Welp my bear hunt is over and a total bust except for seeing some beautiful country.
After 6 days of hard hunting in the Pecos Wilderness and Carson National Forest at 8500-11000’ all I saw was one track and I don’t get it.
These mountains were covered up with Rose, hips, raspberries, grassy patches, scrub oak, and other foods. Water was plentiful. But somehow still no bear and very little deer sign either.
Man, that sucks. I think all hunters dread that, getting out there are not seeing hide or hair despite resources being abundent.
Do you know the black bear numbers for that area? Does NM do harvest records?
They stay really current. You have to check them in within 5 days of a kill.
Zone 4 is one of the smaller zones and has the third highest harvest limit so they’re supposed to be in there somewhere. Judging by the current harvest numbers versus other zones, there aren’t near as many as they thought. It’s only at about 30% allowed harvest while the other comparable units are at 50-75%
Sorry to hear that, but it seems, at least the scenery made up for it. Just curious to know, what hardware did you use for your hunt?
Frustrating when that happens. I’ve never had any luck hunting bear in the fall.
I’ve had good hunting bear all year long. I know of a couple places here in the west that are overloaded with Black Bear. Look me up in B&C for Oregon. More bear in that area than you can shake a stick at. Being raised as a hunter and ‘guide’ in northern Maine, bears are very territorial. Pattern them for their food areas. They travel with the easy eating. Berries after spring grubs and larvae and then if rivers are near, fish in late summer fall. They need the fat.
That’s a rough hunt. I’ve been trying to figure out bear hunting here in MT for the last few years and it’s been tough. Bears are such a low density animals that it can be really hard to locate them consistently without some reason for them to be concentrated.
You said that there was food and water all over the mountains, and that probably worked against you. With food everywhere the bears can be anywhere, and then it’s just a case of putting in the hours on the mountain and hopefully you end up at the right place at the right time.
I hunted the spring season pretty diligently and never saw one. Archery season was going to same way until last week my wife and I bumped into one in the river bottom. You never know when it’ll happen with bears, and that’s something that makes me love trying to find them. Good luck to you next time you get after them.
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