PA Guys

[Wojo14]

I wanted to start this for all us PA bear hunters. I wanted to start gathering info on PA bears and some tips on where to find them and hunt them. That is the purpose for this post. There is alot of info and stories of western guys here. I was hoping this would be a good start!
A goal of mine is to tag a PA black bear with my longbow. I know it will be tuff, but it is a nice goal to set for myself.

A little background of me...
I did tag a black bear in Quebec back in the spring of 2014 with my longbow and it was such a feel of accomplishment for me and my longbow. It opened up a huge confidence in myself with hunting. Since 2104, I have tagged a whitetail in 2015 and 2016. I am 38 years old and started hunting seriously since 2009. When I was young hunting only consisted of opening day with my dad and pap. It never really took off till my farther passed away, life was getting hectic and I needed to escape. Trad archery was a nice escape.
I just recently started being turned on by backcountry hunting. I am new to that as well.

I have a soft spot for Blackbear. They are just cool animals to me.

Anyway, I will still continue to hunt whitetail for meat and hopefully some horns, but I have a desire to hunt some PA blackbear.


~Wojo

 

[john.grim.5]

Good luck I live in Southwestern Pa, Greene County. I've gone bear hunting 5 different years with no luck. Last year I got tracks but couldn't close the deal. From my research it seems like big drives are the way to go, but not my cup of tea.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wojo14]

I live is Southwestern PA as well. Westmoreland County.
Ya, the big thing here is drives. I was just hoping some PA guys would chime in that hunting and killed with a bow here.
Pretty hard to pattern these bears here in PA. They are not like the deer.
~Wojo

 

[Superkodiak38]

This is a good video, I thought you would enjoy it.. I sure did Into Wild Places | Episode 6 | Bear Horizon Season 3 on Vimeo

 

[Stwrt9]

Killing a bear in PA is super difficult and my hats off to anyone who pulls it off. As stated before it is hard to pattern bear in PA as the usually have a pretty big territory they roam. Best thing you can do is get some game cameras out to at least figure out what kinds of bears are in your area if any. Archery season this year is proposed to come in a week earlier and will coincide with the archery deer season for a week, which should be a good thing bear wise as there will be more hunters in the woods keeping them moving. Focus on Food sources but in all honesty a lot of luck comes into killing a PA black bear with a bow due to not being able to hunt over bait. As you may already know one of the best ways during the rifle season is putting on drives to get them out. Lastly as with everything you have to hunt them where they are! So do your scouting it's super important cause you don;t want to waste your time in an area where the bear aren't.

This past year during rifle we had 8 bear out only killing 1 on the opening day, thankfully I missed a bear, as i typically prefer to be a driver! I say thankfully because i was fortunate enough to be able to harvest a mature Boar later in the season during the overlapping deer/bear season. He weighted 512lbs!!

 

[jfronk]

You may want to look at hunting away from your home area. Bear harvests are low in western PA counties compared to north central ones. You will probably have a much better chance of shooting one in Lycoming, Clinton, Potter, or Tioga. Those 4 counties make up about 21% of the 2016 harvest and are usually in the top 5 every year.

 

[Stwrt9]

You may want to look at hunting away from your home area. Bear harvests are low in western PA counties compared to north central ones. You will probably have a much better chance of shooting one in Lycoming, Clinton, Potter, or Tioga. Those 4 counties make up about 21% of the 2016 harvest and are usually in the top 5 every year.

this is good advise! I primarily hunt in Columbia, Montour, Lycoming and Sullivan Counties. My bear this year was from Lycoming County.

 

[Rs3003]

I hunt bear in Cameron and McKean county's. Every once in a while we would go to Potter county. I live in southern Allegheney county but I have a camp in McKean county. Our bear hunting group is very lucky. There are a lot of us that have harvested a bear in the 3 counties I named. If there is no food (acorns,cherry ,hickory nuts) there is no point in hunting a specific area. I killed 3 bear myself in PA 2009,2010,2011. Two in Cameron county about 400 yards from each other. I also missed another in 2000 in same area in Cameron county. PA is a great place to get a bear. You just need the food. We do not put drives on for the bear. Everyone goes to the same area and sits or slowly walks.

 

[elkyinzer]

You may want to look at hunting away from your home area. Bear harvests are low in western PA counties compared to north central ones. You will probably have a much better chance of shooting one in Lycoming, Clinton, Potter, or Tioga. Those 4 counties make up about 21% of the 2016 harvest and are usually in the top 5 every year.

Harvests are so high in those areas because that's where a large concentration of the bear camps are. Lots of drives and hunters keeps bears on their feet during the rifle season. Any of the Pennsyltucky counties have bears in pretty decent concentrations, and I think some areas South of 80 have more bears because so many are harvested in those 4 counties to be honest.

It's really tough to do here but the new season dates this year will help. Common knowledge here in PA is that a lot of the archery kills are baited, legally with ag or illegally. Another good subset of guys drive with xbows and do ok.

I'll be buying a bear tag in case one ambles by during my rutcation but not remotely targeting them. Most years I see a couple archery hunting, so eventually I'm gonna stick one if the new season dates continue.

Scout, scout, scout. Good acorn years they stay up in the mountains gorging on acorns. I usually see a lot those years. Saw 4 this year. Bad acorn years, they'll be down low eating ag fields and garbage cans. They like to bed in the thickest steepest crap imaginable, usually mountain laurel or rhododendron. Try to pattern them between bedding and feeding and hope for the best.

 

[jfronk]

Harvests are so high in those areas because that's where a large concentration of the bear camps are. Lots of drives and hunters keeps bears on their feet during the rifle season. Any of the Pennsyltucky counties have bears in pretty decent concentrations, and I think some areas South of 80 have more bears because so many are harvested in those 4 counties to be honest.

Some areas south of 80 may have higher bear numbers but those 4 counties consistently have high bear harvest numbers so there must be a high population. There is also a bunch of state land bordering the big hunting clubs that receive little to no pressure because of the hike, if he hikes in to those areas he should have a pretty good chance of success.

 

[camping1601]

I spend a ton of time in some of the best bear country PA has to offer and what I've learned is it's all about food and cover. Bears will completely vacate an area if there's no mast in the fall. Example is acorns fail to produce and they'll migrate to a Beech forest or Ag fields.

Drives are by far #1. Here's some info. http://pgcmaps.pa.gov/bear/index.html

 

[Wojo14]

Great info guys! I defiantly do not plan on hunting my home base. That is white tail for me.
I would like to get up north into some backcountry and hunt em.
Dumb question, but are you aloud to pack out your bear in PA and just take the hide to check station?
~Wojo

 

[Rs3003]

I think you have to bring the whole bear. No just the hide to check station.

 

[camping1601]

Great info guys! I defiantly do not plan on hunting my home base. That is white tail for me.
I would like to get up north into some backcountry and hunt em.
Dumb question, but are you aloud to pack out your bear in PA and just take the hide to check station?
~Wojo

We got two different answers from the PGC on this. One was head, hide, and paws with the other being head, hide, paws, proof of sex, and estimated weight. It say right in the digest you don't have to ck in proof of sex.

So the answer is yes.

 

[Wojo14]

Cool video too
~Wojo

 

[john.grim.5]

Anyone ever have any luck with predator calls for bear


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk