# Middle Georgia Bears



## Dutch (Nov 20, 2018)

Hey DNR guys...

When are we going to get a longer Bear season than ONE day (and only in parts of some counties)?

I hunt in Bleckley and we are covered up in bears, to the point I am seeing them regularly while in the stand.


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## 270 shooter (Nov 21, 2018)

Plan on attending one of these to voice your opinion:

*2019–2020 Public Meeting Dates*
*January 7, 2019, 7 p.m.*
*Gainesville Civic Center, Chattahoochee Room*
830 Green Street NE
Gainesville, GA 30501
*Armuchee High School*
4203 Martha Berry Highway NW
Rome, GA 30165
*January 10, 2019 7 p.m.*
*Southern Regional Technical College, 253-B Auditorium*
15689 US-19
Thomasville, GA 31792
*Coffee County Courthouse*
101 Peterson Avenue
Douglas, GA 31533
*Sweetwater Creek State Park, Group Shelter*
1750 Mount Vernon Road
Lithia Springs, GA 30122
*January 14, 2019 7 p.m.*
*GA Tech Savannah*
210 Technology Circle
Savannah, GA 31407
*January 16, 2019 7 p.m.*
*Augusta Tech, Thomson Campus*
388 Tech Drive
Thomson, GA 30824
*F.D. Roosevelt State Park, Group Shelter*
2970 GA Highway 190
Pine Mountain, GA 31822


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## strothershwacker (Nov 21, 2018)

Thanks for posting that! I'll be the guy in the parkin lot holdin a sign that reads VOTE YES TO MORE BEAR!


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## Killer Kyle (Nov 21, 2018)

I'll be the one in the parking lot sitting at a table with a sign that says 

"Bear is the best eating game in the woods....change my mind".


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## Killer Kyle (Nov 21, 2018)

Dutch said:


> Hey DNR guys...
> 
> When are we going to get a longer Bear season than ONE day (and only in parts of some counties)?
> 
> I hunt in Bleckley and we are covered up in bears, to the point I am seeing them regularly while in the stand.



Just a few things to remember here. Although you are seeing lots of bears, there could be the possibility that isn't the case for all the properties around you.

If you are baiting or have food plots or even just oak stands amidst natural or planted pines, it is likely that you are seeing repeat users. You might have observed two or three different bears, but you're likely seeing the same two or three over and over. Are y'all using corn or food plots or both?
As with all things regarding wildlife, the state DNR can't construct regulations and policies based on heresay. They can't be like "man, I've heard 7 different people from Bleckley say they are slap covered up in bears. We have to up the harvest rate STAT!"

Since baiting and food plots are very, very, VERY common in your area, we have to assume that you or your neighbors are concentrating bears via food plots or corn
That might not accurately reflect upon or indicate the real bear presence or population in your county.
Generally and usually, the regulations are the fruit of the research. Scientific research. DNR has a bear biologist and he and his staff are out there doing research and conducting various forms of surveys to better understand the bear population across the state. Through research, it can often take a half decade or a decade to see trends in population growth or decline.
The most likely situation is that you are seeing a lot of repeat bears. The same few over and over. If you feel like you have a uniquely high population density of bears where you hunt, you should contact DNR/WRD and let them conduct summertime population surveys on your property. I'm sure they'd be chomping at the bit. They'd probably love to work in cooperation with you. The bottom line is to remember that you are probably only seeing two or three bears repeatedly. Change in regs takes time and research. It might be several years before you see a change in the season, or the season could be closed altogether. Just be patient. I know it may be difficult to do, but please remain patient and understand that the state DNR is doing everything it can to better survey and understand bears across the state so that it can adjust regulations or maintain present ones accordingly.


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## Dutch (Nov 21, 2018)

I have hunted this property for 10 years now, and while I am sure that some of the bears are repeats, I have been seeing bears (mainly on camera) every year. usually its once maybe twice a season I will see a live bear, but this year it has become a regular occurrence. The property is a mix of pines and hardwood bottoms on the east side of Hwy. 23 which with Ocmulgee WMA and the river not to far, so it may just be transit bears, as (at least) on the property I hunt acorns are spotty this year.

But I appreciate the advice and will contact the DNR and attend a meeting.


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## Christian hughey (Nov 22, 2018)

Dutch said:


> I have hunted this property for 10 years now, and while I am sure that some of the bears are repeats, I have been seeing bears (mainly on camera) every year. usually its once maybe twice a season I will see a live bear, but this year it has become a regular occurrence. The property is a mix of pines and hardwood bottoms on the east side of Hwy. 23 which with Ocmulgee WMA and the river not to far, so it may just be transit bears, as (at least) on the property I hunt acorns are spotty this year.
> 
> But I appreciate the advice and will contact the DNR and attend a meeting.


