First Bear of the Season, Maryland

[Dom]

Now that's quite the gal, a strong (Kraftige) Waidmannsheil to her, Dom.

BEAR STORY

MOUNT NEBO, Md., Oct. 24 -- There's a new hunting legend in the mountains of Western Maryland.

Born to the woods, she's 4 1/2 feet tall and 8 years old, with a shock of light brown hair and a steady trigger finger that put two bullets into a black bear's chest cavity Monday, according to her and her father and granduncle, who were hunting with her. State officials backed the claim by Sierra Stiles and credited her with the first kill of Maryland's second bear season since hunting the animals resumed after a half-century ban.



(John W. Edwards - Photo By John W. Edwards)

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Maryland Department of Natural Resources officials, waiting to take measurements and tissue samples from the bears at a wildlife management center here, shook their heads in amazement at the news that the first hunter to bag a bear was a third-grade girl from Kitzmiller, on Maryland's border with West Virginia.

Sierra recounted here how she shot the 211-pound bear from 50 yards away with her .243-caliber rifle. "I was scared," she said, then paused for dramatic emphasis. "Because bears will eat anything!"

With evidence that the bear population has rebounded after nearly being wiped out in the early 1900s, Maryland is allowing hunters to kill 40 to 55 bears this season. This is up from a haul of 20 bears last year, when hunters met the quota in one day. The season is likely to last a few days longer because of the higher quota and abysmal weather: It was raining, then snowing, Monday in Western Maryland.

Early on, the hunt did not appear very promising: At least one hunter quit because of the weather, and animal rights advocates in bear suits protested in front of the natural resources headquarters in Annapolis.

Then at 9:50 a.m., Sierra, wet and shivering, arrived at the Mount Nebo Wildlife Management Area with her father and granduncle in a red Ford F-150 pickup. They backed into a small garage, and game workers hoisted the bear's carcass out of the truck's bed with a hanging hook.

Donald Stiles beamed as his daughter, dressed in hunters' camouflage with a fluorescent orange vest, told how she skipped school to shoot the male bear.

After winning one of 200 bear-hunting permits granted by lottery this year -- and acing the required safety test with a score of 98 -- Sierra recalled being rousted out of bed by her mother at 4:58 a.m., wolfing down a bowl of cereal and heading outside, to a field on her granduncle's farm. They waited two hours in the bush under a steady, cold rain.

"I was dragging," Sierra said.

It got a bit brighter as the sun glowed sullenly through a thick blanket of clouds, she said. Sierra's granduncle, Robert Harvey, saw a dark shadow in the distance, but he didn't know what it was. Her father thought it was a bear.

"I froze up," she recalled. Regaining her composure, Sierra stood behind a tree, waiting until the bear was about 50 yards away, she said. Then she took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The bullet struck the bear behind the shoulder. Unfazed by the rifle's light recoil, she said, she ejected the casing, reloaded and fired another round.

[Cal Sibley]

That's terrific news. I'm originally from Maryland and left about 32 years ago. Black bear were unheard of then even in south western Maryland. If I recall that's where Mt. Nebo is isn't it in the southern part of Garrett county? I hope you guys will manage them carefully so the population will grow. I accidently ran into a small one some years ago. We were on opposite sides of a ridge line, and both reached the top at about the same time. It was hard to tell who was the most scared, me or that little 50lb.bear. Congratulations and best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[fabsroman]

Cal,

Garrett County is in the NW of Maryland where all the mountains are. It is the most western county we have and it borders Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. If you are going to find black bears anywhere in Maryland, it would be there.

Like you, I hope we manage the population too. However, last year, PETA and other groups went to Court to try and prevent the start of bear hunting in Maryland. I think with the over abundance of deer that we have and the huge amount of roadkills, the bears are finding plenty of food for themselves.

I remember 15 years ago when all we could kill was a single antlered buck. Now, I can kill as many does as I want in several counties and a good amount of bucks too.

[rubicon]

Kitzmiller is a little coal mining town on the border of Md and Wv. On the Wv side, a little farther up the mountain is Elk Garden Md. These are near Jennings Randolph lake. And the bear population is flourishing up there. This is the same place where the young fellow took the new Md state record rainbow trout. The kids up there live to hunt and fish and some are in the woods almost as soon as they are out of diapers. Thats where I come from , cornbread and chicken.

[rubicon]

Since the little eight year old girl killed her bear in Garrett County the Humane Society has been sticking its ugly head out and snooping around the area and learned a five year old boy killed a doe with a 223 last December. He was totally supervised, standing beside his father, and now they are pushing legislature for a minimum hunting age of 16. Little John Wagner is four foot tall, weighs fifty pounds, and had passed the hunters safety course prior to going in the woods with his father.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Figured peta or someone would get involved once again in someone elses life after hearing this. Must be why I saw and I can't remember the website, they were taking a poll on age one should be able to hunt. It was only posted on tv once and I wanted to make my check mark too on our side but couldn't find it. Maybe one on here knows of it.....I have no faith in 'poles' because I think they just make it their way anyhow but is why I agreed to do the gallop poll thing anyhow. Don't know how many of you here do this but even with some good questions they ask, most are yes/no answers and can be misleading in the outcome. I bet too, with some of my posts on here, it can be scarry thing to have me answer questions on certain subjects. As far as going to the woods at an early age, why not? Quality time in the woods keeps kids off the corner with the drug thing and all that follows. I say go for it but make sure the 'teacher' is of quality also. (This is the part they would leave out in a poll) This hunter safety insturctor I mention now and then is one of the worse hunters in the wood when it is his turn out there. But during his teaching class, makes good points otherwise overlooked and provides food for thought. I know at times he hates to see me in the class when I take someone through the course. Just don't practice what he preaches.....A good teacher, quality time with the family, why not. Lots out there they will never see in a classroom.