Spring bear season in WI?

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Ol Split ( ) Toes
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby Ol Split ( ) Toes » Sun Feb 23, 2020 12:42 pm

Freelance Bowhunter wrote:I have eaten dozens of bears both spring and fall and I have not been able to tell the difference in the meat. The one exception was a spring bear shot on a hound hunt in Idaho, it was a little leaner than the baited bears, but still good.

When I harvest a bear ( or any animal on that matter) I try to utilize as much as the meat as possible before processing it. Steaks, roasts, stew meat etc... Just curious on what you do with the majority of yours. I have watched some of your videos in the past and seen you like to make sausage.
Now I have freinds that will take an animal in and have the entire thing processed, at that point I don't think it matters what or when you shot something then.


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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby Freelance Bowhunter » Mon Feb 24, 2020 1:04 am

Ol Split ( ) Toes wrote:
Freelance Bowhunter wrote:I have eaten dozens of bears both spring and fall and I have not been able to tell the difference in the meat. The one exception was a spring bear shot on a hound hunt in Idaho, it was a little leaner than the baited bears, but still good.

When I harvest a bear ( or any animal on that matter) I try to utilize as much as the meat as possible before processing it. Steaks, roasts, stew meat etc... Just curious on what you do with the majority of yours. I have watched some of your videos in the past and seen you like to make sausage.
Now I have freinds that will take an animal in and have the entire thing processed, at that point I don't think it matters what or when you shot something then.


When I had kids at home we used to do rump roasts in the slow cooker and more steaks but now that it's just my wife and me, we just make breakfast sausage and summer sausage. I sometimes keep the wider end of the loins to grill; either slice them into steaks or just grill them whole. Takes longer to get through a bear or two a year than it used to so the sausage is the way to go. I probably eat the breakfast sausage with eggs 2-3 times a week so I use it up pretty fast. The summer sausage comes out with crackers anytime we have family over, or for super bowl, Christmas, stuff like that. Man it goes fast, everyone gobbles it up.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby Dewey » Thu May 28, 2020 1:59 pm

Looks like spring bear passed pretty easily in the Spring Hearings with 32,544 yes and 17,377 no votes.

Gonna be interesting to see where this goes. :think:

It would be fun to have another hunting season in spring other than turkey hunting. I’m always open to more opportunities for hunters. I like the idea of splitting tags between spring and fall which would lessen a lot of hunting pressure and make for a much better quality hunt for all. As long as it doesn’t hurt the bear population I’m all for it.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby matt1336 » Thu May 28, 2020 2:11 pm

Dewey wrote:Looks like spring bear passed pretty easily in the Spring Hearings with 32,544 yes and 17,377 no votes.

Gonna be interesting to see where this goes. :think:

It would be fun to have another hunting season in spring other than turkey hunting. I’m always open to more opportunities for hunters. I like the idea of splitting tags between spring and fall which would lessen a lot of hunting pressure and make for a much better quality hunt for all. As long as it doesn’t hurt the bear population I’m all for it.



Yeah. Change is good. Hunting big game in spring would be pretty fun. I’ve seen the biggest bears personally roaming around in May big old boars! Maybe it’d be a little easier getting an arrow in one in spring, idk.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby dan » Fri May 29, 2020 2:45 am

I like the idea of spring bear hunting, but I worry about the higher kill numbers. Spring seems a lot easier to kill big bears over bait. Success would either bring down the number of permits, or bring down the number of bears. I also would like to see spring be dog free with the size of cubs, and it would give us a chance to have a dog free bait hunt on public. If they are going to allow dogs I would rather we skipped it and left it the same. The thing that worries me is once they open this can of unknown, its very difficult to get them to put the lid back on, and right now we have one of the best bear destinations in the USA.... There is an old saying about not fixing what aint broke.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby Mike Foss » Fri May 29, 2020 10:10 am

dan wrote:I like the idea of spring bear hunting, but I worry about the higher kill numbers. Spring seems a lot easier to kill big bears over bait. Success would either bring down the number of permits, or [glow=red]bring down the number of bears[/glow]. I also would like to see spring be bear free with the size of cubs, and it would give us a chance to have a dog fee bait hunt on public. If they are going to allow dogs I would rather we skipped it and left it the same. The thing that worrys me is once they open this can of unknown, its very diffacult to get them to put the lid back on, and right now we have one of the best bear destinations in the USA.... There is an old saying about not fixing what aint broke.


