Pennsylvania Game News - May 2022 - 16

through weeds downslope.
" I just couldn't believe it, " he said. " He
stuck out like a sore thumb. "
The bear was close, about 80 yards
away. Glessner had a bear license. And
bears were fair game; that Saturday
marked the final day of the extended
season.
Still, when he first saw it, in his surprise,
" I didn't know what to do, " Glessner
said.
He took his 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun
with a rifled barrel and scope, and
loaded with sabot slugs - Letterkenny
allows no rifles - off safe, wrapped its
sling around his left arm to steady the gun
and raised it to his shoulder. He's accurate
with that rig out to about 100 yards.
But the bear never stopped moving.
So rather than risk an offhand shot at a
moving animal at that distance, Glessner
tried sneaking closer. The wind was in his
favor and a large brushpile stood between
man and bear, with a ravine of sorts on
the bear's side. Glessner figured he could
sneak up to the brush and shoot the bear
when it emerged from that gully.
That didn't work.
" I got there and waited, but I lost him, "
Glessner said. " I don't know where he got
to. So I thought, well, this is over. "
Yet, even that was a thrill. Glessner
hadn't seen a bear since 2019, hadn't been
a part of taking one since Hamsher killed
a 180-pound male in Cambria County in
2014, and hadn't harvested one himself
since he got his first, a 148-pound female
taken in Centre County in 2001.
But this tale wasn't over.
UNBELIEVABLE BEAR
Ten or 15 minutes after the bear disappeared,
Glessner suddenly spotted it
again, 100 yards out, aimed toward a thick
tangle of brush and blowdowns. This time
16
there was no hesitation. He hustled down
an old, abandoned blacktop road that's
closed to traffic, getting within 70 yards
when the bear suddenly stopped, again
in high weeds, this time on the far side of
some saplings.
" There was enough cover between us,
some small trees growing, that I thought
I could stalk a little closer, " Glessner said.
" So I must have moved about 10 yards
toward him.
" I could see his head moving back and
forth, like he was looking around. But he
seemed broadside to me. And I thought,
if I don't take a chance now, I'll never get
another opportunity. "
Glessner picked a spot on the bear's
shoulder - remembering advice read in
Game News, among other places, about
staying calm, carrying out practiced
movements and following through on his
shot - and fired. The bear disappeared.
" He dropped right there on the spot, "
Glessner said. " I couldn't believe it, but
he went right down. I thought, this can't
be going on. "
If anything, his story was more unbelievable
than he realized.
For starters, hunters don't necessarily
take many bears in Franklin County
overall: 47 in 2019, 31 in 2020 and 17 in
2021. That's 95 total.
By comparison, Huntingdon County,
just to the north, produced 385 bears in
that same time.
Bears are even more of a rarity at Letterkenny
Army Depot. Craig Kindlin, natural
resources manager there, said people
see a handful every year, but they come
and go, moving on an off the property.
" Bears are a relatively new resident
of Letterkenny, " Kindlin said. " We have
harvested a total of nine here, with the
first one being harvested in the 2016-17
hunting year. "
Pennsylvania Game News - May 2022

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