Bears use the ocmulgee as a travel route. I have heard of bears being spotted and a cub was found far up as jasper co. last year. Bears are mobile critters and like Kyle said, you got the food you got the bears! A couple weeks ago dnr held a meeting on public opinion on bears in general and I was able to submitt my opinion online about going back to a quota style hunt in mid ga and issuing the amount of tags you want filled and give them to private land owners. Also threw it out there that a spring bear bow hunt with leftover tags would be a good way to combat growing bear numbers in north ga.


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## GAbullHunter (Nov 22, 2018)

I sure wish we had a larger population, enough that the season could be open to every county in the middle for at least one day. Id be up for some of those bear that are nuisance to be relacated to middle GA counties.


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## Buckman18 (Nov 22, 2018)

It’d be interesting to hear how many middle GA hunters would like more bears once the fawn recruitment rate tanks like it has in the mountains!

You think coyotes get a bunch of fawns? You ain’t seen nothing yet!


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## Dutch (Nov 22, 2018)

Buckman18 said:


> It’d be interesting to hear how many middle GA hunters would like more bears once the fawn recruitment rate tanks like it has in the mountains!
> 
> You think coyotes get a bunch of fawns? You ain’t seen nothing yet!



I don't want more bears. I just want to be able to cull a few, out of the ones that are running around.


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## GRT24 (Nov 22, 2018)

We have pics of bear at both our Baldwin county land and our Hancock county land this year. First year getting bear pics at either. They are on large size when it comes to middle ga black bear. Texted a pic of the one in Hancock to a DNR buddy that’s at the Social Cirlce office. Immediately wanted know exactly where that camera was due to the size of it.


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## lampern (Nov 22, 2018)

The DNR wants more bears in central GA. 

They recently moved the season to January to suppress the kill of female bears


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## Dutch (Nov 22, 2018)

lampern said:


> The DNR wants more bears in central GA.



What?
Why in the **** do they want more freaking bears for?
We can't shoot the **** things now.
Whats next, reintroducing the Eastern Grey wolf?


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## Christian hughey (Nov 23, 2018)

They will offer a season after things get out of hand and they become a nuisance.


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## Timberman (Nov 23, 2018)

They are a nuisance in Washington County. It won’t be long til one tears up our camp.


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## lampern (Nov 23, 2018)

The proposed management plan said they want to transplant bears from somewhere else to central georgia.


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## Christian hughey (Nov 23, 2018)

I'll keep huntin the hooch. Although twiggs, Houston, and bibb have reported good bear sightings and there deer heard does real well. Maybe they haven't coexisted long enough to have an impact or maybe deer just dont like the mountains.


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## Cmcharles (Nov 23, 2018)

This ones been spotted on two of our farms in bleckley 3 miles apart


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## Christian hughey (Nov 23, 2018)

Cmcharles said:


> This ones been spotted on two of our farms in bleckley 3 miles apartView attachment 950578


So you got a spot open for a buddy on that one day hunt BUDDY!


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## Christian hughey (Nov 23, 2018)

Y'all aren't part of it yet that's right it's just twiggs, Houston, and bibb right?


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## Cmcharles (Nov 23, 2018)

Yeah no bear Season in bleckley, so he’ll keep getting bigger. I haven’t figured out how he crosses fences, but he does.


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## ddd-shooter (Nov 23, 2018)

Cmcharles said:


> This ones been spotted on two of our farms in bleckley 3 miles apartView attachment 950578


Good gravy that's a bear!


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## jbogg (Nov 23, 2018)

Cmcharles said:


> This ones been spotted on two of our farms in bleckley 3 miles apartView attachment 950578


That is a Hoss!


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## GAbullHunter (Nov 23, 2018)

Timberman said:


> They are a nuisance in Washington County. It won’t be long til one tears up our camp.



You need it hunted I sure enough will hunt it for you on that one special day. I know Washington. I like the one they have at the fair grounds on display.


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## gobbleinwoods (Nov 24, 2018)

Cmcharles said:


> Yeah no bear Season in bleckley, so he’ll keep getting bigger. I haven’t figured out how he crosses fences, but he does.



Don't believe he is jumping over them.


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## tree cutter 08 (Nov 24, 2018)

Like buckman said, just wait another 10 years. You'll have more bears than deer.


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## Dutch (Nov 24, 2018)

tree cutter 08 said:


> Like buckman said, just wait another 10 years. You'll have more bears than deer.



