Hunting & Fishing: 11-Year-Old Bags Bear; Catch & Release Laws; PA Fall Firearms Deer Season

On a muddy Saturday morning, third generation bear hunter Braden Burkhart, 11, of Antigo, Wisconsin headed out with his grandfather, Ken Rine, his father Larry Burkhart, his younger brother Mason, their dogs and a group of friends, never imagining that he’d be the one to come home with a record setting trophy out of a bear-hunting fraternity with more than 100 years of combined experience. The bear season in Wisconsin alternates each year, allowing hunters with dogs and bait hunters to take turns for the first crack at the state’s black bear population.

The Wisconsin black bear season yielded a massive 737-pound black bear last month, harvested by a group of hunters and their hounds in a wet and muddy corn field. Braden Burkhart, one of the youngest of the hunting fraternity at 11, was guided by his grandfather and took the shot that felled the beast. Eugene Mancl got the story from the folks who were on the hunt.