Yes, Dan someones always trying to fix things that aren't broken. In this case, the state is trying to produce more hunters at the black bear's demise. Slowly Wisconsin's black bear population is dropping and even if they gave out the same average amount of tags as they have been for a split Spring & Fall season the harvest rate would go up putting Wisconsin's greatest comeback success story at risk. I understand hunter participation is on the decline but I also feel all of these extra seasons (deer & bear) they are talking about are more for financial gain and not for our Natural Resources.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby dan » Fri May 29, 2020 10:27 am

Mike Foss wrote:
dan wrote:I like the idea of spring bear hunting, but I worry about the higher kill numbers. Spring seems a lot easier to kill big bears over bait. Success would either bring down the number of permits, or [glow=red]bring down the number of bears[/glow]. I also would like to see spring be bear free with the size of cubs, and it would give us a chance to have a dog fee bait hunt on public. If they are going to allow dogs I would rather we skipped it and left it the same. The thing that worrys me is once they open this can of unknown, its very diffacult to get them to put the lid back on, and right now we have one of the best bear destinations in the USA.... There is an old saying about not fixing what aint broke.


Yes, Dan someones always trying to fix things that aren't broken. In this case, the state is trying to produce more hunters at the black bear's demise. Slowly Wisconsin's black bear population is dropping and even if they gave out the same average amount of tags as they have been for a split Spring & Fall season the harvest rate would go up putting Wisconsin's greatest comeback success story at risk. I understand hunter participation is on the decline but I also feel all of these extra seasons (deer & bear) they are talking about are more for financial gain and not for our Natural Resources.

Yep... All that glitters is not gold... They pretty quickly killed the deer herd, and I think turkey hunting is really taking a hit since they started selling all the bonus tags. Its about money more than about management, and I agree....
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby Freelance Bowhunter » Sat May 30, 2020 12:31 am

matt1336 wrote:
Dewey wrote:Looks like spring bear passed pretty easily in the Spring Hearings with 32,544 yes and 17,377 no votes.

Gonna be interesting to see where this goes. :think:

It would be fun to have another hunting season in spring other than turkey hunting. I’m always open to more opportunities for hunters. I like the idea of splitting tags between spring and fall which would lessen a lot of hunting pressure and make for a much better quality hunt for all. As long as it doesn’t hurt the bear population I’m all for it.



Yeah. Change is good. Hunting big game in spring would be pretty fun. I’ve seen the biggest bears personally roaming around in May big old boars! Maybe it’d be a little easier getting an arrow in one in spring, idk.


The primary advantage of spring bear hunting is that there are a lot less natural foods competing for the bear's attention. That's an advantage to the hunter.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby Chad Gus 715 » Sat May 30, 2020 12:22 pm

I voted no on this, i just can't see how this is gonna be a net positive, for the overall quality of bear hunting in Wisconsin. I'm in zone C, and the number and size of bears has been in a downward trend the last 4 or 5 years. Adding a spring season, where success rates are almost assuredly gonna be higher, is only gonna add to the downturn on public here.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby dan » Sun May 31, 2020 12:18 am

Chad Gus 715 wrote:I voted no on this, i just can't see how this is gonna be a net positive, for the overall quality of bear hunting in Wisconsin. I'm in zone C, and the number and size of bears has been in a downward trend the last 4 or 5 years. Adding a spring season, where success rates are almost assuredly gonna be higher, is only gonna add to the downturn on public here.

I really think thats there goal... Why else would hunting be allowed all the way to the illinois border in zone C? Obviously thats counterproductive to expanding the lower population ito the southern units. You can hunt bears in my back yard, and public swamp, and draw tags often, but their is not huntable populations till you get 1.5 hours from here.
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Re: Spring bear season in WI?

Unread postby Mountain Man » Sun May 31, 2020 11:45 pm

Since the goal is to maintain or keep the bear population from moving south in WI, maybe only Zone C (which is now Zones C, E, F) will eventually get a spring season. A spring season would drive the population down there and generate more revenue for the state. Seems like a short term win for the state, but long term could be a loss for the state since after the first year or two of good success, the population will go down enough that hunters might be unwilling to buy tags for those zones if they are not seeing or killing a bear. Zone C already has the lowest success rate in the state and it would get worse after an initial short term increase.


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