I believe that.

We are seeing fewer and fewer young deer every year.


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## fiddlinduke (Dec 4, 2018)

But if you are baiting you can't kill them, right? So what's the point in adding more days/limits? Do y'all foresee the DNR allowing baiting for bear?


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## Christian hughey (Dec 4, 2018)

I forsee dnr doing away with baiting again and I dont see that as a bad thing.


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## CornStalker (Dec 4, 2018)

tree cutter 08 said:


> Like buckman said, just wait another 10 years. You'll have more bears than deer.



I realize a lot of hunters share this same belief, but I would disagree. The black bear was in every area of Georgia (and the rest of the country for that matter) when the colonist settled. There were plenty of deer too. I don't disagree that bears predate on fawns, but that's not the limiting factor in deer population numbers. It's habitat. Old growth, closed canopy forest (Appalachians) don't support large quantity of deer. More managing timber cutting and/or control burns, and you can change that. 

Just as a case study, look at eastern North Carolina. Great population of black bear there. Also good numbers of deer and other game species. They have diverse habitat. 

It's funny how so many people are against having the native black bear populations recover in middle Georgia (and elsewhere) because of fear of limiting deer populations. I'd be a lot more concerned about the feral hog catastrophe and the damage they have done to the native flora and fauna. 

Not a chance in the world that black bears "take over middle Georgia" and outnumber deer. ..


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## Christian hughey (Dec 5, 2018)

Native florahula, what?


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## Rabun (Dec 5, 2018)

Yup...so all us mountain hunters have to do is cut timber and perform controlled burns on our NF lands to improve habitat. Really?  Well dang...what a revelation.


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## Rich Kaminski (Dec 5, 2018)

This is my 3rd year hunting Twiggs county. If you put out corn like my last club did the bear will be on it by the next day. My current club does not allow baiting but does plant food plots (which is a good thing). I have seen tracks but no visual sightings of bear on this property and these two clubs are adjacent to one another.


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## Buckman18 (Dec 5, 2018)

CornStalker said:


> I realize a lot of hunters share this same belief, but I would disagree. The black bear was in every area of Georgia (and the rest of the country for that matter) when the colonist settled. There were plenty of deer too. I don't disagree that bears predate on fawns, but that's not the limiting factor in deer population numbers. It's habitat. Old growth, closed canopy forest (Appalachians) don't support large quantity of deer. More managing timber cutting and/or control burns, and you can change that.
> 
> Just as a case study, look at eastern North Carolina. Great population of black bear there. Also good numbers of deer and other game species. They have diverse habitat.
> 
> ...



What is the address to your hunting property?  I've got some friends who work for DNR and they can release the nuisance bears they trap on your land.  Call me in 10 years and give me a deer hunting update!


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## GAbullHunter (Dec 5, 2018)

Id much rather enjoy eating bear then deer meat. Middle ga has a vast population of deer. Be a increase in bear would be nice as a hunter to have the opportunity to be able to hunt them more. Its only one day a season in middle ga. At least get it to one week a season or a full 3 day weekend. Id rather live around bear then people any day.. Maybe it would help keep all these darn city folks in the city an out of the country building subdivisions an widing roads. I for one like riding behind tractors with tracffic backed up cause usually in the country its only one to two cars backed up behind it an I'm one of them doing hehe lucky me. But my point beinging the bear increase in middle ga would be greatly hunted there for it would not be over popluted if; here is the kicker the DNR allows it to be done. An here is another upper, would cut down on the outter townies from stomping of some folks speacial spots in the mountains. Maybe.. Hum thoughts of the decades..


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## Christian hughey (Dec 5, 2018)

GAbullHunter said:


> Id much rather enjoy eating bear then deer meat. Middle ga has a vast population of deer. Be a increase in bear would be nice as a hunter to have the opportunity to be able to hunt them more. Its only one day a season in middle ga. At least get it to one week a season or a full 3 day weekend. Id rather live around bear then people any day.. Maybe it would help keep all these darn city folks in the city an out of the country building subdivisions an widing roads. I for one like riding behind tractors with tracffic backed up cause usually in the country its only one to two cars backed up behind it an I'm one of them doing hehe lucky me. But my point beinging the bear increase in middle ga would be greatly hunted there for it would not be over popluted if; here is the kicker the DNR allows it to be done. An here is another upper, would cut down on the outter townies from stomping of some folks speacial spots in the mountains. Maybe.. Hum thoughts of the decades..


