Pike County has had its fair share of the big boys, since 1923 when my grandfather and Norman Kuykendall pulled a record 633 lb bear out of the woods around Milford PA. Record stood until the early 80's.
There's an old documentary made back in the early 90's {maybe even late 80's} by the Pa. Game Commission titled "On The Trail Of Pennsylvania's Black Bear" that is well worth the view. If you can scare up an old VHS copy you can learn quite a bit about black bears in general. We just had the conversation a few days ago about how different areas have different bears...Pa. has some huge bears, but the skulls are not all that big for the size. Alaska has big skulls, an Alaska bear half the size of one of those Pa. giants will still usually make it in the books. Virginia is just starting to see some of the big ones in the last few years. West Va. they seem to run smaller. Overall in general there has been a big increase in bear numbers over the last 10 or so years.
Funny that if Pa. has a 900 pound bear, someone else will tell how they have bigger ones in their state. It's really not a contest though, just a biological thing. Pa. each year shows bears taken that are over 800 pounds, small or big heads or whatever. As far as I know, you don't see a lot of black bears that size shown as taken in other states consistently each year.
I think guys get a misconception about our Pa. bears. There are a few monsters, just as there are monster bucks. But the vast majority are small average bears. It can be hard enough finding a bear here, let alone thinking you'll definitly get a brute. As an exanple, the first day results from our recent 2019 rifle bear season at the Tidioute check station were, 61 bears checked in, only one was over 300 pounds, two more were over 200 pounds and 30 more were all under 100 pounds. That's 50% under 100 pounds feild dressed.
Hunters tend to take the first bear that comes along. Like deer, there are more young ones than old ones so those numbers reflect on what comes in to the check stations. For any state, that isn't a reflection on what's out there, just what someone decided to shoot. I'm sure there are big bears everywhere, you just don't see them in the news alot.
As for the ability to take bears, they kill over 3000 per year in Pa., and that isn't insignificant...one year it was over 4000. Even the bowhunters kill over 300 per year, amazing for an animal you supposedly have to bait to kill with a bow. As for New Jersey, I don't keep up with the politics over there so it is what it is; only the Delaware River separates us and I'm sure in places a bear can walk across there at times with little effort.
I am blessed to see many PA bears on the mountain out back. No better treat than seeing a cinnamon colored one. Seen this one several times over a 3 year period.
Ace, yes sir, that is the documentary!!! Definitely worth the time to watch it. I was surprised to learn that they almost never use the same den twice and that the biggest bears were found near the biggest cities. I have never heard any one claim they had bigger bears than Pa. Maybe Alaska can say it, but they have to be talking about brown and polar bears, not black bear. Pa. is without a doubt king of the heavy bears. Unfortunately it's not weight that matters when it comes to getting in the trophy books, and that is not right to me...I really believe skull size and weight should both be factors.
"Hunters tend to take the first bear that comes along." Yes, no kidding! Many Pa hunters hunt for years, hoping to finally get a bear, of course they shoot the first one they finally see.
Bear season in Pa. has been opened since Dec 16th 1979. Prior to that it was closed in something like 1953. In the 80's it was just like a one day season. Somewhere in the early 90's it went to three days and it was always the Mon, Tues, and Wed. before Thanksgiving. When I lived up there in the early 80's everybody hunted deer and bear. Even old ladies with floppy straw hats went hunting.
Wudstix, you are correct. PA rifle buck opener was always the Monday after Thanksgiving and schools were always closed. This year for the first time ever, they changed the opener to the Saturday after Thanksgiving but schools were still closed yesterday (Monday). Hunting has always been a great tradition in PA and I hope it will always continue to be.
The big bears get all the attention. On the Game Commission website the biggest again are written about and listed several times. As said already it is not a true cross section of the harvest.
When we check in a bear a tooth is removed. The tooth information is posted by the following July. This is the true picture of the bears harvested. Click on this list and you will find very interesting details. Example; several bears 15 year old only weighted in at 175lbs. Some 2 year olds 250lbs. Female bear stats are all over the place. Fun reading for sure.
