Caught this Black Bear on one of my cams:


My family has hunted this land for over 70 years and never laid eyes on a bear. This is the second bear I've caught on cam in the last 3 weeks.

Reloader

If you have an open bear season, I can be down next weekend.

Doc, I wish we did, but it's highly illegal to shoot them here. For around 10-15k and a few months of vacation time after the kill I'm sure LA DWF would let you try for one

They've been stocking them around the state and nearly all have tracking chips. The smaller bear I had pics of a few weeks back had tags in both ears. He tore up the feeder and hasn't been back. I assumed he was just passing through. This one is much larger. I wish they weren't here, but it appears we'll have to deal with them from now on. All the guys I know that hunt in areas with alot of bears have alot of trouble with them tearing up stuff(camps, atvs, feeders, etc).

Have a good one,

Reloader

Nice bear.

of course it is difficult to tell how big a bear is in a picture, but the body on that one looks pretty decent. Since you have knowledge about the feeder size, what would you guess the weight range is on this bruin?

I have no idea Doc, never even seen a bear despite hunting in several states that have them.

The only thing I can relate his size to would be that of a wild boar, which may be a terrible comparison. Just a wild guess, I'd say the 1st bear I had pics of was around 150 and this one maybe 250-300?

Here's a pic of the 1st:


Have a good one,

Reloader

I'd guess the big one is somewhere around 400 lbs. He has the low belly to the ground,big in shoulders and hinds and also a small looking head for his body. The smaller one is probably a two year old cub in the 100-120 lb. range.

Thats really cool. I don't think that bears been missing any meals.

i live in a smaller town outside of baton rouge and while we have heard of bear sightings every so often no one i know has actually seen one. that all changed a couple months ago when someone hit one with their car right down the road from the high school. it was a pretty good size bear to iirc they estimated around 400lbs it took up a good bit of the back of a pickup. i don't like the fact that they are "re-introducing" them to la but like you said it looks like were gonna have to deal with it. i know i read about several being shot last hunting season. people were shooting them left and right on management areas. one older man shot one and reported it to the game wardens. he said he shot it for a hog. they put the smack down on him big fine possible jail time and he had to pay for another bear to be brought in.

First off, that larger bear is pretty darn big. Folks with more experience than me please chime in, but I have been involved with (mostly watched ) about 30 bears being tranquilized and relocated from live traps here in Ga. and folks almost always OVER-estimate their weights. Having said that, I think the larger bear is probably pushing 300 lbs max, which is huge for a wild bear in the southeast.

I think that the Louisiana black bear is a different sub-species from the GA black bear, and I do know it is listed as 'threatened' by F&W or whoever does the listing....I have been told that the 'Louisiana' black bear is smaller than the variety we have here in GA, and our state record is somewhere around 580 lbs., I know it is not 600...so I will say that I think that is a really big Louisiana black bear!

I am curious if ya'll know why they are introducing, or RE-intorducing (if they used to be there where did they go?) bears to the area?
Also, I am interested why ya'll don't want them, other than the tearing up of gear and such which I understand--(and is reason enough if that is it for ya'll IMO) but I always like seeing a bear while hunting, I've found they don't have a huge effect on the whitetails I am usually hunting, and they are very skittish and docile in the areas I hunt, and have not torn up any gear or such either--maybe that's cause they are naturally here......interseting stuff to me, great pic too--I hope they let ya'll have a season on em soon, that big one would be a nice one to take!

Going by the ears I'd say that was a three to four hundred pounder. A good bear most anywhere.