Seeking feedback - Bear Hunting Opportunities Available Southeastern NC

lwpruitt said:

I agree with a couple here a dog hunter will take 3 times the bear a still hunter will, and if a bear is not shot properly he will run off and never be found.and someone said bear are loud coming into a stand,lol naw a bear is as quit as a mouse and will look rt at you ever time.also have you tried to get a dead 300 pound plus bear out of the woods 2 guys want do it alone.I hunt sount eastern nc and its tough along with the cotton mouths if you get a warm day. some blocks we take a bear early 8/9 am and its dark getting it out so its something to think about. and once a bear knows you are hunting a stand he becomes a night feeder and thats it most bear feed in the middle of the night check your camers if you need anything drop me a line ...good luck

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^^^^^ you are spot on my friend. I was baiting 1 stand last year and 10 small bears would wipe out 600lbs of corn in one week, and guess when all of the pictures were..... wait fore it.... at night. I will disagree on getting bear out of the woods. I quarter them up right where they lay put them in game bags and pack them out like elk, can get a 350lb bear out in 2 trips including hide and skull, this is if I don't have to crawl the entire way.

lwpruitt said:

I agree with a couple here a dog hunter will take 3 times the bear a still hunter will, and if a bear is not shot properly he will run off and never be found.and someone said bear are loud coming into a stand,lol naw a bear is as quit as a mouse and will look rt at you ever time.also have you tried to get a dead 300 pound plus bear out of the woods 2 guys want do it alone.I hunt sount eastern nc and its tough along with the cotton mouths if you get a warm day. some blocks we take a bear early 8/9 am and its dark getting it out so its something to think about. and once a bear knows you are hunting a stand he becomes a night feeder and thats it most bear feed in the middle of the night check your camers if you need anything drop me a line ...good luck

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Thanks for your PM offering to dog hunt my land. As I have said before, this is not an option. The reason is that I have been managing these tracts for years for deer. One tract I have been hunting and managing for 29 years. These are my primary deer hunting farms. Even though the deer population is shrinking, my quality buck ratio is increasing. I do not want to run dogs through my managed deer farm during deer season. If I did, i would just rent them to he guys who are bear dogging my other land that I already rent.

As far as some of your statements, I strongly disagree. First, many of my stands are in the middle of Carolina Bays. I am not talking about a bear walking out 100 yards and not being able to hear him. I am talking about him walking out 25 feet away, practically under your stand. You know how when you hear a squirrel on the ground and you think it is a deer? Well I can assure you a 400 pound bear walking through inpenetrable(to human) brush well over his head, will sound like a bulldozer. I have 29 years of regular proof of that on certain strands. In fact the worst I have ever heard it, I tried c'mere deer the first time it came out to see if the deer liked it. I was in a very remote stand in a bay. Bears went crazy over that stuff and it sounded like a wagon train in the woods. Six bears eventually piled out one by one onto that stuff. It was nerve wracking it was so loud.

Also, I have said before, the dog hunters take very few bear in front of the dogs. I wont say the name of the clubs but your would probably know them if you are a dog hunter. They do not turn out on small tracks. I have never know then to kill anywhere near the number of bears in a season that I see in two weeks of hunting. They may be ABLE to run as many but they are NOT going to kill as many as still hunters would, especially still hunters who are paying to specifically kill a bear, not just hear hounds run.

As far as night feeding bears, once again, I disagree at least for the first 3-4 weeks of the season. I see bears on my deer stands 95% of every hunt, through mid December. As the weather cools off they actually get more active during the day. It is nothing to see them mid day just about every day. If I went to shooting them, they may realize there is something up but when you have 10+ bears come out a day on the same stand, and I mean different bears, then I think that killing one will not slow down all the others. It may be different where you hunt but again, I have too many years in these deer stands watching bears pour out of the woods. The club next to us feeds deer even heavier then we do and they carry a shotgun on the stand with them to shoot the bears with bird shot to keep them off the corn and potatoes and still have just about given up on deer hunting. Keep in mind that these stands are baited heavy for deer about year round. In my heavier years I was putting out 30,000 pounds of sweet potatoes between 4 stands during the season. I don't do near that much anymore because it is not necessary but these bears will come to food without any hesitation through mid December or so then they do go nocturnal.

Dog hunters and still hunters will always be at odds over bear hunting and will always have different opinions and I can appreciate that. I have dealt with dog hunters for my entire life, first as a dog hunter myself for deer in my early years of hunting and then in my hunting land career with bear clubs. I am not being disrespectful at all but you statements about bear are 100% contrary to what I have observed living in these woods for well over three decades of my adult life.

Count me in too, highly interested!

