Pennsylvania Game Commission predicts another good bear season is on tap

Harrisburg — In many situations when you ask how things are going, the answer is “same old, same old” – not bad perhaps, but not overly exciting either.

When it comes to bear hunting in Pennsylvania, however, the “same old, same old” is something special.

Pennsylvania’s earliest 2025 bear hunting seasons got underway in late September. Additional seasons are still to follow. These offerings are the latest in a long line dating back more than a century to the state’s first bear season in 1905.

Yet, the 25 largest bear harvests in Pennsylvania history all have come since 1998. Last year’s take was 2,642.

The traditional statewide firearms season contributed 823 bears to that, while the archery season added 756, the extended season 425, and the muzzleloader and special firearms season 634 combined.

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Hunters got another four bears in the early archery season in select wildlife management units. As in past years, too, the overall bear harvest was spread across the state. Fifty-six of 67 counties gave up at least one bear, as did 21 of 22 units.

So, if the 2025 bear seasons approach that in terms of harvest and distribution – and there’s no reason to think they won’t – it will be pretty good.

More of the “same old, same old?” Yes, please.

“The sustainability of bears and bear hunting in Pennsylvania is tied to the early breeding success and large litter sizes of bears in this state,” said Game Commission bear biologist Brandon Snavely.

“Plus, even with 13 million people living in the state, we’ve still got lots of great bear habitat. Bears make great use of it, too,” he said.

“So with a healthy bear population, spread out from our wildest places to the suburbs, and a wide array of bear seasons coming up, I would expect another good season this fall.”

The archery bear season in units 2B, 5C and 5D – the units closest to Pittsburgh and Philadelphia – runs from Sept. 20-Nov. 28. It goes from Oct. 4-Nov. 21 in unit 5B, and from Oct. 18-25 in the rest of the state – units 1A, 1B, 2A, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, 2G, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E and 5A.

Hunters should note the statewide archery bear season (Oct. 18-25) is now one week long, which is a week shorter compared to last year. That season overlaps portions of the statewide muzzleloader bear season and statewide special firearms bear season, both of which run from Oct. 23-25.

Then, the statewide regular firearms bear season runs Nov. 22-25, while the extended bear season goes from Nov. 29-Dec. 6 in wildlife management units 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4C, 4E and 5A and from Nov. 29-Dec. 13 in units 2B, 5B, 5C and 5D.

Some of the bears harvested will almost assuredly be among the largest anywhere in the world. That, too, is the norm.

The average bear harvested in Pennsylvania is about 3 years old. Males that age typically weigh about 200 pounds, while females generally go 160. But bears, especially males, can get significantly larger.

Last season, Scott Price, of Madison Township, Lackawanna County, took a bear in Monroe County that weighed 774 pounds.

That was the largest of 2024. The next nine heaviest hunter-harvested bears included two others exceeding 700 pounds, six exceeding 600 and one that hit 597.

“You could travel to any place in North America that has black bears and it would be hard to find bears that top those like we have here in Pennsylvania,” said Game Commission Executive Director Steve Smith.

“Our bear hunting tradition here is like none other, too, with more than 200,000 hunters buying their bear licenses and hunting bears annually. It’s a special opportunity you won’t find just anywhere.”

Pennsylvania bear hunters take to the woods knowing they face long odds in taking a bear. Fewer than 2% of bear hunters harvest a bear in any given year.

Those looking to join that small group would be wise to hunt where food is plentiful, Snavely said. Bears eat ravenously in fall to pack on weight before going into their winter dens. So, finding them means finding where they want to be based on the potential to maximize their caloric intake.

“Getting near rich fall food resources for bears like acorns, beechnuts, and the like is the best strategy for hunters,” Snavely said.

“Bears are searching for food, so if you can locate that, you up the odds that you’ll encounter a bear or two.”