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New early bear hunting season

I'm surprised no one has posted this yet.

Allow bear hunting in Wildlife Management Units (WMUs) 6A, 6G, 6N, and all of 6K during the Northern Zone early bowhunting season, early muzzleloader season, and regular firearms season;

Allow bear hunting in WMUs 4A, 4B, 4J, 5R, 6P, 6R, 6S, 7A, 7F, 7H, 7J, 8A, 8C, 8F, 8G, 9A, and 9F during the Southern Zone early and late bowhunting seasons, regular firearms season, and late muzzleloading season;

Create a supplemental firearms bear season for 16 days beginning the 1st Saturday after Labor Day (Sept. 6 - Sept. 21, 2014) in WMUs 3A, 3C, 3H, 3K, 3J, 3M, 3P, 3R, 4P, and 4R;

Begin the Northern Zone bowhunting season for bears on the same day as the early bear season, the 1st Saturday after the 2nd Monday in September (2nd Saturday after Labor Day).

Yes, I got this in a press release from DEC. I live just North of area 6R and know friends that have seen bears in recent years on a regular basis in 6R where they live.

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Corrected link

I'm sure the new firearms season in Sep is going to ruffle a few feathers.

Pat,

Sounds like that would stay in place. See the last bullet. Also appears from the first bullet that only part of 6K was open before?

I'm speculating that some 3* zone hunters will be upset that bear hunters are roaming around the woods right before their Oct season starts.

Not that I care, the greater our numbers the longer we'll be around.

I guess you take your wins when you can and so any expansion of hunting opportunities should be a good thing.

They could open bear season from Sept 1 through Dec 31 and I bet few people would notice any difference in hunting pressure. I know lots of hunters and only a few would even shoot one if they had a chance.

There are plenty of bears in parts of the state and more steps may be needed to encourage bear hunting. I did see in the link the DEC will continue to explore the use of dogs, bait or live capture cable-restraints for taking bears. A few more bear "attacks" downstate and the bunny huggers may just allow such things.

I feel like i remember seeing last year or 2 years ago that you could use the previous year's tag for the early season bear... but now i am looking through the regs and i am not seeing that information.

am i mis-remembering?

thanks

meh.....

When I bought this years tag, I think the clerk said that new tags are good for one year from the DATE OF PURCHASE. Previously, new licenses were issued from Oct 1 through Sept 30 with no deviation. But, this may have applied to fishing only.

How's that for clearing up the issue?!! LOL

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OK, I did a search as I don't have license info here at work. The 2015 Northern Early Bear season opens September 19 and the Southern opens September 12. If you have a bear tag from the 2014-2015 license year, then I believe that you are good to hunt. That's ASSUMING that the license year is still Oct 1 thru Sept 30,,,,

The link goes to DEC's website showing season dates.

The whole business of the license year I am not positive about. Previously, you could hunt the early bear season & deer in the Northern Zone using last years tag, if you had not yet used them.

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thanks for the responses. i guess i'll bring both last year's tag and this year's tag just to be safe.

anyone else planning on going after a bear in the early season?

if yes, what is your technique? spot and stalk? or do you have an area scouted out?

The 2014-15 season ended AUGUST 31st. Same thing last year. The current 2015-16 season starts September 1 through August 31, 2016. No more using "last year's tags" for the early seasons. Use your deer and bear tags by the end of late bow/muzzle or throw them out.

Fishing licenses are good for 365 days from the date of purchase OR the date you specify. You can buy today and have it start up to 60 days later so I'm told.

Marine registries (the free "saltwater fishing license") is good for 365 days from the date obtained OR the date you specify it to start.

As a result, your hunting licenses may expire at a different date than your fishing or marine fishing.

Good luck hunting - looks like a monster year for apples, grapes and nuts, so plenty of wild food about.

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