This African hunter was out with bow and rifle. For you warm hearted hunters temps ranged from a warm 28 degrees to a cool 8 degrees.

Pennsylvania has some of the biggest black bears and our bear season only lasts around 12 days if you hunt with a bow, rifle, and thru deer season in open areas.
Here is possibly a world record bear.
http://wnep.com/2013/11/26/hun...n-lackawanna-county/

Mike

That's Huge. Is that possible though ? This is way out of my comfort zone . I obviously know very little about them. Impressive animal .

Mike,

Often these really outsized black bears are dumpster divers and just abnormally fat. This bear looks normal but just huge all over. The head is amazing. I'd be really interested in what it measured after drying.

Mark

That's simply massive!

Jan, Pennsylvania has historically harvested some very big bears. Every year there are 500 and 600lb bears harvested.

Mike

Mark , what is the heaviest bear that you know of that was officially weighed ? This one is estimated ( and at an odd number )

quote:

Originally posted by retreever:
Jan, Pennsylvania has historically harvested some very big bears. Every year there are 500 and 600lb bears harvested.

Mike

Didn't realise they get that big Mike. Wow.

That is official weight. All harvested bears must be taken to a Pa. game commission check station to be weighed, temp taken, and tooth pulled. to age the bear.
Mark that bear has never been captured for he has no ear tags. That yellow tag is from the check station. Pa. has done a lot of research on black bears and age and survival stats. Our harvest will be between 3 to 4000 total for the seasons. Only one per hunter a season.

Mike

The largest black bear on record was taken in BC and weighed over 1100 lbs according to the info I have seen. And traditionally, there are 30 or more bears a year that weigh over 700 lbs taken in North Carolina. But that is still a monster. Largest I have taken is 400 but have seen a much bigger bear than that in CO

How did you do this season Mike?

Mike the bears eluded our best efforts. Where I hunted the temps were so low we believe they went to dens. Where we have hunted for the past 30 yrs and shot many bears there was no fresh sign no track in snow old droppings. We hunted hard and get a A for effort. Deer, turkeys but no bears.

Mike

Jan,

That bear that Mike posted the pic of is the biggest black bear I've ever seen. I don't know what the largest ever recorded is. One of the other guys said 1,100 which would equal a big brown bear. This bear in question according to the article is 772# and an estimated weight but I don't doubt it. I do know that regardless of what one hears an awful lot of black bears taken each year are about 150# and an honest 300 pounder is a big boy. Having said that it seems PA and NC produce some enormous specimens ever year.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by pagosawingnut:
...traditionally, there are 30 or more bears a year that weigh over 700 lbs taken in North Carolina...

Does anyone else have a problem with this stat?

Where did this info originate?

There was one that was determined to have been poached in PA a few years ago that I believe weighed over 800 lbs. Those are real numbers from weigh-in stations. I have a station about 5 miles from my home, and last there there were several checked that were over 600 lbs.

I'd guess the heaviest live in Ak., or in Canada near Ak.
Is that so?

That's a seriously huge black bear. Reminds me that I need to buy a bear tag and get out in the woods here in California. We have about another month left of our season, and some very big bears are taken here as well. Biggest one I've ever participated in taking was a bit over 500 pounds on a truck scale and had been living in an apple growing area and grew huge off the easy living and tons of fresh fruit.

Killing a bear is one of my major lifes goals.
This one is a dandy. Beautiful raven black color too.
George

North Carolina bears.
http://gothunts.com/north-caro...lack-bear-confirmed/
Just like the coastal grizzly the alaska brown bear feeds on salmon. The interior griz does not have such a rich food source.
https://www.google.com/search?...sAQ&biw=1600&bih=766
http://www.northcarolinasports...m/details.php?id=284

Mike

Because a deer/bear, is usually gutted and tagged before being taken out of the woods, they would be in a field gutted state when weighed on the official scales. The live weight is then determined from the field dressed weight, and with 1,000s of bears and deer having been weighed this way, and non-gutted ones too, they can come within a few lbs of the real, live weight. Actually, Alaska's black bears, from what I've seen, come no where near the size of the ones from PA, and some of these eastern states with good food and living conditions. These bears in PA would also not be dumpster divers, as would be trapped and moved as soon as that started. Or maybe shot. I have a picture of a friend and his over 600 lb black bear shot in Canada, Saskatechwan, I believe, and would like folks to see it, but don't know how to post it. If anyone can let me send it to them by e-mail and want to put it on here, let me know.

My note above should have noted that in PA it is REQUIRED that the deer/bear be tagged before being moved. If going to tag it, might as well lighten it up for the drag.. right?

In the middle of the video it scrolled through the weights of bears taken so far- 1 was 77lbs. i bet that hunter was proud of his cub….. at least a full body mount should be cheap- if the taxidermist can find a form small enough.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:
In the middle of the video it scrolled through the weights of bears taken so far- 1 was 77lbs. i bet that hunter was proud of his cub….. at least a full body mount should be cheap- if the taxidermist can find a form small enough.

There is also one weighing in at 48 lbs ....maybe the hunter was charged

That is an impressive bear. Congrats to the succesful hunter.

Pa. has always had big bears. I am glad to see the length of the season is getting longer. Back in my youth when I hunted there, the bear season was 1 day.

Wow, that's huge, Mike! I wonder if we'll see the mount at Harrisburg in February?

There was a magazine article a few years ago (either Outdoor Life or Field and Stream) and talked about the best places to hunt B&C or P&Y Black Bear. Pennsylvania ranked right near the top. As people have already mentioned it's not uncommon to have bears weighing 600 pounds and you have the ones not topping out over 100 lbs.