I know it takes some time for the skull to be dried before its certified for any record, but this maybe be another PA world record bear taken with a pistol. Anti-gun people still say who need pistols, you can't use them for hunting.....
I also personally know more than one so called " pro gun hunter" that feels the same way about handguns, they serve no legitimate purposes and only the police and military should have them.
http://www.mcall.com/sports/outdoors...,3182561.story
Man bags bear -- and a record
650-pound trophy: Breinigsville hunter sets Pa. best for pistol.
When Walt Rupnik of Breinigsvile set out at 5 a.m. on the second day of the annual Pennsylvania black bear season last week, little did he know it would be a memorable day for him and for the record books.
What happened last Monday on his walk back to a Pike County cabin was beyond luck -- and maybe, belief -- as Rupnik likely set a state record and possibly a world record.
The chance of bagging a bear during the Pennsylvania black bear season is about 3 percent. It takes about 100,000 licensed bear hunters to create the annual harvest of about 3,000 animals.
Most hunters will never set their sights on this huge big-game animal, but because the trophy is so special, about 11 percent of all Pennsylvania hunters will brave the hemlock hollows, mountain laurel tangles and secretive swamps in hopes of spotting the bruin of their dreams.
''It was about 9:20 when I got hungry for breakfast. As I walked back to the cabin, I spotted a hunter by the edge of the lower lake [at Promised Land State Park],'' Rupnik recalled. ''Not wanting to disturb his hunt, I cut into the laurels. They were so thick that I had to get down on my hands and knees and crawl underneath the branches and leaves.''
Rupnik said he crawled for only a few yards before he came to an opening, where, about 40 yards away, he noticed a ''big, dark shadow.''
''As its head turned, it stared right through me; I knew it was a bear. The laurels forced me so low to the ground that I had trouble reaching to my side for the Smith and Wesson .44 magnum pistol.
''All I saw was black fur in my sights. I aimed and fired at what I thought was the shoulders, and the bear quickly disappeared,'' Rupnik continued. ''But it didn't go far; I found it in another belly crawl of about 15 yards. In less than two seconds, my hunt was over.''
Or so he thought.
Now Rupnik had to get the bear -- his first in 35 years of hunting -- out of the laurels.
Only 500 yards from the cabin, Rupnik recruited hunting buddy Bob Devers of Bethlehem, and another nearby hunter volunteered to help drag the whopping bear back to the pickup truck.
Skirting the ice rim on Pike County lake helped to reduce the friction of the heavy bear, and even then it took the rest of the day to get it back to the state Game Commission's Shohola Falls bear check station.
Once on the scales, the bear weighed 551 pounds field dressed with a live estimated weight of 650 pounds. It measured 7 feet from nose to tail and had an estimated age of about 16 years.
Its teeth were so worn down, especially the flattened canines, that the bear probably lived off the welfare of the nearby cabin-goers because it was unable to chew meat or grind corn, acorns or hickory nuts.
It amazed the conservation officers that a bear of this size, the eighth-heaviest ever checked at the station, could have been brought down by a single 180-grain pistol bullet.
The skull was scored by taxidermist Bob Danenhower of Orefield at 22 10/16 inches, which ranks the bear as the largest pistol-harvested black bear in Pennsylvania -- and quite possibly the world.
Family and friends are enjoying the tasty wild harvest, and the bear will become a taxidermy trophy.
TOP 10 BEARS
The 10 biggest bears by weight downed this year by rifle, pistol or archery in Pennsylvania through Monday, according to the state Game Commission based on information gleaned from weigh stations.
A 716-pound male (estimated live weight) by Morgan C. Neipert of Tobyhanna in Tobyhanna Township, Monroe County, at 3:30 p.m. on Nov. 25.
A 691-pound male taken by Ray E. Barrick of McAlisterville in Todd Township, Huntingdon County, at 1 p.m. on Nov. 24.
A 680-pound male taken by Brian R. Clark Jr. of Olanta in Pike Township, Clearfield County, at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 24.
A 651-pound male taken by Ryan M. Miller of Pittston in Bear Creek Township, Luzerne County, at 9:50 a.m. on Nov. 24.
A 650-pound male taken by Walter Rupnik of Breinigsville in Green Township, Pike County, at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 24.
A 642-pound male taken by James P. McDonough of Moscow in Spring Brook Township, Lackawanna County, at noon on Nov. 25.
A 636-pound male taken by Albert C. Leddon II of Pittsburgh in Girard Township, Clearfield County, at 12:55 p.m. on Nov. 24.
A 612-pound male taken by Jay P. Martin of Lewisburg in Hartley Township, Union County, at 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 25.
A 611-pound male taken by Matthew N. Shirk of East Earl in Union Township, Huntingdon County, at 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 24.
A 607-pound male taken by Mark B. Blough of Stoystown in Shade Township, Somerset County, at 2:15 p.m. on Nov. 24.
Longtime outdoor writer Dave Ehrig of Mertztown