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Lower 48 Black Bear Hunt

Guys, starting to look into options for my son and his wife doing an archery black bear hunt in the near future. Would need to be a stand hunt for her. Best place with an over the counter tag in lower 48, OR would it be better to just head to Canada? Will be doing some checking my self, but would like a few other opinions. Thanks in advance.

I'd look closely at Dave Cole's Trophy Safaris in New Brunswick.

His camps typically produce more bears over 400# than anyone else in the Eastern or Maritime provinces.

You can also look at Mike's Outfitting.

Choose one of these camps and you wont be disappointed.

I’d take a look at Pine Acres in Ontario. Chris does a great job!!

Northwest MN. Over the counter tags. Blooming Valley Outfitters. And you don't need the "jab". Your welcome.

Canada is your best option. Seriously you can kill bears in the lower 48 but if you want to see multiple bears and have a fun hunt, go north.

No more jab required for Canada from what I heard. I’d look Canada, I’ve messaged Chris a few times the last few days figuring out what and how to getting to pine acres be it fly then rent a truck or what not. Canada will be in my near future. Hopefully with Pine Acres

Chris, Saxon, and Lottie, at Pone Acres will do you right.

Another vote for Chris and his gang at Pine Acres. I hunted with them this spring and didn’t kill a bear, but would still highly recommend Pine Acres. You won’t find a more economical hunt, with a very high probability of killing a bear.

I've looked into it a ton Canada definitely seems like the best bet especially now that all restrictions are lifted. During the heat of covid I found a outfit in Idaho that suited me best.

I would also recommend Dave Cole at TSI, New Brunswick

to specifically answer the OP's question, Maine and New Hampshire have relatively cheap over the counter bear tags with seasons starting about the beginning of September and tunning through early November. Baiting is about the first 3 weeks followed by hound hunting. The last 3-4 weeks is limited to spot and stalk and realistically opportunistic take during any other hunting system season with no bait or dogs. You can take a bear by spot and stalk or incidentally to stand hunting deer during the entire time, Now the odds of getting one without bait or dogs is pretty low but certainly not impossible. On the good beach nut years it is fairly reasonable to see a bear and somewhat reasonable on the good acorn mast years. Those two mast crops mostly alternate year to year. Your best opportunity at a bear #'s wise will not coincide with the highest deer #'s and the expanded deer seasons in Maine but the chance certainly exists. York Maine is a southern coastal town. I know a couple hunters that don't know each other running multiple cameras on multiple properties in town get multiple bear pictures. Maine and New Hampshire are both permissive trespass states, meaning if unimproved land is not posted, you are legally able to go hunt. That combined with a fair amount of national forest, state game lands and land trust land there is a good opportunity for someone wishing to do an out of state DIY hunt. I offer this as many here say DIY what they prefer. I would be happy to offer more info if anyone wants it.

But your chance of killing an animal will be exponentially better going with a guide. Many, many to choose from. And if Canada is in your cards, obviously the Bowsite sponsors posting here look like a great time with many, many positive endorsements. Erik

Thanks for all the info guys, I should have added that with her being a teacher, it would probably need to be a spring hunt.

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