Anybody?

Just went for a Preference Point again. I figure I have one more bear hunt in me.

Moosetrot

I had nine points, no tag.

My son got his first bear tag and I also got one, will be an interesting year

I drew with 13 points in Zone A

I have so many issues with the WI dnr bear season structure, etc that I have given up on them completely. Good luck to all who draw.

My son got a tag so I guess will be back in woods this fall. I quit applying because just helping my son is enough work me to handle.

Mac

Are there so few bears, or so many hunters, there has to be a draw? Do you think hunters would kill all the bears if there was an open season?

I drew with 4 points.

WS

Got some friends back there, hound guys and one of them drew this year. They said wherever they are it is up over ten years now, you need about 12 points to really figure on drawing.

Martentrapper, they have a ton of bears, but they also have a ton of hunters, and I suspect none of the surrounding states have an open season either, so if they went to an over the counter tag they would be inundated with hunters. Wisconsin has some good hunting and trapping, but you have to draw a tag for practically everything but deer, those they practically give you extras.

I guess if I ever want to go on a bear hunt I should start collecting points , for all the years I bought a conservation patron license I sure would have thought I had more than zero

I have a fisher point

looking a little deeper I had some bear points in the past but apparently they expire if you don't keep applying or submit for a draw.

Are there so few bears, or so many hunters, there has to be a draw? Do you think hunters would kill all the bears if there was an open season?

No WI is estimated to have somewhere between 25 and 30K of black bears in the state, which is significantly higher numbers then 20-30 years ago. As you can read on the above chart about 15k permits are issued each fall and roughly 4K of bears are harvested annually give or take a couple hundred. That means that the success rate is about 27% for those with permits. Which to me seems low when one considers the population we have and our hunting methods using baits and hounds. There are signifcantly more hunters applying for permits each year then there are permits granted. So with a fairly low success percentage for those with permits and needing several points in many cases to be successful, getting a chance to harvest a bear in WI with all the bears we have is slim. I applied in 1988 and got a permit. It was 90 degrees that day and I was sweating badly, stunk like H quit at 6 PM and went bass fishing! I miss the non kill tags when you could go out and read sign, and seek out bears but did not have a kill tag.

Bryce

I'm gonna start putting in for points this year.