He looked like a Volkswagon Bug

[Nice Racks]

Took a trip to Pa for their Whitetail season that just opened this past Monday. Early on opening day the biggest bear that I have ever seen in the wild came wobbling by me without a care in the world. As he wobbled past, each movement he made was very slow and deliberate; not in a hurry to do anything. Once he got into the swampy area, he layed down, rolled over onto his back, and squirmed around as if he was scratching. He then rolled back over, took a long, deep yawn l, looked around, and got back up and wobbled on down the edge of the swamp, then disapeared into the thickets. He was so huge I thought he looked like a Volkswagon Bug slowly going through the woods in 1st gear. My guess on his weight would be well over 500 lbs. I didn't get a great pic of him, but if you can zoom in, he looks just like one big fat blob. Oh he was big. I think bear season had just ended 3 or 4 days prior.

[boneaddict]

That's where the big ones are.   I,heard there's a new possible record there this fall.

[NRA4LIFE]

It looks like he doesn't have legs.  Holy cow.

[Nice Racks]

Last year about 10 miles from this spot the game dept gave a home owner some kind of exploding shotgun shell and instructed him to shoot the bear with it. It won't explode on contact, but a few seconds afterwords. Well the bear was shot with it and the projectile bounced off and continued for about 40 feet before hitting the ground. The bear just happened to take off in the same direction as the projectile, and just as he ran over it, the shell did it's thing and exploded right on his backside. I guess the bear got about 5 feet of air and took off as fast as he could go. He was back the next day. Game dept says that one was pushing the 700lb mark.

[NRA4LIFE]

WTH are those things eating?

[Nice Racks]

My friend who owns the property had never seen this bear before, but seen claw marks on trees that he had to stand on his tip toes to reach them. Each of his claw marks on the tree were like 4 inches apart. He was named the "Freddie Krueger" bear.

[JDHasty]

WTH are those things eating?

Acorn mast.  People I communicate with in PA told me it was a "mast year" last year.  Meaning there was a huge abundance of acorn mast, I don't recall them saying that about this year though. 

[92xj]

Where the current record came from, sandhills of Eastern North Carolina, 821 pounder I believe without looking it up, ate a whole lot of peanuts and corn.

[wheels]

just wow

[carpsniperg2]

I saw the other day on shocky that they were hunting in one of those southern states and they killed a couple huge bears. They said the corn diets and such make for big bears but what really does it is they don't go into full hibernation. They stay active pretty much year long and eat all the time so they don't lose the weight from sleeping. They said it was because of the mild climate and not having harsh winters. Never heard that before but was interesting.

[NRA4LIFE]

I have been told the same thing about the coastal bears in North Carolina.  They get into the peanut fields and fatten up on them.  They're fat smells like peanut butter apparently.

[JDHasty]

Earlier this month.  It took me a while to find the photo.  This lardass is from PA. 

[jackelope]

Acorns are an amazing source of nutrition/fat/calories/call it what you want. Superfood for the critters.

[boneaddict]

I think that's the pending record I mentioned. 

[92xj]

740 pounds. Amazing. Should be a new pa state record depending on what the skull when it dries.