Wisconsin Hunter Bags 780-pound Black Bear
OutdoorHub Reporters 09.25.14
A Waupaca County, Wisconsin hunter is beside himself after harvesting what may be the state’s next record black bear. According to WITI, Dennis Arndt was hunting on private property near Ogdensburg when he shot a bear that many hunters have been yearning to bag for years.
“I say he’s been a local monarch. All the neighbors are like ‘did you see him? Did you see him?’ Yup, he showed up this year for me,” Arndt said.
You can see video of the bear below:
Local hunters knew the bear as “Sampson,” a large bull that Arndt eventually weighed in at 780 pounds. The hunter said that he easily recognized the bear as it came into view, and a single shot sent the bruin running into a nearby swamp. Arndt then recalled calling some friends to help him transport the bear out of the woods on a sled.
“We used a big skid-steer to lift him up, because there is no way any of us was going to lift him out of the woods,” he told Fox 6.
Arndt believes that he has a good chance at claiming a new state record, but weight is not the only factor when it comes to documenting bear harvests. The state’s bear records are kept by the Wisconsin Buck and Bear Club, which measures possible records by the size of the bear’s skull, not by weight. The current state record, held by hunter Wade Brockman, is a 600-pound bear found in 2010 during deer season. Meanwhile, a 737-pound bear harvested in the same year did not even make it into the club’s top four.
Still, wardens say that Arndt’s bear is among the largest they have ever seen. Arndt said he already sent the bear of to a taxidermist for a mount.
