Early bear around 4th Lake, Inlet area.

[wolc123]

I picked up my hunting licence today at Walmart and it went pretty smooth, other than the printer running out of paper half way thru printing the tags.  Ten minutes later, they got them all printed up, including 2 9F dmp's on the second try.

I will be up in the Adirondacks, the first weekend in October, and wonder if there is any decent public land early bear hunting nearby at that time.

I now have a bear tag, and a place to stay a few nights, but no 30/30 ammo.  Hopefully, I can get some before then.  Walmart had nothing but 12 ga bird shot. I could bring my 30/ 06, for which I have plenty of ammo, but that heavy thing ain't fun to lug around the mountains. 

 

 

 

[The_Real_TCIII]

I don't know about hunting but I sure love fishing and playing golf there! And last time I was there a monster black bear was walking right down the main strip in Old Forge lol


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[ny hunter]

Try outdoor limited.com for ammo.

[Robhuntandfish]

X2 on the golfing - Inlet course in the fall is beautiful.  Ive tried a little early bear up there in the Indian lake area but never seen any.   A lot of land to find a few bears esp with no prior scouting and not living up there.  Moose river plains def has some and some nice trout fishing as well.  Pick a trail to a lake or stream off the map and walk the trail with a pole and a rifle might be a good day and might see a bear by chance.  Check in at the ranger station and they will give you a map.  I used to fish lost ponds and icehouse ponds a bit.  But mostly the streams thru there. 

I was fishing sumner stream there one time with my nephew and we saw tracks and a big pile of bear scat.  Caught a few trout and there was a guy standing on the bridge when we got back.  He says "you never saw it did you?"  I said whats that ???  He said there was a bear walking the stream about 50 yards ahead of you .  He was laughing cause he said we would go up to fish a hole and the bear would move up the stream too.  Between the noise of the crick and the thick brush never knew he was there except for the tracks. 

[The_Real_TCIII]

X2 on the golfing - Inlet course in the fall is beautiful.  Ive tried a little early bear up there in the Indian lake area but never seen any.   A lot of land to find a few bears esp with no prior scouting and not living up there.  Moose river plains def has some and some nice trout fishing as well.  Pick a trail to a lake or stream off the map and walk the trail with a pole and a rifle might be a good day and might see a bear by chance.  Check in at the ranger station and they will give you a map.  I used to fish lost ponds and icehouse ponds a bit.  But mostly the streams thru there. 
I was fishing sumner stream there one time with my nephew and we saw tracks and a big pile of bear scat.  Caught a few trout and there was a guy standing on the bridge when we got back.  He says "you never saw it did you?"  I said whats that ???  He said there was a bear walking the stream about 50 yards ahead of you .  He was laughing cause he said we would go up to fish a hole and the bear would move up the stream too.  Between the noise of the crick and the thick brush never knew he was there except for the tracks. 

Maybe my favorite course I've played, especially in September


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[Five Seasons]

wolc. all there is public land in that area. it's harder to find private land than stumble on private. I'm off uncas and you can walk for miles and miles without running into a road. If you're nervous about boundaries, On-X is a good app, but you have to pay to play. 

All that said, bear is freaking hard. I've gone months without seeing one on a trail cam even, let alone the weekend I get to hunt them.

Edited August 27, 2020 by Belo

[Daveboone]

Someone else mentioned The Moose River Plains area..it is just outside Limekiln state park near inlet. A lot of access, and a huge area known for its bears. Very rugged though but with alot of old logging roads for access.  The state park is a magnet for bears, and also alot of locals feed them around Inlet. There is a good DEC website for the area. I was hoping to get up there myself pretty soon, but life keeps getting in the way. 

[wolc123]

 

10 hours ago, Daveboone said:

Someone else mentioned The Moose River Plains area..it is just outside Limekiln state park near inlet. A lot of access, and a huge area known for its bears. Very rugged though but with alot of old logging roads for access.  The state park is a magnet for bears, and also alot of locals feed them around Inlet. There is a good DEC website for the area. I was hoping to get up there myself pretty soon, but life keeps getting in the way. 

I will try and check that spot out.  I managed to scrape together 11 rounds of 30/30 ammo to today, so I am going to take my 30/30 on the trip.  That includes 6 Federal 150 grain and 5 170 grain rounds.  Hopefully, I can find a few boxes and do a little more practice prior to that bear hunt.

 I had my Remlin 336BL hitting right on at 75 yards with the 150's before deer season last year.  I am going to see if Runnings has any more of those tomorrow.  It is almost time to start practicing again for deer season anyhow.

