New Vermont record bear announced

BROWNINGTON—Curtis Smiley with the Vermont Big Game Trophy Club says a huge bear taken in the 2013 hunting season is the heaviest bear taken in Vermont by bow and arrow since 1898; it is a new record, Vermont Fish and Wildlife announced last week.  Kevin Lamere of Brownington, Vt., shot the bear on Oct. 5, 2013 with a bow in Orleans County.

“The skull of Lamere’s bear scored 21-10/16—a new state record in the Boone and Crockett Club as well as Pope and Young Club records,” said Smiley.  “I cannot overstate the significance of a black bear skull this large.”

“It ties for first place among all the bears killed in New England,” he added.   “According to Boone and Crockett Club records there was one shot in Maine in 1980 that also scored 21-10/16.   Among Pope and Young records, this bear has the highest scoring skull of any bear ever recorded in all of New England, and it places among the top 100 bears ever killed with archery equipment anywhere in North America.”

Forrest Hammond, Vermont’s bear biologist, also is impressed with Lamere’s new record bear.

“The large size of this bear is not all that surprising when you consider Vermont’s bear population is double what it was 25 years ago, said Hammond.   “Vermont hunters have taken many large bears in the last two years, including 36 that weighed over 300 pounds.   One large male taken in Pownal tipped the scales at over 500 pounds.”

“I expect we will be seeing more big bears taken this fall in the Sept. 1 through Nov. 14 and Nov. 15-23 bear hunting seasons,” he added.

To learn more about bear hunting, visit www.vtfishandwildlife.com.

Photo courtesy of VF&W

Kevin Lamere of Brownington, Vt., with the record 450 lb. bear he took with bow and arrow last October in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.