A Maine hunter celebrated the Pine Tree State’s largest bear catch of the year last week.
Nate Mooers, 24, smiles proudly next to a 550-pound bear he shot after the animal fell into a trap he and his father had left at a bait site.
Mooers shot the bear with a Hornady-made 7mm PRC rifle.
“I’ve been around bears my whole life and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mooers told the Bangor Daily News.
Mooers, owner of Howe Brook Guide Service in Hammond Plantation, has participated in several hunts this year since bear hunting season opened on Aug. 25.
Nate Mooers, 24, smiled proudly next to a 550-pound bear he shot after falling into a trap he and his father had left at a bait site
Mooers saw the bear on camera footage taken from his bait locations.
However, the 24-year-old did not see any bears at the locations during the day.
According to Mooers, the bear may have been a nocturnal animal and only appeared at the bait sites once a week.
The inconsistency of the bait location also played a role in Mooers and his father’s decision to set a trap.
Mooers had already helped catch bear-like animals before the bear fell into his and his father’s trap.
“It’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen, dead or alive,” Mooers said.
The second largest bear Mooers saw in Maine in 2024 was a 270-pound specimen captured by one of his clients.
While Mooers’ bear is the largest this year, it still falls short of the state record of 699 pounds set in 2012.
Mooers spotted the bear on camera footage taken from his bait locations before he and his father set their trap
After Mooers finished taking photographs of the bear’s carcass, he took it to Tapley’s Processing to be butchered and packaged.
Cody Gould of Crown of Maine Taxidermy creates a shoulder mount showing the head, neck and shoulders of an animal.
Mooers plans to hang the shoulder rest in his guides’ lodge once it is ready.
He also sent a bear tooth to the state of Maine, hoping to find out how old the bear was.
Mooers didn’t confirm what he plans to do with the meat, but he told the Bangor Daily News he likes to make breakfast sausage with bear meat.
Mooers plans to hang a shoulder piece of the bear’s head and neck in his guide’s lodge
Bear hunting is extremely popular in Maine, with more than 13,000 permits issued to hunters last year.
State officials expect this year to be more successful than 2023, with an increase in bear hunting.
Bears are most common in northern, western, and eastern Maine, but hunters can also catch bears while deer hunting in the central and southern parts of the state.
Maine’s 13-week bear hunting season ends in late November, which coincides with the last day of the regular deer hunting season.