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On Oct. 23, the opening day of Maryland\u2019s short black bear season, hunters harvested a total of 24 bears. The biggest was a 643-pound boar that set a new record for the heaviest bruin ever killed in the state. It was checked in by a hunter named Melissa, who preferred not to share her last name or the details behind the hunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelissa didn\u2019t want publicity, but she\u2019s from Garrett County, and she shot it about 8 a.m.,\u201d Maryland DNR game mammal leader Jonathan Trudeau tells Outdoor Life<\/em>. \u201cI checked in the bear. She told me she shot it once with a .350 Legend rifle and it didn\u2019t go far before falling.\u201d<\/p>\n Melissa\u2019s bear is far and away the biggest one ever taken in the state, according to Trudeau, who\u2019s in charge of Maryland\u2019s bear program<\/a>. The previous record from 2007 weighed 615 pounds. That bear was also taken in Garrett County, which is one of only four counties where the state allows bear hunting. (Of the 24 bears harvested on opening day, all but five were killed in Garrett County.)<\/p>\n Last year, hunters took 103 bears during the six-day season, which is about average, Trudeau says. The biggest weighed 427 pounds. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMaryland usually has 100 to 130 bears collected every six-day October season,\u201d says Trudeau. \u201cThe current tally [for this season] as of Oct. 26 is 74 bears.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds that Melissa\u2019s 643-pound black bear was exceptionally large, since most of the state\u2019s bears average around 300 pounds.<\/p>\n