Guys, if you remember I was looking for a bear last season, I'm still looking for him. But I'm going to hunt up there today, think I'll hunt it just about the same as last year, but I'll have my dog with me this time.

I'm not sure exactly how many days I've hunted on that property this season, I'd 7 or 8 days? A couple times just for 3 or 4 hours or so. There are not many deer up there, and honestly not much bear sign.

The ridge that I'm going to start on, we call Riley Ridge. It's a big, rough and rocky ridge. We had off and on rain showers yesterday, the leaves should be good for walking. I've got overcast skies now and 40* at daylight. It'll be a beautiful day to be out.

Can't really make a prediction, but I'll see a couple deer, and very possible that I'll (or the dog) kick out a bear.

But I'll get off work in about an hour, and we'll see what happens. One thing for sure, the dog and I will sleep good tonight.

Bear season stays in until December 31st.

Hope you get a crack at one.

How is the new dog working out?

Well, it's a long time between now and last light on December 31. I'll tell you we don't have the number of bear we had in this area, 2 or 3 or 4 years ago.

The West Virginia DNR shortened the 2022 bear firearms season by 3 weeks, compared to the 2021 season. (Now that is for this part of the state.) The DNR got rid of the week long, "early September" season. And they also took away the 2 weeks of rifle bear season, during our combined buck and doe season.

I think I posted a link in the other thread? WV's statewide bear harvest in 2021, was down about 20%, compared to the 2020 season.

Honestly, folks are not seeing many bear.

But I'll give everyone a run down on yesterday.

I didn't get out of town till a little bit late, but that's ok. I work a pile of hours, and I just enjoy my time off. I pulled off to the side of the road, just north of Riley Ridge. Sitting there in the truck eating an apple, sizing things up, thinking to myself: That'd be a good spot to jump a bear off to the right. Hmmm, that'd be a good spot to find one off to the left too. Good behind me too.

So, the dog and I made a little halfmoon circle below the road, spent an hour or so and back to the truck. Didn't see anything. I moved on out to the hollow south of Riley Ridge, parked there and hunted out to the road to the other side of the ridge.

Just walking the road, I noticed 6 or 8 piles of turkey crap. It was fresh, glossy and all. The road is rocky out around the ridge, it's hard to track in most places. Came into a little patch of red clay in one tire track, the turkey's had big feet, I'm sure they were all gobblers. Couldn't really get a head count, but there were more than just 3 or 4 birds. The tracks were made since the rain, so they weren't more than 4 or 5 hours old. Never did see them, and that's probably a good thing.

I took off up the hollow on the south side of Riley Ridge, went up almost to the upper ledge, turned off to the north keeping my nose in the wind. We had a steady and soft breeze out of the north-west, mostly.

I was up near the backbone of the ridge, got a glimpse of a deer out front, couldn't tell what it was? On out another 2 or 300 yards, I jumped a deer, I think it was the same one? The deer was between me and the dog both times.

So, while I was up that high, figured I'd just keep on going north. Pretty much walked the property line, on that corner of the place.

I did find a couple of deer beds, and 3 piles of old bear crap. Back off to the road, just a little bit north of the Lured Rock camera. I made it back off to the road with an hour or so of daylight to spare. Didn't amount to squat, but it was a good day!

Talking about this new dog, I'll tell you, she has really improved, but I'm not impressed. I haven't had her a year yet, but she's doing better.

One thing that I figured out a long time ago, there are one of 2 things that have happened in this dog's life. One, the man that gave me the dog used her as a pack hound. Or two, she'd never been hunted at all. I really think that's the deal.

So, basically, I ended up with a 14 month old puppy. I guess she'd be almost 2 years old now? I wish I'd have had her when she was 6 or 8 weeks old, by now we'd have something. I've invested too much time in her to give up now.

The dog is a Walker, big tall long legged dog. She stands up on her toes, she's built to run, in it for the long haul. Good around kids, easy to catch and listens pretty good. But another thing that I found out a long time ago, she's gun shy. I can't explain that at all. It's not because of anything that's happened since I've had the dog.

