The state's first bear season begins Thursday, and no one really knows what to expect

By Ed Godfrey Comments 1
Published: September 27, 2009

When the sun rises Thursday morning, hundreds of bowhunters in southeastern Oklahoma will be in the woods.

The bear archery season begins on Thursday. The season limit is 20. AP ARCHIVE PHOTO

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Most will be hunting deer, but a few will be looking to be the first hunter in Oklahoma to legally take a black bear.

How many bears will be taken on opening day of Oklahoma’s first bear season is anybody’s guess.

Two weeks ago some were predicting that the entire season limit total of 20 would be killed on opening day.

Many bears were coming to bait and being frequently seen on trail cameras, said Joe Hemphill, southeast region supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Now, beauty berries are ripening and white oak acorns are falling. The bears have changed their feeding habits.

"Bears are off the corn and other kinds of bait and on the natural food (beauty berries, persimmons, wild grapes and acorns) so people aren’t near as sure of themselves as they were two weeks ago,” Hemphill said.

Baiting bears is allowed on private land in the four counties open for black bear hunting — Le Flore, Latimer, McCurtain and Pushmataha.

Molasses-covered corn, donuts, honey buns, chips, raspberry extract are just some of the baits that hunters are using on private land to try and attract bears.

Baiting is not allowed on public land, consistent with rules already in place in the Ouachita National Forest, where most of the public land is available for bear hunting.

Bait likely will be key to a bow hunter’s chance for success.

Hemphill said he’s received many phone calls from deer hunters who are thinking about buying a bear license, just in case a bear walks under their stand.

But chances of that happening are dim, Hemphill said.

"You just don’t see ‘em. Bears are very elusive animals,” he said. "I’ve been doing this for 25 years and I’ve only seen one that I wasn’t actively pursuing (as a nuisance bear).”

Oklahoma’s bear season coincides with the deer archery and muzzleloader seasons. The bear season will end when, and if, 20 bears are killed.

The state Wildlife Department has phone numbers for hunters to call daily to see if bear season remains open.

If bow hunters haven’t killed 20 by the time deer muzzleloader season opens, then bear hunting with muzzleloaders will be allowed.

Muzzleloader hunting for bears would remain open until 20 are taken or the deer muzzleloader season ends.

Hemphill doesn’t think 20 will be killed. He is predicting no more than 10 for the entire season.

"Bear hunting is about as difficult as there is,” he said. "If you don’t prepare for this, you are wasting your time.”

Richard Hatcher, state wildlife director, also doubts 20 hunters will have success before the season is over. But he thinks it will be close to that number.

"How many times have you’ve been to southeast Oklahoma and seen a bear?” he said.

"There are a lot of bears in southeast Oklahoma, but they are very secretive. Hard to see them. They are going to be hard to hunt.

"The ones that will probably get harvested are the ones that have started getting used to humans. The ones that will go into trash dumps and don’t mind coming up to a trailer if they smell food.

"The ones that are getting habituated to humans. Those are the ones we would like to see taken out anyway.”

But no one really knows what to expect Thursday.

"Bears could go back to the bait (by Thursday),” Hemphill said. "Being a new deal, who knows how it’s going to shake out.”