Bear in mts of Pennsylvania

J

Jack O'Conner

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My son-in-law, Dan, is part owner of a cabin up north in the mountains of Mifflin County. He and my daughter drove up for the weekend so Dan could archery hunt for deer. Shortly after dawn on Saturday, a big bear walked up to Dan’s tree. It stood to full height and stretched up with its paws onto the tree. Dan was a little spooked and at a loss of what to do. So he raised his voice and said, “SHOO”, several times. The bear seemed puzzled but eventually walked away into the forest and vanished. At about 8:30AM, a herd of deer ambled through and Dan shot a big doe with his compound bow. Distance was approx 30 yards. It was a hot day for October with temps rising into the 80’s. So they hurried back to Lancaster County to drop his deer off at a local butcher shop.

Close bears can cause fear in the best of us.

Jack
 
Lots of bear sightings/movement in this neck of the woods in the past month or so. Can't wait for the start of bear season!
 
big

I listened to a lecture many years back, given by a B-bear researcher,very noted (can't recall name though) who made statement that PA may well have (at the tine, , mid 80's) some of the biggest b-bears in the country.
 
I saw a b-bear wandering through a neighborhood in Altoona many years ago. Made me stop my truck and do a double take!

Lol, I second the 'mountains in Pennsylvania' more like gentle rolling hills.
 
Mounains in PA

Potter County.

If they are gentle rolling hills in Potter and not mountains it could have fooled me.

Rmocarsky
 
Umm ya, rolling hills. Not trying to be jerk here, I'm just a western guy. I grew up in western MT, and have lived all over the west since.

The highest peak in potters co. is less than what like 2500 or 2600ft (asl)?

Currently, the valley floor i live on is about 4600ft (asl) the peak to our immediate west (rising straight from valley floor) is nearly 9000ft (asl) to the east (rising from valley floor the peaks are a little under that). Living in penn, a always laughed when people said mountain. Or ranch for that matter, a girl I lived next to said her family (in PA) had a ranch, 80 acres. My friends dad in high school leased 2000 acres so he could grow more alfalfa for his cattle.

Come to the west!! Of course being self sufficient is a necessity, there is no township or borough every 15 miles. Those who cannot cut it for themselves, generally don't cut it at all.
 
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Once upon a time, a western Ranger visited a Ranger buddy who worked in the deep south. As to be expected, they took a spin through the district.

A cotton tail ran across the road, and the southern Ranger commented it was a "swamper" and a big one at that. "Ha", says the western Ranger, "out west we have jack rabbits 3 times that size."

The southern fella says, ............. "Is that right?"

Little bit later, a fine whitetail buck crossed, and again, the host ranger commented it was a good deer and might make Pope & Young by fall. "You call that a deer?" spouted the guest from the west, "Why out in the Rockies we have mule deer, elk, moose that'd make that buck look dainty."

Southern fella says........... "Ya don't say?"

Finally, they got into a wet area and what was crawling across the road but a big ol' snapping turtle. The Ranger from the west had never seen one. "Whoa now, what the devil is that?" he blurted.

"Oh, that?" responds the southerner in his best tone so as to maintain hospitality and good manners, "Why that's a seed tick".
 
Bear population has been increasing in Penn's Woods. Sounded like a pretty exciting experience. Consider if he was in a ground blind?

Mountains, yeah, there are mountains in PA. They are called the Appalachian Mountains. They just tend to be rounder than the western kind. Come South and they get a lot less comfortable to hike up and down.
 
I used to see lots of bear tacks and scat in NE PA back in 1988-90. I believe the North American record bear was taken in PA sadly by a poacher. If I remember right it was 800+ lbs. Thats one monster bear!
 
here,s a large black bear over 450lbs shot with in 3 miles from my home. use the latter rung spacing for scale for bear size. eastbank.
 

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Here's a prime example why everyone's deer stand should be above ground where black bear are known to roam before their hibernation period. Black bear can be bold occasionally. {no doubt about that.} Your Son-in-law handled the situation well Jack O'Conner. As it would have been a shame to arrow the curious animal.
 
For those of you that live out west, why not trailer your horse on over to PA and try to ride him to the top of one of our mountains?
 
I grew up in PA, but lived in Colorado for many years. There are no mountains in PA.

The foothills in the Rockies are 8K feet, and the mountains reach over 14K feet. They are mountains. PA has little nubs. :D
 
I would rather get to the top of a mountain and have something to hunt. I have been out west. Not impressed. Toughest hunting I ever had was down south in swamps.
 
Was Dan using any type of cover or attractant scent? Bears can be very curious animals and like dogs, many times are driven by their nose. Since the bear seemed more confused than aggressive, I'm assuming he was identifying the noise in the tree to what he smelled. Had he smelled human and related the sound in the tree to such, I thinkin' he would have acted differently.
 
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