My experience has been with Union and Pike counties. The later had by far more bear and bigger bear. I saw several 500#+ bears in my youth while trout fishing some of the "out of the way" streams around Milford.
A bear as beautiful as that Tom I'd sure spend every waking hour trying to figure him out if I could. You are blessed that's an understatement I think. Beautiful pictures.
NJ has some big ones also the tally not all in opens again Next Monday during the NJ 6 day gun season.
I sure tried Cat. Unfortunately he was harvested two seasons ago by a very young hunter with a crossbow in his yard at a bird feeder. 4ish miles from here.
Wudstix...you can bowhunt up to 50 yards from houses. For firearms its 150 and with the owners permission you can hunt inside 150. As a property owner, you can sit on your porch and hunt, provided you respect the others that are within 150 of you.
On my daughter and son-in-laws farm, you could literally sit in the bathroom and shoot about 300 yards across their fields.
No baiting or dogs, you kind of just go out and hope you see one LOL. I know guys that try to pattern them but it's tough to do mostly because they can range so far. I'm no bear hunting "expert" and I usually only go out with my dad when he wants to go and mainly just to hang out with him and enjoy the day.
Swampwalker, I'd say that the majority of the bears killed in our 4 day rifle season are killed by groups of hunters putting on organized drives through seemingly steep and impenetrable cover.
You can use a predator call as far as I know. And I have heard of several incidences this year that bowhunters accidently called in bears and killed them while using a doe bleat. The PA game Commission has done a great job managing our bears so far. But they continue to expand our bear hunting opportunitied to try to keep the numbers in check. This is the first year we have had 2 weeks of archery and 1 week of muzzleloader in addition to our 4 day rifle season. Plus, in sections of our state with high numbers of bear you can shoot a bear in the deer rifle season too
I kinda “pattern” bears in general. Not a specific animal. They just cover too much ground and don’t stay long. I figure they come through our area through common routes other bears used and prefer certain thickets over others when they spend a short visit on the mountain I hunt.
Find out how they get in and out of these spots. Also learn how they escape them when hunters approach. It takes several season but you can learn. I will increase your odds a bit.
I see bears often but ones I have taken I never saw before. Low odds are better than no odds.
Most important is to get out of bed and don’t talk yourself out of it. LOL! :)
Swampwalker, yes alot of times it can be happenstance especially bowhunting but like Tom Mcool said, if you scout alot and find the food sources and likley bedding habitat you up your odds greatly.
A friend I hunt with has killed 3 with a crossbow in the last 6 years. I've had 2 in range of my recurve the last 4 years but no shots. My friend doesn't hunt deer in archery season only bear. Me, im always torn between deer and bear. If you put your time in and are dedicated to killing a bear I believe it will happen eventually...Brad
George I’m not sure it was 10 percent until the last year or 2. Even at that I’ve heard that before the archery deer hunters could harvest a bear during deer season( which is mostly luck) the game commission assumed most archery bears harvested were by baiting.
Good chance PA has the world record black bear roaming the mts somewhere. Most people don't realize what's here in terms of habitat. There are places here where you just simply can't get in to hunt right, extremely thick laurel on really steep mountainsides. Mts steep enough you can't hunt it when its snow covered for lack of footing. My brother tracked a bear through the snow in the pine creek canyon area, it went over the side. He had to let it go, just wasn't worth the risk.
Amazing how deer and bear can run those steep sides. Hunting it would be hard...getting one out once shot would be even harder.
In 2013 I killed a bear with modern hoyt. The boar was 2 years 7 mos old. Weighed a good poop under #300. P&Y scored at 18-15/16” great genetics and good food opportunites mixed with great cover are important to big critters. It does seem like sows in general are usually around #200 - #300 zone but #400+ Arent uncommon.
I know of a tagged black bear that back in the early 2005 era that weighed, at the time of tagging by the PGC, over #1000. It may still be roaming the hills of Potter county, and you may cross his path at Denton Hill :)
Wow nice looking bear pictures, use to hunt Pike & Wayne counties when I was a younger man. The hunters use to wear that cranberry & black or black & red woolrich coats hunting back then. Some young hunter killed a group of men walking a trail following each other. Stopped hunting bear after that happen.