Guys, thanks for all of the messages. I am working on details in order to have a few hunts available this season. I will answer all of the pm's as soon as I have a concrete plan. Please do not hesitate to contact me if interested or with input.

Thanks!

I'd love to go. It just depends on the price and time.


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If I may ask what county or counties are we talking about.

I would be interested as well. I strictly hunt with a 45/70 in rifle and handgun so close range is what I'm all about.

Guys: Let me get your opinion on this:

Because this is not something that I have done before and I am not a "bear guide" full time I would be more comfortable with a very reasonable daily fee to hunt, maybe $100. This minimizes risk to the hunter if the weather is crappy or if the hunt does not go great for whatever reason. Then if the hunter kills a bear there will be a trophy fee. This keeps the hunter's financial risk to a minimum, pays me some gas money but also will likely end up in me getting paid for the bear so it is a win-win for everybody. My question is, with a $100 per day fee, what would be a fair, working mans trophy fee for taking a bear? For now assume its a you kill, you drag, you skin situation. Stands will be well baited all season and ready to hunt. I will put you in a stand and be close by if you need me but for the sake of this argument, it is your deal once you pull the trigger other than if I can drive a tractor to him I will load him for you. This may not be the right setup as hunters may need more assistance with skinning and tracking and if so I am working on that as well.

I'd pay that, that seems more then fair. Just for your sake, I would also have a liability form of some sort releasing you of any liability. It is so sad that there are people out there wanting to take advantage of any opportunity. I'm not one of those ppl but it's something you should consider. Back to your question, I think that is awsome and fair. How much would the trophy fee be? Also, say if someone had a four wheeler would they be allowed to use it to drag the bear out? I would love to come down and hunt a day or 2 for that price.


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Totally agree on liability indemnification, that is a given. My lawyer ill take care of that for me.
Four wheelers are fine. I have a tractor there also if we can get to the bear.

Trophy fee - I need it to make sense for me based on time, energy and overhead but I am not looking for a $2000 fee either.

Ok gotcha


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Getting too complicated..........sell the land and buy a condo somewhere!!

I maybe interested depending on the final costs.

I'm game ,depending on final cost too.

I maybe completely off but given the nature if hunting and what can go wrong id do a 2 day min and let the extra go as the trophy fee. For instance if a hunter pays fir 3 days and bags his bear on day1 then the remainder ends up being the fee. Also i dont know the regs but isnt it 1 bear per season?


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Thanks for the suggestions, I am still working on a fair plan. If I charged a nominal daily fee of say $100 to minimize financial risk the hunter then I am making $300 to kill a potential 400-600 pound, based on your model. That model is probably not going to work for me. The way I see it if there is little risk up front for the hunter then they have to pay on the tail end or then they have to assume more cost up front which means they may pay alot more for a no kill situation. I want to be reasonable priced but there is liability, time and overhead involved that means that I need a reasonable opportunity to get minimum of $1000 for a dead bear. If a hunter kills a 400 pound bear for $1000 then that is a very good deal. If he hunts 2 days and spends $200 bucks and gets no bear then I have by no means robbed him. If I can't make at least $1000 for a big bear then it is not worth my time to coordinate, manage and prepare for this setup. I am confidant in the ability to kill 10-15 (conservatively) decent bears a year based on what I have and what I have observed for a long time. That being said I really do not want to charge a pile of money up front in case it is not a successful hunt. Based on this a kill fee has to be in place or its not worth my time. I used to donate swan hunts on one of my farms to the DU banquets and they went stupid high every year, over $1000 for one swan usually. I could donate bear hunts and right off as a deduction and probably net out the same money I am talking about but I can guarantees those hunts will go higher than what I would charge on the street.

I guess it it time to wrap this up as far as money goes to see what kind of interest remains since that is what everybody is asking now. I am considering pushing on with this at $100 per day to hunt and a $1000 trophy fee if a bear is killed. This may not be as cheap as some of you were hoping but the structure is fair and the hunter can decided if he sees a bear if he wants to invest the kill fee based on how big the bear is. Any less than that and I need to be working at my real job. Basically you have a very good shot at killing a bear for $1100. I think this is pretty fair based on what I seen on some of the other websites especially considering we are just as wrapped up with bears as the upper coastal region.

that's very fair,,,,,,very reasonable in fact,,,,

I think that is fair and understand the reasoning. I don't know if I'll be able to afford that this year. It depends on the dates but next year will give me plenty of time to save.


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Definitely fair for all it sounds.

I'm interested too!

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Throwing my name in this hat. I'll add that I travel between Raleigh and Wilmington weekly and don't mind a little work if you ever need a hand getting this going.