Nov 16, 2013 4 min read

I am not a scholar, but I believe the word for bear in Latin is ursus. At night, the sky displays Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, which are the big and little bear.

Closer to home, we find Ursus Americus inhabiting the woods of Pennsylvania. A horde of orange-clad hunters will be leaning against a tree hoping to see one this Saturday when the bear hunting season begins. If all goes well, I’ll be one of those leaning on a tree, watching and waiting.

I go out knowing that the odds are long. But it’s the first day of the year that I take my big-game rifle for a walk with serious intentions of using it.

I have been in close proximity of a black bear but never during the bear hunting season. I have watched a mother and cubs splashing in a small trout stream while I held nothing but a 7-foot spinning rod.

A similar situation occurred on a McKean County mountain when I was carrying a bow. I watched as the bear rooted in a garbage can in the town of Crosby. But seeing one during bear season? No way.

For one thing, bears are scarce. The state’s population is relatively high at this time – probably around 20,000 – but when spread across the state, there is a lot of space for each one to move around.

The success rate for hunters is about 3 percent each year, but when you remove the ones taken by local hunters, the results for visiting hunters is much lower.

The fact remains, however, that we have a decent bear population, coupled with some of the largest black bears in the country.

At the last awards program for Boone & Crockett, Pennsylvania placed first and second in the black bear category. The two bears came from Monroe and Armstrong counties, respectively.

I once explained to a resident of Wyoming that bears are taken in this state that exceed 700 pounds. He questioned my sanity and said that weight would make our black bears bigger than most grizzly bears.

While most of the black bears here are smaller than that – most are under 200 pounds – the larger size of some is the reason why I feel bear hunters should use a larger rifle cartridge than deer hunters.

It is not that the black bear is particularly dangerous, but it does wear a heavy coat, one that could be wet and muddy.

A black bear is such a rare trophy that you wouldn’t want to chance hunting one with a .243 when you have a .30-06 at home in the corner.

As I write this, I am reminded that the largest bear I have ever seen was a 475-pounder taken in Warren County with a 6mm.

I don’t remember who shot it, but I do remember the caliber of rifle. It was a left-handed 788 Remington.

Ron Herrnberger of Eighty Four downed a black bear in the same area with his spare rifle, a .243.

While both were successful, I would still prefer to have something that will provide a little more penetration than the 6mm or .243 provide. You never know when you’re going to run into one of those 700-pounders.

Perhaps Bobby Rogers of Ruff Creek has the best idea. Last year, he hunted a different part of McKean County with a .270 Weatherby, a great long-range outfit.

The gun is long and heavy, hardly perfect for the thick stuff he found himself in. This year, he will hunt with a Marlin model 1895 in the .45-70. This rifle is short, fast and potent.

It sounds like a good choice for close-range work on black bears.

If there is one thing I have learned about hunting bear, it is that they don’t like open country. They like to stay in the thickest cover available. They have keen hearing and a nose that can smell your breath at 500 yards.

They are tough to hunt but I’ll take my rifle for a walk Saturday.

But because of the split in the season, I’ll hunt just one day. When the season opened on Mondays, we hunted two days. But with the Saturday opening and no hunting Sunday, we refuse to sit around all day and do nothing.

While the Saturday opener helped some hunters, it shortens the season for many of us.

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.