Good way to end the Season

kdrchuck · Post by **kdrchuck** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:19 pm

Saturday was the last day I'll be hunting this year and we finished it up with a couple good catch and releases. Sat. the first track we were working on crossed the river and another group got it, so we went back to a Sow and Cub to run and I'm glad we did. Got some great pics.

This is Mattie. He was the only dog that finished the cold trail and made the bay. 3 yr old made it over some much older and more experienced dogs.

This is what we found. got some great pics

chris · Post by **chris** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:48 pm

i like the looks of those 2 bears you guys have had alot to bay up under the rocks this year from what i hear the group i hunt with also had alot bay up in aganst creek banks,cliffs and at teh base of trees last year all all them climbed but 1 or 2

knowjesus · Post by **knowjesus** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 12:19 am

Do you think WV bears are harder to put up a tree because your training season is yr round? Been wondering about that.
Merry Christmas!

TomJr · Post by **TomJr** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:25 am

I don't think running bears will make them not tree. They usualy look predy cumfy up there and alot of them go to sleep if you keep them up long enough.

We have no kill season with dogs here. But it is legal to run them for training and to Haze them out of places where they can cause trouble. Every year my dogs run several bears out of our orchard. Its the same bears several times. Last year we chased one off for almost a month and a half, treeing it twice a day. Was a smaller female 130 lbs(know the weight because they opened a depreditation hunt when the bears started raiding peoples houses in other nearby canyons.) Most of the bears become easyer to tree after a few runs... but some do become harder and more aggresive.

I ended up shooting one bear last year because he became more aggresive and just would not give up. Me and my dogs ran him off for over a week he never treed and became more and more aggresive. Most nights it was 6-7 times a night. The last night we had a person with a depreditation tag who wasted it on a 70lb bear after I told him this bear is over 300. Anyhow my dogs barked and I went out with them. Saw the fence was crushed and went to fix it... I had no idea where my dogs was but they were not with me when the bear came out of the brush at a charge so I shot him at less than 10feet. He might have been heading for the fence but I was not going to take chances and reacted more on instint than anything else, realy no time to think. Dogs arrived in time to chew on the dead bear tho...

This year with more food in the wild we had alot less trouble with bears. During June and July we had 3 big bear around, all males. One would not tree but is not that aggressive the other two went up easy. Played with them each a few times a week for around 2 months before they gave up. One was shot by a bow hunter(older bear real skinny and went just abit over 200lbs). The big one that will not tree came back a few times in the fall and we ran him up canyon 1 - 2 miles each time.

Maybe all the ones that tree easy was shot in your area last year? Either that or they got good food this year and was just too fat and lazy to climb lol. Its usualy the bigger ones that will not climb here but I also don't let my dogs push them too hard since I don't want vet bills. If one don't want to climb easy I just call my dogs off and toss a few rocks at his butt to send him on his way.

kdrchuck · Post by **kdrchuck** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:37 am

I would say the bear get trained all year just like the dogs do. Some learn it's safe in trees, others get beat out run over and over again. It's hard to catch them

I can't say that is why they all bay up in december
My guess would be they are holed up tighter and better in the winter and thats where the dogs catch up with them and that's as far as they let them go

I bayed up friday by myself. i walking out the track found the bed and jumped himand in about 30 yards he went in a hole in a log pile. when i ffound him i was upside down about 8 inches face to face. i poked him out put the dogs on him and treed him about 4 hr later.

5 of 8 killed bayed, 2 treed, 1 running head ache

Spanky · Post by **Spanky** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:20 am

great photos for sure thanks......

wingmaster · Post by **wingmaster** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:13 pm

awesome pix..