‘Holy Cow!’ Wyoming Hunter Bags Super-Sized Black Bear In Southeast Wyoming

On his first day out black bear hunting in southeast Wyoming, River Mossberg got his pickup hopelessly stuck and had to hike out to find help. His luck changed the next day. He spotted a “5XL”-sized bear and stalked to within 118 yards for a clean rifle shot. His father and best friend also got large bears, making them some of the most successful hunters so far in Wyoming’s spring bear hunting season.

Mossberg prefers spot-and-stalk hunting over baiting. “Sitting in a blind, I just get too bored,” he said. “I like to go out and hike, and get my butt kicked trying to find a bear.” Last year, he hunted 27 days and spotted six bears before finding one big enough to shoot.

On May 9, Mossberg set out with his father, Brandon Mossberg, and friend Morgin Touchton in the Snowy Range. He wanted to show his dad a great new hunting area, but the road was still full of muck. “I flat-out buried my pickup, even with chains on all four tires,” he said. “I had to hike out until I found somebody to come help pull us out.” That shot the entire day.

Father and son split up the next day to glass for bears. With about two hours of light left, Mossberg got a call from his dad. “He calls me and tells me, ‘There’s a big bear.’ He just couldn’t get close enough to seal the deal,” Mossberg said. He started looking in the direction his father indicated. “I finally got a glimpse of him coming up over a ridge toward me through my spotting scope. I thought, ‘Holy cow! This sucker is size 5XL.'”

He decided to move down off the ridge. “Finally, I saw him and I ranged him at 118 yards. I waited for him to come into an opening and I ‘woofed’ at him. He stopped and turned broadside to me, and that was it,” Mossberg said. With daylight fading, he gutted the carcass to keep the meat cool overnight. The next day, he returned with his father and Touchton to pack out the meat, hide, and skull. “When we got up to the bear, their reaction was ‘goodness gracious, this thing is goofy big,'” Mossberg said.

He estimated the bear weighed over 300 pounds. “Back east, you might find some 700-pound black bears. But for Wyoming, over 300 pounds is huge,” he said. The bear has an estimated green score of 20 ¼ inches. The Boone and Crockett Wyoming state record black bear, taken in Johnson County in 2013, scored 23 10/16 inches.

Other Wyoming bear hunters extended congratulations. Owen Miller called it a “gorgeous bear.” Joe Kondelis said it was “badass” to get a bear that big through spot-and-stalk hunting. Julie Mccallister, who has taken many bears in the Snowy Range, said, “Taking a bear of this size on a spot-and-stalk hunt, especially on public land, is a rare accomplishment. Well done.” Miller, who has bagged bears up to 400 pounds in Wyoming, added, “If they have a lot of territory to roam in, they have a good chance of getting old, so they can get big. But bears are also like people—an old bear can be smaller than a young bear. Genetics play a role.”