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Early bear hunting seasons are about to begin across New York State. Hunting is generally permitted on Forest Preserve land in the Adirondack Park. Hunting accidents are rare, but hikers should wear bright colors and keep pets leashed as a precaution.
During the Early Bear Season, hunters may use a bow (with appropriate bowhunting eligibility), crossbow, muzzleloader, handgun, shotgun, or rifle (where allowed). Because of the likelihood of warm weather, DEC is telling hunters they should be prepared to skin and cool dead bears as soon as possible to protect the quality of the meat. DEC suggests hunters skin and quarter the bear in the field, then pack out the meat in game bags to a waiting cooler of ice.
In northern New York, the early bear season runs from Sept. 16 to Oct. 13 in DEC’s Regions 5 and 6, which include the Adirondack Park (Wildlife Management Units 5A, 5C, 5F, 5G, 5H, 5J, 6C, 6F, 6H, and 6J). Bowhunting season for bears also begins on Sept. 16 in the other Northern Zone units (WMUs 6A, 6G, 6K and 6N). Muzzleloader season opens in all northern WMUs on Oct. 14, followed by the regular firearms season for bears on Oct. 21.
DEC regulates black bear hunting and provides information about black bears in New York on their website. Also, DEC’s booklet Hunting the Black Bear in New York (PDF, 800 KB), includes tips on bear hunting and proper care of harvested bears.
Photo of black bear on Mount Colvin by Kurt Weiskotten (provided by DEC).
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Why would anyone want to murder an innocent bear? What’s wrong with people. I could see if it’s trespassing on your land maybe, but to go to its territory and shoot it with a muzzle loader?! What a barbaric practice. Should be banned, and made illegal.
They don’t call it “blood sport” for no reason.
Sounds like you’ve never been dependent on harvested meat from a hunt to feed your family. Bear meat is economical and much healthier than “affordable” meat in a north country grocery store. I don’t hunt, but do depend on the meat of a hunter to feed our family.
The hunting tags required to shoot a bear go toward conservation, and further, the DEC regulates hunters/hunting to maintain a healthy, robust bear population.
One shot with a muzzle loader to end a life lived free in the woods seems far less barbaric than the practices that put commercially obtained meat on your table.
Your concern for the bears is compassionate – they are beautiful creatures, but to my ears, murder sounds judgmental of people who legally hunt them for food and I hoped to share a different perspective with you.
Murdering innocents is what happens in Chicago every day – that is a good thing to be outraged about and to do something about since there’s no DEC to protect those innocents and there’s no higher purpose (such as feeding a family) to those acts of murder as there is with hunting.
Camp – forget it. You’re probably never gonna reach a person like this. Unfortunately lots of people don’t want to interact with the environment on a level you do as a hunter. For those who do want to try and understand it I highly recommend that they read the book:
The Hunter’s Heart – Honest Essays on Blood Sport
They will read essays from folks like President Carter and the famous environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams on what they think about hunting and why we do it.
Run, Bear, Run!!
Good point, at least he or she has the ability to run away. Cattle we raise for beef don’t have the option. And if you are a vegetarian that is the worst. The poor plants are stuck right there just waiting to get slaughtered – no escape!
I’m with you Ranger Dave. The black bear is such a beautiful animal, is no threat to anybody or thing and surely they know how to check their own population without the crazy ape man having to do it for them. Killing a bear with an arrow surely must not be easy and surely many a bear has ran off with an arrow in it because of this. Handguns to kill a bear! This seems kind of odd but what do I know I don’t hunt except but for with a camera.
We like to kill and that’s never going to change. I am reminded of the guy from Schenectady who has a vacation home in Blue Mountain Lake on Durant Road who came up one year and saw a black bear picking apples from his tree during off season. What did he do? He aimed his long gun out his window and shot the poor feller. Just for eating apples.The bear did not die right away and boy when I heard about this incident it just broke my heart. Some people don’t have hearts and how some people even sleep at night is beyond me. Maybe the reason why some people sleep so well is due to their lack of a conscience.
Charlie,
I have always felt there is a distinct difference between killing creatures for sustenance and killing them for sport. One way or another, virtually all of us kill or allow creatures to be killed to survive – BUT we don’t necessarily enjoy it. Killing animals for sport is decidedly different, whether the meat is eaten or not. It is done for pleasure. The pleasure went out of hunting for me years ago, but I did enjoy it at one time. Everyone is entitled to their own morals and beliefs – just don’t expect others to understand them.
this is a good example of making a generalization based on one personal incident. A responsible, ethical hunter would not have shot a bear for eating apples – as anything else in our human community, there are those who are mindful of laws, ethics, manners and the greater good and those who write their own laws and code of behavior. Maybe I am an optimist, but there are far more ethical hunters out there than there are apple arbor opportunist hunters. Once again, I implore you to talk to a hunter who feeds her/his family with the harvest of legally, morally obtained game – maybe you would learn something and find out that you could respect what goes into ethical hunting.
May I remind you also that hunting bear is man against bear, the bear has its chance to outsmart man – if you ever in your life have eaten meat from a store, you might really examine how fair, moral, compassionate, or fair the death of your “harvested” animal was.
Charlie/Ranger Dave/Ethan. Here we go again. If any of you answered my question when this subject came up in the past, I have long since forgotten it: Are you a vegetarian? If yes, you MAY have some moral capital here. If not, you have little to say. Even if you are a veggie eater, adkcamp is right. You should worry (and pray for) the human victims everyday in Chicago and elsewhere that are being killed by drugs, gangs, etc. BTW, my conscience is just fine, and I sleep well at night. Thank you for your concern though.
I don’t expect anybody to get my drift Boreas and yes everyone is entitled to his or hers morals and beliefs as Facebook and twitter will continue to reveal.
I was not generalizing as much as I was reminded of that horrific event adkcamp.
I’m not a vegetarian JohnL which has nothing to do with the price of tea in China and I have lots to say which I will continue to do until the last moonbeams fall upon my eyes. About those human victims…. they can speak for themselves if they so choose or if they survive. The wild animals….they cannot!
Hey – that’s my photo!! Taken half way up Mt. Colvin – ransacking a tent site.