Dogging Bear Quota Hunt

j_seph

Senior Member
You are correct in that I am fairly new to hunting the mountains, but I’m trying to make up for lost time. I am not a new hunter however, as this will be my 30th year bow hunting. I know this was a big win for Hound Hunters, But I can’t see it as anything but a loss for bowhunters. Bow season on those WMAs has essentially been reduced to one week. Not much left to say about it. I will move over to NF after the early rifle hunt, but my worry is that after the two year trial the dog hunt will be expanded to include the entire NF which is why I am being so vocal now.
20 years the hound hunters have lost. Time to let the 2nd string players come out and run some plays for the home team.
 

j_seph

Senior Member
I know I’m a little late to this party but I’m proud of the direction Georgia has stepped. As a dog hunter I can say this. As an all around hunter I can understand why people are upset.

The season dates aren’t perfect and the state seems to be flying by the seat of their pants (hunt is supposed to be in September but the quota isn’t even open yet). In my opinion the absolute ideal season dates would be directly after turkey season closes. Bears are moving and searching for food the most at this point. No one would loose any bow hunting time in September and I believe everyone would get along better and the dog guys would have more support from people that just don’t understand.

I will be applying for the quota along with several hunting buddies. If not selected I would love to come be a dog man for a party. I’ll be returning home from Canada with my hounds about a week before this hunt and will have everything in top notch shape before a 9 day hunt. I will already have several kills for the year to my hounds before the hunt also.

To the people who don’t really understand how hunting with dogs works I would be a huge asset. My hounds see anywhere from 75-100 bears a year and are seasoned vets. You don’t just walk through the woods with a dog and kill bears. It’s the most physically challenging type of hunting east of the Mississippi and not uncommon to walk 10+ miles per day.

I simply want to put my name out there with my hunting partner as an option to 100% guarantee you a bear. We would never be interested in shooting unless we got on a big bear on the ground that didnt want to climb and was hurting dogs. It’s all about dog work with us.

We hunt north Georgia often with hounds during the training season and normally tree at least 2 bears a morning and it’s not uncommon to have split races and end up on 3 or 4 bears. We have 10 dogs between the 2 of us and rotate them in a very thought out way so we can hunt every day. (For the people who don’t understand this.) dogs aren’t machines and they get tired. Unless you have short races they can’t run to a superior caliber every day no matter what their conditioning is. We normally run no more than 4-5 dogs at a time on a bear to maximize our days. This may sound crazy to some but we hunt 150 days a year and do our best to keep each dog in great health. They are part of the family and part of our team.

At the end of the day all I’m trying to get out there is that if you get drawn and want to be guaranteed bears give me a call. I have thousands of hours of videos and pictures (not sure if those can be put on here or not, I’m new to the forum). I spend countless days training hounds in multiple states and all the way to Canada and back. I would love nothing more than for someone to bring a few kids to get their first bears because that’s where the future of our sport lies. God bless and happy hunting.
I still feel this will be setup to be drawn you will have to have some sort of something pointing that you are a hound hunter like yourself.
 

jbogg

Senior Member
You could kill every bear on the WMAs they propose the quota hunts on and it wouldn't have any effect on the over all population up here. And the USFS will never allow such like they do in NC and SC, no time soon anyways !

What makes you think the USFS won’t allow it like North Carolina? I thought these next two years are a trial, and then the DNR would consider expanding the hunt.
 

greg_n_clayton

Senior Member
What makes you think the USFS won’t allow it like North Carolina? I thought these next two years are a trial, and then the DNR would consider expanding the hunt.
Just thimk they will. DNR in SC treats gov't over there as game management. They pay a fee to do any kinda hunting, like our WMAs, on those lands across the board. Don't know how they do it in NC.
 
I was always told that the reason they won’t do a spring hunt is because there is to much risk of separating a Sow from some very young cubs. Not sure if that is the reason, but it makes sense if true.

It’s really no different than the training season that has occurred the same dates after turkey season for the last ten years. Sometimes you get after a sow and cubs but she will normally put them up a tree and stay close by fighting or tree somewhere else close by. They get right back together as soon as the race is over. I would never knowingly turn on a sow with cubs but the cubs leave very little to no sign in the woods so mistakes happen from time to time. No harm is done at the end of the day though.
 
I still feel this will be setup to be drawn you will have to have some sort of something pointing that you are a hound hunter like yourself.

In a way I hope this is true but I also want some guys that are completely against it to get to hunt. I’ll make my vow right here that if I get drawn I want to bring a couple guys and their bows that are set in their ways and let them shoot a bear over hounds with their bows.

