Questions about black bears and deer in Florida

[Einrich]

I have been scouting a patch of woods for hunting season over the past two weekends. I see lots of bear sign and spotted two different bear one morning within 15 minutes of each other. I've seen about 20 deer (all does so far) on the southern edge of the area and while scouting the north side of the area only saw 2 deer and 2 bear.

My question is, should I even hunt the areas with bear? I'm not aware if they are in fact true predators of the deer or not. There is a bunch of bear sign there, they seem to like to take a dump right in the middle of the paths for some reason. I'm from Mississippi and have never had to deal with bears so am unfamiliar if hunting where they are common is a good idea or if it makes a difference at all. Thanks

[dizzie56]

I thought we cant take bear here?

[Gobigorange]

Just curious, what part of Florida?

[Einrich]

Originally Posted by dizzie56

I thought we cant take bear here?

We can't, I was wondering if it was worth hunting for deer in that area because I don't know if they run them off or not. I got a decent pic of a nice sized bear last week about 50 yards up the path from me. I saw him walking out and ducked behind the grass. I wasn't trying to cover my scent that day but the wind was in my favor. I had to shew him off because he was in my way. At least the bear here are really skiddish. I caught one having a good time in a tree earlier that day. I thought it was someone clearing shooting lanes for archery season till I saw him through the brush then he started making a racket so I backed out of there.

[Einrich]

Originally Posted by Gobigorange

Just curious, what part of Florida?

Northwest Florida

[watermaker]

Black bears are omnivores, they will eat anything that they think tastes good either vegetable or animal. They will eat the sick and the wounded or the dead in a deer heard. Black bear normally will not run down a deer. Too much energy expended for them not to be guaranteed a meal. ( Brown bears on Kodiak island have learned to go to a gunshot to find a fresh kill.) I would hunt there if I had a place to take my killed deer off site to dress it. I would not gut a deer there and leave the guts where a bear could find it.

[Einrich]

Originally Posted by watermaker

Black bears are omnivores, they will eat anything that they think tastes good either vegetable or animal. They will eat the sick and the wounded or the dead in a deer heard. Black bear normally will not run down a deer. Too much energy expended for them not to be guaranteed a meal. ( Brown bears on Kodiak island have learned to go to a gunshot to find a fresh kill.) I would hunt there if I had a place to take my killed deer off site to dress it. I would not gut a deer there and leave the guts where a bear could find it.

Good advice about gutting. I probably won't return to the same spot once (and if) I take a deer there but I do prefer to gut the deer as soon as possible because it never gets really cold here and I want to cool down the deer as soon as possible and because I'll be walking it out as I hunt an area that restricts motorized vehicles. I'm hoping there are far too many hunters too lazy to walk a mile in with 40 pounds of gear so I stand a better chance of hunting unpressured deer.

[watermaker]

Originally Posted by Einrich

Good advice about gutting. I probably won't return to the same spot once (and if) I take a deer there but I do prefer to gut the deer as soon as possible because it never gets really cold here and I want to cool down the deer as soon as possible and because I'll be walking it out as I hunt an area that restricts motorized vehicles. I'm hoping there are far too many hunters too lazy to walk a mile in with 40 pounds of gear so I stand a better chance of hunting unpressured deer.

Then I would hunt till I killed one and move on to the next spot. I understand what your talking about when it comes to cooling the deer down. We try to have our deer on ice within an hour of finding it.

[SLICK75]

Very doubtful the bears will have any impact on your hunting. The blacks around here generally live off grubs and berries, other than the occasional carcass. We had one on our property last year and all that we had to worry about was the horse feed.

My wife came home one afternoon to find where it had drug a plastic garbage can full of sweet feed out of our shed and proceeded to climb inside. LOL she was halfway across the backyard before she realized what she was looking at.... a black bears @$$ hanging out of a garbage can in the middle of the yard. Our horses (in the 'front yard') didnt even give any indication that anything was amiss, so apparently they didnt feel threatened, and Ive never seen any evidence that they have ever given the horses a second glance.

Ive also seen trail cam pictures from the Panama City area that shows black bears on the same feeders that people killed some nice bucks off of, and Ive never heard any people I know that hunt on the Eglin reservation complain about the bears that are out there.

