MONSTER BEAR KILL STRIKES RECORD BOOK

(11/04/2005)
Herald readers keep e-mailing about the big bear shot on Cabin Creek this week.

Was it really 533 pounds?

Yes it was.

Calhoun hunter Lewis Smith was a holler over from the monster kill, when he shot his bear Monday, weighing about 200 pounds.

It was one of the biggest black bears roaming the eastern US.

It was killed Monday by Chris Bishop, and almost put the kill in the record books.

The beast weighed nearly a quarter-ton.

"We got in the woods and the next thing I know there he was," said Bishop. He said he knew it wouldn't be an easy shot, nearly 350 yards away.

"I shot him in the shoulder, front shoulder. He ran about 200 yards," the bear coming straight at him, falling 75 yards away.

The bear was tagged in 2003, weighing about 380 pounds at the time.

It had been captured as a nuisance bear last year and it was captured and released in Wayne County.

It was shot on Cabin Creek, 60 miles away.