Hunter shoots bear in its Den!

[Beans]

There was nothing in the article that said he hunted just for trophy. He might have been hunting for food and happened upon the tracks of what turned out to be a trophy sized animal. There's nothing in the article that says he wasn't trophy hunting either.

Whether you sit in a blind and call in animals/waterfowl or sit in a tree or bait a hook or crawl in the den if you are trying to get food it's all good in my book. When I go squirrel hunting I sit in the woods and look nuts. Is that fair?

Is that just limited to only sitting in the woods?????

[Pocomoonskyeyes3]

I'm a vegetarian. (OMG!!!...guards, where are the damn guards?!#@)

Oops! LOL Guess that one fell on deaf ears! OK You have a point then, as you don't eat meat. But ANYONE that eats meat really can't complain as the bear lived a better life than the meat they eat can't live as free as the bear. And they die a MORE confined death than the bear did. The bear still could have maneuvered in the Den better than that man, and faster too. Personally I think it was more dangerous for the hunter in the Den, than outside the Den.....

[Rick]

I'm goin' to bed. Don't no one come in there with a gun. This bear will shoot back.

[BENESSE]

Poco, I guess we'll just have to let the sleeping bears lie (or not) and move on. It is what it is, my friend.

[DOGMAN]

I'd say the guy is a dedicated, determined, serious hunter....

first, he found a record class bear without dogs or baiting...then he was able to track and stalk it all the way back to its den....I know very few people that have those skills

then he had the patience to wait 5 hours for it to come out....very few people I know are tough, patient or determined enough to sit-out in the cold, winter of the Rocky Mountains for 5 hours staring at one-spot!

Then finally after waiting all that time, he realized the bear wasn't coming out, so he crawled and wiggled into the tight, cramped confines of the giant bruins den and finished the job. THats pretty damned hardcore.

I understand the arguments people are making...however, bear hunting is legal, and it was in-season. Obvioulsy the bear wasn't hibernating...because he was out walking around leaving tracks. He was in his pre-denning phase and preparing to hibernate, but he was still getting out and rambling around a-bit. I think people would be shocked at how most of the Black bears are hunted and killed in the USA....in many states its common practice to either lure them in with "bait-stations" (dumping doughnuts and other concoctions in the same spot- week after week in the woods at the same spot to get bears to hang-around that area)....if not baited, they are run by hounds, chased up a tree- then shot out of the tree!....Literally thousands of black bears are shot every year using those techniques.
Tracking, stalking, waiting several hours and then crawling into a bear's hide-out is by far more sporting in my opinion then creating a doughnut dump, or shooting a bear out of a tree.

I love bears, and am inclined to even say I wish bear hunting was banned. I think bait-stations and shooting treed bears is ethically questionable. However, crawling into a friggin tiny- cave after a bear you know is probably one of the biggest ones ever to live in Colorado is far from being cowardly or unsportsman-like. I applaud the guy....

[NCO]

+1 DOGMAN

Also about the baiting.. It is illegal here by the way..

[Camp10]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jGr3jNvT3s

How many poor little deer or young elk do you suppose a 700 pound monster bear like that could have killed in its life? I'm sure it gave all the fawns hiding in the grass waiting for their mothers to protect them a fair chase and didnt kill any while they slept!

This whole notion that hunting can only be okay if the hunter is starving is so PC and thoughtless. IS it also wrong to have any canned or dry food stored up at home? Do you have to wait until you dont know if you can go another step before its ethical to go to the grocery store?

Hunting is also about management. Sometimes (this might hurt some people that feel instead of think) animals need to be killed for the protection of their own or other species and if they never make it into a pot it is still important.

The coyotes here in Maine have destroyed our rabbit population. They kill many deer and grouse as well. While it might seem arrogant for humans to decide what animals are more important, it will hit a saturation point soon where the coyotes will also suffer and die from lack of food. The job of the biologists are to find the happy medium where all species can survive with the food availible. This means that some animals including predators needs to be removed in order to keep the rest healthy. A 700 pound bear eats lots and lots of food. Getting it out of the area will do quite a bit of good for younger bears and for the other animals that a bear would feed on.

[Wood Duck]

I don't care much for Trophy Hunters, they waste a lot of meat. No ethics in this type of hunting. Hunting is not a sport to me but it is a way for me to gather food for myself and my family. Guess it depends on how you grew up.

[randyt]

What chance does a cow have? A Chicken? That bear had a better life than the bacon you have in the morning.

or how about veal or lamb

[randyt]

a few things come to mind. 700 pounds!!!!! that's a bbbbig bbbblack bbbbbear.
as far as fair goes, there is nothing fair about life and death. it never will be.
if crawling in a den with a bear isn't ethical either is trapping, shooting a animal while it eats, actually shooting a animal only while in active pursuit would seem like the only ethical way.

[Mtnman Mike]

This has turned out better than I thought the discussion might.

I don't really like to argue so I won't pick a certain post and try to refute it.
But my thoughts are that the guy who killed the bear was Not hunting the bear for meat. He was hunting it for a trophy.
After he saw the large bear pawprints in the snow he went to town to get a license then tracked - followed the bear tracks to the den.

After he got tired of waiting 5 hours he went into the den saw the bear awake, got scared and then killed the bear.

If I don't have it perfectly straight then someone can correct my version.
But I hate waste. I very much doubt this guy used any of the bear meat for food. He will very possibly have the bear taken to a taxidermist to show off over the coming years.
To "prove" what a great white hunter he is.

I have worked in a slaughterhouse and seen cattle killed, then the bloody process until they are cut up and sold.
I have seen a cow lay down with its eyes bulging out for it knew that it was going to be killed. I saw the worker keep prodding that cow to make it go to its death.

