MORAINE STATE PARK, Pa. — When Nate Miller left Beaver County to go bear hunting early Saturday morning, he knew his odds of shooting a bear, or even seeing one, were slim. He got to Moraine State Park around 5:30 a.m. By 9 a.m., he was getting cold.
“If I didn’t move because I got cold, I’d have never seen that bear,” Miller told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek.
He moved to a new location and saw something dark about 80 yards away, so he used his binoculars.
“Sure enough, it had black hair. The sun was directly on it,” he said.
Miller grabbed his rifle and stepped forward toward a tree to rest against, and fired two shots.
“It moved and turned its head up towards me. I could see teeth and tongue hanging out,” Miller said. “I fired a third shot, and that’s when it disappeared.”
He hurried and loaded his rifle with more ammo and made his way toward where the bear was, then FaceTimed his wife.
“I’m shaking, I mean, just, I couldn’t even talk right, couldn’t even stand up straight, it was an emotional dump,” Miller recalled.
The bear was there, lying on a log. He waited 20 minutes, rifle in hand, confirming the bear had been killed.
The bear — the PA Game Commission said — had a live estimated weight of 717 pounds!
“In the process of putting the ear tag in, I could not pick the head up,” Miller said.
He called his brother and some other friends, who brought a jet sled over to help tag and move the bear. They pulled the bear out of the woods to where he was parked — 800 yards away. It was a process that took close to five hours.
Park rangers came over with an ATV for the last 100 yards and helped load the bear into his truck.
Not only was that bear more than 700 pounds, but it was also more than a foot taller than Miller.
“From nose to tail, about 7 feet, 5 inches [tall],” he said.
The bear is the biggest bear hunted over the last four days across Pennsylvania, and is one for the record books.
“Number one ever in Butler County on record, and it should make top 10 in the state of Pennsylvania,” Miller said.
Miller plans to fully mount the bear, a reminder of a day he’ll never forget.
“Never forget,” he said. “Never forget. Nope.”
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