736 lb Black Bear, Shawano County, WI

[Mountain Man]

Here's a link to a short article with a pic.

http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/102573114.html?storySection=story

[Wrinkleneck]

WOW I hope my first bear is something like that thing !!!!!!!!!!!

[Singing Bridge]

Its hard to imagine a black bear over 700 pounds, that'd be an amazing experience in the wooods to see something like that coming!

[Boo]

That is one BIG bear!

[Schultzy]

Its hard to imagine a black bear over 700 pounds, that'd be an amazing experience in the wooods to see something like that coming!

I couldn't Imagine either. 300 pounders look big.

[Black Squirrel]

What a Slob!!!

[WiBowhuntress]

That is one giant bear!!!!! Wow! Congratulations to the hunter...that's a once in a lifetime deal there!

[Dewey]

I found more about the story on this bear.......

Bowler, Wis. — Thanks to trail cameras, Chad Maves, of Bowler, knew an enormous Shawano County bear was frequenting one of his bait sites.

Most of the summer, the bear would come for treats during daylight hours. That changed about a month before opening day of the 2010 season – the 25-year-old’s first with a harvest tag – and Maves wondered if he’d even see the big bear while on stand.

“The whole month before opening day, he’d come in a half-hour after dark,” Maves said. “I decided to just hopefully shoot a bear; I wasn’t going to be picky and wait for him all season. But then about quarter after seven (opening evening, Sept. 8), he stepped out, and my jaw dropped.”

The bear’s first daylight visit in a month could have been spurred by other bears cleaning up the bait the previous night. Three were photographed on the trail camera.

Maves had been baiting with a friend. They had mixed it up – granola, apple toppings, peanut butter, caramel, doughnuts, and other sweet offerings – the month before the hunt. Both had kill tags.

“We were supposed to flip a coin, and he told me to just go sit there,” Maves said. “Obviously, he deserves a lot of credit. But he wants to remain anonymous.”

The bear was shot on private land within 5 miles of Bowler. Maves aimed, then fired his Browning .308 rifle from about 55 yards. The bear reared up; he shot again. “I wasn’t going to take any chances,” he said. He somehow remembered to turn on a video camera when he saw the bear.

“It happened pretty quick. From the time I saw him until I shot was probably 40 seconds. My heart was pumping some before, but it was really racing after I shot.”

Maves wanted to hunt with a bow, but knew he had to put the bear down fast. Had it died back in heavy cover, “we’d have never gotten him out,” he said.

Many hunters had been pursuing the bear through the years. Maves believes it had been in the area for six or seven years. Some hunters told him bear could be 15 years old or more, but they won’t know until a tooth is sectioned and viewed by a wildlife biologist.

The bear stretched 7 feet, 1 inch, but the weight was even more impressive: 736 pounds on the scale at Kropf’s Meats in Bowler before gutting; 660 pounds after.

“I’ve talked to a lot of hunters and guys from the Wisconsin Buck & Bear Club, and nobody’s heard of bigger,” Maves said.

The DNR’s black bear page at http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/pub ... k/bear.htm states that “the largest bear ever recorded in Wisconsin was documented in 1963 at an astounding 700 pounds.” That passage may refer to the “Glidden Black Bear,” an Ashland County bruin shot on Nov. 23, 1963. It is on display with a sign that says the bear dressed out at 665 pounds. There is no reference to that bear’s live weight, but it is listed as having taped at 10 feet, 7 inches.

A bear shot on Thursday, Sept. 9 in Hawkins by Dexter McKittrick had a live weight of 711 pounds and a dressed weight of 656 pounds. (Please see Page 6 in this issue for more on McKittrick’s bear.)

Last year, Mark Listle, of Tripoli, shot a Lincoln County bear with a live weight of 727 pounds that dressed out at 660 pounds, as weighed on a certified scale at Reuben’s Salvage in Prentice.

According to the North American Bear Center web site, http://www.bear.org, a captive Wisconsin black bear was estimated at more than 900 pounds in 2006. The site says that an 802-pound bear was killed in Wisconsin in 1885, but gives no supporting information.

The NABC says the heaviest black bear ever reported was killed a century ago in Arizona. The disputed weight was 902 pounds. An 880-pounder was killed in North Carolina in 1998, an 876-pounder was shot in Minnesota in 1994, and an 856.5-pounder was hit by a car in Canada in 2001. Last year, a 658-pound (564 dressed) bear was shot in Barron County. A year earlier, a bear said to be 700 pounds was shot during deer season without a kill tag in Dunn County. It was reported as being killed by farm machinery, but an investigation revealed an illegal shooting.

Seven people helped get Maves’ bear out. Rope and chain moved the bear 80 yards so a tractor could pull it to high ground. Then they used a come-along to jack the bear up to place boards under it so it could be hauled in a trailer.

Some are guessing the skull will score in the 22-inch range. The bear had a white “V” on its chest.

A part-time taxidermist who owns Buckshot’s Taxidermy in Bowler said Maves will be doing a full-body mount. He and his wife, Heather, will move to the Hatley area this fall. The bear eventually will be on display there.

[Singing Bridge]

I say again, wow

[dan]

Maves had been baiting with a friend. They had mixed it up – granola, apple toppings, peanut butter, caramel, doughnuts, and other sweet offerings – the month before the hunt. Both had kill tags.

“We were supposed to flip a coin, and he told me to just go sit there,” Maves said. “Obviously, he deserves a lot of credit. But he wants to remain anonymous.”

Now thats a true friend...