1,000lbs pa bear?
 

A hunting buddy sent me this photo, that he says he got off Facebook.

I can't find any info online or even the list showing weights. I know I was watching that list last year though.

Anyone hearing anything about this??

-Jake

Hard to believe an eastern black bear could get that big. The vt record is just over 500 dressed with an estimated 600 live weight. Then again you have better feed down in pa so who knows.

I agree. And I still can't find anything on line about it. Which has me doubting it.

PA has had 800 lbs + bears. And 700lbs seems like every year here recently. Lots of 5 and 600pounders each season. So I suppose it is possible.

Limited hunting opportunities (no hounds, no baits) lots of food, and a perfect climate (cold enough to require body mass but not so cold that there isn't abundant food sources) let's bears live long and grow big.

-Jake

And like I said... A buddy got that photo off Facebook and then sent it to me. He had no other info on it

-Jake

It's erased this morning. So either a typo or photo shop?
-Jake

It must betrue it was on Facebook. Right?

That's what I've been told! I'm not on Facebook, but the fact that he couldn't find a link to it, and there were no pictures of the bear circulating had me suspecting it was false.

-Jake

To hit 1000 pounds a bear would have to be pretty old. To sustain that size he would have to be an eating machine and be prime for hunting. I doubt that one could ever survive up here long enough to hit 1000 pounds with a long hunting season and hounds.

You may not use dogs for bear in PA.

I understand that my quote was up here where it is allowed. Pa is a lot like Vt with some nice tracts of timber and lots of ag land both of which are rich in feed. Pa has a lot more nuts and a milder climate so feed is better down there. Hounds or not I would say a bear in both states has a reasonable chance of being seen while hunting is in season. The only place where there are really large tracts of dense forest where they can avoid detection is northern Maine and I think they allow baiting there since it would be almost impossible to hunt them there without it. Up there a bear can live a long time but they don't have the feed or climate to grow that large as fast.

From just a quick Google search Maine averages around 10k license sold and approximately 25% success rate.

Pa sells around 170k tags and has around a 2-3% success rate. Both States tag about the same amount of bear. But it takes PA allot more hunters to do it.

Not allowing bait and hounds makes a big difference.

PAs bear population is estimated at 20k and Maine's at over 30k. I couldn't find a solid number for Maine and that estimate was from 2014.
Maine is a smaller state as well. Although still pretty big.

All that to say... A good hunter can spend allot of time in good bear country in PA and not see a bear. Years(ask me how I know :biggrin:). And to their credit: there are some guys who take multiple bear. But it's not common. There are plenty of hunters in Maine who take bear every year.

I figure it's only a matter of time for me. I see them almost every year during deer season. Just have to have one show up a week earlier.

-Jake

Back to the subject of weight:

https://www.poconorecord.com/article/20101119/NEWS/11190341

This would lead me to believe it's possible. It's just a matter of somebody tagging the right bear at the right time. Bear weights fluctuate allot over the course of a year.

And it's a long way from 879 up to 1,000. But I still think that the possibility is there.

I might need to pack the big boolits this year :fighting0007:

-Jake

IMO< a 1,000 lb black bear is possible if all the cards line up, and odds are a some helping hands too
and I say that with the fact, MANY bears get help from humans, be it on purpose(as in feeding baiting them) and or just planting crops and things they eat
I have seen MANY 600 lbs bears in spring time, and even seen a few in the 700 plus range(facts too not guesses, weighted on scales and released)
so, think a bear in early spring coming out of hibernation, that maybe LOST a 100-150 lbs over the winter
cannot get back to close to that 1,000 , is NOT that far off
one thing I think that makes this HARDER is, mating season, as even if a bear is 700 lbs say in June, come Aug, after 2 months of dogging females, eating very little along the way, they will drop a bunch of weight, making putting that ALL back on to get back to where they were before mating season, a hurtle in itself

NOW< find a big old male that gave up on chasing girls LOL if any exists
and then that 1,000 lb mark is for sure a possibility IMO, but will take easy meals, and a rare male that isn;t looking for girls in mating season

I know I watch every yr, a few local female bears here, that been showing up here for 12-14 yrs now(same bears) and watching them go from a 125 lbs or so in June and be 300-350 come Dec, more than doubling there weight
and its amazing HOW fast they can add lbs and size too, just from month to month, the gains can some times be huge!

get again a BIG male , that never lost weight in mating season, but just slowly gained it>
and records can be broken

and lets face it, whitetail deer, a species with about the most known info on, its been proven that some bucks DON"T Breed or mate, so why cannot some bears too??


