SUNBURY – This is a golden age of bear hunting, so says the state game commission as the 2016 bear harvest numbers are announced. They’ve kept records since 1915 and they say hunters killed 3,529 bears last year. That’s the fifth highest tally on record, and to top it off, 60 of those bears weighed 500 pounds or more and 17 exceeded 600.
The largest bear taken this season weighed an estimated 740 pounds. It was taken in Indiana County by Dustin Learn of Home, PA. It was one of three bears taken by hunters that exceeded 700 pounds. The three were the first to do so since 2013.
