Kentucky bear hunters have a better path to planning and searching due to modifications made by the state’s Fish and Wildlife Fee and legislature.

Hunters now have mounted season dates and no bear quotas and solely two bear territories. The fee abolished the earlier construction, which had eight districts and a quota system that closed the season when a sure variety of bears had been killed. Hunters had criticized the earlier system, citing, amongst different points, issues with scheduling hunts, after which closing an space after the quota was crammed.

Hunters can use canine, archery/crossbows, and firearms to chase bears throughout totally different seasons from October to December. Hunters may chase bears with canine for coaching functions, however not hunt, for a restricted time earlier than searching season opens.

Kentucky reopened to bear searching in 2009 because the inhabitants expanded from surrounding states. Quotas had been initially enacted to permit bears to kind a self-sustaining inhabitants by means of pure dispersal. Now, with Kentucky’s rising bear inhabitants, harvests could be regulated by the variety of open days every season. Particular Bear Reserves already in place add a layer of sustainability.

The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Fee really useful new bear season modifications in September 2021; Regulation modifications have since been introduced and take impact instantly. Hunters are nonetheless restricted to 1 month per license 12 months.

Beneath the brand new laws, District 1 consists of McCreary, Bell, Harlan, and Letcher counties. These are the counties with the best bear density within the state. These counties additionally embody designated Bear Reserves the place searching is just not permitted.

District 2 consists of 43 counties in jap Kentucky from Cumberland County within the south to Lewis County within the northeast.

Many public searching grounds, together with the federally owned Daniel Boone Nationwide Forest, will not be out there to be used by canine to hunt or chase bears. Kentucky Fall 2022-23 Hunting and Trapping Guide consists of an intensive record.

The brand new laws additionally develop the calibers of firearms that can be utilized to hunt bears in Kentucky. Hunters can now use the favored 6.5mm bullet (.264 caliber), which is barely smaller than the outdated commonplace .270 caliber. Muzzleloader hunters can now use .45 caliber or bigger firearms.

Because the inhabitants grows, so does the bear harvest in Kentucky. In 2010, the second 12 months of bear searching, hunters hunted three bears. In 2021, hunters set a file 109 bears.