New Jersey Bear Weighs In at Astounding 770 Pounds

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The story of my behemoth 2024 New Jersey black bear began more than two years ago. It was December 2022, and I was scouting a new area that I had heard was home to an unusually large boar. After only a short time, I started getting pictures of a really big bear, and the obsession began.

Once late summer 2023 rolled around, I began running cameras and baits in that area again; even though it was two months before the season, I wanted to find him early. New Jersey runs a two-part bear season each fall — one week in October for archery and muzzleloader and another week in December for muzzleloader and shotgun. To my surprise, I was able to find him again very quickly, and he was daylighting regularly. I knew it was the same bear, because he had a huge scar down his back leg.

At first, he was making it very easy, and I got a little cocky, thinking, This is going to be kind of easy. He’s hitting the bait on a super regular pattern during daylight. I had heard stories of a big bear in that area that drove guys nuts for years, because he would always vanish right before the season and no one could figure him out. I thought, Well, this must be a different bear. I could not have been more wrong!

Three weeks before the season, the bear just vanished, for what I thought was no reason. I had always been careful to bait in the middle of the day, as he was hitting bait in the afternoons and early mornings. The only thing I could come up with was I had walked one of his trails that led into his swamp, and he didn’t like that.

I went into panic mode and started searching the area with a net of almost 30 cellular cameras. I found him again, in another swamp about 1,000 yards away, and he never backtracked to the first spot during that season. I began to bait him in the new spot, and once again, he got on a pattern. I was super careful not to make the same mistake again. He was daylighting every day, and I even saw him the day before the season opener walking his trail. He always would sleep on the bait and leave around 6:30 a.m. and come back around 4:30 p.m. So, I knew I couldn’t get in on him for the morning hunt, but the plan was to let him leave and then slip in and wait for him to return. Well, he left at 6:30 a.m. the morning of the opener and never came back! I spent the entire week of our season waiting for him and running cameras trying to find him again.

The 2023 archery bear season ended, and he was still gone. But I hadn’t heard about anyone shooting a big bear in that area. So, I figured he had made it. I kept cameras in the first and second swamps during the off-season in hopes he would return. Well, six months later — in June of 2024 — he did. I got one picture of him, and it was game on again.

Round Two

This time, I was going to try not to make any of my previous mistakes. However, he didn’t settle in either of the two spots from the past, and I had to find him yet again. This time, he went almost two miles to another swamp.

There were actually two different swamps separated by a road — a 30-acre piece and a 6-acre piece. After running baits on the 30-acre swamp, I realized he wasn’t bedding there but using the 6-acre patch across the road. That small swamp was extremely thick, and I didn’t even want to risk going in there to scout. I was too afraid of bumping him like the year before. So, I stayed out and just focused on scouting the trails to and from my bait to build his pattern. Like big bears do, he based all his movements on wind directions and what he could move through safely. He was hitting the bait on a pattern, as long as he had a northwest wind. When he had a south wind, he wouldn’t show. He would hit the bait very early in the mornings, around 4 a.m., and he’d stay until daybreak before heading back across the road to bed.

Now, in New Jersey, we are legally required to hunt 100 yards from our bait site, and when you are bowhunting, that obviously takes the bait out of the mix as far as an ambush location. So, my plan was to wait for him to hit the bait in the big swamp, and then I would slip in behind him on the trail he used to get back to bed.

Well, opening morning was approaching, but they were calling for a southwest wind. I knew I couldn’t risk it. I decided to wait until Tuesday, Oct. 15, when the forecast called for a northwest wind. Well, he stayed on pattern and hit the bait at 4 a.m. in the big swamp. I hurried up and jumped into the small swamp across the street, about 200 yards from my bait.

Now, I had never stepped foot in there. I had my climber on my back and had to pick a tree and shooting lanes in the dark. I found a good tree and got up quickly but realized I went too high. The canopy was so thick I had to climb down to about 12 feet so I could stay above the ground cover but still be low enough to have shooting lanes. I had his trail 22 yards to my left, and as long as he did what he normally did, I figured that I would get a slam-dunk shot.

The wind was a perfect 10 mph out of the northwest, and I entered the woods on the downwind side of his trail. Everything was setting up perfectly. I kept checking my camera, and at 6:50 a.m., I got the last picture of him leaving the bait. Two minutes later, he was standing at the road edge checking for cars before he crossed into the woods I was in. Once the coast was clear, he walked across the road onto his trail and started walking right at me. He looked like a Volkswagen coming through the woods, and even though I knew how big he was, it was still shocking to see such an impressive animal. I had my bow in hand and couldn’t believe it was about to happen.

Sixth Sense

That’s when he came to a sudden stop 35 yards away. He stood still for what seemed like an hour but was about 3 or 4 minutes. He just looked around and kept scanning everything. He then made a 90-degree turn off his trail and began walking away from me on a slight angle. People always talk about how big bears have a sixth sense. Well, I had just witnessed it in action. Did I mention the wind was perfect? Did I mention I had not walked on this trail? Somehow, he just “knew” something was off.

That left me mentally scrambling to figure out what line he was taking and where I might have a shooting window. There were only two clearings in the brush — one at 45 yards and one at 60. I’m confident shooting at 60, but 45 is always better. The only issue was I had to squat down in the stand to make the 45-yard window work, because of all the saplings in the swamp.

Well, I crouched down and leaned back against my seat to anchor my left shoulder blade for balance. As I drew back, the big bear stopped right in the shooting window, and I let the arrow fly. I watched the arrow’s glowing nock and fletching disappear about eight inches behind the bear’s shoulder. To my amazement, he soaked it up and barely reacted. Then, he turned away and walked across the road. I watched him climb a rocky cliff and disappear about 100 yards away.

I knew the shot was good, but the way the bear reacted had me worried. I called my best friend to come meet me. After I got down and we started on the bear’s trail, we knew it was a good hit, because the blood trail was epic. We were able to follow it without stopping and it took us up and over the cliff, where I walked up on the massive bear.

After high fives and hugs, it was time to get him out of the woods. The temps were climbing, so I made the decision to field dress him before getting him weighed, because I knew once I got to the check station things would get hectic. Risking the meat was never an option, so it was an easy decision. I am very glad I did, because we were able to save all the meat, which is the true trophy. And all the fat was donated to make soap, lotions and candles.

Once I got the bear to the state check station, he weighed in at 770.5 pounds, field dressed, making him the heaviest bear ever registered by a Garden State hunter. The state took DNA samples and a tooth for aging. I have not received those results yet, but rough estimates placed him at 15-18 years old. I also had the skull officially scored for the Pope and Young Club records program at 22 1/8 inches, which ranks 32nd all time.

Walking up on a bear of that size is truly humbling. He was the king of that area, and I had an incredible amount of respect for him. He was, by far, the smartest animal I have ever hunted, and the journey coming to an end was bittersweet. He is the bear of 10 lifetimes, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to study him, because he taught me a lot!

The author lives in West Orange, N.J., with his wife, Lauren, and son, Colton. You can follow his outdoor pursuits on Instagram @timber_life_outdoors.

Author's Notes: On this hunt, I used a Tru-Fire release aid to shoot a Hoyt Vector Turbo bow outfitted with a Hoyt quiver, Trophy Ridge sight and Victory Xtorsion arrows tipped with SEVR Ti 2.0 broadheads. I also used a Bushnell rangefinder and wore Realtree camouflage.

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