Bear Season (Extended)

Saturday, Dec. 3 found me hunting closer to home in Perry County. The first Saturday of the season is a unique day in WMU 4B as a properly licensed hunter can hunt buck, doe, and bear on the same day. At around 8:30, I saw some movement below me. Much to my surprise, it was a nice sized black bear slipping out of the clear cut. I raised the gun and he presented a standing shot at about 150 yards. I fired my .270 and he took off running. I fired a 2nd round as he disappeared back into the clear cut. I heard a few more shots after that and assumed that someone else had gotten him. After waiting a few minutes, I started down the mountain to check on my first two shots. I was almost at the spot where he had been standing when much to my surprise, here he came again running out of the clear cut up the mountain towards me. He stopped at about 40 yards and I fired a 3rd shot. This time, he dropped. And just like that, I was standing over my first-ever PA black bear. It all happened so fast I couldn't believe it. My brother and niece arrived a few hours later and spent half of their day helping me to get him the 1.5 miles back to my truck. What a memory! At the check station the boar weighed in at 276 pounds (estimated 326 pounds live weight).