Bear Harvest Numbers
Wisconsin
Here are the bear harvest numbers. They came out super fast this year, last year it was like asking for classified information...
The success rates are
A 70% B 70% C 17.3% D 65%
When are they going to realize they are giving out too many tags in Zone C?????
MADISON - Preliminary registration numbers indicate a strong 2016 bear hunt in Wisconsin, with 4,643 bears registered.
"This was another successful season for Wisconsin Bear hunters. The preliminary harvest of 4,643 is very close to the 2016 quota of 4,750," said David MacFarland, DNR large carnivore specialist. "Wisconsin continues to have a healthy bear population, which provides more hunting opportunity than any other state in the country."
Preliminary registration totals for the 2016 bear hunt are as follows:
Zone A: 1,135; Zone B: 833; Zone C: 1,071; and Zone D: 1,603. Please note that these figures are preliminary and are subject to change.
Summary tables and more information regarding bear hunting in Wisconsin can be found at dnr.wi.gov, keyword "bear."
I would have never guessed those success rates including 17.3 for zone c . I'm thinking WI has one of the best bear hunts available , if not the best .
Wisconsin has the highest Black Bear success rate across the board in the US and Canada. Any Canadian Outfitter that tells you any different isn't looking at the whole picture.
It would be very interesting if the DNR took a survey of all the people who were drawn for a kill tag to see if they actually hunted and only take into account those that actually hunt in the harvest numbers.
I hunted zone 'c' this year. I saw a whopping 0 deer during shooing hours, hunting the first 10 days. I think part of the problem was having no acorn crop. Once the berries were gone the moved into the corn fields, hard to compete with n unlimited supply of food.
We hunted Zone C also and have found that adding trail mix with nuts will up your odds of seeing a bear during shooting hours. I start adding nuts to the baits around August 1st. This year we also had good success using roasted soybeans. All of our hunters saw bear during shooting hours, which is something that doesn't always happen in Zone C. We saw numerous bears up until Oct. 5th. Then they stopped coming into the baits.
Just an FYI The bears only use corn during the milk stage. Which is bout 20 days after silking. That is the time of the year bears will roll around and lay in cornfields.
Bears eat corn before and after the milk stage too.
"Bears eat corn before and after the milk stage too" yes they do but they do not gorge themselves like during the milk stage, as soon as the moisture content leaves or dries up in the corn bears activity in the corn fields slow down.