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by wolc123

[Daveboone]

Hope for 170 grains...Hopefully you see something, and the heavier bullet is better if you are lucky enough to find a fair sized one...they have heavier bones than deer and hopefully this time of year are working on their fat layer.Distances in the Dak woods are typically short, so sighting for 50 yards probably more than enough.

[wolc123]

18 minutes ago, Daveboone said:

Hope for 170 grains...Hopefully you see something, and the heavier bullet is better if you are lucky enough to find a fair sized one...they have heavier bones than deer and hopefully this time of year are working on their fat layer.Distances in the Dak woods are typically short, so sighting for 50 yards probably more than enough.

It looks like rain all day today, so it will be a good day for ammo shopping.  I will go with the 170's, if I can find them.  I sighted in my father in law's scoped Msrlin 336 with 150's, but my fiber optic sighted one should be close at 50 yards with 170's. I also need some more ammo for my 50 cal ML (240 gr T/C XTP).  Lockport is close. Hopefully, Runnings, Johnsons, or Walmart will have something.

I am hoping for a bit of dumb luck when it comes to the early Adirondack bear.  I need to remember to put one of those 170's in "the middle of middle" if one appears.  I have never seen one, let alone got a shot at one, but I understand  that their vitals are a lot further back than a deer.

Many years ago, I had a Marlin 336 with a fixed 4 power scope on it.  I lost confidence in that gun after missing a rabbit with it one time, and eventually traded it.  I never killed a thing with it, but I loaned it to a friend one time.  He won a bear hunt at a sportsman"s raffle.  He killed a big black bear with a 170 gr on that hunt, so I know they work.

[wolc123]

No Federals or 170's available at Runnings, and no 30/30 of any kind at Walmart or Johnsons.  One box limit of ammo at Runmings, so I took a $ 25 box of Winnchestet XX holow-point 150's.  At more than a dollar a shot, I am not going up practice with more than one shot, as long as it hits close enough to where the Federal 150's did.  I might try that out on the range tomorrow, if the weather cooperates.  It says on the box that they are good for deer and bear.

 

[wolc123]

I checked the zero on the 30/30 today at 50 yards with the new ammo.  1-1/4" right and 1/4 " low with the open sights off a rest.  That ought to be close enough for a bear.  I am not wasting any more of that costly ammo on paper targets.  I also checked my scoped Ruger 10/22 (that's the 3 smaller holes above the bull).

[Steve D]

There are quite a few bear up there but it is some big country and hard to "find" one. Most bear shot are seen deer hunting or by chance. I have hunted the areas north of Eagle Bay and the Moose River Plains. It really is not difficult to find bear sign but finding a bear is a challenge for sure. Since they closed the Inlet dump it has become even more difficult. If nothing else you will see some of the nicest country NY has to offer. Best of luck and enjoy your time up there.

A recent incident that happened in the area you are going:

Town of Webb
Herkimer County
Wilderness Search: On August 18 at 7:30 p.m., a 19-year-old woman left her residence in Old Forge for a five-mile run and did not return home when expected. At 10 p.m., the woman's parents called police and at midnight Forest Rangers were requested to assist searching all the area trails. Twelve Forest Rangers responded along with 24 New York State Police Officers from Patrol, Special Operations, K9, and Aviation, and six State Police Criminal Investigators. Also assisting were six Town of Webb Police Officers, more than 100 volunteers from the Inlet, Eagle Bay, Big Moose, and Old Forge fire departments, and area residents. Search teams found the subject the next day in Old Forge at approximately 10:30 a.m. The woman said she had been running on the Big Otter Trail in the HaDaRonDah Wilderness Area when she encountered two bear cubs. The mother chased the woman through the woods and the subject climbed a tree to escape. After darkness came, the bears seemed to have left, but the woman stayed in the tree until daylight and used the morning sun to navigate back to the trail and walk back to Old Forge where she was found by the search team.

[wolc123]

Interesting story.  Hopefully, I can run into papa bear up there.

[wolc123]

I am looking forward to this trip next weekend.   The long range weather forecast looks good, showing a cooldown.  That should spur the bears into some heavy feeding, to fatten up for their long winter nap.

I am going to get the camper on the truck today, and make sure the heater works (it has been 8 years since I fired that up).  I am also going to get the freezer in our basement thawed out, to make to for the bear meat, and more venison.  I will be heading back up to the dacks again a couple weeks later for the last day of crossbow, all of early ML, and opening weekend of gun season.

