hunting areas

Does anyone know of any good areas to hunt bear that arent on private land? I hear Allegany Highlands has some real good locations....any and all info would be appreciated

love4guns said:

Does anyone know of any good areas to hunt bear that arent on private land? I hear Allegany Highlands has some real good locations....any and all info would be appreciated

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My old stomping ground. The George Washington National forest. I think the bear population is still highest in Augusta County.

Unless you have a few resident bears that have plenty of food and water, they aren't easy to hunt without bait or dogs. It's illegal to hunt over bait and you need to get to know someone with good bear dogs.

Free ranging bears in the mountains will travel 30 miles or so a day...so still hunting them or stand hunting is difficult.

Try Bull Branch some Saturday night.

yep i spot them all the time on jeep rides in GWNF. camping up there can get sketchy with you aren't packing. they get pretty ballsy up there too, had a few stand up and get fairly aggressive even with a 4000 lbs jeep bearing down on em. i dont run doorless on night rides for that reason.

Marco posted an interesting link in another thread:

Sixty-year-old Thurman Hensley was hunting on the last day of the muzzle-loader bear season when he spotted a bear and then shot it. That's when his troubles began.
As he went up to the 600-pound black bear to check it, it jumped up and mauled him.
http://attack.igorilla.com/node/289

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I know Thurman, haven't seen him for forty couple years, but he is one of the best Bear hunters in the Valley and a hell of a nice fellow. If you can get a phone number for him I'm sure he'd be happy to tell you where the best hunting in the GWNF is now. Since he bowhunts a lot he'll know where to go to stand hunt.

Just an idea.