I've never shot close enough to her to ring her ears or anything. I guess that's just something that she'll need to get out of her system, cause it's not likely that I'm gonna stop shooting. When I do shoot, you can just tell that she doesn't like it, and I always love up on her, then she's fine. I don't know?

Associate the shot with a good thing. Food is usually a winner.

But it's really hard to completely eliminate a crease once its made in a piece of paper.

I am a firm believer in the 6 week/49 day theory. But it is difficult, and I believe now even illegal here, to get a dog prior to 8 weeks.

You mentioned the 48/49 day rule in one of your videos, I think? I'd never heard of it before, but I do believe that pups or pretty much anything start to learn from their first experience.

Years ago I read an article in a magazine or something, as well as I remember they were talking about bird dogs, being gun shy. Anyway, they made some kind of cassette tape or record, that you were to put in the dog's kennel or box. Not sure, but I think it just had natural sounds, what you'd hear in the woods and leaves, and every so often a loud boom. Supposedly to get your pup used to hearing a shot and all.

My dog has improved, but back around the 4th of July, she stayed in her box! Folks around here started blasting off fireworks a couple of days early and just kept on. I was glad when they finally ran out too! Setting that crap off at midnight and after, when most of us had to go to work the next day.

After the first of the year, and after the big game seasons end, I'll take the dog out on a leash, with my 22 and fire a shot now and then. I have a leash that I can snap to my belt buckle, I'll put the dog behind me and blast a rock, then love up on her for a minute and go another 100 yards and repeat. But she is coming around.

Wanted to tell you that Big Donnie killed a doe the other day. I didn't get home from hunting till an hour after dark or a little better. D's wife sent me a message and told me. Donnie had the deer laying in the bed of his truck, some guy was to go and help clean it up. The man didn't show.

It was 50*F, and it still had the hide on it. I talked to D. and told him to ride in and we'd get it cleaned up and put the meat in the walk-in cooler. Before Donnie got here, Moe invited us up to use his skinning shed.

Moe has a good setup, electric winch, running water and all. So, we took the deer up to Moe's, got it cleaned up, washed off and in boxes within an hour or so? The deer still had body heat, warm to the touch. We put it in the cooler, and it was good to go. It's all been taken care of now. But you know, if you're going to kill an animal, it'd be a shame to see it go to waste. I really think that Donnie's dad, had pretty much taken care of the cleaning and processing his game in the past. It's no big deal cleaning up a deer, and I was glad to help.

I was up on the mountain Sunday, it was raining off and on, foggy. The fog finally raised a little before dark, I watched from Thunder Rock till dark, didn't see a thing.

Another thing that I'll mention, tomorrow will make 4 weeks since I dropped off 2 deer carcasses out near my 2nd camera. You've got the heads, hides, legs and scraps, as of 2 days ago, nothing has messed with them. I think maybe the birds have pecked at them a little bit? Otherwise they are untouched. I don't understand.

Guys, I had to work yesterday morning, here at the store folks can tag in their big game critters and all. Anyway, a young man stopped by to tag in a deer. The boy is the same age as my daughter, we know each other.

Our black powder deer season is in now, today is the last day.

It was a doe, and he said that he'd shot it at 239 yards. I asked him again about the range. 239 yards. We talked about it, he said that his buddy had a program on his phone that would tell him where to dial in the scope. He said that he thought that his buddy dialed the scope up, 3.5 MOA.

That is a very long shot. That's way beyond my range for black powder.

But I don't think the boy was telling me a lie. You take some of these custom barrels, saboted bullets, a good scope and trigger. Sandbagged and all.

He said his buddy killed one a little bit over 200 yards, I really don't think it was just a fluke.

But I'd like to see his rifle.

For my inline black powder gun, 75 yards is about my maximum range. And 50 yards is even better!

We had an ice storm here Thursday, it brought down a lot of timber and brush. Up high the ground is still white, the timber is still covered with ice. I spent last evening cutting the junk out of the road, finally made it out to my 2nd camera.

I checked the deer carcasses that I took up, about 4 weeks ago, they are still there. I did see a hawk fly off. Otherwise, untouched.

