Wisconsin bear hunting ?

[IN_hunter]

My brother and i are wanting to plan a bear hunting trip to wisconsin and i have a few questions. The first is, do you have to be drawn for a tag? The other is, what types of firearms can he choose from? I wanna do it with a bow or shotgun.

I have read up on it on the dnr page but am kinda confused. Any help is appreciated. Thank you

[Randy]

It is a draw for permits and last I knew depending on which area you hunt it could take upwards of 8 years to get a tag.

[gzilla45]

I would start applying for the tag now and hopefully in 5 years or so you will get drawn. A lot of it depends upon which bear unit you are applying for as to how long it will take. I am in my seventh year of applying in my unit and I'm hoping next year will be the one. Most guys I know are getting them around year 8.

You can hunt bears with either weapon choice you have mentioned but I would recommend visiting the WI DNR website for specific info. http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/regs/

[PotashRLS]

Unless you know someone up here it may be quite difficult. I suppose there are some outfitters around though you don't here of a lot of them until you get quite a ways north. Most of the bear population is north of HWY 29 as a generallization. Unit C is the major part of the State with baiting or methods other than dogs being the standard hunting techniques. The various A units and B are the bait and dogs units and are in the more northern areas where the majority of the public land is.

You would be able to carry both your bow and shotgun at the same time if you wanted to do so. You could use your bow and carry a large bore handgun too like I do. The handgun must meet the WDNR minimum if you are to hunt with it. Any solid rifle will work too, preferably of a larger bullet diameter.

Do you plan on outfitting or do you have a connection in Wisconsin be it friends or relatives?