Spring Bear in Colo
Bears
Contributors to this thread:
With all the black bear problems Colo has had since it outlawed the use of dogs, bait, and a spring bear hunt I'm curious if it may be an option to re-open a spring bear hunt? Just about every state in the West has a spring bear hunting and it would likely spook bears away from front porches, cars, and trash cans!
Stop it jims.. Now ur just talking common sense... :)
Ed
I don't think there are black bear problems in Colorado, I think there problems with people in Colorado using common sense in regards to black bears.
They use emotion based arguments not fact based and thats when everybody loses.
Reversing Spring bear has been brought up a few times. Basically, we have too many folks who aren't ok with it due to lots of reasons ranging from uninformed, to anti-hunting, to worried about our image, to not caring about the issue enough to want any change.
Folks who rely on votes aren't interested in taking this issue on.
Maybe the bears will just take some deep breaths and mello out now that there's another smell in the air in Colorado......know what I mean? They'll probably be easier to bait now.......gettin the munchies and all!
I don't know about anyone else but if you spend much time hiking in Colorado it seems like bears are becoming a more and more common sight. Before bait, dogs, and spring seasons were outlawed I hardly saw a bear. In a way it's kindof nice seeing them on a fairly regular basis but it's a bummer Colo is about the only Western state that doesn't offer a spring bear season. It's also a bummer to those that have their cabins, houses, and vehicles broken into by relatively tame bears!
Putting nearly any issue to public vote will fail for hunters, there are too many anti, uninformed, or uninterested. To get a spring hunt bAck I believe would take a public referendum - not gonna happen. This is why game management issues need to stay in the hands of game managers.
The DOW 2 years ago put down 50 bears in this part of Colorado alone in one spring. A friend of mine works as a DOW officer in this area. They have put down 5 all ready this year.
I agree with jims. I did not hunt Colorado last year but did the year before and saw more bears that September that I have seen there in total for the last 15 or so. Their numbers do seem to be increasing but that is just my perception. I don't have any data to back it up. Even saw bears on the road.
Call Col Dow Aug 5th ( or online for leftover bow tags for some Units for bear ) They have more or less ( DOw) finally ackowledged they need to harvest more bruins. I arrowed a tagged research bear in 2014 , came all the way from Durango to 20 mile west of Tellruide. 3rd year in a row I arrowed good ones by the creek on my ranch. Doubt if Col will allow a Spring bear for some time...maj of the the Votes are in Denver Metro .
Some ranchers blame the no Bait /no dogs /no spring on bears increasing #s and getting fawns. Mules deer are down, but I have no direct info on bears and fawn mortality . My Priorites are Bull /buck and them gobbller or bear each Sept . Bear are a Given tag to use with bow,even witout baiting now .Some Outfitters give them free with a booked bull or Buck Hunt .
Look at all those fetching combos. Wow...
Jims, I sure would like to see a spring hunt come back for bears. I have seen some great bears over there.
Here's one I took in 2001, in the fall, the very first night I sat for elk at a waterhole I like to hunt. My buddy also took a great fall bear there a year or two before at the same waterhole. His is the top bear, mine is the bottom.
You used to be able to just by an over the counter tag in those days, but they since have quit that too. Colorado is way too conservative on their bear tags and the way they allow you to hunt them.
Have a great bow hunt. BB
Never going to happen. It's a Constitutional amendment and CO is bluer now than when it passed by a landslide in '92.
Golden Pyr How did you know what arrow to use ??
I knew another guy who carried all different arrows in case he wounded and lost an animal, so he could always say, "Nope, not mine".
Razorhead, they are being hired because that's what's being taught in the universities now.
Hunting methods are in trouble in all blue referendum states. The CPW commission is not the problem. It's the idiots who vote with emotions. That's why 70% voted to end spring bear, selective bear hunting in the fall, and trapping
BB, Those are some big ole bruins! I imagine with no spring bear, baiting, and dogs there ought to be some whoppers available. One of these years I'll have to concentrate on bears rather than antelope and other species.
I'm pretty sure the bear vote was the first and last wildlife related issue brought before the public election vote. I remember seeing some pretty graphic television adds by the antis when the bear deal was passed. Ever since that time the CDOW/CPW has made their own decisions on wildlife related issues.
Bears in many areas in Colo have become similar to grizz in Wyo where they literally have no fear of man!
Jim, the trapping ban vote happened four years after the bear vote. It was also implemented as a Constitutional Amendment to make it more difficult to reverse.
Some individual DOW people spoke out against it because it removed management tools from their arsenal, but no matter. When wildlife management is put in the hands of soccer moms and mall chicks, logic and science go out the window.
My hope is that the people who voted to end the spring bear hunting are the same ones who voted to legalize marijuana. All we have to do is wait until they are too stoned to leave the house and cast a vote, then we reverse all the lame laws passed over the last few years...wishful thinking?
Washington and Colorado don't have bear seasons. Hmm. Wonder why???
Sage, CO has a season that can start "After September 1" per the vote of the fine bleeding-heart folks in Denver and Boulder. So it starts September 2. But no baiting, no hounds.
Golden pyr I am the researcher that tagged that bear in Durango
He time traveled into the future and shot it in 2014.
I had a female travel 30 miles south of Chama NM
Eagle_eye_Andy's Link
Don't mean to hijack the thread at all but this is too good to pass-up for this...The link will clearly show what's required to take care of nuisance bears in CO. Who needs to hunt them? (or bait them!) ;)
Have a good one! Andy
I have a friend, who drew a Utah bear tag and he called me for help. I told him I would try an area I know, that is on the Utah-Colorado border, that has lots of bears in it. So I suspect he will see a few bears that wonder over from Colorado.
Have a great bow hunt. BB
There is obviously an issue. The DOW officers are having to kill more animals because they are "problem" bears than ever before. The officers don't like doing it and it's not the bears fault the humans are idiots.
The anti's and non hunters think their vote was a good thing. But spring bear hunting is not a bad thing!! Just like California. Lion hunting got banned and now they have lion problems. And the department of wildlife has to kill more "problem" cats then were killed by hunters when they allowed hunting.
Just go to the Colorado fur auction (where the Dow auctions off all the animals they confiscated, hit by cars, and problem Animals.) there are hundreds of bears every year. Pretty sad in my opinion and shows that there are way too many "problem" bears in Colorado
When we had a big bear problem in my area I proposed a special archery season to the DOW. The Commission approved it, gave me 12 tags to distribute to experienced hunters, and extended the fall season for us for 6 extra weeks.
They know they have problems, mostly with people training bears to be bad bears
Lou, you are seeing that happen more and more in areas that are having problems. In the area our family ranch is in a few years ago a rancher had several calves killed in the early summer in one pasture by bears, the DOW came in and set up hair traps on all the carcass's. After a week they checked the traps and had 38 different bears eating those calves! We now have a 3 month season and tons of tags! Sad part is we have also had a heck of a drought and the acorns have not been producing so the bears are wandering into other areas.