Discussion: Bear permit

Did you have appropriate ammo? I wouldn't expect that what you load for turkeys would necessarily do more than anger a bear.

This is a fact. I was not even going for turkey at the time. I was going for small game. So using even weaker buck shot. But if the bear was really close and bit the rifles muzzle as I stuck it in his face, It would work.

Ah, expanding your list of potential targets, eh? Have you fired the gun at anything alive yet?

LOL! mostly not. But its a good excuse to get up at 3:45 in the morning, hike into the woods in the dark and then sit motionless for hours while making turkey mating sounds.
Two weeks ago, I did just that up by St. Lawrence U. No luck of course but then on the way home I drove by- not one- but two full grown "toms" ready to harvest. Unfortunately they were on private property. From the shotgun bangs that I heard, the locals were having much more luck on private lands with open fields than I was having in a soggy state forest!

So it sounds like you may have fired the gun. Have you hit anything?

so far - a Grouse- very tasty, A woodcock - very gamy.. I wont hunt another. Several wood squirrels-really tasty in stews. But I hunt them using a 22 rifle - no shotgun. Hunting squirrel with a shotgun is too easy. While hunting them with a 22 requires skills and accuracy similar those needed for deer hunting. you have to sit very quietly and wait for them. If they see you, they quickly take off like a rabbit. They are nothing like their urban cousins would basically ignore humans.

Some day I will get that Tom Turkey and it will be thanksgiving in May.

:)