Dead Weight Competition

[DYEUZ]

Grats to the winners . Thx Ashley for making this comp . Thx to J for his bonus .

[Rozete]

ah, i missed by a mile! ..first guess wasnt that bad, 130-140kg. went out, sneaked to a 350ish pounder and was happy to bag him, but then - oh, boy! i started to look at various images, videos about field estimation (few had some cool tips in general, but nothing to help me here), even stats and averages of the state lol. that led me astray, posted 250..
but 400+! according to info i managed to gather prior to posting my pathetic guess, its realy big in comparison. wow! you made a lot of hunters jealous, xOEDragonx! congratulations! and story you shared that accomponied this unique competition was truly amazing. thank you!
..now ill go shame myself, heh
gratz to winners!

[Lamphunter]

Congratulations to all winners.Great job guys!
Len, you nailed it man. You were right all along from the beginning! You deserve it! I declare you as my official game "dead weight" estimator consultant. Except maybe for those darn Ptarmigans
Ashley, what a success. Both in your real bear hunting and your comp.What an idea!Thank you!
Also thanks to J_Birdman for the bonus prizes end of course to Tod1d for making every comp happen.
Now off to the next one,hopefully.

[FR_Bugs]

Congrats to the winners and to all participants, good job
Thanks for hosting for this comp Ashley.

[Tanngnjostr]

Congrats to the winners!

And thanks for the competition, Ashley... wow, what a bear!

[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. Just unbelievable that you made this comp BEFORE your hunt, and went out and killed a monster bear. I found a picture of a Black Bear taken in Wisconsin that looked way bigger than yours, and the hunter and the animal were in almost the exact pose. Just a shocker that yours was over 400 lbs.

I figured low to middle 200s would take the prize.

Thanks for hosting, it was fun trying to guess. Albeit very poorly on my part.

Congrats to the winners, who I'm sure are just as shocked as I am. As for the bonuses. Just my opinion, but they should have been for the biggest weight of each color, to stay with the theme of the comp.

[nue]

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

[xOEDragonx]

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

[dj.p.king]

Thanks for a very interesting hunt xOEDragonx (Ashley) and the story to go along with it, would be nice to hunt this hunt every year with UHC.

[Tod1d]

Thanks for a very interesting hunt xOEDragonx (Ashley) and the story to go along with it, would be nice to hunt this hunt every year with UHC.

We could certainly make it an annual event. I won't get a bear tag next year, not sure if Ashley will. We can find a bear to use as a target somewhere though.