Hunters kill 200 bears in a single day in Florida

Big Chief

Good, they needed to thin them out. Should have heard all the whining about the state sanctioned hunt in the newspapers and on TV. This will make the bear population much more healthy. First hunt in over 20 years
and the population has swelled from a few hundred to over 3000 since the 70s.

It ain't like they are shootin Paddington Bear or something :tooth: They have been watching too many Charmin commercials.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11954149/Hunters-kill-200-bears-in-a-single-day-in-Florida.html

woodsrunner

Two hundred the first day......what isn't reported--or known-- is the number shot and wounded that will go off and die. I can tell you from experience that if you bust a bear, it better be in the brain--which is VERY small, or dead through the heart, or a double-lung shot. Not a single lung, mind you, but BOTH! A damn bear will cover 3 states and 2 time zones with ONE LUNG! So....what isn't known is the number shot and wounded. Some will die, some will live another day. But whatever the TOTAL kill is, the overall bear population will rebound like crazy! Remember the old Law of wildlife biology.....Nature Abhors A Vacuum! Plenty, plenty of bears left in all the recognized zones in Florida for a very quick recovery! My opinion, anyhow, though the "bleeding heart Bunny Huggers" will have a different opinion.....based on zero biological knowledge of black bears---or coons, a first cousin of sorts!

Jermanator

Shoot them! I will tell you right now, bear meat is delicious. Not only that, but the fur, skull, and claws make great trophies-- there is very little of those animals that will go to waste. They have a huntable and sustainable population now so let them hunt. Screw the bunny huggers-- hunters and shooters are the only ones carrying the weight of managing and supporting wildlife. They can shut the hell up and eat their veggies.

Jermanator

woodsrunner wrote: »

I can tell you from experience that if you bust a bear, it better be in the brain--which is VERY small, or dead through the heart, or a double-lung shot. Not a single lung, mind you, but BOTH!

.... with a .430 SJS.:tooth:

BigDanS

With an estimated bear population of 3500 bears, and about 300 killed in this year's season, that leaves about 3000. Bears reproduce every two years and have two off spring on average. If we take away 1000 bears as being too old, infertile, etc, that leaves 2000 breeding pairs, of which 500 will have two or more cubs. About half die young, so next year we could have 3500 to 4000 bears and in 2017 4000 to 4500 bears.

It will be interesting to see what the human / bear interaction is over the next two years. If there isn't a bear season in 2016, there will be one in 2017.

IMHO

D

snake284

Jermanator wrote: »

.... with a .430 SJS.:tooth:

I wouldn't mind taking one with my 9.3x62. I've seen what it will do and it will definitely take out a bear. Also, I bet Paul's 50 Beowulf would be a great bear gun.

Hondo341

I got one of the last of these Bears on Sunday evening. We still have about 9 that are shooter size on out 1700 acres......cubs there too. The 2000 acre lease bordering ours has another 10 or so. Now, these are all different bears as we have tons of pictures and have compared. One boar is in the 700 lb class. There is a sow on our property in the 425-450 class. Mine was the only one taken out of those groups and it was only 225 lbs. We are covered up in bears.