I'm off work today, as soon as things get squared up here in town, think I'll go for a walk.

Well, not much new to report. The dog and I went out yesterday, I don't want to brag or anything, but we didn't amount to squat again. I'll tell you, and anyone that's ever used a GPS tracking unit will agree, you'll find yourself sitting in the truck, watching where the dog is going. Instead of actually having a live round in the chamber and seriously hunting.

It was blowing snow, windy, and I just thought to myself: Give me 1/2 inch of snow and we'll shake things up. But it just didn't happen. I ended up watching the hollow north of Riley ridge till dark. Didn't see a thing.

I'm starting to get some feedback from the other guys that deer hunted the same mountain, nobody has seen a bear. Or the guys that I've talked to so far. I can't explain that deal.

The ice is still hanging in the timber, today is Monday, it's been there since last Thursday. You don't want to go anywhere with out a saw!

Not positive, but I think we're to get snow within the next couple of days. Hope we do.

Above we were talking about black powder guns and all, my buddy Moe hunted all 4 days of season. He didn't even get to see a deer, honestly, it's been over 2 weeks since he's seen a deer. He's got permission to hunt over 200 acres, just below his house, and there's not many deer on the place.

Moe has a .54 caliber flintlock, beautiful gun, and that's what he was dragging around. I've never shot that gun, maybe he'll let me unload it for him? Then I'll let him clean it up!

West Virginia's firearm bear season ended December 31, 2020. I'll tell you now that I couldn't find one.

During the last few weeks, I've talked to more than a dozen guys that deer hunted on the same mountain, where I was looking for a bear. None of them have seen a bear, since about the first week of November. I mean these guys are not all on the same property where I hunted, but north and south, we're dealing with a 20 mile long stretch. That's really unusual! The bear are just not there.

I've had a lot of reports and looked at a bunch of pictures of bear that had mange. Some of them, were really sickly looking critters!

But since bear season ended Saturday, I've talked to 4 different guys that do seriously have some good bear hounds. I had 3 of them in the parking lot, Saturday evening, at the same time. All of them had a really bad season. It just seemed like they couldn't find a track. That's bad, these guys have spent a pile of money, feeding and tending their dogs, and then just can't find a track.

We had some bad weather mid season, and then it got cold for a while. My mailman Phillip lives just across the valley from where I hunted several days, he had minus 15*F that one day.

Big Donnie hunted with me a couple of days, I'll add more about that when I get a chance. We never fired a shot, but we had a good time!

Yep.

I'll tell you, it's sad, but some folks can't have a good day in the woods unless they kill something. I know folks like that. I don't hunt with them. That is just so much not me!

Same with trapping, fishing or hunting, it's one thing to go out and really hammer down trapping. But if you want to really enjoy it, you need to slow down. My opinion.

It's been a few years ago, I was out with one of my best friends, we were on the way home. I said: You know what? You'd have a helluva lot more fun and enjoyment, if you'd just relax.

For me, there isn't a single thing that's more relaxing than walking through the woods with my rifle. Swimming would be a close second. Either way, I'm under no pressure to prove anything. Just to let a feller's mind unwind and forget about everything.

And then at the end of the day, you realize, it's time to get back into the real world. That always sucks! But, I enjoy my free time.

Here in a bit, I'm going up to check the bait, I'd like to catch a fisher this season.

I hear what you are saying but I go in the bush any day I want. And I go a lot- year round. There are very few bad days unless the flies are really bad.

I prefer to not have empty traps or not have an opportunity to have a shot. I work hard to prevent that from occurring.

I do have fun regardless unless things mess up. A good example is snow laden trees blocking roads.

I understand exactly what you mean. Above where I said that we'd never fired a shot, Donnie and I both harvested deer this past season. Deer are one thing, but when you bump it up to a bear, your odds of seeing one or killing one, that percentage of success goes way down!

I live in Hardy Co., WV, here it's illegal to bait deer or bear. In some counties you can bait, in other counties you can't. Our game laws are complicated and honestly, very hard to keep track of what's legal and what's not!

