Nga Lineman
Senior Member
Just looked through the kill threads and it looked like a lot of people did not even have them dressed so I am guessing you do not eat them? Or were most of those pics prior to dressing?
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North GA Mtn Hunting
- Thread starter Nga Lineman
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whitetailfreak
Senior Member
Blasphemy, bear is fine eatin'. My wife makes bear b que that's fit for a king. A buddy of mine has some ground every season and smokes burgers. There are more good recipe's out there than one can type in this thread. Research them and see which one's appeal to you. As far as pics go, I usually take mine before dressing.
Nga Lineman
Senior Member
Buckman18
Senior Member
For early bow season bears up in the mountains, generally, you will look for white oaks that have acorns that look like these
and loads and loads of:
The more the merrier. As much as I'd like to take credit for product in this picture, this the work of a Sasquatch or a nice bear. Other sign might include fresh limbs broke under said white oaks, claw marks in the trees from climbing, or bear marking trees like these:
They actually killed this tree.
Probably a smaller bear
Killer Kyle Cheesing!
Fresh is critical. If the sign is dried up, the odds of success go down. Be prepared to walk. Walk a little further. Keep walking. Don't panzy out. Ok, youve walked in to the point where you are questioning if it's worth it? Walk another mile, and you'll score. Good luck!
PS: you may also find them in red oaks, especially when white's are a miss (this is where I found success last yr both bow and gun season) clear cuts, persimmons, apple orchards, and corn fields. Remember, the kill zone on a bear is a bit further back in the ribs than a deer.
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Nga Lineman
Senior Member
Fresh is critical. If the sign is dried up said:
tallchris83
Member
Buck, in the third photo above the bear sign, what makes those carvings on the tree? It looks like:
Square
Oval
Nine
Oval
Square
Oval
Nine
Oval
Killer Kyle
Senior Member
Those are not human markings. Those are horizontal teeth marks going cross grain on the tree. The bear stands against the tree and turns its head sideways and bites the tree. Look at the relation between the height of the bite marks, and Buck's height. It was a good bit taller than him. Probably a good sized bear. Buckman is a good sized bear himself! Heh!! 
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He mentioned how the bear killed the tree. This almost always happens on smaller trees. The bears(s) will strip the tree of its bark in a horizontal ring all the way around the circumference of the tree. This is termed "girdling". In forestry management terms, girdling is a way to strip a tree of its bark in a wide ring or band around a tree's circumference. This affects the trees ability to transport carbohydrates adequately and almost always results in a slow death of a tree. In some cases, a slow death is desirable because it is generally more natural and so on and so forth. Some foresters will use this method in creating longer term bedding and nesting habitats for certain animals. At any rate, bears do this to trees that they use for territorial markings or calling cards to other bears, and this kills the tree usually every time. And nearly every marking tree you find is going to be a hemlock or a white pine. I only remember one marking tree that isn't evergreen, and it actually happens to be one of the biggest poplars I have ever seen on Chattahoochee WMA. The bears can't bite it but they claw it annually. The tree is gargantuan and the clawing has no real affect on it.
. He mentioned how the bear killed the tree. This almost always happens on smaller trees. The bears(s) will strip the tree of its bark in a horizontal ring all the way around the circumference of the tree. This is termed "girdling". In forestry management terms, girdling is a way to strip a tree of its bark in a wide ring or band around a tree's circumference. This affects the trees ability to transport carbohydrates adequately and almost always results in a slow death of a tree. In some cases, a slow death is desirable because it is generally more natural and so on and so forth. Some foresters will use this method in creating longer term bedding and nesting habitats for certain animals. At any rate, bears do this to trees that they use for territorial markings or calling cards to other bears, and this kills the tree usually every time. And nearly every marking tree you find is going to be a hemlock or a white pine. I only remember one marking tree that isn't evergreen, and it actually happens to be one of the biggest poplars I have ever seen on Chattahoochee WMA. The bears can't bite it but they claw it annually. The tree is gargantuan and the clawing has no real affect on it.
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Nga Lineman
Senior Member
Kyle do you work in the forestry field?
Killer Kyle
Senior Member
Nope. But I'm a 30 year old college student that will be there soon enough. I learned that about girdling last year when I spent several hours one night watching forestry vids on YouTube trying to learn new ways to cut down trees (this was before I went back to school this year... I'm a nerd and do things like this in my free time), and buck them down and all that. There is a FS guy that has some incredible sawyering videos on there. He is the most crafty man with a chainsaw I have ever seen. He was the one that explained the process of girdling a tree, and looked it up for myself, and saw that it was true. That's when I figured out why all the small bear marking trees I was seeing were dying after I put the pieces of the puzzle together. I just read a lot. A whole, whole lot!
Nga Lineman
Senior Member
That is awesome man congratulations on going back to school. Where are you going if you don't mind me asking? I used every bit of my elective courses on forestry classes at UGA. I really wanted to switch my major but being that I already had a couple times and was already on the five year plan and racking up student loans I just stuck with what I was doing. Sadly I eventually ran into the issue of not being able to take a lot of classes I wanted to take because I was not a forestry major so I only took basic entry level courses that were open to anyone. I spent a lot of time out in Whitehall where they do all their research down there and where the deer lab is. I could hang out with those guys all day and ask endless questions, it was awesome. View attachment 882308
Here is a pic of a deer they had at their facility that they were studying. I am a "nerd" too with this stuff. Looking back I might should have went ahead and changed my major and just bit the bullet. I never would have worked a day in my life.
