679 Pound Black Bear Harvested in PA.

[JRS]

I Always cook it medium rare. Been eating it for 30 years that way. Guess it's safe. I'm Still around. Even pork isn't unsafe when pink inside based in recent studies. Been published for years that pork is unsafe if under cooked. Newer studies proven wrong all these years. Bear meat is safe if pink when eaten. In fact, it's flavor is best that way. Don't believe everything you read.

Google this: Trichinae fact sheet USDA APHIS

This pretty much explains why we no longer worry so much about cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Bear meat is a completely different ball game. Do you cook chicken/turkey to a medium rare temperature If not... why not After all, it's no more dangerous to eat than medium rare bear meat

Edit: Ask any reputable chef if he/she would serve medium rare bear meat to a customer. It's hard to believe anyone would advocate cooking bear meat to a medium rare temperature, and then eat it

 

[hogpatrol]

We lost half our hunters in the last ten years. We went from way over a million to about half that. Matt

Matt, in the next ten to fifteen years, it'll be a quarter of that. The youth license sales are disheartening too. Remember when you could put the rule book in your license holder? Now it's 75 8x10 pages of micro-managing, pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, regulatory mumbo jumbo and six bucks if you want a paper copy. it's no longer free!. Got to be the dumbest game commission in the country.

 

[Immike]

Matt, in the next ten to fifteen years, it'll be a quarter of that. The youth license sales are disheartening too. Got to be the dumbest game commission in the country.

I was invited to a food plot seminar at a local elevator, purina hosted it. After introduction they gave away $10 bags of feed with answering deer questions, ....then they brought up a game warden as a guest speaker. He loves writing tickets and bragging on himself so I interrupted with a question, why are we here? It’s because you told everyone to kill all our deer and now we have to spend a fortune trying to get kids started hunting. Who’s in charge up there? Not you, that’s who...
You cannot put management in the hands of the public and sell doe tags for $7 a piece without educating them.

 

[hogpatrol]

The more these game "managers" regulate and try and please everybody, the more potential hunters they drive away. The PA book could be cut in half and it wouldn't make one bit of difference in the amount of game killed. There's a finite number of people hunting a finite number of days.

 

[fredo]

People have and do die from trichinosis but people also die from plane crashes. Actually more from plane crashes. It's a very low number of actual deaths from it. Much more illness than death. It's all but gone from pork since the garbage feeding of pigs/hogs has been eliminated. Bears eat garbage but as Steve Rinella studied bears and trichinosis, he's cooked his bear meat to just over 140° to 150° with zero issues of the disease. My preference isn't so much using a thermometer but getting the meat pink but clear not bloody. Medium rare is what I call it. It's hot not cool. Clear not red bloody and done. If it's cooked beyond that, it's tough and distasteful. Most will not like bear meat if cooked beyond med/med rare.

Steve Rinella GOT trichinosis from eating undercooked bear meat!!!

As been stated, ya can't compare USDA regulated swine with a wild, carrion eating bruin. There are simply NO controls/safeguards in place that helps minimize disease(s) in wild meat, so it's up to us & due diligence to share info that educates people to make better informed decisions...

Sure glad you haven't gotten sick in all the years of eating bear meat! But, I'd still err on the side of caution and cook bear meat thoroughly...

As for hunting these big PA swamp bears, whats the method of success?
Stand hunting?
Drives?
Can you bait?

 

[hogpatrol]

Steve Rinella GOT trichinosis from eating undercooked bear meat!!!

As been stated, ya can't compare USDA regulated swine with a wild, carrion eating bruin. There are simply NO controls/safeguards in place that helps minimize disease(s) in wild meat, so it's up to us & due diligence to share info that educates people to make better informed decisions...

Sure glad you haven't gotten sick in all the years of eating bear meat! But, I'd still err on the side of caution and cook bear meat thoroughly...

As for hunting these big PA swamp bears, what the method of success? Stand hunting?
Drives?
Can you bait?

We had a heat lamp oven at a place I worked. Guys would bring in game and cook it. I don't remember if there was any temperature indicator and once a year bear meat would be cooked in it. I passed on all of it. Like you say, no USDA on any wild game.
As far as the methods and legalese? Need to call a Philly lawyer and ask him for guidance. Seasons and zones are different.