The set up for middle ga is a joke if your gonna allow hunting of bears, issue the number of tags you hope to harvest out to private land owners and issue a lottery for a certain amount of tags for general public to hunt on public land so the hunts can run concurrent with the deer hunts on certain wma's. Like north ga. Also making it fair for others whom dont seem to be lucky enough to have private land in twiggs, bibb ,and Houston co. I would like to see more opportunity for the bears that are already there. Not asking for more bears by any means.


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## splinter17 (Dec 6, 2018)

Rich Kaminski said:


> This is my 3rd year hunting Twiggs county. If you put out corn like my last club did the bear will be on it by the next day. My current club does not allow baiting but does plant food plots (which is a good thing). I have seen tracks but no visual sightings of bear on this property and these two clubs are adjacent to one another.



I have hunted Twiggs for the last 18 years. This is the first year I have NOT seen a bear or 3. For the last 5 years, I have seen at least 3 different ones each year. I see them all the time, until it's bear day. Then nothing.


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## The mtn man (Dec 6, 2018)

CornStalker said:


> I realize a lot of hunters share this same belief, but I would disagree. The black bear was in every area of Georgia (and the rest of the country for that matter) when the colonist settled. There were plenty of deer too. I don't disagree that bears predate on fawns, but that's not the limiting factor in deer population numbers. It's habitat. Old growth, closed canopy forest (Appalachians) don't support large quantity of deer. More managing timber cutting and/or control burns, and you can change that.
> 
> Just as a case study, look at eastern North Carolina. Great population of black bear there. Also good numbers of deer and other game species. They have diverse habitat.
> 
> ...


You have some good points, bears don't eat as many fawns when their not starving. But I can guarantee you that during the summer in the mountains , if a bear gets a whiff of a fawn it will eat it, you know why? It's because it doesn't have anything else to eat except yellow jacket nests and grubs. Sure there were bears and deer 200 years ago, there were also American chestnut trees all over the southern mountains. Due to when they bloom, chestnuts produced every year. Bears did not go hungry like they do now.


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## Christian hughey (Dec 6, 2018)

The mtn man said:


> You have some good points, bears don't eat as many fawns when their not starving. But I can guarantee you that during the summer in the mountains , if a bear gets a whiff of a fawn it will eat it, you know why? It's because it doesn't have anything else to eat except yellow jacket nests and grubs. Sure there were bears and deer 200 years ago, there were also American chestnut trees all over the southern mountains. Due to when they bloom, chestnuts produced every year. Bears did not go hungry like they do now.


Natures savage and this is an arguement only God will answer in due time. In the mean time keep knocking em down. Can't wait for next bow season.


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## Raylander (Dec 6, 2018)

Deer love the kind of residential development you see across GA. It creates perfect edge habitat that produces loads of natural browse, and then you throw in all the fertizled goods..

On a different topic. Do pigs eat fawns? Some of them boars I've seen are big, nasty, and prolly eat anything that the touches the ground..


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## CornStalker (Dec 7, 2018)

Buckman18 said:


> What is the address to your hunting property?  I've got some friends who work for DNR and they can release the nuisance bears they trap on your land.  Call me in 10 years and give me a deer hunting update!



If only I had some land....I'd be all for it!  

All that to be said, I just think it's nearly impossible for bear to "outnumber" deer in almost all areas of Georgia. The DNR estimates about 5,100 bears statewide(majority in the mountains).  They estimate about 1.2 million deer statewide. That's a 1:200 ratio. Even if their estimates are off, it pretty much shows that general stats.


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## The mtn man (Dec 7, 2018)

CornStalker said:


> If only I had some land....I'd be all for it!
> 
> All that to be said, I just think it's nearly impossible for bear to "outnumber" deer in almost all areas of Georgia. The DNR estimates about 5,100 bears statewide(majority in the mountains).  They estimate about 1.2 million deer statewide. That's a 1:200 ratio. Even if their estimates are off, it pretty much shows that general stats.


Haha.


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## GAbullHunter (Dec 8, 2018)

How would the impact be on the crops; peanuts an corn field s an pecan orchards I could imagine walking through the orchard an look up to see bears in the trees. Hum wouldn't they eat them? An the soybeans, middle to south ga are a more row cropland area. Id be fine with just one day if they would open it to all the counties maybe. Just as a starter. But hey meetings are where these things need to be known an expressed as well.


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## GAbullHunter (Dec 12, 2018)

worleyburd86 said:


> On a different topic. Do pigs eat fawns? Some of them boars I've seen are big, nasty, and prolly eat anything that the touches the ground..



LouisianaBowhunter.com
Check this out


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