Handgunning For Bears

The black bear is the only animal in the continental U.S. that can provide the average hunter a reasonably accessible opportunity to hunt dangerous game--game with fangs and claws rather than horns and hooves. Grizzlies, wolves or mountain lions are rare and tightly regulated. For a hunter of ordinary means, a dream safari to Africa or Alaska will never be anything but just a dream. If an ordinary working guy wants to see what it's like to confront the chilly reality of quarry that's truly capable of eating him, black bears are it.

Dangerous? Black bears? Are You kidding? Nope. Though they're not generally regarded as such, black bears (Ursus Americanus) are dangerous, powerful, crafty and tenacious. They cause more human harm than do far more ill-reputed grizzlies. Here's a flat statement of fact from famed wildlife expert Leonard Lee Rue III: "Black bears cause more deaths and injuries to people each year than all the other bears combined."

They are not to be taken lightly, even by the most skilled, well-armed and knowledgeable hunter. A black bear can sprint 100 yards at up to thirty-five mph. Adults boars average about 300 pounds, sows average about half that. A big bear is 400-plus pounds, and 500-plus-pound sows have been recorded in Maine. A large boar's claws are nearly as long as your fingers.

Black bears reside in portions of at least forty states with documented irregular presence in the remaining ten. They have an extremely acute sense of smell, and their hearing and eyesight are much better than commonly believed, making them extremely wary and skilled at avoiding humans. And therein lies the rub when hunting them with handguns. Getting a reasonable handgun shot requires a lot of knowledge and hunting skill, or the services of an extremely good guide.

Wayne Bosowicz is the best black bear guide I know of. His Foggy Mountain Guide Service is widely recognized as the leading black bear operation in the U.S. I've used handguns to hunt bears with Wayne for nearly twenty years. What little I know about these mysterious, reclusive animals, I've learned from him.

Bosowicz says that in Maine, or anywhere, there are only three ways to hunt black bears. One is to still-hunt through the dense woods. To be successful, you have to be extremely knowledgeable about the bear's habits as a species, know any peculiarities and patterns of the bears where you are hunting, be intimately acquainted with the terrain and very good at moving silently and scentlessly. For these reasons, the success ratio for still-hunting is very low; only the most serious local bear hunters regularly succeed.

A second way is to use hounds, the techniques of which are not greatly different than hunting other game with dogs. When a bear is scented, the pack is loosed and the hunters follow the pursuit until the bear is treed. Then comes a hasty, exhausting rush to reach the site before the bear comes down the tree and goes through the dogs like a buzz saw. Extremely strenuous for dogs and men, this method offers a very good success ratio in areas with a heavy bear population, and it's highly favored by hunters whose love is more for the dogs than for the hunt itself. Bosowicz uses plott hounds, a breed he has helped to define, and for which he has won numerous awards.

The third method is to hunt over bait either from a groundblind or a treestand (the way I've hunted at Foggy Mountain). In deep, tangled woods, a baited stand gives a hunter barely a break-even chance. Visibility is extremely limited. Even from a treestand, you can see little farther than fifty feet. The quiet is overpowering, and the slightest rustle can be heard thirty yards away. An effective stand must be positioned literally on top of the bait, seldom more than fifty feet away; the stand I used in 2004 put my nose exactly twenty-five feet from the bait pile.