Just make sure you lock the doors on the hunting house if you use one, dont leave food stashed, and make sure your feeder (if you use one) is hanging where they cant tear it up.

[Houndhunter]

Around here the bear, deer and hogs compete for the same food sources... mainly white oaks. I've sat many days in a stand and had bears feeding and deer walk up. The deer will spook off for a bit if they are there first when the bear arrives or will stay back at a distance if they arrive after the bear. I wouldn't worry one bit about the bears disturbing the deer.

[Piney Woods]

Has anybody seen any big deer moving during the day? Mainly in the walton/holmes county area.All the ones I have on camera are at night.

[FarmerJohn]

Originally Posted by Piney Woods

Has anybody seen any big deer moving during the day? Mainly in the walton/holmes county area.All the ones I have on camera are at night.

if the pressure is low they will

for example in the smokey mountain national park there is no pressure since hunting is ilegal but I saw plenty of bear scat and I did see plenty of deer in the same area that said looking at the bear scat you can get a idea what there eating lots of persimmon seeds in the ones where i was

so if you want to know get a stick and poke through it but the above advice on moving deer to other location to clean it is not bad advice

[Karnus]

In Florida? That's a good one. He said "big deer".

[Piney Woods]

Well bigger than the average dog. Seems to be the nice Florida weather is put a stand still do the deer moving.

[haha49]

Originally Posted by Piney Woods

Has anybody seen any big deer moving during the day? Mainly in the walton/holmes county area.All the ones I have on camera are at night.

Deer like to find thick bush and sleep the day they like most animals like to move at night. Durning the summer its hot they stay in. During the day it's cold they like to stay in. They seek water at dusk and dawn thats the best place to find them is near water its a daily trip

[haha49]

Originally Posted by Einrich

I have been scouting a patch of woods for hunting season over the past two weekends. I see lots of bear sign and spotted two different bear one morning within 15 minutes of each other. I've seen about 20 deer (all does so far) on the southern edge of the area and while scouting the north side of the area only saw 2 deer and 2 bear.

My question is, should I even hunt the areas with bear? I'm not aware if they are in fact true predators of the deer or not. There is a bunch of bear sign there, they seem to like to take a dump right in the middle of the paths for some reason. I'm from Mississippi and have never had to deal with bears so am unfamiliar if hunting where they are common is a good idea or if it makes a difference at all. Thanks

Most bears know when a gun shot goes off they come running for the gut piles they know it's coming and most will wait. A few stupid ones try to steal the whole deer. I've run into allot of bears black, brown and even polar. The only one that scary me are grizzly and polar because they will screw with you because they can most aren’t dumb abd won't poke a head out when you shoot were black bears are stupid and will they like to investigate and scavenge that’s what they eat normally. They don't hunt deer they steal it from something else

If you run into a bear don't worry if he doesn't see or smell you just turn around and walk away. If he does see you say hello bear hows it going today he will look at you and make up his mind what to do. Shouting sometimes works and sometimes they will attack because you did that so don't do that. If he grunts or chomps his or her teeth that’s a warning they don't like you there. Slowly back up and if the bear advances because he thinks he can push you out stand your ground go hey bear if it charges and if it breaks away it was bluffing if it doesn't its a full on attack blast away. every bear encounter is a little different because every bear is different if it's young they tend to be stupid if it's big and fat they're lazy as heck and just waddle away. So far I've run into 2 grizzly (1 grunted at me when I was shooting clays in the bush it let me know it didn't like me there I left) 15 black bears and 1 polar bear. Never mess with a polar bear they nasty and a grizzly can mess you up be very careful around them because they don't respond well to a person yelling at them.

Here is a video of someone talking there way out of it while picking berries (that’s what they like to eat and were you find them 90 percent of the time)
http://youtu.be/DZSn1Jl7eKo

Here is a video of a man who killed one with a rock it's happend more then once before. heck a native woman was attacked by a grizzly and she killed it with a single shot 22lr

Bear Attacks - Man Kills Bear With Rock - TMTV...

and if you want to see someone in a tree stand and ablack bear (they don't see good) I was laughing at this one because thats what happens 90 percent of the time with black bears.

http://youtu.be/rHf6sv5Hvtw