The Largest Black Bear Ever Harvested in Oregon

Native black bears roam across Oregon’s wild spaces, foraging vegetation, fruits, nuts, and occasionally meat. Oregon has a controlled black bear hunting policy that runs twice a year in spring and fall. Hunters can shoot one black bear, but what’s the largest black bear ever harvested in Oregon?

The Largest Black Bear Ever Harvested in Oregon

How Records Are Calculated

In 1887, with growing concerns over the possibility of losing hunting privileges and wildlife populations such as bison and elk being hunted to the brink of extinction, Theodore Roosevelt and others founded the Boone and Crockett Club for the purposes of conservation and wildlife management. This group also sets guidelines for and maintains trophy hunting records for big game animals, including the black bear.

So, when it comes to determining what garners a trophy record for black bears, the focus is not on the body size or weight of the animal but rather on its skull size. Scores are tallied based on the greatest length and greatest width of the skull measured to the nearest 1/16 of an inch and then added together; there is no reduction of fractions. A score above 21 for the black bear is in all-time record territory.

The score chart for the black bears states the following:

• Greatest length is measured between perpendiculars parallel to the long axis of the skull, without the lower jaw and excluding malformations
• Greatest width is measured between perpendiculars at right angles to the long axis

Consequently, hunters do not always report an animal’s weight as it is not a factor taken into account by Boone & Crockett for the organization’s trophy hunting records.

The Largest Black Bear Ever Harvested in Oregon

According to Boone and Crocket’s official records, the largest black bear ever harvested in Oregon was shot by John Carnate in 1988. Its skull measured 13-12/16 inches long by 8-9/16 inches wide for a total official Boone and Crocket score of 22-5/16. From nose to tail, this epic bear measured seven and a half feet long. Carnate explained that the black bear had old, broken teeth that were worn down, and it was very thin. Experts estimated a grand old age of 30 years.

The Largest Ever Black Bear Ever Harvested

Robert J. Shuttleworth harvested the largest ever black bear legally shot in the United States. His 1993 kill had a skull score of 23-3/16 inches. However, the largest ever black bear skull was found in Santape Creek, Utah, in 1975. This one measured a whopping 23-10/16 inches.

Grizzly Bears in Oregon

Black bears and grizzly bears were once common in Oregon, but hunters persecuted grizzlies to extinction. A grizzly called Old Reelfoot, due to his missing paw, is the biggest bear by size and weight ever killed in Oregon. This mammoth bear measured seven feet tall, and nearly nine feet on his back legs. However, on April 5, 1890, hunters tracked him down and shot him. He weighed a whopping 1,892 pounds.

Forty years after Old Reelfoot lost his life, a federal trapper killed the last Oregon grizzly bear at Billy Meadows, Wallowa County, in September 1931.

How Many Black Bears Live in Oregon?

Oregon is home to at least 25,000 black bears that roam forests and mountains, and on occasion, they enter farmlands to attack livestock. Even though black bears are omnivores that eat berries, nuts, grasses, and fruit, they are more than capable of killing mammals such as elk, deer, and cattle.

Bear Hunting in Oregon

There’s a controlled bear hunting season in Oregon state. Hunters must obtain a permit and abide by the rules that mother bears with cubs and cubs under a year old must not be killed.

The spring season runs from April 1 to May 31, and in fall from August 1 to December 31. Only one bear per tag is lawful.

Hunters that manage to bag a black bear should present its skull to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) within 10 days, so officials can harvest a tooth for conservation and biological information. If possible, officials request female black bears’ reproductive tracts.

During 2022, bear hunters harvested a total of 1,997 of Oregon’s black bears, 807 in the summer and 1,190 in the fall.

Let’s break that down into east and west:

• Western Oregon total: 502 in spring and 651 in fall
• Eastern Oregon total: 305 in spring and 539 in fall

The greatest number of harvested bears occurred during the spring hunting season at Siuslaw in western Oregon. Hunters bagged 112 black bears there. In comparison, the greatest number of black bears successfully hunted in eastern Oregon numbered 43 at Snake River.

Black Bear or a Grizzly Bear?

Grizzlies bears don’t live in Oregon now, despite their native status. If you spot a brown, reddish, pale-colored bear in Oregon, it’s a black bear; they don’t all have black coats.