Anyone bear hunt in mass?

[Bradysmaster]

Well I have been working in the Berkshires lately and in talking to locals of course the topic goes to hunting. I ended up talking to an older gentleman that has a 27 acre farm with a house on it. The topic started with comparing our taxes and he was complaining about paying 3,900 a yr and I laughed out loud. When he heard what I paid for a ranch on an acre he was speechless, lol. But then I told him I am interested in mass bear hunting and he quickly said "come hunt my property". He said he has a swampy area on the property and a lot of corn fields on surrounding properties. Wondering if anyone has done it and what they are seeing? Unless I'm missing something it looks like the hunting liscences and bear permit is a grand total of 105$. Anyone have any additional info?

[Horizontal Hunter]

Well I have been working in the Berkshires lately and in talking to locals of course the topic goes to hunting. I ended up talking to an older gentleman that has a 27 acre farm with a house on it. The topic started with comparing our taxes and he was complaining about paying 3,900 a yr and I laughed out loud. When he heard what I paid for a ranch on an acre he was speechless, lol. But then I told him I am interested in mass bear hunting and he quickly said "come hunt my property". He said he has a swampy area on the property and a lot of corn fields on surrounding properties. Wondering if anyone has done it and what they are seeing? Unless I'm missing something it looks like the hunting liscences and bear permit is a grand total of 105$. Anyone have any additional info?

Sounds like a perfect location for Bear Hunting. Bear hunting is a low success hunting in Mass unless you can get on a cornfield in the early season. No dogs and no baiting. You are allowed to Bait until 10 days before the season starts.

They just recently expanded the bear season to include the shotgun deer season. Slugs only no buckshot. A couple of hunters got pinched for harvesting a bear with buckshot las season.

If you are going to hunt bear during the shotgun season season apply for a doe permit. The deadline is July 16th and all doe permits are awarded by lottery and are zone specific. You get two buck tags with your license.

I get a bear permit every season as they are only $5.00 and haven't specifically targeted them.

You can find the bear rules here:

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg...r-hunting.html

Doe permit info is here:

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg...r-permits.html

Bob

[bigbore442001]

I hunt Massachusetts for black bear. I like the fact that I can use my revolver in September for the big fuzzies. In addition I have a spot or two I can go to after work to get some of the hunting bug out. I did use my e caller with a cub in distress and saw some kind of commotion in the brush but could not ID it.

Maybe next September 5th will be more promising.

[Mountain man]

Wow mass is really strict on harvesting antlerless deer. I wonder why.... In CT its much easier.

[bigbore442001]

Wow mass is really strict on harvesting antlerless deer. I wonder why.... In CT its much easier.

When I was a kid the rules for deer hunting were much simpler. Archery season was on the first Monday of November and you were allowed one deer of either sex with your hunting license and archery stamp signed and affixed to the license.

Muzzleloader season was three days and had a requirement of a pre-1865 style action, patched round ball, no scopes and up to 1985 or so, smoothbore. Again you could for three days hunt any deer of either sex with a muzzleloader across the Bay State.

Doe permits as they were known, were in a lottery and distributed for each county.

I believe his name was Brian Wojtik, who was a new deer biologist. He helped restructure the Mass regulations. One of his first steps was to create deer management zones across the state and require all methods of hunting to come under an antlerless permit system. So even bowhunters had to abide by the new regulations to get an antlerless permit. His arguement was that each zone was determined by the unique features of the land and human impact on it. As an example, look at Worcester County. Some parts are very midwest farmlike. Northern Worcester County almost looks like New Hampshire. Southern Worcester County has a mix of the two and suburbia. So the theory is that harvesting is more scientifically guided.

I do miss the good ole days when you could bowhunt across the state with a chance of at least getting a deer. Now if you do not get an antlerless tag it lessens your opportunity.

[Mountain man]

. I ended up talking to an older gentleman that has a 27 acre farm with a house on it. The topic started with comparing our taxes and he was complaining about paying 3,900 a yr and I laughed out loud. When he heard what I paid for a ranch on an acre he was speechless, lol.

What he's probably not telling you is that his land is probably under a program that in CT we call PA 490. In CT a property of say 25 acres under PA 490 will pay less tax than my cape style house on 1.15 acres. The idea behind it is the law encourages people to protect the land from development. If it weren't for PA 490, there would be a lot less open space around because people couldn't afford the taxes in some circumstances. Also, one persons PA 490 is never the same as someone elses, one guy might be paying $3000 less than he would and the other person might only be paying $500 less, every circumstance is different. PA 490 applies to farms and forest land.
Owning 27 acres in CT and only paying $3900 a year isn't unheard of. Like in CT, the amount of tax varies heavily by the town. The same farm land in the next town over could be paying twice that much.