Dead Weight Competition

[HonzoChu]

Congrats to all the winners and thank you to xOEDragonx and the others for a great event!

[Tod1d]

1st, 2nd & 3rd place prizes have been sent out. Congrats to the winners.

[stancomputerhunter]

What a shocker! Every piece of research told me a 400 lb bear was really really rare, and unheard of in Maryland, with a few exceptions.

There's actually a LOT of big bears in Maryland and most people just don't know it. The biggest taken this year was 575 lbs. The way our hunt is set up almost always creates a bias so those outside the area reading about the hunt think we really only have small bears with a few exceptions... since that's what the hunt results always look like. There's a bigger picture that most people don't consider though. The state only gives out 800 tags (less in past years) and only four counties are able to be hunted. 25% of the tags are guaranteed to people living in the huntable bear counties-- these are people who might have a better idea where to find bears since they live amongst them and are more likely to have access to their own private land to hunt in those counties. I happen to fall into that category. The other 75% of tags can go to anybody-- average local and non-local hunters, some city folk who don't hunt much else, and even people who literally just buy hunting licenses to enter the lottery so they can draw a tag and save a bear's life. While some of those tags do go to locals, most go to people downstate. Of those people downstate who actually intend to hunt, many are at the disadvantage of not having access to private land and not being able to travel to scout much prior to the season.

So with a short season, no baiting, and likely the majority of tags going to people who start the season at a disadvantage, it's not much of a wonder the success rate stays around 15-20% each year. And of those people who are successful, I can just about guarantee none of them are picky. They're shooting the first bear that walks by, even if it's a cub or a young sow with cubs. That's why the average weight is always fairly low in MD compared to other bear hunting states, no one is willing to be picky when the odds are heavily stacked against them. I certainly wasn't going to be. I was shooting the first non-cub, lone bear that came by. I had the advantage of hunting private land and it still took me 4 out of 5 days to even encounter a bear, but it did just so happen to be one of the boars I'd been watching for weeks ahead of time. I assume that's how most of the big ones are taken, typically on private land and with people knowing where they are ahead of the season. I was hunting an area I knew had big boars running around (though, maybe I didn't realize quite how big...) so I didn't expect to see any really little bears. Sows won't usually hang around if there are large boars around, especially if they have cubs, and even young boars are hesitant to poke around on a larger boar's turf. So I had the advantage of being in bigger bear territory from the start, plus a little bit of luck and a whole lotta patience. Not many other tagholders could say the same, so that's a large part of why so few big ones are actually harvested. I can tell you, there's at least 2 more boars close to the size of the one I killed and one far larger that were hanging around my stands prior to the season. So we don't have a shortage of big bears in MD, just a shortage of hunters, tags and time to take them.

I'll quit rambling now, just thought some might enjoy the extra insight of how bear hunting in Maryland tends to work

Thanks for the explanation. I'm blaming my stupid guess on Google's search engine.

[J_Birdman]

Thank you for the fun competition xOEDrangonx!
I had my eyes set on a bonus prize from the start, got it and lost it a few times. Glad i was able to get and keepa a big blonde at the end. Thanks J_Birdman for the bonuses!
Cheers

Aetropos, you're welcome, but your 500em$ gift code is still sitting in my outbox. You should open your private message and collect it.