The first-ever muzzleloader bear season produced a surprising harvest in the northeast region, and may have accomplished several wildlife management goals in the process.
The statewide season was held Oct. 19-26, and 342 bears were taken in the northeast. In several counties, the muzzleloader harvest has already accounted for nearly of the entire harvest from all of last season.
But more importantly, the harvest may have put a dent in crop damage issues and, possibly, lead to a reduction in the overall population.
Pennsylvania Game Commission Biologist Keven Wenner said there were a numerous bears killed for crop damage in the region beginning in early September. But once the muzzleloader season began on Oct. 19, Wenner said he didn’t receive one report of a farmer shooting a bear for crop damage.
They were letting hunters do the work instead.
“The muzzleloader harvests were associated with where the food was, as hunters focused on cornfields in addition to acorns and hickory nuts in the woods,” Wenner said. “The timing of the season gave hunters an opportunity to pursue bears while they’re still active, and they were successful by keying in on the food.”
That’s the approach that hunter Shawn Good took to harvest his bear in Luzerne County. Good was hunting near a cornfield on Oct. 25 when a bear exited the woods. Good needed one shot from his .50 caliber muzzleloader to down the sow, which had an estimated live weight of 211 pounds.
“I think the season was a good idea because you can hunt for both deer and bear, and timing is good because the corn is still standing,” Good said. “I always hunted archery, but when they added the bear season I bought a muzzleloader to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Most of the harvested bears in the northeast were checked by PGC personnel in the field, and weights were estimated with a chest tape. The heaviest bear in the region was taken in Monroe County and had an estimated live weight of 610 pounds. Wenner said another bruin taken near Hazleton, in Luzerne County, weighed close to 500 pounds.
The bear population in many areas of the northeast has continued to grow and expand, resulting in a steady stream of nuisance complaints. There’s a good chance that the muzzleloader harvest could help to slow the rise in bear numbers, based on Wenner’s conversations with successful hunters and what PGC personnel witnessed while checking bruins in the field.
Wenner said those hunters that harvested sows were asked if they saw cubs, and quite a few said they didn’t see any.
Because sows have cubs every other year, Wenner surmised those that were taken during the muzzleloader season without any cubs were likely bred this summer and would’ve given birth in January.
“Taking a bred female now is probably removing four bears or more, counting the adult and the cubs that would’ve been born in January,” Wenner said. “From a population standpoint, that’s a good thing.”
And if the trend continues, the northeast could realize a strong harvest this year.
During the muzzleloader season alone, nine of the 13 counties in the northeast nearly met or exceeded 50 percent of the entire bear harvest in 2018. Pike (52), Luzerne (50) and Monroe (40) were the top producing counties in the region during the muzzleloader season.
The statewide archery bear season runs from Oct. 28 – Nov. 9, followed by the regular season (Nov. 23 – 27) and extended seasons in certain Wildlife Management Units, and Wenner said it’s tough to predict where this year’s final harvest will rank.
“The muzzleloader harvest is all supplemental of what’s to come,” he said. “It remains to be seen if this new opportunity has altered what participation will be like in the regular season. That’s an unknown, and we don’t know if the muzzleloader harvest takes away from the regular season or if the bear harvest just be spread out.”
