooked worms either lol


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[crappyice]

I don’t want cooked worms either lol


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That’s my feeling. If I can’t truly enjoy the meat with confidence it’s not worth it. Hell I toss venison that has even a slightly off odor or appearance.


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[G-Man]

21 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

I don’t want cooked worms either lol


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Its eggs in the meat and you cant see them buy a meat thermometer  and eat good viddles

[Uncle Nicky]

6 hours ago, Al Bundy said:

A few years ago for some reason there were bears on my hunting buddies place. He got a younger bear to which i had some sausage he had made with the meat. That was hands down the very very best sausage I have ever eaten. I cant understand why people are saying the meat is not so good.

All the ones I killed were definitely deep in the "bush" and not primarily garbage eaters, baited with donuts, old meat & fish racks. It wasn't so much the taste, it was less bloody tasting than whitetail, but a little tough & chewy. It could have something to do with the meat being cooked to the medium well stage (I don't think 140 is enough to safely kill trichinosis). For the same reason, I wouldn't chance making smoked sausage or jerky out of bear meat, but to each his own.

[ATbuckhunter]

3 hours ago, crappyice said:

This ^^^ and I am also a bit skeeved by the trichinosis discussions that come with bear meat .


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Exactly why I wont eat bear meat. Just not worth it for me 

[G-Man]

Funny how people are worried about bear but think nothing of throwing pork fat, eating pork sausage, and pork in general when It can carry it as well. The meat doesn't all.come from nice USDA monitored pork farms. Just like mad cow or any other disease.  Any meat can carry something look at all the dam recalls..  cook it to proper temp and eat.. 

[ATbuckhunter]

Funny how people are worried about bear but think nothing of throwing pork fat, eating pork sausage, and pork in general when It can carry it as well. The meat doesn't all.come from nice USDA monitored pork farms. Just like mad cow or any other disease.  Any meat can carry something look at all the dam recalls..  cook it to proper temp and eat.. 

I don’t eat pork ever either, but the statistics show you are way more likely to get it from bear than pork now a days. The number of people that get it from pork are a fraction than those that get it from bear. I play safe and never eat either


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[Five Seasons]

On 9/9/2019 at 8:09 PM, rachunter said:

I'm heading up this weekend to give it a shot.Theres a few wondering around by me mostly down by my beaver pond.I'd like to get one with my muzzle loader.I've taken a few with the bow there pretty good eats if cooked right.

I've seen this one in my yard a few times even while shooting my guns.

i've hunted the opener the last 2 years but cant make it this year till the last week in september. but the last 2 years its been real warm so i'm hoping a few extra weeks and maybe some deer hunters in the woods will get them moving more.

good luck!

[Five Seasons]

On 9/10/2019 at 8:19 AM, The Jerkmann said:

Sign me up for a April Spring Bear Season!  Is there even a remote possibility that the DEC would consider this?

 

On 9/10/2019 at 8:57 AM, The_Real_TCIII said:

Zero. A bear could kill Cuomo and it wouldn’t be considered


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22 hours ago, Uncle Nicky said:

It is tough to say if it will ever happen.

North Jersey has a BIG bear problem, every other year someone seems to get killed or injured there due to a bear attack, but the antis are relentless in getting bear season stopped or modified. Being as NY is run by a liberal government (same as NJ), I don't see a lot of support for baiting or bear hunting unless a lot of people are injured or complain about nuisance bears.

They almost voted hunting bear with bait & dogs down a few years ago in Maine, that would have been a huge mistake IMO.

I've killed 3 in my life, and really have no desire to shoot another one; the meat is OK, a little chewy. I don't need any more mounts or rugs in my house, I'd rather let someone who has never killed one get an opportunity to kill one. I definitely noticed an increase when I had my camp in western NY, but I let 4 go in the last 3 years I owned the camp, even though I had a tag.

this was sort of the essence of my post though. It's like we're asking to introduce bear hunting. We're just asking to either change the season and/or allow baiting. the later of course would get the anti's all riled up and from what I've read and heard about groups that are protecting our right to hunt, they're more interested in keeping what we have then adding to it. California just lost fur trapping and other species are under attack as well.

