Man Takes 679-Pound Bear at 5 Yards with Handgun

Early reports from Pennsylvania’s statewide black bear season show a near-bumper harvest by Keystone State hunters including some very large animals.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission released preliminary totals on Tuesday that show, only two days into the bear season, that many counties have already surpassed last year’s numbers. In all, some 1,622 black bears have been harvested in 54 counties including 10 massive animals that all tipped the scales north of 600-pounds.

The fourth largest taken so far– and one of the more interesting– was a 679-pound male reportedly shot at just 5 yards with a .357 Magnum handgun. The sportsman in that case, Jordan M. Tutmaher, of Warren, took the animal on opening day in Farmington Township as “the bear appeared in a drive of a Christmas tree patch.”

The biggest animal taken thus far was a 704-pound boar taken in Goshen Township by Mickey L. Moore, of Clearfield, who bagged the super-sized male with a rifle on opening day.