 

[dkhunt14]

No baiting allowed, no dogs, pretty much drives and sitting. Some gangs are pretty big and know the area well. They will line up a whole mountain at times. I heard there isnt a limit now on size of gangs. That they did away with rosters. I would know this, but like hogpatrol says, no laws book anymore. I know years ago some camps got together with another camp and one would drive one side while the other drove the other side. That way they had two rosters of 25 and made it legal. Like i said earlier, some of these mountains are huge and can be thick from cutoffs or laurel as high as your head. The bears like that thick stuff. Matt

 

[fredo]

Thank you, Matt!
Any chance of a 'solo' hunter being successful to capitalize on natural movement?
I can appreciate the effort it'd take to handle a critter that size, once down. Can't be that much harder than dealing with a 700lb. bull elk on a steep slope @ 11K feet, least I'd hope not!

Would be a heckuva challenge to undertake & accomplish, and PA is close enough to give it a shot. Thanks for the replies!

 

[284winner]

Steve Rinella GOT trichinosis from eating undercooked bear meat!!!

As been stated, ya can't compare USDA regulated swine with a wild, carrion eating bruin. There are simply NO controls/safeguards in place that helps minimize disease(s) in wild meat, so it's up to us & due diligence to share info that educates people to make better informed decisions...

Sure glad you haven't gotten sick in all the years of eating bear meat! But, I'd still err on the side of caution and cook bear meat thoroughly...

As for hunting these big PA swamp bears, whats the method of success?
Stand hunting?
Drives?
Can you bait?

Yep I read his story. He is about as concerned about it as I am. I do not know anything about bears in PA other than I've heard dogs and bait are illegal. Pretty sure I didn't lead anyone here to think I eat raw flesh from bears. I DO cook it and cook it so there is no bloody juices coming from the meat. I do however cook it so it's still pink inside. Again, it's above the danger point in temp and it's never made me sick in years of eating it.

 

[284winner]

Thank you, Matt!
Any chance of a 'solo' hunter being successful to capitalize on natural movement?
I can appreciate the effort it'd take to handle a critter that size, once down. Can't be that much harder than dealing with a 700lb. bull elk on a steep slope @ 11K feet, least I'd hope not!

Would be a heckuva challenge to undertake & accomplish, and PA is close enough to give it a shot. Thanks for the replies!

Quartering bears is necessary when they are BIG. Unlike deer, there are no antlers to tow a bear out by. Big heavy boned legs and just bulky makes dragging nearly impossible. Cots, poles or quartering are really the only options if you want to preserve the hide.

 

[fredo]

Quartering bears is necessary when they are BIG. Unlike deer, there are no antlers to tow a bear out by. Big heavy boned legs and just bulky makes dragging nearly impossible. Cots, poles or quartering are really the only options if you want to preserve the hide.

Roger that.
Figure I'd hafta skin out the head/hide, then bone out the meat. Same as we do when backcountry elk hunting...
We use these:https://pristineventures.com/products/tag-bags-b-o-m-b-pack-boned-out-meat-bags/
No reason to haul heavy bone, when you're miles from sumthin' with wheels on it!

 

[284winner]

Yep and game carts are useless where bears mostly die after the shot. We've tied legs over a log and shouldered bears out. Very tough for heavy bears. I have a game cot that works great but need 4 guys effectively. It's alot of work getting even a medium size bear out of a thick cedar swamp. I guess I shoot one first and worry about recovery second.

 

[284winner]

Google this: Trichinae fact sheet USDA APHIS

This pretty much explains why we no longer worry so much about cooking pork to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. Bear meat is a completely different ball game. Do you cook chicken/turkey to a medium rare temperature If not... why not After all, it's no more dangerous to eat than medium rare bear meat

Edit: Ask any reputable chef if he/she would serve medium rare bear meat to a customer. It's hard to believe anyone would advocate cooking bear meat to a medium rare temperature, and then eat it

I've read where trichinosis dies at 136-140°. IF that's true, 145-150 is certainly a safe temp. Almost every case I've read on bear meat causing contraction of trichinosis was rare cooked meat meaning bloody and under 136. That is a mistake.

