If you hunt black bears, maybe for years without harvesting one, now is not the time to give up hope. It’s true the odds of tagging a bear can seem long. Only somewhere between 1.5% and 2.5% of bear hunters get a bear in any given year. But bears are plentiful and widespread across the states of New York and Pennsylvania. 

New York has an estimated bear population of 6,000 to 8,000 and Pennsylvania has an estimated bear population of 15,000, offering lots of opportunities for hunters to get one. 

There’s some bear hunting going on already. In New York the early bow hunting bear season in the Southern Zone started on October 1st and runs to November 17th. The regular firearms bear hunting season starts on November 18th and runs to December 10th. The late bow bear hunting season starts on December 11th and runs to December 19th. Muzzleloading bear season also starts on December 11th and runs to December 19th.

In Pennsylvania the archery bear season in some Wildlife Management Units which surround Pittsburgh and Philadelphia begin on September the 16th and runs through November 24th, including two Sundays, November 12th and November 19th. The statewide archery bear season started on October 14th and runs through November 4th.

Muzzleloader hunters can pursue bears statewide from October 14th to October 21st, while the statewide special firearms bear season for junior and senior license holders, active-duty military and disabled persons runs from October the 19th to October 21st. 

In Pennsylvania, a hunter who gets a bear has the opportunity to get a second bear license to try to get another bear.   

The Pennsylvania’s Game Commission’s black bear biologist Emily Carrollo said, “Most hunters, 43%, only ever harvest one bear. But 11% harvest five or more bears in their lifetime, and 1.5% harvest more than 10 bears in their lifetime. And the average number of bears harvested per hunter in a lifetime was 1.5.” 

The general statewide firearms bear season goes from November 18th to November 21st, including Sunday, November 19th. Bear hunters will get one last chance in a few WMUs still later, in the extended firearms bear season that overlaps with the statewide firearms deer season. A hunter with a valid bear license can take a bear from November 25th through December 2nd, including on Sunday November 26th in certain WMUs.

Through all those bear seasons, the limit is one bear per hunter per year. Last year, during the 2022 seasons, hunters harvested 3,170 bears overall. That was down from 3,621 in 2021, but still enough to rank the harvest as the 14th largest of all time. Pennsylvania’s all-time best bear season came in 2019, when hunters harvested 4,653 bears. 

Last year in Pennsylvania hunters took bears in 58 of the state’s 67 counties. Notably, the harvest was spread out, more evenly than ever before, with seven taken in the special early archery season, 737 taken in the statewide archery season, 712 in the muzzleloader special firearm seasons, and 1,051 in the general season and 663 in the extended season. 

Wishing bear hunters in both states, New York and Pennsylvania, a safe and enjoyable hunting season!