The right thing the DNR could do is manage bears and not hunters.

I'm not much of a bear hunter, but I'd rather deal with competition than not being able to get a tag.

Well when you spend time and money into baiting and find out all the bears in the area go nocturnal because there is so much activity in an area because there is a bait every 1\2 mile going down a forest road you will see what competition does for bear hunting. I have bear hunted for about forty years and have hunted in many different areas of northern Minnesota. I have seen first hand what competition does.

No shortage of bears here. This one showed up a couple nights ago in the front yard and ate the dogfood I put out for the foxes.

I normally process my on deer, but it is so easy to just take them to the processor. During a recent trip, the processor got a call from a hunter regarding the cost to cape and process a 662 lb black bear in Eastern NC. The clerk handed the phone to the owner and the quote was $1 per pound. Ouch. I saw the gutted bear when it came in. It must have had 3-4” of fat under its hide, and the inside was very fat also.

Our bears get huge. A 600 lb bear is not at all uncommon anymore.