How This Father of 2 Caught Pennsylvania’s Biggest Bear So Far This Year

A black bear moving through the brush does not make the sound of footsteps, rather it is a constant sound, like dragging a sled.

In the case of the black bear shot by Scott Price during this fall’s gun season, it was a very noisy animal with a good 6 inches of blubber.

Price got him out of the woods with the help of his hunting friends he calls “the gang.” The bear recorded a live weight of 774 pounds.

The bear shot in Monroe County tops the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s list of largest bears shot in the 2024-2025 license year. Bear hunting continues through Dec. 14 in parts of the state.

“It’s going to take a hell of a year to get to the top,” Price told lehighvalleylive.com. “I may never surpass it.”

Price is 34, with a 1- and 2-year-old at home and “a very supportive wife.” He said: “I joke that she’s a single mother for the whole hunting season. »

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He works as a roofing salesman for an independent contractor. Price describes himself as being very understanding about his obsession with hunting as much as he can this time of year.

“I’m just an outdoorsman in general,” Price said, adding that he also enjoys hiking, fishing, biking and kayaking. “I just like being outside. All of that rolled into one, that’s what hunting is to me.

He, his wife Colleen and their family live in Lackawanna County, near Moscow. For this year’s bear hunt, he prefers to describe his territory as simply Monroe County, which is part of the Game Commission’s Wildlife Management Unit 3D.

“The first two days we had a tough time,” Price said of the Bears’ four-day regular firearms season that opened Nov. 23. “We didn’t kill any animals. In fact, we barely saw any bears.

They chased one away on the second day, but someone outside of their group got it.

Price hunted with about 20 guys, on public and private lands. Their technique is to put eight or ten on a record, while the rest of the group stays put. “We all change so no one gets burned out,” he said.

“All the guys in the gang are there for all four days, which I think is part of why we’re a successful gang – we’re there all four days of the season,” Price said.

On the third day, a Monday, the morning drizzle had stopped and there was snow on the ground.

The penultimate ride of the day kicked out a nice bear of about 300 pounds, but no one had any luck. They followed him to where he had run, and that’s when Price’s uncle, David Price, threw the 774-pounder.

David Price has made a name for himself in black bear hunting. His 2010 bear is tied for sixth place in Pennsylvania big game archery records. These records reward head circumference and not weight. But in terms of weight, his is the largest yet in Pennsylvania — 875 pounds, harvested in Middle Smithfield Township in Monroe County, according to the Game Commission.

Scott Price was in class at East Stroudsburg University the day his uncle set the record. He got the call and ended up dropping out of school with a friend to help him out of the woods.

The big bear David Price surprised this year came within about five meters of him, but he was unarmed, having already caught a bear this year. Pennsylvania allows only one bear per year, prohibiting the carrying of sporting weapons during the remainder of bear season.

It was at this point in the hunt that the odds temporarily tilted in favor of the bear, who ran alongside Scott Price’s cousin, Michael Price, who also had no weapon, and then towards his father, Jeff Price. He didn’t have a weapon either.

Ultimately, Scott Price’s brother, Ryan Price, was shot, cutting into the fat of his abdomen.

“He was about to have this bear for himself,” Scott Price said.

It was around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m., the time when shadows begin to fill the hollows of the Pennsylvania forests as night approaches.

It was then that Scott Price heard the sound of a sled being dragged through the bushes: “I heard that what I knew was already confirmed. It was a bear,” he said. He readied his gun, a Remington .35 lever-action Marlin 336 bought by his father when he was about 30 years old.

As the bear approached about 15 yards into the mountain laurels, Scott Price aimed just behind the shoulder, a hair farther than one would shoot at a white-tailed deer.

“I shot him twice because I saw how big he was,” he said, the lever action being quick with a second round. “I don’t think he needed it, but I’d rather give him a quick end.”

The bear collapsed after about 10 meters – “exactly how I wanted it to happen.” I didn’t want this to take any longer than necessary. It was the fourth bear of his life, and it was heavier than the first three combined, he said.

Friend Levi Kauffman took a few photos of Scott and his brother Ryan Price near a small fire lit to provide light and warmth as darkness gathered.

The group tied ropes, one around the bear’s head, with two guys pulling; around the front legs with two other guys pulling on each; and around the back legs so another guy or two can pull. A friend’s Ford F-250 was about 650 yards away.

“Luckily there was still 2 or 3 inches of snow left” to aid the effort, Scott Price said. “Honestly, it wasn’t great because we also had a lot of help, and what didn’t have snow was a lot of wet leaves.”

A game warden went to the family barn to check on the bear as it hung on a scale: 774 pounds intact. The other way to measure a bear’s weight is to apply the chest measurement to a chart that peaks at about 800. A tooth extracted by the state official will determine the bear’s age in a ratio that Scott Price said he expects to receive in August.

He doesn’t think the bear was too old, considering its teeth were in good condition. He saw a 720-pound bear as 6 years old and a 150-pound bear as 17 years old, so weight is not a reliable indicator of age. This year the bear has just provided a good diet for the wildlife, with plenty of acorns and beechnuts as part of the opportunistic and largely vegetarian diet.

Everyone participating in the hunt was able to cut some meat from the skinned bear inside the barn and take it home. Scott Price turns the meat he keeps into stews and roasts, and a neighbor skilled in butchery makes him a load of bologna. He plans to have a mount made at Lamparter’s Wildlife Design in Gouldsboro.

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Scott Price was interviewed for this story while taking a lunch break in his pickup truck on Dec. 4, between chasing a white-tailed deer the day after bagging a doe.

“It’s about the only thing I like to do,” he said of hunting, “other than hanging out with my friends and family.” »

2024-25 gun season for the Bear

Pennsylvania’s four-day firearms season for black bear began on November 23, then continued through November 26. The extended gun season began Nov. 30 and will continue through Dec. 14 in parts of the state.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission on Thursday reported 2,505 bears taken in all 2024-25 seasons, encompassing early archery, archery, muzzleloaders, firearms special firearms, ordinary firearms and extended firearms.

Last year, hunters took a total of 2,920 bruins, the lowest number in 15 years. The 2023 harvest was down from 3,170 bears taken the previous year and well below the all-time record of 4,653 bears in 2019.

Kurt Bresswein can be contacted at [email protected].