# MId Georgia Bear Day



## SkeeterZX225 (Dec 8, 2014)

Got a big one staked out. Only have one day to get him. If I get him, after check in...what do I do with it? Will a deer processor process him? 

I want to do a rug or something, but cant get myself to justify shooting a bear for just a "trophy". I am going to at least _try_ and eat some of him. 

I realize my chances are slim with one day to get him, probably only one hunt. I just want to be prepared if I am able to drop the hammer. 

Any suggestions how to get it cut up?

Thanks


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## Benjamin1977 (Dec 8, 2014)

Use a knife.  Know a lot of friends so
You
Can have help pulling him out. Some processors cut up bear. Find you a taxidermist. The fur is easy to tear up.  Use a cart or four wheeler to pull him. Make bear into sausage or jerky. Have a cookout for your friends.


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## Killer Kyle (Dec 9, 2014)

Ditto on the cart or sled. Don't drag it on the ground if you can help it if you are looking for a rug. Lots of fat. Can make seeing what you are doing. Just take your time and be patient. Remember you mist keep all the hide, feet, and head and it must be presented to DNR. You must call them to report it. The #is in the regs book. A ranger or warden must physically tag your bear within two days of the kill. 
Call your local processors to find out whether or not they process years. Up here, lots of processors do, but only a few don't. Call and find out beforehand so you are prepared. Also, get the bear skinned and quartered and in a cooler asap. Don't waste all that succulent red meat. Bear is great despite whatever rumors you may have heard. I smoked the entire last bear that I killed. Chunked it into BBQ. I mix a 50/50 mix of Stubb's Spicy and Stubb's Mesquite BBQ sauce and put it on a toasted "everything" bun. Fed this to lots of people already, and everyone just thought they were eating BBQ pork, and all said how good it was, and then I told them it was bear. Bear is great! Wanna make a real man's breakfast? Render some of the fat for storage. Use it to make bear fat biscuits. Then fry up some spicy bear sausage for breakfast. Use the grease to brown up some gravy seasoned with a little black pepper. Bear biscuits, bear sausage and bear gravy with eggs. Breakfast can't get much more lumbarjack than that!


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## hoochman2 (Dec 12, 2014)

*canning bear meat*

we can alot of our bear meat in pints and quart jars. 90 mins at 10lbs of pressure. just be sure to cut all the fat off.


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## Benjamin1977 (Dec 16, 2014)

my dad canned his bear meat


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## wwpiga (Dec 18, 2014)

*4 taken*

4 Bear were harvested in the Central GA 1 day season.
The population should see a big increase.  There are a lot of cubs running around,.


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## markland (Dec 18, 2014)

Yes there are!


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## SkeeterZX225 (Dec 18, 2014)

I think the way they make it a one day season is stupid. It is almost like they do not want any bears killed. If that is true, just do not have a season. Otherwise, give those that want to a chance. 
  The first two years there were like 12-15 bears taken. The "day" was earlier in the season during either sex deer days. In the last two years, 5 have been taken.

  I am sure most of those taken in the first two seasons were opportunity bears...there were more people hunting (because of either sex deer season)and they just happened to see one. 

With the day being in December, there are less people in the woods because it is now buck only, and bear movement is low. 

What I think DNR should do is have a bear tag lottery for middle Georgia. They should decide how many bears they would like to see taken, and then issue tags in a lottery format to those that apply. If they think 15 bears harvested is a good number, issue 30 or 45 tags ( no way there will be 100% success) and have 2 or 3 weekends where those that have tags can take a bear. Maybe a weekend in archery season, one in November and one in December, or something like that. Or allow those with tags to take a bear anytime during deer season. 
They could even cancel a weekend or the bear season once the harvest number has been reached. How hard would it be to call those that draw a bear tag and inform them that the season is closed because the harvest is complete?
Just thinking out loud. We have a major bear problem on our club that is getting worse every year. And the bears are not afraid of people. I had one 15 yards away the weekend before our bear day and I could not get him to leave when it was time to go. He was eating in my food plot and did not care how much noise, movement or anything else I did. I took a chance and climbed out of the tripod with him still there. When I hit the ground, he looked at me, took about 5 steps in the opposite direction, stopped, looked at me, I kept walking (a little faster) and he just walked to the other end of the food plot and continued eating.


