Bow hunter bags big black bear

This 400-pound black bear was brought down by archer Charlie Stafford at his Mountain Meadow Road property.

Stafford shows the size of the bear’s paw. The bear was 7 feet wide and 6 feet, 8 inches from nose to tail.

by The Daily Inter Lake
| September 30, 2009 5:00 PM

Stafford shows the size of the bears paw. The bear was 7 feet wide and 6 feet, 8 inches from nose to tail.

A black bear large enough to make the Pope and Young Club books recently was harvested in a fruit orchard west of Kalispell.

"This guy kept coming into my orchard to get apples," said Charlie Stafford, an 18-year hunting education instructor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "Finally I was able to sneak out there and get him."

Stafford shot the bear from about 20 yards with his bow in the early morning of Sept. 25 on his Mountain Meadow Road property. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists measured the bear at 6 feet, 8 inches from nose to tail. The bear weighed 400 pounds.

Stafford said his taxidermist thinks the bear will qualify for Pope and Young record books.

"He doesn't know what it will rank but he believes it will make the books," Stafford said.

The hide, which is seven feet wide, will be tanned into a rug for Stafford's son, Charlie.

"He was one big fat bear," Stafford said.