Decision Time: Go for the buck or the bear?

When actually out hunting you have to take what presents itself for a shot.
For me it would be first come/first served.

Most of the time what ever the animals have been eating will dictate what the meat will taste like.

Like most guys out hunting shots at bears are very seldom or never at all. If I had an good shot at a decent size bear in good shape, i'd be all over it. The deer will still be there later in the day or tomorrow to try to get.

I am just over the line in ny from pa and nj. With the no bear hunting in nj last year, they were all over here. I only ever seen them bow hunting never rifle. Last season opening day I shot a big die in the field about 150 yards out, dropped right there. Waited about 10 minutes. Just before I go to the deer I looked down the hill, I was hunting a farm and the fields follow the ridge. Down the hill was a big bear, just as I got my gun up my friends son shot it. He got 3 rounds off, don't know what ones hit tho.

so there are a lot of bear around these days and looks like there numbers are going up. With my luck if I wanted the buck I'd see the dead and vise versa.

The kids bear was just over 500 gutted and caped.

That's a nice size bear, out here in Washington State they average around 200 pounds dressed out. Very few get over 300 pounds dressed. Most of the eastern part of the state is desert and most of the western part of the state is evergreen trees. Not much good food for them to get any size.
I don't waste any money out here on a hunting license for a deer or bear that taste like crap.
For the cost of a resident hunting license and the cost of the drawings it isn't worth the cost

For a $100 i can buy my non-residen New York small game -big game license and two doe tags for $10 apiece and get a couple of deer that you don't mind on your dinner plate.

I just got my round trip airline ticket through Delta from Seattle to Binghamton New York for $357.
I get to hunt deer for three weeks and visit my family and have Thanksgiving with them.

To bring meat back home i buy a large ice chest, fill it up to fifty pounds of frozen packaged meat. Tie it shut and put a lot of packing tape around it and check it in as lugage for $35.

Troy
I will be back in Harpursville from November 13th to December 6th. If you will be up to your fathers place for a few days we should get together for a day or two & get some hunting in.
I have two doe tags.

Highland Lofts said:

That's a nice size bear, out here in Washington State they average around 200 pounds dressed out. Very few get over 300 pounds dressed. Most of the eastern part of the state is desert and most of the western part of the state is evergreen trees. Not much good food for them to get any size.
I don't waste any money out here on a hunting license for a deer or bear that taste like crap.
For the cost of a resident hunting license and the cost of the drawings it isn't worth the cost

For a $100 i can buy my non-residen New York small game -big game license and two doe tags for $10 apiece and get a couple of deer that you don't mind on your dinner plate.

I just got my round trip airline ticket through Delta from Seattle to Binghamton New York for $357.
I get to hunt deer for three weeks and visit my family and have Thanksgiving with them.

To bring meat back home i buy a large ice chest, fill it up to fifty pounds of frozen packaged meat. Tie it shut and put a lot of packing tape around it and check it in as lugage for $35.

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good plan, maybe we can get together one to hunt. I'll be back up in Walton for thanksgiving maybe even earlier.
I seen one bear about 7 years ago walking about lunch time, it was about 500 yards up a corn field. Thing was so big I slammed on my breaks, thing looked like a black Angus walking.

Highland Lofts said:

Troy
I will be back in Harpursville from November 13th to December 6th. If you will be up to your fathers place for a few days we should get together for a day or two & get some hunting in.
I have two doe tags.

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oops just say your message I'd like to meet up for some hunting. I still have to get my license lol.

Highland Lofts said:

just got my round trip airline ticket through Delta from Seattle to Binghamton New York for $357.
I get to hunt deer for three weeks and visit my family and have Thanksgiving with them.

Click to expand...

I'm in binghamton had a chance three years to go early bear hunting in Adirondack high peak region. Would have gone but the company I worked for was sold to another and I lost all my vacation time. I had a difference of opinion with new owners and now I'm a year into a new job.

My hunting is therefore sporadic since my new boss hunts too and someone has to be in the shop to fix the cars.

If I weree I'd take whatever showed up first. Most of the time it's a whitetail.

I don't hunt so I don't know but I do know that I wouldn't be afraid of the deer, so..........

Here in GA while bow hunting you can carry a side arm with a CC permit, if that is the case there I would definitely carry a big bore side arm just in case while going after the bear.
Good luck on your hunts

I'd only use doe or buck lure, the head stuff may scare away deer. Plus have both my put you over the limit we can have.

Color me Old.
I hunted buck and bear in Maine and New Brunswick for decades cold turkey. A few hours scouting before the hunt, early morning and evening tree stands, Woods or field edges stalking. Hunting. The game had a better chance than I did.

How much of this modern stuff is hunting and how much is........ well........... harvesting.

No dispersions. Just ranting.

Both of course.

troy fairweather said:

I am just over the line in ny from pa and nj. With the no bear hunting in nj last year, they were all over here. I only ever seen them bow hunting never rifle. Last season opening day I shot a big die in the field about 150 yards out, dropped right there. Waited about 10 minutes. Just before I go to the deer I looked down the hill, I was hunting a farm and the fields follow the ridge. Down the hill was a big bear, just as I got my gun up my friends son shot it. He got 3 rounds off, don't know what ones hit tho.

so there are a lot of bear around these days and looks like there numbers are going up. With my luck if I wanted the buck I'd see the dead and vise versa.

The kids bear was just over 500 gutted and caped.

Click to expand...