I also think a HUGE bear like this might NOT be killed in a big tract of woods, but rather in a rural area, where easier hand outs happen, and lower hunting pressures, due to NO legal place to hunt them at times?
same as with some huge bucks that live in housing developments!

B.S. In my opinion

One of the worst areas of the state for feeding bear is in the big woods of the Pocono mountains. Lots of imports from NJ and NY who bought homes there and just think it is a hoot to feed the bears at their homes.

yes I agree, and then they all cry when the poor bears do something they don't like, not knowing they created the problems in the first place

but again, a 1,000 lb bear might be possible due to things like this sadly!
not a true natures feat, but helped along by man to get them there!
an average bear can eat 50+ lbs in a sitting, so, if one had enough $$ and ignorance to do so, PA has some BIG bears as is and good genetic's
I can see one happening MAYBE some day!

The last one I knew of that we had that was approaching a grand was affectionately named Bozo by the locals. They continually fed him, were warned by the PGC not to, as it is illegal to do so as well as being stupid and dangerous. One day in bear season someone who knew the bear's habits and travel paths from where he was being fed set up and ambushed him and killed him. Oh the crying and moaning about poor Bozo being killed. Truth of the matter is he did everyone a favor by taking that bear out of the gene pool before the PGC had to do it and it was the fault of those crying and moaning that the bear got killed. Had they not made him accustomed to being fed he would probably still be alive. Not my cup of tea to shoot a semi tame animal but problem solved.

Like I said, odds are if one is to get to 1,000 lbs, I foresee it having had help other than from mother nature!

In Pennsylvania you have to bring your bear out in one piece to a check station. Heavy bush. You had better have a bunch of good friends with good backs if you plan on getting one out of there. I have a friend and relatives there, and I have no plans to drag a big bear for miles.

I've helped drag out some big bears over the yrs, including a state record way back when, and it was ALL up hill, we used and broke a few come a longs to do so, talk about SLOW goings a few feet only at a time, tree to tree

then I have also been part of a few recovery's where horses were used., HUGE difference in work and time spent
as I got older, most times, we were on private lands and we used atv's and or trailers behind them, or tractors

but can recall some ALL day recovery's deep in swamps and on game lands where nothing but backs and muscles were used, DON"T miss them days at all

I DO< know IF you contact the game dept, they will GET you help, or help you themselves, as they have keys to gates and can many times get a vehicle closer to things than you can !

so, I have have done this before too in PA

Horses work well. Last November my Elk was removed from where I shot it by a Percheron pulling a plastic sled. My outfitter had the guy who owned the horse on standby at the skinning shed, when a client killed an elk he would go out and bring it out to the guides truck. Beat the dickens out of grunting and sweating.

I've watched the moose checkin a few times here in vt. They often get them with horses.

Hey all! Brand new to HuntingNet.

I hunt primarily black bear, and although such a weight is theoretically possible, I'm calling B.S. on this one, especially given the complete lack of secondary verification. Of course, if you get such verification, we're all aching to see it.

Just took my biggest bear back in August in Maine. 260 little pounds - not even worthy of the same thread as a hypothetical 1k monster.

Pgc announced that it was an error and the weight was taken down from the online list

-Jake

This should end the thread!

Why? There's been good discussion on weights and what's possible.

That is the purpose of a forum after all

-Jake

I bet whatever "biologist" they said entered the weight in wrong and clicked "save" without proofreading got a talking- to

-Jake

current world record black is a coastal NC bear that tipped the scales at 880 pounds.
RR