By Robert Benning The Charlotte Gazette Reprinted with permission
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland fisheries will soon determine if a 728 pound black bear killed Saturday near Keysville is a state record.
The bear, shot by Tyler Napier of Keysville, stood seven feet, two inches tall and was officially checked-in at a game station near Keysville Saturday.
Napier had spotted the bear several times before on his parent’s farm, but was unable to take a shot until Saturday when he fired five rounds at the huge bear to finally bring it down.
“I saw him for the first time about six years ago, and over the years I would see him from time to time near the corn field on my parent’s farm,” Napier said. “I even took photos of him, but never had the opportunity to take a shot during hunting season.”
On Saturday, Napier was hunting for either a deer or a bear when he came across a large set of fresh bear tracks.
“I followed the tracks for a couple hundred yards, and I guess because of the wind and rain he didn’t hear me coming,” Napier added.
When Napier finally spotted the bear, he was uncomfortably close — not much farther than 15 feet away.
Before the bear could react to his presence, Napier shouldered his .30-06 rifle and fired multiple times. Luckily, that did the job, as Napier had no bullets left.
The bear was so large, Napier enlisted the help of his father, Tim Napier, three other men and a tractor to lift the animal and remove it from the woods — a process that took nearly two hours to complete.
Black bears are now commonly found in Virginia, with the game department estimating over 17,000 living in the Commonwealth.
Average weights for black bears generally fall into the 300 to 500 pound range, but given a good food source, the bears can grow much larger.
Last year a hunter in Lunenburg killed a 674 pound black bear, and in 2000 a hunter in the Dismal Swamp area of Suffolk dropped a 740 pound bear.
Despite the size of those bears, neither was a state record as the game department determines that factor is a point system based mainly on the size of the skull.
As it stands, a bear weighing just under 600 pounds that was killed in Rockingham, Virginia, in 2010 holds the point’s record with a skull measurement of 31 and 9/16. Last year’s Lunenburg bear scored 29 and 15/16 points.
Large black bears have been killed in other states in the last few years, with an 830 pound black bear taken in New Jersey, and an 880 pound bear was killed in Pennsylvania. A 950 pound black bear is currently living in captivity at a bear preserve in Minnesota.
Napier’s bear may be a new state record in Virginia, but he will have to wait until the game department officially measures the bear’s skull. In the meantime, he has been speaking to several taxidermists to determine whether to fully mount the bear, or have it made into a rug.
