Afield: A look at bear hunting season in PA — including a huge one shot in Centre County

Hunters with bears were lined up at the Quehanna check station on the evening of the opening day, Nov. 22. However, almost every bear weighed less than 200 pounds. Birdsboro hunter Lori Raser had the largest bear — a 384-pounder shot in a Wykoff Run side hollow. One shot with her .308 did the trick. Raser has quite a hunting resume — including African big game, but this was her first bear.

Preliminary figures show that hunters brought in 1,206 bears during the Nov. 22-25 firearms season. Breaking the total down, 713 were reported on the opening day, 276 on day two, 140 on day three and an additional 77 bears on the final day of the season. This compares to only 823 shot during the same season in 2024, 1,084 in 2023, and 1,049 in 2022.

Nine bears were shot during the early archery season in three WMUs — 2B, 5C and 5D. As of this writing, 383 bears were harvested during the extended season that coincides with the firearms deer season. From 2019 to 2021, the extended season kill was over 1000, bears each year. This number dipped to a low of 425 last season. It is likely that this year’s total for the extended season will be lower than 2024’s tally.

Heaviest bears

Thus far, seven bears topped the 600-pound mark, compared to 12 in last year’s harvest. The heaviest bear came from Butler County — a boar that had an estimated live weight of 717 pounds. Butler County, a non-traditional bear county, produced 43 bears this fall.

As reported by station WPIX, Beaver County hunter Nate Miller shot that large bruin while hunting in Moraine State Park. It took nearly five hours for Miller, his brother, friends and park rangers to move the huge bear 800 yards and into his pickup. The bear weighed 608 pounds at the check station and had an estimated live weight of 717 pounds. “[It is the] number one bear ever in Butler County … and it should make top 10 in the state of Pennsylvania,” Miller said.

Another one of the heaviest bears, a 597-pound male was taken by Manheim hunter Andy Miller in Centre County on the opening morning of the regular firearms season. Miller was hunting near his family’s camp in the Bald Eagle State Forest.

“It was raining Saturday morning, so I didn’t leave camp until around 8:30. My dad headed for Shriner Mountain, while I decided to stay closer to the cabin,” Miller said. He still hunted along Pine Creek and a nearby swamp.

A short time later he heard a panting sound — maybe a dog or coyote, he thought. “The panting got louder and then I heard a stick crack. This has got to be a bear,” he said.

Miller heard the bear cross Pine Creek and could see the laurel moving, but not what was causing it to move. “I saw an opening in the laurel ahead and got ready. The head appeared, then the shoulder, and I shot,” he said. The bear started running and Miller shot again and heard the bear drop, but it was out of sight.

Miller waited 45 minutes before looking for his downed bear. After a bit of searching, he found his bear in the thick laurel.

“The head was so heavy that I could hardly lift it, let alone roll the bear over to field dress it,” Miller said. “I flagged down a pickup, which happened to be hunters from a nearby camp, and asked for help. The three of us were able to roll the bear over and I field dressed it.”

More help arrived, and it took the five of them three and a half hours to move the bear 400 yards. Miller plans to have a full-body mount of his bear.

“I know that I won’t ever get a bigger one,” he said.

Which Pennsylvania counties have the most bears?

So far this season, Tioga County has produced the most bears — 179, with Lycoming hunters netting 145. Pike County tied with 145. Two additional north-central counties and five northeastern counties fill out the top 10. These 10 counties make up about 43% of the total statewide harvest, which is the same as last year’s percentage.

Top harvest counties in 2025

1. Tioga: 179, NC region

2. Lycoming, 145, NC region

3. Pike, 145, NE region

4. Clinton, 136, NC region

5. Bradford, 125, NE region

6. Potter, 112, NC region

7. Luzerne, 111, NE region

8. Monroe, 100, NE region

9. Sullivan, 92, NE region

10. Wayne, 76, NE region

Fifteen-year-old Shane Harlacker harvested one of the 179 bears shot in Tioga County, and what a bear it was. With an estimated live weight of 602 pounds, it was the heaviest bear shot in Tioga County this year.

Harlacker, a 10th grader at Corning Painted-Post High School, was hunting with a group of 10 hunters on Oct. 25, during the Special Firearms Season. They had permission to drive several standing corn fields where bears had been feeding. Only one other hunter was eligible to carry a rifle, the remainder were drivers, including Harlacker’s dad, Bryan.

“While we were driving the first field, I saw a large bear dart out of the field, then right back in, eluding the drivers,” Harlacker said. “Our second drive of the same field produced no bears and we suspected that the bear had slipped into an adjacent field.” It was during the third drive of that adjacent field when things got interesting.

“I, along with another man, was at the end of the field as the drivers approached,” Harlacker related. “When they were just 20 yards form the end, someone yelled ‘bear.’” The huge bear barreled out of the corn and headed right for Harlacker. It actually ran into the man next to him — knocking him down.

“It happened so fast that I can’t say that I was scared when the bear came running toward me,” Harlacker said. “But let’s just say it certainly got my adrenalin flowing.”

The next drive put the bear out in the open and Harlacker heard it splashing across Cowanesque River. His first shot missed, but shots two through five from his .30-06 were all hits and put the bear down. “We had estimated its weight at 300-400 pounds — boy were we off,” Harlacker said.

The head and hide are at a local taxidermist, and the family has already enjoyed a bear roast.

Pennsylvania’s top bear harvest years

Here’s a look at top bear harvests:

1. 4,653: 2019

2. 4,350: 2011

3. 4,164: 2005

4. 3,748: 2015

5. 3,655: 2021

From 2005 to 2022 Pennsylvania hunters were bringing in over 3,000 bears every year except one, with the harvest for three of those years topping 4,000. Last year’s total kill of 2,642 just made the top 25 all-time harvests. When all of the numbers are in, the 2025 harvest will also make the top 25 of all time, but unlikely to break 3,000.

Mark Nale, who lives in the Bald Eagle Valley, is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and can be reached at MarkAngler@aol.com.