I will only have 2 mornings to hunt next weekend.  My plan is to scout out some nearby spots and attempt to lure a hungry bear to my position, using a favorite beverage, that I always enjoy while hunting on cold days.  It has brought several deer in, which I was able to kill, and I suspect that it may also be attractive to hungry bears. 

This time next week, I should be sitting comfortably in my "bear map" camping chair, 30/30 on my lap, sipping on hot cider from a thermos, while upwind of a hot-spot.  Hopefully, the plan will come together.  It looks like I will have around 20 folks available to help drag out the carcass if it does.

 

Edited September 26, 2020 by wolc123

[wolc123]

I hunted the first two hours of daylight and the last three on Saturday.  I did not see any signs of bear.  We saw around 6 deer, between Old Forge and the camp on 4th lake, feeding along the edge of route 28 , on our drive up Friday afternoon.  One looked like a 1.5 year old 6 point, the others were does and fawns.

The spots I hunted were difficult, very steep terrain, North of 28, off the #5 snowmobile trail, that runs on what must be an old railroad bed, between Old Forge and inlet.  There was a steep rock cliff, about 200 yards North, and I could not locate a pass thru that.  I did not know the location of our camp until the drive up, or I would have studied a topo map prior.

The leaves were nice, probably just "post-peak", and it was a pretty good workout, hunting up that mountain.  One of the younger guys went with me in the morning, but I went in alone in the afternoon.

Had I been able to locate a pass thru that rock ridge, I would have hunted this morning also, but I thought sleeping in and resting up for the 4.5 hour drive home would be a better use of my time. 

I did learn that there are smallmouth bass in 4th lake anyhow.  They were not along the shoreline, but I paddled a kayak out to that point and hooked into an 18 incher, in about 12 ft depth, around 10:30 saturday morning, on a bucktail jig.

Fortunately, it jumped and threw the jig, right next to the kayak, or I would have been tempted to try and fillet it with my big "old-timer" hunting knife.  The knife is still clean and sharp and ready for bear again (and deer), in a couple weeks, for early ML week, and opening weekend of regular gun season.

 

 

[Fletch]

I’ll be up for our annual Old Forge Columbus Day trip starting Friday. I love Inlet Course. But no golf this year the surgeon Friday said 3 more weeks.
I’ve never hunted Bear there but the deer walk down the streets!

Have fun , you hit the leaves almost perfect.


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[The_Real_TCIII]

I hunted the first two hours of daylight and the last three on Saturday.  I did not see any signs of bear.  We saw around 6 deer, between Old Forge and the camp on 4th lake, feeding along the edge of route 28 , on our drive up Friday afternoon.  One looked like a 1.5 year old 6 point, the others were does and fawns.
The spots I hunted were difficult, very steep terrain, North of 28, off the #5 snowmobile trail, that runs on what must be an old railroad bed, between Old Forge and inlet.  There was a steep rock cliff, about 200 yards North, and I could not locate a pass thru that.  I did not know the location of our camp until the drive up, or I would have studied a topo map prior.
The leaves were nice, probably just "post-peak", and it was a pretty good workout, hunting up that mountain.  One of the younger guys went with me in the morning, but I went in alone in the afternoon.
Had I been able to locate a pass thru that rock ridge, I would have hunted this morning also, but I thought sleeping in and resting up for the 4.5 hour drive home would be a better use of my time. 
I did learn that there are smallmouth bass in 4th lake anyhow.  They were not along the shoreline, but I paddled a kayak out to that point and hooked into an 18 incher, in about 12 ft depth, around 10:30 saturday morning, on a bucktail jig.
Fortunately, it jumped and threw the jig, right next to the kayak, or I would have been tempted to try and fillet it with my big "old-timer" hunting knife.  The knife is still clean and sharp and ready for bear again (and deer), in a couple weeks, for early ML week, and opening weekend of regular gun season.
 
 

When we used to vacation there in September you'd see 150 deer along that stretch. They must have exterminated them


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[Robhuntandfish]

I got excited this morn when a friend that let's me hunt at their place, sent me this pic but it was from old forge this weekend when they went for a ride. Railway in the background by train ride.  She said lots of deer by the road up there, but this was a stud 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Robhuntandfish

[ny hunter]

Oh baby!!!!! Hope you get a shot at him

[Robhuntandfish]

13 minutes ago, ny hunter said:

Oh baby!!!!! Hope you get a shot at him

i wish - she was up in old forge leaf peeping and for a ride - this stud came right up to them.  Wasnt on her property unfortunatley