My hunting buddy lives in the heart of the catskill mountains NY. He called me today to tell me that a big black bear pulled down a steel pole witch a bird feeder was on top 12 feet high, bent the pole. Then did the seem thing in the front yard. Trashed up the yard looking for food. No one saw the bear. But he left some big foot prints. My buddy made a cast out of the foot prints. He then informed the DEC about the situation. They told him they would come down and check the foot print out, and bring him some rubber bullets. The said the size of the print would relate to a male black bear 500lbs +. My buddy said you can keep the rubber bullets, if he comes around again I will use some real bullets on him. His children play in the yard, and I aint pissing a big bear off with rubber bullets.

Wow Frank,thats a huge bear for the Catskills or anyplace else!!!Tell your friend I have some 300 Weatherby or 444 Marlin "rubber" bullets he could use.

One thing you can try is to set out containers of kerosine or deisel fuel at intervals around your yard perimeter.

Bears don't like the smell--just don't forget about them and light a match!

Oh, actually, your buddy might want to do this, since he's the one with the bear problem!

Our area produces a fair number of bears weighing over 500lbs anually.

http://www.homestead.com/conmans/BearPics.html