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## markland (Dec 18, 2014)

Yep same issues we have been dealing with as well, I had 8 different bears on my small lease 3 years ago, it was ridiculous the mount of problems we had with them but only 3 the last couple of years but sitll big problems.  I have voiced my concerns over this but in all actuality the state does not want any bears killed, they just want to show that a season was offered, but really most of the bears are gone or denned up by Nov and the success rate reflects this.  This year was the 1st year I have gotten trail cam pics of bears past the 1st part of Nov, typically they disappear till right around turkey season.  The sow in my pic is collared and was tracked 40 miles away from my lease a couple of years ago, this year she denned on my lease and had her 2 cubs and has not left.  We cannot leave anything on the ground or they will tear it up, which makes it really difficult to hunt and control our hogs in the clear cuts we have down there.  
I have posted on this issue many times on here but the bottom line is the state say's the population is not high enough to sustain a high harvest and they do not want sows killed so they limited our ability to hunt them and we just have to deal with it.
1st year harvest was very high, next year was about 1/2 that, last year there was 1 bear killed and this year I guess there were still a few bears around and a few got killed but what the state does not realize is these bears are not scattered all over the country they are concentrated in a few small areas along the river and are really causing problems for the land users in those areas.


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## SkeeterZX225 (Dec 18, 2014)

They need to do another bear study. Not just on Oaky Woods. Get land owner/lease  input and conduct their studies where bears are a "problem". I have read they think there are about 300 bears in middle Georgia. From talking to people and hearing of their problems, I bet there are many more than that. I think we have minimum 4 bears that use our 1100 acres. We are along the Big Indian Creek a few miles from the river. I have hunted this area over 20 years, and we have not had the bears like we have had the last few years. On my lease, if you put out corn, they will sit there and eat it until its gone. I had 3000 pictures of one bear on my gravity feeders. He sat there from 20 minutes after I filled it until it was gone. He left for a short time here and there, but he ate 40lb of corn in about 2 days.


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## BBond (Dec 19, 2014)

SkeeterZX225 said:


> They need to do another bear study. Not just on Oaky Woods. Get land owner/lease  input and conduct their studies where bears are a "problem". I have read they think there are about 300 bears in middle Georgia. From talking to people and hearing of their problems, I bet there are many more than that. I think we have minimum 4 bears that use our 1100 acres. We are along the Big Indian Creek a few miles from the river. I have hunted this area over 20 years, and we have not had the bears like we have had the last few years. On my lease, if you put out corn, they will sit there and eat it until its gone. I had 3000 pictures of one bear on my gravity feeders. He sat there from 20 minutes after I filled it until it was gone. He left for a short time here and there, but he ate 40lb of corn in about 2 days.



From 2012-now

UGA has been tracking/marking bears in Twiggs, Bleckley, Pulaski, and Houston counties on both private and public property.

Part of the study is a population estimate study which consisted of sampling sites from I-16 in Twiggs county down to North of Hawkinsville in Pulaski county.

The movement part of the study alone has shown that several bears move 10-20 miles in less than a month.  One bear has even moved >40 miles.

The data should hopefully be finalized when the last 3 students finish which will be around 2016.


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## markland (Dec 19, 2014)

Yes they are doing part of their study on my lease and I have talked to a couple of the students down there and on the phone as well.


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## SkeeterZX225 (Dec 19, 2014)

They need to come to my lease then!


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## Hammer Spank (Dec 19, 2014)

If people would quit pouring corn, you wouldnt have bear problems.


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## SkeeterZX225 (Dec 19, 2014)

Hammer Spank said:


> If people would quit pouring corn, you wouldnt have bear problems.



Agree....but try and get 20 people on a club to agree to that. 
The bears stay where the food is....that's a fact...but they also feed in our food plots and what acorns we have. They corn gets them there and everything else holds them. and then they run off the deer.


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