I know what you mean about trees and rocks blocking the roads. I burnt a tank of gas in my saw that one day. I think it was December 15th, we had a really good (bad) ice storm, that brought down a lot of timber. Twigs the thickness of a pencil were iced up and the size of a broom handle. That ice hung in the timber for over a week, I think it was the 22nd when the next snow/ice/sleet/freezing rain storm hit. That's about the time that we had our coldest days of this winter.

Looking at the ice in the timber from here at the house, better than 2 miles away, when the sun would hit it, it looked like the top of the mountain was glass.

Big Donnie and I hunted December 21st. D. called me that morning and I told him to bundle up. We'd talked about it before, but I kind of had a plan. I dropped him off in the deep hollow south of Riley Ridge, it's steep, rocky and about halfway mean. Before he started up the hollow I made sure he had his gloves and all, told him to take his time. If a feller gets hot and sticky climbing up in there, you're not going to last long. This time of year, on the shortest day of the year, you'll never see sunshine. And those rocks will hold the cold.

The dog and I went on out the road, parked there at the wide spot, and hunted up to the spring. The 2 little puddles at the spring were iced over. I changed the SD card in that camera, I hadn't checked it for over a month, and started on around to where D. was watching.

There was just one big ridge between D. and I, really it's a double ridge. The way I like to hunt it, if you pretty much split the difference from the spring to the upper ledge, and head north. You'll come onto a nice bench, that's where the ridge forks. Just stay level on the mountain and you'll roll right around and come out about 100 yards above where Big D. was watching.

It was icy that day, and it really slowed me down. Some places, the timber came down like a row of dominos. It's a mess!

But I was almost out to the last point when Donnie called, and said he was coming down and heading out to the truck. He got cold up in that cove.

I gave D. about an hour to walk back to the truck, and warm up. Called him back and asked him to come pick me up, it was right at sunset when I got back to the road. The dog had ice on her whiskers and I did too.

Like I said above, we didn't amount squat, never fired a shot, but we had a good hunt.

I'll tell you, we had a so-so mast crop this past fall, and we had some cold weather in early November. I drained the water lines and winterized the old hunting camp, early. Not sure? But it's very possible that some of our bear holed-up before season?

Above I mentioned checking the trail cam at the spring on the 21st. That camera only had 6 or 8 deer pictures, 4 or 5 pics of me and the dog, and that's it. No bear at all, and it'd been a month since I last checked it. The last bear picture that I've had on that camera was dated either November 4th or the 7th. I forget.

It was a sow and 2 cubs. I would have loved to have kicked them out, and just see what this new dog would have done.

Talking about our trapping baits, I do finally have something working the one bait. I'm not impressed with the action, think I'll give them another week, and see what happens.

Before season ends, I'll tell you about another hunt and make m prediction.

I guess about everyone from the mid-west, up the east coast and on north had some dealings with the storm that passed here on December 22, 2022.

Here at the house, we had about an inch of light dry snow, before daylight. Then it kind of slacked off, guess we were between "bands" of the storm. At 8am we had little ice balls, and coming down hard. It was a wet, heavy slush, and there for a while it was piling up pretty good.

The DOH had pre-treated our main roads, with salt brine. But the ice/snow/sleet/freezing rain was piling up. The DOH trucks were up and down most of the day, chains on, and scraping the stuff off of the roads. Late that evening, we had some really hard, rain/sleet. Slush was flowing down the roads.

Anyway, I was here at work, called everyone and told them to stay home. I'm not going to ask anyone to come in if the roads are bad, take a chance of getting hurt or crash their car and all. Nothing goes on here that's that important!

So, on the 23rd, our main roads were decent. Nothing to brag about, but decent. And that's when it started to get cold and windy!

Wasn't sure if I could get up on the mountain or not? But you know, my truck was just breaking through the crust, maybe an 1/8th of an inch, just enough to have good traction. I never spun a wheel. I paid $750 for the Posi-track rearend in that little truck, it makes a big difference.

Anyway, I parked above the gate, got the dog wired up, fooled around getting my rain gear on, that's a pain with your boots on! Hunted out around those first 2 or 3 points, up high on the mountain, that north-west wind was nippy.