I still ate meat, I know the difference between raising meat for food and going out into the wild to hunt for food.
The guy / "hunter" did not hunt this bear for food but for a Trophy, possibly even a Record breaking prize.

People can call me PC or whatever. I cannot be classified and if any really knew me then they would know if I am a sissy if I don't want to kill something for the sport of it or to help Manage the wild.

Anyway, people can have their own opinions. Maybe it is the way people are raised with different ideas.
Seems like some have more compassion for animals and also humans than others do.
Some while they will hunt and kill for food, if and when necessary, do so reluctantly.
Did this great "hunter" say I am sorry for taking your life Brother Bear or did he just kill the bear for Sport and for the Prize?

Here is a relevant short verse written by a good writer, not me. This writer can say who he is if he wishes, I will not embarrass him but I do want to quote this:
"This man shares his woods with a bear.
The bear shares his woods with the man.
Between the two of them they worked it out."

All I wish to say except that if people cannot Live with wild animals, in peace, unless it is necessary to take them for food, are they able to live with humans?

[Rick]

I know squat about bear hunting but the question I've had all along and no one has touched on it, is this. How tender is the meat on a 700 pound black bear? I'd have to assume it's an old(er) bear to weigh that much. If the guy had hunted bear for 25 years he would have known what he was looking at from the print and apparently did. So would meat from this bear be worth cooking (assuming that's not all you had)?

[Justin Case]

He could have taken Pictures of it to prove he "Tracked" it,, Sorry, but in my opinion, he should not have killed it unless he was hungry and "needed" to,, But now, He has a 700 pound penis to stand in the corner of his den to show all his buddies,,,,

btw, since he didn't have a license in the first place, i would bet he just stumbled onto the bear den,, I doubt he "tracked and stalked" anything.

[NightShade]

Be worth cooking if you like bear meat! I don't mind it once in awhile... certainly don't enjoy enough to hunt bear though.... that's alot of meat from just one animal!

[BENESSE]

+1 Mtnman Mike.
It helps reading the articles and really processing what they say.
Ultimately, people are gonna believe what they want to believe and that's that.

[DOGMAN]

Just a little background on "true" trophy hunting....Many people confuse trophy hunters as people that just luck into a large animal and then shoot it....But, in the purest sense of the phrase...real trophy hunters are often very ethical and use great restraint and pass on many, many animals. So, often trophy hunters dont buy licenses for the species they are hunting...until they find that one true trophy. Because they know the odds are against them ever finding a record book animal- so they dont spend the money, until they find the right crittter.

A true trophy animal is a record-book animal. Less than 5% of any species reaches record book status. So, that means- 95% of animals out there aren't trophies.....Many trophy hunters will hunt years for a record book animal and vow to not shoot another animal of that particualr species until they get the record book one. Normally, trophy class critters dont hang out near roads or easily accessible places, they also didn't get that old and big by being dumb and being spotted by every yahoo with a rifle....so, there is no rush to kill the trophy for the truly skilled tracker, and hunter. I know a guy that found a trophy class rams and went back and killed it 6 months later!....

[Rick]

Be worth cooking if you like bear meat!

As I said I know nothing about the subject but would it? It seems to me that an animal that had been around long enough to attain that kind of weight would be a tough animal. If you were looking for meat wouldn't you pass him up and go for something younger/smaller/more tender?

[Pocomoonskyeyes3]

As I said I know nothing about the subject but would it? It seems to me that an animal that had been around long enough to attain that kind of weight would be a tough animal. If you were looking for meat wouldn't you pass him up and go for something younger/smaller/more tender?

Well to be honest I wouldn't know. I've only ate Bear meat once, when I was a kid.... but it was better than any Beef Steak I have ever had. It was cooked on a grill. Then it was illegal to kill any bear.... unless it was wrecking Bee-yards, which this one was doing. Then you had to sit at the Bee-yard WITH a Game Warden, and wait until the offender showed up. This could take weeks, due to the number of Bee-yards back then. Between just 3 uncles who kept Bees they had over 50 Bee yards in 2 counties near my home (Plus other counties in Ga. and some down in Florida, for Orange blossom honey). That was just in my family, that didn't count all the other people who also kept Bees. That one bear was responsible for wrecking about a dozen or so Bee-yards. Don't know the age or size of that bear.... I just remember that it was some of the BEST meat I have ever had. Better than Beef to me.

+1 to DOGMAN on the Trophy hunters I have known. The amount of other animals they have let pass is kind of incredible. They didn't meet their criteria so were not taken. (This being Deer Hunters, who knew a "Trophy sized Buck" was in the area) Some have waited in the same area for years waiting for that 1 Buck to come into range. They always had that 1 tag unfilled each year..... until "THAT Day" came. Sometimes they were in competition with other "Trophy Hunters" as well. "Trophy class" animals don't get that way by sheer luck. "Trophy class" animals tend to get that way because they are smarter, stronger, faster, and better all around critters.

[BENESSE]

"Trophy class" animals don't get that way by sheer luck. "Trophy class" animals tend to get that way because they are smarter, stronger, faster, and better all around critters.

There goes Darwin's Survival Of The Fittest theory, down the crapper.
It just stupefies me to want to kill an animal especially because it's smarter, stronger faster, and better all around. To think...what a magnificent creature...I wanna to kill it! What kind of place in a person's mind and soul does that come from?

[Justin Case]

There goes Darwin's Survival Of The Fittest theory, down the crapper.
It just stupefies me to want to kill an animal especially because it's smarter, stronger faster, and better all around. To think...what a magnificent creature...I wanna to kill it! What kind of place in a person's mind and soul does that come from?

Well Said !