Bear Hunting Is Not About Cheap Meat

It's about the time of year that a bear will wander into town. We get about one a year coming down from the mountains about seven miles away.

Most black bears are in the 120-180 pound bubble. Massive 400 and 500 pounders are quite rare, though the largest bear in the state — 537 pounds — was shot in my Maryland county (Frederick) last year.

Last year a total of 5,700 hunters paid a nonrefundable $15 application fee to enroll in the lottery for a Maryland bear permit. More than 950 permits were allotted, and hunters legally killed 117 black bears. 

To put it another way, hunters paid about $730 for each bear which, on average, weighed 150 gross pounds gross. Of course, the net pound of the meat harvested will be a great deal less without bone, hide, and most entrails, which are not edible.  

As a general "rule of thumb," a bear will net out to only about 40-50 pounds of useful meat, no matter the size of the bear.  When you add in the cost of a regular hunting license, time away from work, gas, gun, hotel rooms, and food consumed on the road, bear hunting is clearly not a rational way to supplement the larder.