Yesterday was the opening day of Pennsylvania's 3 day bear season. I went out by myself for a stroll in the woods with no real expectations as I had done ZERO scouting due to work and family commitments.

I was hunting an area in which I have seen bears in years past. About 8:30 I saw two grouse flush from the Mt. Laurel thicket and fly past my stand. I heard a squirrel scolding something and heard some branches crack and leaves rustling..then silence. About 20 minutes later, I decided to sneak along the creek bank for a look at what all the racket was about. I actually walked past bear, which was bedded under a pine tree on the opposite side of the ravine/ditch. The bear stood and began walking parallal to the ravine. I would have likely never seen the bear if I had not stopped to check out the laurel and must have made the bear nervous.

Anyway, I shot him high in the shoulder (60 yards away). The bear fell at the shot and began rolling and flipping. He fell into the creek ditch (about 30 feet down) and hit the bottom. He then half stood and I shot him again in the opposite shoulder. He was then down for good and died a few seconds later. In retrospect, the second shot was probably not necessary, but I did not want him to run into the laurel thicket and die.

I went for help and two friends offered their assistance. It took the three of us, along with a 4 wheel drive quad, about 3 hours to get him out of the woods.

He weighed 271 pounds at the check station. I did not take many pictures of the bear, and do not even have one of me with the bear, but I will try to post some later. This hunt just goes to prove that you have to go hunting in order to be in the right place at the right time - and that sometimes luck is better than great preparation.

On a sad note, at the check station, the vehicle after mine was that of the Wildlife Conservation Officer with a bear which was allegedly taken illegally over bait. The boar weighed 595 pounds and was a beautiful animal. It is a shame that this trophy was wasted.

Well, congrats on your bear. That must have been quite the thrill when you first saw him before you took a shot.

Do you plan on making a rug? Are the bears in PA all black or do some have the white crest/chevron on the chest? Any color phase?

Doc:

Yeah, it was pretty exicting and really unexpected. Seeing a bear in the woods, for me, is like seeing a ghost. It takes a few seconds for my mind to sort things out.

I was at my taxidermist late last night skinning him out for a full-body mount. I killed a bear 10 years ago which I had made into a rug which hangs on my office wall. So this one will likely be mounted in a natural stance on a fake rock.

I think most of the bears in PA are 100 percent black. The nine that I saw yesterday (at the check station) were each totally black.

Picture added - sorry for the poor backround. Not a very natural setting for a trophy photo. I usually carry a camera with me in the field, but did not have one when I shot the bear. After we went back to get the bear out, I was out of hunting gear and mostly focused on getting him out of the woods. Once he was in the truck, it was too late to take good photos.

[url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=346765&c=500&z=1"] [/url]

[url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=346768&c=500&z=1"] [/url]

Nice Bear.
Good shooting.

Cwilson: Congratulations on the fine trophy!
I enjoy Bear Hunting myself and really enjoy eating Bear meat! I like to bake up a big Bear roast with onions, carrots, potatoes and such!
I have killed Bear in Washington, Alaska, Alberta and Montana!
I especially enjoy the spring Bear Hunting here in Montana! When I lived in Washington state we had no spring Bear Hunting there. It was an early fall opener (August 1st nowadays!) and the Bear were Hunted either in the alpine berry fields (which I preferred) or by use of baiting or hounds! Baiting and hound Hunting in Washington has been banned for some time now and the Bear populations are growing and causing lots of problems these days!
A three day season seems awfully short - is that the norm or is it in just one area of the state?
Washington state has more Black Bear than any other state (among the lower 48!) and Bears were often sighted while Hunting other game (like Elk, Mt. Goat and Deer). I passed up a lot of Bears in Washington and several here in Montana looking for a really big one!
Montanas Bears are quite small compared to other places I have Hunted them.
A 271 pounder at the scales would be a monster here!
Again congrats on the beautifully furred trophy!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Very nice bear, congratulations!

Hey CWilson, Congratulations on the kill.

What rifle and Bullet did you use?

