Best map for Black Bear GO Grind?

[Carstein83]

I am planning to start the Black Bear GO Grind in about a week. Most people got their GOs on SRP, but it seems, that the map has worse conditions since the latest update, because Mountain Lions and Black Bears drink at the same time. Where to go now? LL?

[Woodyplank]

It's either that or Mississippi. Now that I think about it, not sure if anyone has even killed a diamond BB on the Mississippi map. I can tell you that there are darn few bears along the the RR tracks or the waters of LL within a triangle of Balmont lake, the lower Roon outpost and on up to the Kraken Rope bridge. Doesn't mean a GO won't wind up in that area someday but right now there's little grinding material there to work with.

[Aaronmovic]

Seems like LL has become the best map. It was SRP but i think Mountain lion and Black Bear share the same drink time from what i've seen.

[Woodyplank]

Normally the Black bear drink times start at 2000 hrs and Mtn lions start at 2100 hrs. The trick is to find those rare areas where we can find one without the other. Not many of those areas left since the last redistribution of animals on SRP. At least on LL there's no other animal that can scare off a Black bear. The downside is that the bear population on the LL reserve is not even close to what was back in 2018. Seems like the animal pop on existing maps goes down whenever a new map is introduced.

[Geronimo]

Why does hunting bear have to revolve around it's drink timing?

Why can't you just locate sign and track them down?

This ability is probably the winning factor that beats WoTH all day long.

[Carstein83]

Well, I am not motivated to grind the GO for half a year. I have to shoot 2000+ Bears within some weeks, this only works at hot spot drinking zones, where the Bears are massed. You don´t get the GOs in another way within acceptable time.
If you don´t like this kind of play...that´s okay...nobody forces you to do it.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Carstein83:

Well, I am not motivated to grind the GO for half a year. I have to shoot 2000+ Bears within some weeks, this only works at hot spot drinking zones, where the Bears are massed. You don´t get the GOs in another way within acceptable time.
If you don´t like this kind of play...that´s okay...nobody forces you to do it.

You're unfairly putting words in my mouth.

I just wondered why people seem to think that drink zones were the only place to hunt.

I understand what you're saying about having more opportunity, but until they fix the timing don't avoid using the other types of zones.

[Carstein83]

Ok, I obviously misunderstood the intention of your question and apologize for it..no harm intended.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Carstein83:

Ok, I obviously misunderstood the intention of your question and apologize for it..no harm intended.

Np

[Carstein83]

Thanks for the answers.
I want to give a quick update about my decision to go to LL for those, who are interested. I am grinding since one and a half week and not happy about it. The drinking times are labeled from 20/20:30 until 0/0:30, but bears don´t appear before 21:15 and leave before midnight. I found around 30 male drinking zones in the first place, which is not a lot. The drinking zones don´t have hotspots and are distributed over the whole map. I am currently shooting 20-30 bears a day, which is not a lot (I shot 75-100 Red Deer during the Red Deer GO grind on CC). Now I am wondering, if I should change the grinding place to SRP. There are Mountain Lions, but I guess I would still shoot double the amount of bears on one day.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Carstein83:

Thanks for the answers.
I want to give a quick update about my decision to go to LL for those, who are interested. I am grinding since one and a half week and not happy about it. The drinking times are labeled from 20/20:30 until 0/0:30, but bears don´t appear before 21:15 and leave before midnight. I found around 30 male drinking zones in the first place, which is not a lot. The drinking zones don´t have hotspots and are distributed over the whole map. I am currently shooting 20-30 bears a day, which is not a lot (I shot 75-100 Red Deer during the Red Deer GO grind on CC). Now I am wondering, if I should change the grinding place to SRP. There are Mountain Lions, but I guess I would still shoot double the amount of bears on one day.

This whole process of grinding in hope of a higher level respawn is the reason I gave up focusing on diamonds waaaay back. And I am a trophy hunter. But absurd killing is not what I have in mind when I think of being in a hunting experience, and over-pressuring my favorite areas is not an option for me.

Since some of the recent changes to the game over the last year I've been forced to radically change how I play anyway, and Great Ones with special trim on their racks is just not what I appreciate as a trophy.

I've taken level 7 animals that I appreciate more than some Mythical or Legendary simply because of the chase it gave me, or some specific detail of that particular hunt that made it memorable.

And I've had racks that I liked the look of much more than higher scoring racks.

To me the 'Trophy' isn't always in the scoring, or the weight, or the rarity. I'll take the great looking rack of a lower level that gave me a great story to tell, over the higher scoring racks of a 'labeled animal' that I dropped the minute I chanced upon it, all day long.

I keep a personal journal of my memorable hunts, and have a blueprinted layout of my trophy lodges coinciding with each and every taxi that I place. I can go to my blueprint and it tells me exactly where to find each placement, and the journal tells it's story.

IMHO, that's trophy hunting etiquette 101. They're not just a forgotten pretty face on the wall, Lol

[Geronimo]

To the OP, I'm not sure if these areas were effed up in recent changes or not, but........

Layton up in the north eastern Norden area where we used to find alot of moose, and is one of the first places to suffer having certain species relocated for some unknown reason. There's a small cabin looking out over a large field, and just west of it, along the river, there was always at least four or five bear spawning. It's just about to the most northern of the river.

Another spot is just west of the outpost nearest to the starting point, mid-south, where you can head toward that vast swampland that leads west toward the train trestle. All along the western side of the swamp, in the brush, as you head toward that trestle, there used to always be plenty of bear.