Kittanning hunter bags 600-pound black bear

After 13 years of trying, a Kittanning hunter bagged his first bear — a 601-pound bruin that was among the largest taken in the state during the four-day hunting season, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The agency this week announced preliminary results from the statewide bear season, which opened Nov. 18.

The bear taken by Bo Bowser of Kittanning in nearby Valley Township, Armstrong County, was among a dozen harvested large bears that the game commission cited in its report.

Bowser, 25, was hunting alone Nov. 20 in a wooded area and was able to sneak up on the bear.

“I was lucky that way,” he said Wednesday.

Although the heaviest bears typically are taken in the northern part of the state, Bowser was excited to find one so large in his own backyard.

Armstrong County Sheriff Bill Rupert bagged a 600-pounder in the same township several years ago.

Bowser's bear was so big that he called Kittanning friends Austin Baum, Cam Wolfe and others to help carry his harvest — which first had to be floated across Pine Creek.

“It took five of us to drag it 15 yards in 45 minutes, and then fit him on top of an ATV,” Bowser said.

Bowser gave the bear's meat to friends.

The rest of the animal is at a taxidermist, where its fate is uncertain.

“Something that big, you can't exactly stuff and put in the corner of your living room,” Bowser said.

Elsewhere in the state, rainstorms dampened hunters' bear takes this year, the game commission said.

The statewide harvest of 1,796 fell short of last season's 2,579 during the four-day season. Archery and other early-bear season harvest data was not included in the commission's report.

Comprehensive bear harvest totals that include bears taken during the early and extended seasons will be released in coming months.

The overall 2016 bear harvest was 3,529, the fifth-largest in state history.

Highlights of this year's bear season:

• The top bear-hunting county statewide was Lycoming County, with 130 bears, besting the 127 bears taken in Tioga County, the commission said.

• The top 10 bears documented at check stations were estimated or confirmed to have live weights of 576 pounds or more.

• The heaviest bear statewide — a male estimated at 700 pounds — was taken in Oil Creek, Venango County, by Chad A. Wagner of Titusville with a rifle on Nov. 18.

• Two bears over 500 pounds were taken on the season's final day: A male estimated at 581 pounds in Tuscarora, Perry County, by Allen W. Esh of Millerstown; and a male estimated at 568 pounds in Fox Township, Elk County, by Edward J. Bellotti of Kersey.

Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4691, mthomas@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MaThomas_Trib.