VarmitGuy - a 3 day season (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving) has been the norm statewide in PA for many years. Some Wildlife Management Units in the eastern portion of the state will allow bear hunting during the first week of the firearms deer season which starts on the Monday following Thanksgiving.

Bears grow fast and large in PA. I suspect my bear was 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 years old. The Game Commission will send me information on its age and history. This bear had metal ear tags, which means that it was trapped and moved at some time in its life, most likely due to conflicts with humans. They took a tooth and will send it to Penn State University for aging.

Hot Core - I was using a Rem Model 7 in .308 Win. and shooting Factory (gulp!!) Remington Green Box ammo - 180 grain pointed core-lokt bullets. Recovered a portion of one bullet which I estimate weighed about 50 grains.

cwislon:

Congrats on the bear.

I thought it was illegal in PA to remove game from the field with a motorized vehicle?

quote:

Originally posted by 577NitroExpress:
cwislon:

Congrats on the bear.

I thought it was illegal in PA to remove game from the field with a motorized vehicle?

It it illegal to use motorized vehicles on public lands (Game Lands or Forest Lands) but I know of no laws which prohibit using a motorized vehicle to remove game on private lands.

I recall many years ago a friend getting pinched by the GW for removing his deer from the field. It may have been on public land, not sure.

While I'm in NY , I'm right on the border of PA. I just heard two quick shots I wonder if someone got a bear .That's in Pike Co which has lots of bear .I'll be hunting deer there Monday. In this area I've only seen black coloring , no brown or cinnamin. However some do have that white chevron !

Beautiful bear!!! Good job on the stalk too.

You can get them the hard way too! http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05327/611504.stm

quote:

Originally posted by cwilson:
... This bear had metal ear tags, which means that it was trapped and moved at some time in its life, most likely due to conflicts with humans. They took a tooth and will send it to Penn State University for aging.

Hey CWilson, That is great. A Bear that might have been killed for bothering folks ended up being a fine Hunting Memory.

Nice that they will age the teeth for you too.

quote:

I was using a Rem Model 7 in .308 Win. and shooting Factory (gulp!!) Remington Green Box ammo - 180 grain pointed core-lokt bullets. Recovered a portion of one bullet which I estimate weighed about 50 grains.

Ah-oh! Got some BAD news for you. Some of the "Experts" just got through creating a long thread about how Standard Bullets just aren't worth buying. To read the thread, it appears that only Premium and Super Premium Bullets "kill" any more. And those old Remington Green Box cartridges just don't have what it takes. So be really careful handling that Bear, it might be playing possum on you.

Of course, recovering a portion of the actual bullet should have got him fired up a bit. Just don't understand how the 180gr old Standard Bullet could have worked so well(as they have ALWAYS done for many years).

M7 - now there is a rifle I really enjoy. Got a Safe full of them, but not one in 308Win. Do have a 308Win though which is one excellent design.

Congratulations again. I didn't even notice the stuff in the picture besides the Bear and tarp until you mentioned it.

By the way, did you skid the Bear out on the tarp? The Bear's I've drug didn't have real good "handles" to move them around with.

Hot Core:

I have killed 2 bears and about 30 whitetails with the 30 caliber, 180 grain pointed soft point Remington cartridges with no bullet failures. I do hand load and have several rifles that have never been fed any factory ammo, but I have several boxes of the .308 factor stuff left and see no real reason to not use it.

I actually wrapped the bear in a blue canvas tarp, like a burrito, then choked a rope around his shoulders and pulled him out. The tarp was about shredded when we got him to the truck, but I do not think the hide was hurt at all, except for getting dirty. I took us about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to hand-pull the bear down the creekbed, a distance of about 100 - 125 yards, to a place where I could reach him with the four wheeler. Then we attached the rope to the quad and pulled him out, which was much easier (obviously) than hand-pulling. But there was no trail or logging road, so it was a little challenge to negotiate through the woods, over rocks, logs ...etc. Quite an experience.

Hey CWilson, Love the Burrito wrap description. Easy for anyone to visualize.

