Bear hunting season opens across state this month

Bear hunting season is underway in Pennsylvania with more than 200,000 hunters expected in the field this year, though the state game commission expects just 3% of them will come home with a bear.

Archery hunting has started in specific regions and will continue through Nov. 29, including two Sundays, Nov. 17 and 24 in some areas. It will expand statewide Oct. 19 with statewide archery season running through through Nov. 9.

The bear muzzleloader and special firearms seasons are Oct. 24 to 26. and regular statewide firearms is Nov. 23-26. The extended bear season, Nov. 30 to Dec. 14, is held in limited areas.

The muzzleloader bear season is shortened to three days this year to ease the harvest of female bears are in the early seasons. Melanie Weaver, a game commission section supervisor, estimated the female bear population at somewhere around 18,000. That’s up over recent years and close to a record high.

Hunters harvested 2,920 black bears last year including at least one in 58 of the state’s 67 counties and 20 of its 22 Wildlife Management Units. They took seven in the early season, 695 in archery season, 541 in the muzzleloader and special firearms seasons, 1,086 in the regular firearms season, and 591 in the extended seasons.

The average female bear weighed 152 pounds and the average male, 198. Last year’s largest bear was 691, taken in Pike County by Mitchell Jonathan, of Quakertown.Five other hunters got bears exceeding 600 pounds, and each of the top 10 heaviest bears weighed at least 576 pounds.