Well that's what it seems like anyway. I've seen more and more on my property. Maybe this is normal for those of you up North, I don't know. It's making a person (well, some people anyway) nervous.
My latest encounter was a sow with 2 cubs coming in Fri night, to my bow stand.
They've been damaging deer stands in the area too. Dogs aren't allowed in my zone, & bear hunters tell me hunting them is frustrating because it's really hard to get 1 to come in during season during shooting hours. The're kinda cool to see from a vehicle, but me personally I'd rather not see as many in the woods. I carry bear spray, & I realize encounters with bears are rare. I'm looking into a bear sidearm. DNR has tried increasing harvest permits, but it seems like they hit a saturation point where additional tags isn't the answer because then they get complaints from hunters competing against each other. Many residents are getting used to living with bears by removing their bird feeders each night. A few weeks ago my cousin was having a campfire at their cabin and just before dark a bear came walking up just passed the picnic table, as she sat by the fire pit. They started talking to it and once it saw them it slowly meandered off.

Good luck to all you bear hunters out there. It's a popular sport in Wi.

my buddies from Wisconsin say there are bears all over. You just can't get tags often enough.

If the DNR would move season up a few weeks, there would be a higher success rate. I live north of 8 and there are bears all around. They do not make me nervous at all. They know you are there and will avoid the interaction. I just don't like how they destroy every trail camera in the woods!!!

I'm being told that with all the mushrooms in the woods and a good acorn crop the bears aren't working the baits.

time to post this again

https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/de...e-37-incidents-by-caliber/#axzz6a0pDG44l

while conventional logic has often said you need a big powerful handgun to deter a bear attack like 44mag

actual encounters are showing typical self defense guns are useful and effective

I wouldn't go for any kind of compact

If I was buying a gun today to carry in bear areas 10mm glock 40 would be high on my list 15 rounds 10mm with a 6 inch barrel in an easy to reload and still fairly light and easy to carry package

but something is better than nothing and 9,40, 45 have proven effective

it has more to do with making more holes and in the right places

while a shotgun with slugs or rifle are great not many have these in their hands all the time

what you can carry all the time and always have within reach makes sense.

44 also has proven effective. however many keep trying to carry shorter and shorter barrels , this reduces the velocity of the cartridge

a .430 44mag 200gr at 1090fps from a 4 inch barrel revolver vs a .401 180gr doing 1250 from a 6 inch auto loader starts to look very similar in performance , they are very similar in size and weight but one hold 6 the other 16

The bear population in WI has been expanding for 2-3 decades. If we remember when the DNR did an extensive bear population estimate about 10-15 years ago they found that there were almost twice the bears they thought were present during the later 20th century. The old management goal was for 12,000 bears and harvest permits were issued based on that number. When they found their model indicated maybe over 20 K of bear in the state they made a new management goal of roughly 18,K with permits etc. issue to maintain that number. So we are managing for 50% more bear then were were 25 years ago so we should certainly see more and more sign. Also as they expand numbers they will expand range as well. There are a whole lot more easy calories to eat in the southern 2/3rds of WI then the north and with the territorial instincts they will move south. We also have all these major river bottoms that mostly move southwest which make very easy travel routes for bear to come south, much like many other species as well. We have a lot of suburban cities and villages that are located in and around very wooded and marshy areas where little to no hunting is able to be done. When they get into those areas there will be larger numbers of resident bears and not just young dispersing animals. The good thing about bears is for 5-6 months of the year they are not travelling the landscape.

Bryce

getting bear all the way down to Monroe WI about 10 blocks from the square at the hospital which is right off a bike trail. another easy travel corridor.

it will be interesting when the bear move in where the deer are thick around Madison.

Bears can cover a whole lot of ground in a short time.

Bears all over my county that I would guess is 90% agriculture land. In the year 2019, more were killed by vehicles than hunters

The issue is the timing of the bear season not the method or the number of tags, Giving more tags actually makes it more difficult to hunt them as you have even more baits. With larger chunks of private land the farther South you go, you cannot run dogs. When bear season opens around 9-7ish, is when food and crops switch. Bears switch from carbs to protein, corn ripens, acorns fall, berries, etc, etc, etc. The bear experts from WDNR miscount like the deer herd, bobcats, and so on. Should open season for bait areas, one week sooner, if tourists for labor day shut it back down for 3 days then reopen. Then you could control the population. I have discussed this many times with WDNR bear "experts".

And they do it ALOT more often than people think!

200 miles is hop skip and a jump for a bear.

They know exactly what they’re doing. WI bear season is managed for revenue and nothing else. The WI DNR has made a circus out of the bear season by handing out the number of tags that they do. Historically, I’ve filled 75% of my tags on public land in zone C. It takes a major amount of effort even if there is little competition. The last tag I had there were baits everywhere. I had three cameras stolen. I went thru nearly 20 barrels of bait and put 9000 miles on my truck. I even had a guy attempt to take over one of my baits! I will do a guided Canadian hunt before I ever put that kind of time, effort, and money into a WI bear again...and it will be cheaper!

I have applied for and got 1 bear kill tag since the seasons have started. I don't plan to apply again. There are other ways and methods of hunting bears that would allow thousands more hunt, but it seems that with the current methods well ingrained things won't change much. As stated it s more about supporting fewer hunters that invest more in time and tools then offering more opportunity for more hunters more often.
As the bears move into better nutrition areas the growth rates and litter sizes will increase also. There will be a social carrying capacity issue with bears if they continue to increase in areas and population where more they interfere with human activity more.

Bryce

I have applied for and got 1 bear kill tag since the seasons have started. I don't plan to apply again. There are other ways and methods of hunting bears that would allow thousands more hunt, but it seems that with the current methods well ingrained things won't change much. As stated it s more about supporting fewer hunters that invest more in time and tools then offering more opportunity for more hunters more often.
As the bears move into better nutrition areas the growth rates and litter sizes will increase also. There will be a social carrying capacity issue with bears if they continue to increase in areas and population where more they interfere with human activity more.

Bryce

All I get on camera is a sow and 4 cubs had a daylight encounter with them a week ago . I was told I need to get her to leave my baits or no other bear would come around any truth to this?

No IMO if a big boar moves in ,mama bear is going to vacate that bait to keep her cubs safe ( she will take them 200 yards away to someone elses bait 😁 ) . she may still visit the bait periodically . I have had baits with several different boars , sows with cubs and yearlings all using the same bait . But on the other hand if you have a very temperamental sow that may be a different story ! With 4 kids to watch I would probably cancel that bait out this late in the season .

[img]https://p.widencdn.net/wzas7l/bearplan[/img]

Here's a link to the 2019-2029 Bear Management Plan

It seems like we have made progress on tag draws for the following:
1) Otter - with new bag limit
2) Bobcat- I went from 9-10 yrs to 2 yrs on tag draw

I'm now hoping to see the same movement in black bears, that are abundant in my area. The only special tag furbearer that I have seen a decline in is Fisher for my area.

Well living Just accross the River I can say their DNR caused the population problem.
We can buy a tag here over the counter. Just accross a river basically the same lands they take 6 to 8 years to draw a tag. People from there are fried with bears.

I agree a gambling like system to control and or manage a species seems to not align well with the science of managing a species for all the aspects that they need to be managed for.

Bryce