A Maine-based hunter celebrated the biggest bear catch of the year in the Pine Tree State last week.
Nate Mooers, 24, proudly smiled next to a 535-pound bear he shot after it fell into a trap he and his father left at a bait site.
Mooers shot the bear with a Hornady-manufactured 7mm PRC rifle.
‘I’ve been around bears my whole life and I’ve never seen anything like it,’ Mooers told the Bangor Daily News.
Mooers, who owns Howe Brook Guide Service in Hammond Plantation, has participated in multiple hunts this year since bear hunting season on August 25.
Nate Mooers, 24, proudly smiled next to a 535-pound bear he shot after it fell into a trap he and his father left at a bait site
Mooers spotted the bear on camera footage taken from his bait sites.
However, the 24-year-old did not see any bears at the sites during the day.
Mooers said the bear may have been nocturnal and that it only showed up on his bait sites once a week.
The bear’s bait site inconsistency also played a part in why Mooers and his father decided to set up a trap.
Mooers had already been helping hunters catch bores of their own before the bear fell into his and his father’s trap.
‘It’s the biggest one I’ve ever laid eyes on, dead or alive,’ Mooers said.
The next biggest bear Mooers has seen in Maine in 2024 was a 270-pounder that one of his clients caught.
Despite Mooers’ bear being the biggest this year, it’s nowhere near the 699-pound state record set in 2012.
Mooers spotted the bear on camera footage taken from his bait sites before he and his father laid out their trap
Once Mooers was finished taking pictures with the bear carcass, he brought it to Tapley’s Processing for butchering and packaging.
Cody Gould of Crown of Maine Taxidermy is creating a shoulder mount which displays an animal’s head, neck, and shoulder.
Mooers plans to hang the shoulder mount in his guide service lodge once it’s finished.
He also sent a bear tooth over to the state of Maine, hoping to find out how old the bear was.
Mooers did not confirm what he planned to do with the meat, but he told the Bangor Daily News that he enjoys creating breakfast sausage with bear meat.
Mooers plans to hang a shoulder mount of the bear’s head and neck hanging in his guide service lodge
Bear hunting in Maine is extremely popular, and over 13,000 permits were given to hunters during last year’s season.
State officials believe this year will be more successful than 2023 with an increase in bear harvestation.
Bears are most common in northern, western, and eastern, Maine, but hunters have a chance of harvesting a bear while deer hunting in central and southern parts of the state.
Maine’s 13-week bear hunting season will end in late November, and it coincides with the last day of regular firearms season for deer.