I'd trade a tarp for the ease of sliding them out too.

Sure been a lot of Game killed over the years with the factory ammo. It works well when placed properly, just as it always has.

Congratulations again.

cwilson,

Congrats! That is a great Bear...! I would be thrilled with him.

I hunted bear this past Sept. in Maine and was unable to connect...Oh well next year then.

Regards,
Dave

quote:

Originally posted by mete:
You can get them the hard way too! http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05327/611504.stm

Hey guys, read the article at this link provided by "mete" - just a reminder that sometimes its the dead ones that bite you. That guy is lucky the bear did not live for another minute or two.

CW,

Congrats on your bear!! Thanks for posting the link to that story as well. It is too easy for all of us to get a bit casual about approaching a downed animal. Putting a 4th shot in him at 15 yards doesn't seem casual to me though. What a freak situation.

Good Hunting,

Bob

Great job! I am still waiting for my first bear and I have not had many opportunities yet, but that seems to be slowly changing......

Congratulations!
IV

Sure beats sitting over a pile of rotting bait doesn't it???? Nice bear, congratulations. Are you going to have the skull bleached? I did one and it gets a lot of attention when people visit. It'd definately worth saving the skull.

the chef

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
Sure beats sitting over a pile of rotting bait doesn't it???? Nice bear, congratulations. Are you going to have the skull bleached? I did one and it gets a lot of attention when people visit. It'd definately worth saving the skull.

the chef

Yes, I plan to have the skull cleaned by the taxidermist - he will be using beatles to clean it. I did the skull of my last bear myself by boiling it in borax water and cleaning/scraping....etc. It was very time consuming. I did not bleach the skull either, but probably should have.

Hey CWilson, That should make a great memory.

We use Fire Ants to clean skulls for us. Just jam the skull in an ant hill and cover it with a washtub and a concrete block to hold it in place. The washtub keeps the Varmints from stealing the skull.

Might as well get some good use from the Fire Ants.

Congradulations on the bear. I'm going to Canada
Black Bear hunting in Aug. again.

CWilson,

Thats a lovely trophy you have there..

When you say the weight is 271lb, is that a "live" weight, or after it was gutted?

Regards,

Pete

quote:

Originally posted by Pete E:
CWilson,

Thats a lovely trophy you have there..

When you say the weight is 271lb, is that a "live" weight, or after it was gutted?

Regards,

Pete

Pete E:

271# was the live weight - undressed. My taxidermist prefers to do a dorsal cut when doing a full body mount, so I left the guts in until we had it skinned.

Belated congrats!! I'da thought you'd have sent me some pics and stuff that same day!!

Don't know about using factory ammo, tho.. All the 'experts' say it's only good for breaking in your custom barrels and stuff, right? Better check with the taxidermist (is Chuck doing it?) to make sure Mr. Bear didn't come back to life and run off.

Hunters took 4,123 bears in PA this year out of about 14,000 total .Average male bear was 200 lbs.

Great bear, great hunt, congrats.

JPK

Hey all:

When a bear is killed in PA, the Game Commission takes a tooth at the check station to have the bear aged. Yesterday I got a letter from the game commission which stated that the bear I killed was 1 year and 10 months old. They also provide a history of the bear based on the ear tags that were in the bear I killed, which means that it was a trapped and transferred nuisance bear. It was trapped in July of 2005 and weighed 185 pounds. When I killed it in November of 2005, it weighed 271 pounds. I guess it was really packing on the pouunds - almost 1 pound per day for four months. Apparently with the right feed, these bears can really grow fast.

Congrats on the great bear ! Best regards,
Starcharvski

Congrats on the bear. This was going to be my first season to bear hunt but things didn't work out. maybe next year.

Congrats on your bear, good hunting.

Nice bear!

Congrats on the bear. I was up by Tionesta at the same time and for three days didn't see doodly-squat, but I sure walked for a long time. I stopped into the check station at Huntingdon and saw a 537Lb Boar. The biggest one I saw up in Marienville was only about 260Lb.
I simply gotta learn more about hunting bears.