Wow.

stillquietvoice said:

I'm in binghamton had a chance three years to go early bear hunting in Adirondack high peak region. Would have gone but the company I worked for was sold to another and I lost all my vacation time. I had a difference of opinion with new owners and now I'm a year into a new job.

My hunting is therefore sporadic since my new boss hunts too and someone has to be in the shop to fix the cars.

If I weree I'd take whatever showed up first. Most of the time it's a whitetail.

Click to expand...

I will be back there from November 13th to December 6th. If you get a day or two free we can get together for a little hunting.
You ever go hunting on the Skyview State Land down in Kirkwood?. My ex brother inlaws uncle use to live on Grange Hall Road and his friend owned the land below the State Land down to the highway.
His uncle owned a bunch of land on the East side of Grange Hall so we had a bunch of open land to hunt on
I have taken several nice deer down there. I think one of my doe tags is good for that area.

My oldest son had a hell of a buck come from behind him down there a few years ago. He had his scope cranked up to 9 power from the hunt the day before and when he aimed at that buck all he seen was brown blurr. A split second and that buck was gone.

My two sons and my nephew wer hunting there a couple of years ago and they were going back to the truck and a small bear ran and climbed up a tree.

There use to be a lot of turkeys down that way as well but I think the coyotes cleaned them out.

We generally hunt the Harpursville, Afton, Coventry, area.
Sometimes we will head over towards South Otselic area. There is a ton of state land over that way. When I see private land that looks good I always try to get permission to hunt on it.

The area we hunt around where my borther rents from we have access to over three hundred acres between the four land owners.

A couple of days ago my oldest son put two trail cams out for me. One where I will.be sitting a lot where the deer cross the road and one on the other side of the road where I just recently gained permission to hunt on.

My brother set a trail cam where he sits alot and another trail cam at a place where we see deer a lot. I will be picking up four new SD cards to switch out the SD cards in the cameras on the 14th.

I have to find the two trail cams I have here in Washington State to bring back there to set up. There is a spot I like over on Willey Horton Road on state land in Coventry.

I also have a few spots I like over on the Afton Melody Hill state land.

The deer are all threw there, you just have to be at the right spot at the right time and don't screw up.

Highland Lofts said:

I will be back there from November 13th to December 6th. If you get a day or two free we can get together for a little hunting.
You ever go hunting on the Skyview State Land down in Kirkwood?. My ex brother inlaws uncle use to live on Grange Hall Road and his friend owned the land below the State Land down to the highway.
His uncle owned a bunch of land on the East side of Grange Hall so we had a bunch of open land to hunt on
I have taken several nice deer down there. I think one of my doe tags is good for that area.

My oldest son had a hell of a buck come from behind him down there a few years ago. He had his scope cranked up to 9 power from the hunt the day before and when he aimed at that buck all he seen was brown blurr. A split second and that buck was gone.

My two sons and my nephew wer hunting there a couple of years ago and they were going back to the truck and a small bear ran and climbed up a tree.

There use to be a lot of turkeys down that way as well but I think the coyotes cleaned them out.

We generally hunt the Harpursville, Afton, Coventry, area.
Sometimes we will head over towards South Otselic area. There is a ton of state land over that way. When I see private land that looks good I always try to get permission to hunt on it.

The area we hunt around where my borther rents from we have access to over three hundred acres between the four land owners.

A couple of days ago my oldest son put two trail cams out for me. One where I will.be sitting a lot where the deer cross the road and one on the other side of the road where I just recently gained permission to hunt on.

My brother set a trail cam where he sits alot and another trail cam at a place where we see deer a lot. I will be picking up four new SD cards to switch out the SD cards in the cameras on the 14th.

I have to find the two trail cams I have here in Washington State to bring back there to set up. There is a spot I like over on Willey Horton Road on state land in Coventry.

I also have a few spots I like over on the Afton Melody Hill state land.

The deer are all threw there, you just have to be at the right spot at the right time and don't screw up.

Click to expand...

Yes I have hunted up there it's about 5 miles from my house. I've also hunted melondy hill rd as well as hunt rd in Afton. I also go to cascade valley in Damascus.
I would like to get together as I usually hunt alone. Used to hunt in, a large group but most of them have stopped or have passed away.

Have you ever hunted Whitney point ? There is about 600 acres above Dorchester park that I hunt through on occasion. My sister in law lives on Tichnor Brook rd. State land is less than half a mile from her.

Shoot me a pm when you are in town.

My oldest son hunted that state land in Whitney Point years ago, he worked with a guy who lived over that way. They got a few deer there. About 45 years ago I use to go hunting with an old Italian who had property on the Tioughnioga River in Itaska. Back then we hunted King Street, South Street, Bull Creek Run Road.

If i lived back there I would gain access on private property up that way for small game & big game.
There is a lot of good deer hunting all around Broome & Chenango Counties.

There's almost enough of us to start a hunting club lol. I should be up for thanksgiving.

We should all get together and get out. I like poker if you guys are up to it.

Highland Lofts said:

We should all get together and get out. I like poker if you guys are up to it.

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I know just enough about poker to lose all my money. Would be fun.

Nothing serious, just the basic games.

Which one is least likely to have you for dinner if you only slightly wound it? lol

Hunt club and poker sounds great. I'm going to try and get my son in law out to the range this weekend to check his zeros and get him some practice at distances over 100 yds. Should be fun.

We should start are own thread so we don't hijack the op thread lol. I was hoping to sight my guns today but it's raining so heavy I don't think the bullet would make it to the target.