I wish I knew when they were going to have meetings. I really wish they would view a spring hunt as an option so no hunting seasons are lost. I’m tickled to get to hunt as a dog hunter but I can honestly say I hate it for the die hard bow hunters that hunt these WMAS.
 

35 Whelen

Senior Member
In a way I hope this is true but I also want some guys that are completely against it to get to hunt. I’ll make my vow right here that if I get drawn I want to bring a couple guys and their bows that are set in their ways and let them shoot a bear over hounds with their bows.

I wish I knew when they were going to have meetings. I really wish they would view a spring hunt as an option so no hunting seasons are lost. I’m tickled to get to hunt as a dog hunter but I can honestly say I hate it for the die hard bow hunters that hunt these WMAS.

Here is the Hunting Regulations Process and scheduled meetings:

https://georgiawildlife.com/hunting/regulationsprocess
 

DAVE

Senior Member
Most post on deer hunting North Ga. usually have complaints about the deer population and how the bears negatively affect those deer numbers. Now after years of complaining about low deer numbers, the same complainers are complaining about the DNR trying to help the deer hunters by eliminating bears in a more effective way. After 30+ years of a bear season in Ga., if the old methods worked you wouldn't be needing dogs now.
 

tree cutter 08

Senior Member
It
Most post on deer hunting North Ga. usually have complaints about the deer population and how the bears negatively affect those deer numbers. Now after years of complaining about low deer numbers, the same complainers are complaining about the DNR trying to help the deer hunters by eliminating bears in a more effective way. After 30+ years of a bear season in Ga., if the old methods worked you wouldn't be needing dogs now.
It ain't because they are wanting to help improve deer numbers! From what I read last year they plan to maintain population where it is now. That was in the bear plan.
 

goshenmountainman

Senior Member
I appreciate your perspective since you have been on both sides of the fence. I hunt with both bow and gun, and there are a lot of guys that like to hunt bear early with a bow when they are still climbing the white oaks. The early rifle hunt starting just a week after the bow opener and then followed immediately by a ton of dog hunters for nine days makes the prospect of taking a bear with archery equipment an even tougher proposition unless a man is able to get it done in the first week. Chattahoochee and Chestatee will get real small real fast with that many dogs running. I understand that it won’t affect deer movement a few weeks later, but I would be surprised if there is a bear left on those two WMAs for the final two weeks of bow season which reopens the day after the dogs finish running. The bears will resume their normal patterns within their normal range eventually, but it sure won’t happen overnight. With that said I don’t blame the dog hunters and I wish them success. Just wish the DNR had given a little more thought to the timing.
If you do your leg work, find a bunch of acorns falling and bear scat, don't hunt opening morning, because most of the time they are there when you arrive and spook them.. come in very quite about 2:00 in the evening, set up on the sign and kill him the first evening.. everybody that truly hunts these mountains know that the evening is the best time to kill one of these furry critters, see almost all the bear I see every year in the last three hours of daylight. I killed a bunch of them and only two were taken in the morning, and they all were killed while I was deer hunting not bear hunting. We gonna have a bear dog hunt!! Period, done deal!! No since in keeping on harping about it. They deserve a season just as well as you and I.. if you need another place to hunt those nine days while they have that bear hunt, pm me and I can point you in the right direction. I am just glad we getting a little help to maybe take a few more bear that we hunters are not getting with bow and guns. Every little bit helps us that live here and have to deal with these things year round!
 
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jbogg

Senior Member
If you do your leg work, find a bunch of acorns falling and bear scat, don't hunt opening morning, because most of the time they are there when you arrive and spook them.. come in very quite about 2:00 in the evening, set up on the sign and kill him the first evening.. everybody that truly hunts these mountains know that the evening is the best time to kill one of these furry critters, see almost all the bear I see every year in the last three hours of daylight. I killed a bunch of them and only two were taken in the morning, and they all were killed while I was deer hunting not bear hunting. We gonna have a bear dog hunt!! Period, done deal!! No since in keeping on harping about it. They deserve a season just as well as you and I.. if you need another place to hunt those nine days while they have that bear hunt, pm me and I can point you in the right direction. I am just glad we getting a little help to maybe take a few more bear that we hunters are getting with bow and guns. Every little bit helps us that live here and have to deal with these things year round!

Thanks for the offer, but I do have plenty of spots on NF to hunt bear. I was mainly raising a stink because I do not want to see this hunt expanded to include all of Chattahoochee NF as well during the same time period. Push the hunt back a month or two and they can run the entire NF as far as I’m concerned, just don’t have it two weeks into bow season.
 

Bowhunter77

Member
I’m bringing down my whole Korean side of the family, “no bear, then we eat dog soup! Yummy” or that’s what I thought I heard them say...
 
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