This Could Be the Heaviest Black Bear Ever Tagged in North Carolina
Brad Jones had a tight timetable for bowhunting black bears on his friend’s land near the North Carolina coast. He was aware of a couple of big boars that had been frequenting the property in Beaufort County.
“My buddy Stuart Dudley had nighttime trail camera photos of big bears on his 200 acres, and he told me to go get one with my bow,” says Jones. “But he had other bear hunters coming in [Dec. 16]. So if I wanted to get one with my bow, I had to beat them to it.”
Dudley had been baiting the area with peanuts. Since most of the trail cam photos were taken at night, Jones set up his lock-on stand roughly 500 yards away from the bait site. He hoped one of the bears would pass by on its way to or from its bed in the nearby swamp.
“I walked to my stand in the dark and waited for daylight,” says Jones, who lives in Greenville. “Before daylight, a bear came through in the dark and passed by. But at 7 a.m., another giant bear came down a trail leading back to the swamp. The wind was good, and as he got closer, he stepped behind some thick stuff. That’s when I drew my bow. He stepped into an opening less than 20 yards away, broadside. I grunted like I do for deer. He stopped, and I released my arrow.”
Jones knew he’d made a good hit behind the bear’s shoulder. He saw the bear run into a thick swamp, and while he never heard it fall, he says he heard the bear’s death moan barely 30 seconds later.
Jones found the bear just 50 yards away. The broadhead had passed through the bear’s chest.
“About the time I found the bear, the hunters with dogs showed up, and they all helped load up my bear,” Jones says. “It took about eight of us to get him in the truck.”
Finding a scale big enough to weigh the bear accurately was also a challenge. Jones says they tried three different places before locating a scale that could handle the massive boar. They finally found one at a meat processor, and it registered 780 pounds.
Jones has informed North Carolina officials about his bear, and he’s been told it could be the heaviest bear ever taken in the state. Outdoor Life could not confirm this, but if the scale Jones used is accurate, his bear outweighs the 695-pound black bear that reportedly broke a weight record for western North Carolina in October 2022. It would also surpass the current Pope and Young world-record black bear, which was killed in New Jersey and weighed 700 pounds.
“Some people say it might be a world record bear, but that’s determined by measuring its skull, which will take time,” explains Jones. “Right now, the bear is with a taxidermist, and after the skull is cleaned, it will be dried for 60 days and then measured by a Pope and Young official. We’ll then know the true size of the bear.”
A skilled hunter, dedicated conservationist, and advocate for ethical practices. Respected in the hunting community, he balances human activity with environmental preservation.