New Mexico’s 2011 bear season ended early after only a few short weeks.  New Mexico is currently under a quota system for bear management.  Although we do have season dates, our harvest limits are set by the New Mexico Game Commission for each region of the state.  When a region’s harvest limit is met, that area is closed to bear hunting and hunters must hunt in a different region.

In 2011 the entire state was closed to bear hunting after the first week in September. Most years, the quota will not be met until later in the fall or not at all.

We had a really dry year and the bear were having a hard time finding enough food sources.  Consequently during conditions such as this, bear will kill livestock and cause problems in rural communities by raiding gardens, garbage cans and destroying property trying to find something to eat.  Stock killers and nuisance bears are dispatched by the Game and Fish officials to combat the problems. These bear mortalities do count against the quota.  In many areas, the quota was already half met by the time the sport season opened.  I personally don’t think these bear mortalities should count against the sport quota, but they do.

If you’re thinking about bear hunting in New Mexico, schedule your hunt as early in the season as you possibly can.  I look forward to visiting with you and helping you plan your bear hunt here in New Mexico.

January 2011

This black bear was treed by the hounds while I was out scouting for mountain lion.

Black bear in southern New Mexico do hibernate, but will come out of their dens from time to time and then den back up.  They will sometimes change den locations even during the coldest months of the winter.

I usually tree one or two bears every winter while lion hunting.

September 2010

Generally by the end of September, black bear in New Mexico have located on a food source in which they can store fat and prepare for hybrination.  This may range from prickly pear apples, juniper berries, to acorns.  When black bears find a mast crop in the fall, they usually move less and are easier to tree.

I had already located a good acorn patch prior to Brad Swift’s arrival from Colorado for his New Mexico Black Bear hunt with hounds. We were perhaps over confident with our expectations.

The first kink in our plan was FED-X  lost my tracking collar receiver during shipping.  I’d sent it for repair and on the return shipping they managed to lose it.  I’d arrange to borrow a receiver from a friend of mine until FED-X could located my lost receiver.

When Brad and I rode out that morning, I didn’t expect to need the receiver, but put my tracking collars on the hounds anyway and asked my mother-in-law, Mary Jo if she’d mind picking up the borrowed receiver.

We’d been in the saddle about an hour when the hounds caught a bear scent and took off over the hill.  It took us a while to pick our way through the heavy brush to the top.  I fully expected to hear the hounds treed in the big canyon on the other side. Instead of hearing dogs barking treed from our listening point on top, we heard one of the slower hounds going over the next mountain.  We finally conceded we’d lost the hounds, so I called my mother-in-law to see if she could bring the borrowed receiver to where I’d parked the truck and trailer.  She graciously agreed.

After riding back to the truck, picking up the receiver, locating the hounds and negotiating the rough country to get close to them, it was almost dark.  The bear was bayed on the ground and wouldn’t tree.  He’d stop and fight the dogs and then move on.  It’s very difficult to get close enough for a shot when this happens.  Since it was getting dark and we were a long ways from the truck, I decided the best thing to do was to try and call my hounds off and start again tomorrow.  We managed to call off all but 2 dogs, then we headed for the truck.

Day 2 found us parking in the same place.  After riding a couple of hours, the hounds hit another bear track and away we went.  You guessed it!  Another bayed bear! This one took us almost to the Gila River before I was able to call off  some of the dogs.

The third morning found us riding down the same trail again.  We were wondering if we’d find yet another bear that wouldn’t tree.  We’d just about reached the spot where the dogs started the track the day before, when they through up their heads and flew down the mountain.  In a matter of seconds, they had this beautiful boar treed in an oak tree.

Brad certainly earned this trophy black bear!!!

P.S.

**You’ll never guess where FED-X put my package with the tracking receiver.  Julie found it in the garbage dumpster near our mail box!!  We’re lucky the garbage hadn’t been hauled.  Can you imagine a delivery company doing that???**

August 2010

Wayne Dawkins

Ron Roberts

Here in southern New Mexico, black bears use a wide variety of habitats throughout the year.  These can range from the mesquite-prickly pear cactus covered desert mountains to the spruce-aspen alpine forests.  Available food sources will determine where bears might be during the year.  They can and will travel long distances in search of food.  Consequently, where you’re finding bears one month you might not find them there the next.  Such was the case when Wayne and Ron arrived in mid August for their horseback bear hunt with hounds.

Earlier in the summer, black bears were everywhere and they’d become a nuisance in local communities and on farms and ranches.  After our summer rains began, they dispersed back to the remote mountains and were in completely different country than they had been earlier in the summer, plus lingering rainy weather, 90 degree temperatures and plenty of evaporation of scent made hunting conditions tough.

Wayne and Ron’s hunt began by being rained out early on the first day.  Early on the second morning, the hounds started a bear track and were gone and out of hearing in only a few minutes.  We started working our way up a steep slope in the direction the hounds had gone and after a couple of miles began hearing them again.  My dogs weren’t together and were going in different  directions, which indicated they were after more than one bear.  We tried to stay within hearing of the closer bunch of hounds and they were soon barking treed in the bottom of a deep canyon.  Wayne’s bear was high up in a Ponderosa pine.  We had the bear skinned and were headed to the truck in a short time.

The next morning, Ron and I headed for the same area with a fresh bunch of hounds.  We thought we might find another bear and pick up the missing dogs as well. About the time we got to the place we’d last heard the missing dogs the day before, the fresh pack were raising cain on the next ridge over.  We could see a large cinnamon colored boar in the fork of a pinon tree, so we tied our horses a short ways away and stalked up close enough for Ron to get a good shot.  If you don’t stalk up to a treed bear, a lot of times they’ll come down out of the tree and take off.

Wasn’t long before we’d gathered up the hounds, our horses and Ron’s trophy and were headed back to the truck.  The rest of my missing hounds from the day before were there waiting at the truck and trailer for us.  It was a great hunt with both Wayne and Ron and I congratulate them on their trophies!

October 2009

Julie and I slipped off for a day bear hunting, before we got busy with our rifle elk hunts.   Our dogs worked the track really fast and had this bear caught in just very short time.   Julie shot this beautiful bear with her 45 Long Colt pistol.

We realized after we skinned the bear, that the mule and horse we had ridden were probably not going to like carrying a bear.  We tried putting the hide on my mule “Bugs”.  He was a total idiot.  Pawing, kicking and trying to tear down the tree he was tied to.  We decided to try Julie’s horse “Slingshot”.  He has a history of being a knot-head about being packed, but we had no choice.  To our suprize, he barely noticed when we put the bear hide on him.  He ended up packing me and the hide out to the truck.

Slingshot got an extra shot of grain that night for not living up to his name.