Hunted across the ridge above my "lured rock camera" crossed the hollow, up to the backbone of Riley Ridge and back off to the road. I didn't track squat. And really, that late in the season, most of our bear are just not moving.

I really don't know, we shall see later. But as a rule here in Hardy County, we'll harvest over 100 bear per season. I think it'll be down some this past year.

I checked the camera watching Wardney's salt lick yesterday, not a single deer, no deer for the last 6 or 8 weeks.

But tomorrow is the last day of the Mountain Heritage, deer, bear and turkey seasons. A four day season of hunting with black powder guns and old time bows. We shall see.

Posi-track are really good.

Breeding season has started here. I have fox hitting the carcasses I put out to help them through the winter.

Did you get true posi-traction or "limited slip"? I was under the impression that they didn't make true posi-traction rearends any longer. All I'm able to order is limited slip.

"Limited slip differential" is todays correct term for posi traction. It actuates instantly between the two drive wheels so they are both driving together.

Frank.

Well, I'm no mechanic, but I'll tell you what I've been told. I think that there are more than one way to lock the back axles of your vehicle together.

I'll start from the start. The day I picked out this little truck, and took it for a test drive and all. I bought it used and I've known the man that owns the shop for years. He handed me the keys and I told him where I was going to take it, even asked him if he'd like to ride along. He said: No, you take it anyplace you want to go.

So, I took off, even took my rifle with me. I took it up the mountain, ran it through every gear that it's got. Keeping an eye on the gauges and all. Halfway up the mountain, I put it down in low-four, in 1st or 2nd gear, revved it up to 3,000 RPM's and just held it there to the end of the road. Dirt road, only a mile or so? I took it up a side road, steep as hell, forward and reverse.

Everything looked good, coming off I stopped and checked the oil and all, everything checked out. So I took it back to the shop, told him that I'd take it and paid him $1,000 down payment. It's a Chevy S-10, and had running boards on it. Why, I don't know. I told him to take that junk off, you can have them, sell them for $50 or whatever, I didn't want them.

I asked him that day, how much it would cost for the positrack rearend, I think the first price was $550, but ended up paying $750. That's been 6 years ago, I think that's right.

But the way it's set up now, you don't notice the rearend out on the main road, just driving and you won't notice it on a dirt road. Just say you come to an intersection here in town, on a paved and dry road, and make a 90* turn from a dead stop, you'll feel that inside back tire scuffing around. That inside tire is trying to rotate as much as the outside back tire. They are locked together, full time.

My little truck was due for it's annual state inspection, the first of the year. I had that done last Monday, while it was in the shop, I had the oil changed, tune-up and had Gary put on four new tires too. Gary does a good job and treats me right, $620 total. The tires were $140 each. So, she's good to go for another year!

Here's a link that shows one way to lock the back axles together.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/131-0901-welding-spider-gears-locking-differential-4wd/

I'll tell you the one mechanic that works at the shop where I bought the truck, he's the owners son, but he's really into race cars. Muscle cars and all. So he's up-to-date on all of that stuff.

Above we were talking about hunting and such, I want to tell you this. The first day of buck season, I bumped into 2 deer. One was a big bodied, dark looking deer, I scoped it over, up on 9X, I couldn't see horns. The other deer was about 75 yards in front of the dark looking deer, it was a 3-point, it came up the ridge within 50 yards of me, I was taking pictures of him. Nice looking young buck.

I did get some nice pics, I posted one on my Facebook thing.

I have relatives that live about 100 miles west of here, our families stay in touch, just to say hi and check on everyone. My cousin Evelyn (her granddad was my uncle) and I were chatting one evening. She asked me how deer hunting was going, I told her that I wasn't seeing many deer. Evelyn said that she counted about 60 deer on the way home, in about 3 miles of road. Also told me that the deer had almost destroyed her garden last summer. She had crop damage permits for her garden, they killed 8 deer, and she said that didn't seem to slow them down much.