As it is though, NY gives out like 500k bear tags and nobody bats an eye. Imagine if we had a late may/early june season? You'd have a few months off after deer, where you can do some scouting, shed hunting and small game. Then turkey starts, then it rolls into bear and you get another small break in the heat of the summer and you're back into deer.

I'm just not sure anyone or any organization would even have the resources to attempt to get it passed.

[Fletch]

10 hours ago, ATbuckhunter said:

Exactly why I wont eat bear meat. Just not worth it for me 

Probably safer than most of the food you eat at fast food restaurants lol. I've had wild pig and cooked the heck outa it so I get where your coming from though.

[ATbuckhunter]

Just now, Fletch said:

Probably safer than most of the food you eat at fast food restaurants lol. I've had wild pig and cooked the heck outa it so I get where your coming from though.

You're probably not wrong about that lol. This is why I shoot so many deer...best meat you can eat.

[Five Seasons]

19 hours ago, Fletch said:

From what I understand bears meat can vary widely. The taste is consistent with what they eat. I had a friend take one down in GA a few years back, it was young and eating corn and crops. He said it was super. Rinella has said some of the best meat and fat he has taken was from a bear living off of pretty much blueberries. So much that the fat tasted like blueberries. I have also heard some have real bad tasting ones, ones from eating rotting fish or garbage....

this right here. blueberry or mast/ag crop bears are supposed to be amazing. But there's a real problem in alaska where they eat rotting salmon or dead wales and just taste horrendous. 

[Uncle Nicky]

Everything you always wanted to know about trichinosis, I don't think the CDC has any agenda. Obviously something can get into a farm-raised hogs food to cause trichinosis, but outlawing the feeding of raw-meat garbage to hogs seems to have decreased the cases dramatically. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/trichinellosis/gen_info/faqs.html

 

Edited September 11, 2019 by Uncle Nicky

[Five Seasons]

12 hours ago, Uncle Nicky said:

All the ones I killed were definitely deep in the "bush" and not primarily garbage eaters, baited with donuts, old meat & fish racks. It wasn't so much the taste, it was less bloody tasting than whitetail, but a little tough & chewy. It could have something to do with the meat being cooked to the medium well stage (I don't think 140 is enough to safely kill trichinosis). For the same reason, I wouldn't chance making smoked sausage or jerky out of bear meat, but to each his own.

140 is safe, but you can do 160 and not ruin your meat either. just treat it like pork

2 hours ago, G-Man said:

Funny how people are worried about bear but think nothing of throwing pork fat, eating pork sausage, and pork in general when It can carry it as well. The meat doesn't all.come from nice USDA monitored pork farms. Just like mad cow or any other disease.  Any meat can carry something look at all the dam recalls..  cook it to proper temp and eat.. 

exactly! What happens is a few guys do get sick, because they dont treat their wild game like their store bought game for some reason, and if anything we should be more careful with wild game as few of us our pros and none of these deer or bear die with a pneumatic gun to the head in a controlled environment. 

handle your sh!t properly and there is no worry. eat a raw piece over a  camp fire like rinella and suffer the consequences. 

[Uncle Nicky]

17 minutes ago, Belo said:

140 is safe, but you can do 160 and not ruin your meat either. just treat it like pork 

exactly! What happens is a few guys do get sick, because they dont treat their wild game like their store bought game for some reason, and if anything we should be more careful with wild game as few of us our pros and none of these deer or bear die with a pneumatic gun to the head in a controlled environment. 

handle your sh!t properly and there is no worry. eat a raw piece over a  camp fire like rinella and suffer the consequences. 

140 is just BARELY on the edge of safe, thermometers are not always 100% accurate, and the CDC is recommending higher temps for wild game (bears). If somebody wants to risk getting sick, that's their business, but at least make sure you cook the meat to medium well if you plan to feed it to your family or friends.

When I had my processing business, I flat out refused to make jerky or smoked sausage out of bear meat or wild hog meat. I know I pissed some customers off, but to me it wasn't worth the risk of making them sick, their family sick, or possibly contaminating equipment.

Edited September 11, 2019 by Uncle Nicky