 

[Brians356]

What on Gods green Earth are those bears eating that grows em so big?

Are these actual wilderness animals, or dumpster divers gettin' shot just outside town limits?

Are you more impressed with the > 600-lb weights, or the wide-angle photographs with the hunter behind and five feet closer to the vanishing point?

A bear in suitable habitat doesn't need a dumpster, they can get that big just on wild berries, cherries, and mast.
-

 

[snert]

Some guys in PA sit atop one mountain, shoot to another. Unheard of....



The only bear I ever saw (dead) looked like a floppy sack of fur. Grab it one place and pull and the skin just wrapped around the "innards" and the bear didn't even move. Kinda like a beagle...lotsa skin.

When it was all hung and skinned out, it looked shockingly like a human form, albiet skinless. Shuddered a bit when I recognized that.

And speaking of PA rules...I thought NY was bad, being liberal and all. But here in PA it is like some goofy religion. You can only shoot on the third Tuesday, when facing west, 500 Inches of orange on (including hat!) after genuflecting to the great Amish auto, the Rem 760, and NEVER GOD FORBID, on SUNDAY!!!

Or sumthing like that...it is in the book of law you pay $6 for....

 

[Brians356]

And speaking of PA rules...I thought NY was bad, being liberal and all.

Few people realize how conservative much of NY State is. I knew a guy from upstate, Savannah, who was a redneck hayseed in all ways. And very sensitive about how to pronounce his town - SAV-a-Nah. I'd say sa-VA-nuh on purpose, and he'd get riled up about it.
-

 

[MrMajestic]

Baiting is illegal in PA but certainly not unheard of, fortunately the dumb ones get caught...

 

[timeout]

As far as the methods and legalese? Need to call a Philly lawyer and ask him for guidance. Seasons and zones are different.

Sounds like the fishing pamphlets here. I never was big into fishing. Always just liked to sit on the bank on a sunny, warm day and drown a worm. Really didn't care if I caught a fish or not. I did manage to master catfish and crappie fishing. The rules have gotten so crazy that it is impossible to decipher what kind of fish, what size, how many, when, and where they can be taken. Like you say Hog, it takes a Philadelphia lawyer to figure it all out. They can keep their fish, I'll just go out for good old fashioned, Friday night fish fries. We are losing the battle.

 

[dkhunt14]

Thank you, Matt!
Any chance of a 'solo' hunter being successful to capitalize on natural movement?
I can appreciate the effort it'd take to handle a critter that size, once down. Can't be that much harder than dealing with a 700lb. bull elk on a steep slope @ 11K feet, least I'd hope not!

Would be a heckuva challenge to undertake & accomplish, and PA is close enough to give it a shot. Thanks for the replies!

People shoot them sitting or walking in. It like hunting elsewhere. They use trails like deer do. If you can find a place between food and bedding. They usually sleep in nasty thick places. The drives move them around and with a little luck you could shoot one. The big swamps of Pike county has alot of bears and big ones. I am guessing that Balsom Swamp is about 1 mile wide by two miles long. Matt

 

[hogpatrol]

PA Bear seasons:
BLACK BEAR (Statewide) regular firearms: Nov. 17-21. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (Statewide) archery: Oct. 29-Nov. 3. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5C and 5D) archery: Sept. 15-Nov. 24. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMU 5B) archery: Sept. 29-Nov. 10. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D) muzzleloader: Oct. 13-20. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D) special firearms: Oct. 18-20. Only one bear may be taken during the license year. For junior and senior license holders, resident active-duty military, and certain disabled persons' permit holders.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D) extended season: Nov. 26-Dec. 8. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D) extended season: Nov. 26-Dec. 1. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

BLACK BEAR (WMUs 1B, 2C, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E and 5A) extended season: Nov. 28-Dec. 1. Only one bear may be taken during the license year.

The hunter must take the entire bear in one piece, minus the entrails, to a check station. Illegal to cut it up and pack it out. Scents and lures are illegal along with ANY type of bait put out less than 30 days before the start of the season. Please contact your attorney for further information.