During the Mountain Heritage hunt, just 2 weeks ago or so? Moe, Jim and a few other guys loaded up, took off at 5am and hunted in an area somewhat near to where Evelyn lives. I told Moe and Jim to try to keep track of howmany deer they each got to see. Jim counted 30 deer, and Moe counted 10 or 12.

All together there are 14 guys in the picture, with 6 deer. Four doe and 2 fawns. They were driving deer, all hunting with their black powder cap&ball guns or flintlocks, open sights.

On my best day this past season, I did jump 5 deer in a bunch. All doe and or fawns? Lots of days I didn't see a single deer.

I'll add more later.

If you remember some of my trail cam pictures from 6 or 8 years ago, I had pictures of 8 or 10 or 12 deer in one pic. I've noticed the head count is steady going down.

I may have mentioned this above, but on the camera watching Wardney's salt lick, I haven't had a single deer on camera for 6 weeks or better.

A while back I posted a link to "when do whitetail fawns breed". As well as I remember, the break point was 80# for a female fawn, and 90# for a male fawn. Very few of our fawns hit that mark.

December 31, 2022, a friend of mine shot a deer, it was just one deer alone, right at dark. He thought it was an adult doe, at the shot. He sent me a picture, I told him to put it on the scales. It was a female fawn and weighed 49 pounds, field dressed. So she wasn't even close to the breeding weight.

A few years ago I commented about 10 fawns running together, I just found out what's going on with that deal. Or had it confirmed anyway.

I'll explain that later, I'm out of time.

Why are the deer so small?

My best guess. The doe that had that fawn, was killed on a crop damage permit. Back in the summer, maybe while the fawn was still nursing? Without it's milk, that would be enough to stunt it's growth.

I'm sure that our soil and growing season has an impact too.

I'll tell you about the 10 fawns running together, a few years ago. I bumped into them 3 or 4 or 5 times that season? All fawns, and not an adult deer in sight.

The property where I was hunting is all woodland, 2 properties down, it's crop land. Corn fields. That property changed hands a few years ago, the man that farms it now, from what I've been told has been killing a bunch of deer on damage permits.

I know the man that farms it, don't really know him that well, we'd recognize each other. But I talked to one of his best friends the other day, and asked if they'd killed any nice bucks this season. He said: No, but we killed a bunch of doe back in the summer.

The man that farmed that same property years ago, he didn't put as much pressure on the deer. Once the corn was harvested, all of those deer would head for the woods.

The DNR still hasn't posted the annual bear kill. Or I can't find it anyway. Talking to a friend the other day, he said they must be ashamed of the numbers. Usually, the harvest is posted within 2 or 3 days of the end of season. May need to call and ask?

Here is a link to West Virginia's 2022 Bear harvest.

https://wvdnr.gov/wvdnr-releases-2022-black-bear-harvest-numbers/

Hopefully this link works.

Here is a link to WV's 2021 bear kill. This link and the one above are both statewide numbers.

https://wvdnr.gov/west-virginia-hunters-harvest-2756-black-bears-in-2021/

I'll give you a rundown on the numbers. WV's 2021 bear harvest was down 22% from the previous year. WV's 2022 bear harvest was down 37% from the previous year.

I knew out local bear kill would be down, talking to different friends, checking cameras and all, we just don't have the bear numbers like we did just a few years ago.

In my comments above, I've mentioned about everything that the DNR, mentioned in their reports.

I live in Hardy County, WV. Grant County is to the west, Pendleton County is south. I hunted in different areas, over near the East Virginia state line a few days, but I stayed in Hardy County. Our licenses are good statewide, but I just stayed here at local.

One final number that I'll run past you. During the 2019 bear season, there were 108 bear killed in Hardy County, WV. During the 2022 bear season, there were 16 bear killed in Hardy County! Sixteen!

So if you look at that #, since 2019, our local bear harvest is down more than 80%.

Also, the DNR reduced our bear season by 25 days. To shorten the season by 25 days from one year to the next is a very abrupt change!

Our bear population will rebound, and I really think we have more bear than the harvest shows. We had some cold weather in early November, and I'd guess that a lot of them did hole up.

We'll find out this coming season.