Knowing how to handle a bear hunt situation can be crucial to success or possible going home empty handed. If you haven’t had a lot of experience with black bear hunting, this type of situation could cost you a beautiful trophy bear. Usually, it is a senior adult male bear that will stand up inspect a suspicious situation. The young black bears are careless, and like all species haven’t adapted yet.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Choosing the Right Black Bear Hunting Outfitter & Preparing For Your Trip (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

The Black bear, or Ursus americanus to scientists, is the most common species of bear in North America. If you go camping somewhere in the United States, Mexico or Canada and you see a bear, chances are you’re looking at a black bear.

And with the recent tragedy of the Clyde family and an assault by a black bear in Tennessee, it makes sense to approach them with respect and caution.

Compared to other American bears, black bears are smaller and more agile, usually weighing from 150-300 pounds, though they can sometimes weigh much more. While they are often black, black bears also come in dark brown and even grayish shades. They are almost always smaller and less furry than their brown bear cousins, and lack the distinctive shoulder hump of the grizzly.

Like most bears, the black bear is an omnivore and will eat virtually anything it can get its paws on, though black bears tend to eat more vegetation than their cousins. Roots, seeds, grasses, berries, leaves, twigs, sometimes even bark and the inner parts of trees will make up most of the bear’s diet throughout the year. Black bears will also eat a variety of insects, smaller mammals, and are good at catching fish.

Black bears are not particularly aggressive or violent towards people. In many areas, bears are actually quite tame and unafraid of us, and will even be found begging for scraps along the sides of roads. Though their vision is only average, they have an amazing sense of smell, and have a knack for getting into places they shouldn’t be, like cars, gardens or dumpsters.

If you are going to be camping in an area where there are black bears, just make sure you don’t leave any food in a place you wouldn’t want a bear to get to. For example, never store opened food items inside your tent. Any food items that are exposed to the sense of smell should be kept tightly sealed, hung from a tree, or at the very least a good distance away from your campsite.

My only experience with black bears occurred while I was backpacking with friends in Yosemite. The campsite we reached on the first night was crawling with black bears. Though we were a little nervous at first, it was soon clear they weren’t going to bother us, so we set up camp as planned. As soon as we began cooking dinner, however, we found ourselves with a good-sized bear audience.

For the most part they kept their distance, but when we weren’t looking they’d creep closer and closer to get a better look and smell for what we were making. As soon as we looked over at them, they’d turn away and pretend like they weren’t really interested, feigning interest in some twig instead. When we woke the next morning, we discovered the bears had licked all our dishes completely clean.

Although the experience I had was actually quite humorous, black bears are certainly capable of causing great bodily injury to you if they feel threatened. Its never a good idea to approach a bear, and if you see bear cubs you should stay far away because there is a very good chance they have a protective mother nearby.

Bear hunting in Canada is a hunting experience that goes unmatched. Canada’s black bears roam from Ontario to the west coast and grow to a much bigger size than what they do in the U.S. For a hunter who’s looking for a spectacular black bear hunting experience, Canada is the number one destination.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Choosing the Right Black Bear Hunting Outfitter & Preparing For Your Trip (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

When looking for an outfitter that will provide you with the black bear hunt you have in mind it could take some time but I think I have shorten that time quite a bit. I have compiled a list of the top black bear hunting guides, outfitters and lodges here in New Brunswick Canada.

If you are new to black bear hunting be sure to check out the two related posts.

Preparing for your black bear hunting adventure

Choose the Right Black Bear Hunting Outfitter For Your Hunt

Our Featured Black Bear Hunting Outfitter

Big Paw Outfitters

Black Bear Hunting

Owner: Kevin Caissie – Location: Renous, New Brunswick – Hunting Zone: #7

————————————————–

Black Bear Outfitters, Guides & Lodges

Adairs Wilderness Lodge

Adventure Nord Est

Adventures Inn Miramichi

Atlantic Adventures Outfitting

Barton’s Wilderness Adventures

Bear Paw Outfitters

Bear’s Lair

Big Paw Outfitters
Kevin Caissie – Renous – Black Bear Hunting and Guiding – Zone 7

Black Bear Lodge

Black Bear Hunting NB Canada

Black Bear Specialist

Canaan Outfitters

Dyer & Sons Outfitters

Fundy Outfitters

Harts Lake Lodge

Henderson’s Hunting Camps

John’s Paradise

Krumplehorn Lodge

Manuel’s Hunt/Fish Camps

Miramichi Inn

Nerepis Lodge

Safaris International

Sunset Shan-Gri-La Lodge

Taxis River Outfitters

Tobique & Serpentine Camps

Ugly Bear Lodge

Upper Oxbow Adventures

Each of the black bear hunting outfitters listed above are also listed on the black bear hunting guides and outfitters map on the main page so you will have a better idea of how to get there. It should help you narrow your search down somewhat.

I decided to break this black bear hunting preparation post into two sections. The first part can be found here:

Part 1: Choosing the Right Black Bear Hunting Outfitters.

Part Two: Preparing For Your Black Bear Hunting Adventure

To be fully prepared, have your outfitter send you a list of important things to take along for your weeks stay.  Here are a few examples of items that I believe have made for better black bear hunting experiences:

* Passport and proper identification for border officials
* Bug Suit (if hunting during bug season)
* Two-way Radios
* Clothes for all weather conditions (hot, cold, rain, etc…)
* Snack food items
* Camera
* Compact foldable soft weapon cases
* Cooler & Meat Bags
* Knife & Tool Kit
* Non-scented soaps, shampoos, etc…

There is one final very important note to mention.  Have your outfitter send you a non-resident firearm declaration for you to prepare in advance.  They take about 20 minutes to fill out at home, but will save you time with custom and border officials.  Remember that all rifles will need to be removed from their respected cases, so don’t have them buried under your luggage and hunting gear.