Thursday starts our 3 day muzzleloader bear season. This guy was on my lawn 3 days ago, couple hundred pound male. Much bigger male was out there just before dark last night. Both of them have been raising cain in the neighborhood and while I like to shoot smaller ones as I have found the 75 to 150 pounders better eating, I will take one of these now and get a smaller one in the December season (we are allowed 2 bears here, one in each season). I have bait just at the wood line as 20 feet into the woods is state land where no bear hunting is allowed. Will have to neck shoot 'em so they do not get into the woods and the impenetrable swamp only 50 yards from the edge of my lawn.



Ultimately this is the goal

Good Luck

Did I her right that NJ is going to stop ALL bear hunting next year? We used to go the first few years and had a 30 to 40 % success rate for 6 to 8 guys. But they just were not that good tasting as our Pa corn feed bears, at least to us. Are you going to do any more demos?

Good Luck

Good luck.
The wife did some bear meat last night In the slow cooker It was excellent.

Rumor is the governor will shut down the bear season next year. As of now he has closed bear hunting on all state land. Actually the land (swamp) where these bears are coming from is owned by my family. They sold the development rights to the state to "protect" the bog turtles. Due to this it falls under the closure of state lands to bear hunting. No big deal, I just shoot them when they cross onto my farm.
JK, no more demos. Taste depends on what they have been eating. Too many bears in NJ are dumpster divers and taste like it. Where I am they are corn and acorn bears. A lot of taste comes with handling. I skin and trim off backfat ASAP otherwise meat does not cool properly. This time of year it is especially important, but no less important in December.

If the goal is that great eating bear meat I'd recommend shoot in the head. No tracking, no fuss.

nice bear good luck