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Buckman18
Senior Member
I think this bear was writing in code to other bears? "We should be safe to feed on this ridge!"
Keep thinking that, Bear.
Buckman18
Senior Member
It was a good bit taller than him. Probably a good sized bear. Buckman is a good sized bear himself! Heh!!
Too many years sitting in an office bossing people around. I'm still good looking, though.
RossVegas
Senior Member
I have yet to kill a bear, found fresh scat, but never a bear. As for not eating them, my 9 year old son is about as picky an eater as you'll find. If you ask him his favorite food, it's bear.
Killer Kyle
Senior Member
P
Jeff Durniak, the former cold water fisheries boss once said that he will hire a graduate from N.E. GA Tech for a Wildlife Tech position before he would a graduate from Warnell at UGA. He said the education at NE GA Tech is job specific, while a degree in Wildlife Biology at Warnell is a broad scoping overview of general Wildlife Biology and doesn't specifically focus on management. When I heard that, I said "that's all I need to know". I dropped my three years of college at UNG and basically threw them in the trash, and started over this year at Tech. The starting pay is meager, but it keeps the job field honest. If a person is willing to finish college and begin working for $28,000 / yr, it means they are passionate about what they want to do and don't care about wages. Working as a tech is not a lucrative field, so it keeps people who are truly passionate about the field working in it. I know I will never make much working for DNR or USFS, but I get the chance to leave this planet better than I found it, and that's all I want out of life. I see you are in Alto. You aren't far from the school, and should give Kevin Peyton a shout. We could use passionate people in the field who don't care about the pay. If you are interested, let me know and I will get you hooked up with the right people there at the school.
Killer Kyle
Senior Member
BBQ bear is the best. I once fed a guy a BBQ bear sandwich when he came up to camp and fly fish with me the winter before last. He was from LaGrange. He went in for a second sandwich, and ate that too. After he consumed both, I told him it was bear. He had thought it was pork. He said "I don't care...it was freaking amazing", and that was the end of that. Most people have no idea how good bear is!
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Joe Brandon
Senior Member
Looking at all these trees, had a bear at camp take an office chair half way out of a box stand this week and just completely tear it to shreads. He did that chair like my dog does a pair of leather shoes lol.For early bow season bears up in the mountains, generally, you will look for white oaks that have acorns that look like these
and loads and loads of:
The more the merrier. As much as I'd like to take credit for product in this picture, this the work of a Sasquatch or a nice bear. Other sign might include fresh limbs broke under said white oaks, claw marks in the trees from climbing, or bear marking trees like these:
They actually killed this tree.
Probably a smaller bear
Killer Kyle Cheesing!
Fresh is critical. If the sign is dried up, the odds of success go down. Be prepared to walk. Walk a little further. Keep walking. Don't panzy out. Ok, youve walked in to the point where you are questioning if it's worth it? Walk another mile, and you'll score. Good luck!
PS: you may also find them in red oaks, especially when white's are a miss (this is where I found success last yr both bow and gun season) clear cuts, persimmons, apple orchards, and corn fields. Remember, the kill zone on a bear is a bit further back in the ribs than a deer.
Nga Lineman
Senior Member
I have considered going back several times and if it was just me I would probably jump at the opportunity. However that is not the case anymore and we are pretty set where we are in our budget and I do not think going back to being a student would be a possibility. Thank you though. That is why it is good to have friends that are in the industry!
tallchris83
Member
Back from Bull Mountain trail. This time I went all the way to the northwest end, about half a mile east of Springer Mountain. I didn't get back till after dark. I found more oaks dropping acorns right on the trail. I saw a buck deer at sunset foraging around near the trail. I crouched down and called him to me by saying "MEHHP." He paused, and gingerly approached to 10 yards, saw me and bolted. Highlight of the trip. I heard a turkey and a crow towards the end, along with a couple owls. Small game doesn't have a chance around here; place is full of owls and hawks. I found possible bear damage to a tree so I took some pictures of that. Most interestingly, I found very freshly laid scat right on the trail on the return journey, which wasn't there before. Some jokers were leaving me presents. Took pictures of that. Deer or bear? It's a bit hard to see, but I opened up one with a stick and the inside looked like chopped up chives, along with a partially digested acorn. Other one, it's some kind of purple nut, all nuts and partially digested. Interestingly, scat gets recycled very quickly in the mountains. I found armies of beetles going to work on the new piles, and older ones had mushrooms / fungus growing out of them.
Attachments
livinoutdoors
Goatherding non socialist bohemian luddite
The bottom pile is full of muscadine skins,could be pig, hard to tell.
O-Country
Senior Member
Made a quick lap this morning,started at the corn field that the bears are smoking every night. Then up the mountain where they are starting to climb some trees for acorns. A lot of yellow jacket nest been dug up. Found a few white oaks dropping with deer feeding on them. Good bit of hog rotten and wallowing along the creek. One of the bears in the corn field has a track round as a horse. Dang it was HOT.......
