by Cody McLaughlin - Tuesday, December 3, 2024
When Brian Melvin harvested an enormous 770-pound, record-weight black bear (that’s dressed weight, with live estimates ranging from 880 to 910 pounds) during New Jersey’s 2024 archery bear season, it was a moment of celebration for the Morris County, N.J., native—a crowning achievement for a dedicated hunter who spent multiple years patterning the bear of a lifetime and harvesting the largest dressed-weight bear in the state’s history. But with the high came the predictable lows of public backlash and ugly behavior by anti-hunting extremists in a state with a wildly controversial black bear hunt, leading to a torrent of harassment and even death threats directed at Melvin and his family.
For Melvin, the quest to take this grizzly-sized black bear began two years ago when he first encountered the massive bear while scouting a small parcel of swampland late in the season. As he describes it, the sighting sparked a near obsession. “I spent years patterning him,” Melvin said, explaining how he knocked on the doors of several adjacent and nearby properties within a 1-mile radius to request permission to hunt, but the bear’s unpredictability forced him to adapt. “He did what all big bears do and vanished a total of three times within a couple miles.”
As any seasoned hunter knows, bears don’t get that big unless they learn to avoid people.
The challenge to pattern such a large bear on piecemealed land access was compounded by New Jersey's strict hunting regulations, including a prohibition on hunting within a hundred yards of a bait station. Melvin instead used bait piles to pattern the bear's movements and get a bead on his bedding location nearly a thousand yards away, deep in a swamp.
When the 2024 archery season arrived, the stars aligned for Melvin, who learned the bear was moving most often in daylight during northwest wind conditions. He caught the bear traveling between its bedding area and feeding grounds and ambushed it. The bear, estimated to weigh between 880 and 910 pounds live, was pulled out on a sled, with a final dressed weight of 770 pounds.
Melvin’s high quickly ended. While he expected and received the usual Facebook-and-social-media-fueled naysaying due to anti-hunters’ fundamental misunderstanding of hunting and its place in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, the backlash soon escalated in a state where black bear hunting has been a lightning rod for controversy for years.
“I got my first phone call with death threats two days after,” Melvin said. “It went from the usual comments like, ‘How could you kill that bear?’ to ‘We’re going to gut you just like you did that bear.’” Others also made chilling remarks about Melvin’s family, threatening his wife and parents and even his young son. Strangers called from blocked and unblocked numbers, sharing his home address, workplace details, details about Melvin’s wife’s workplace and even details about his son. Some even drove past his parents’ home, yelling obscenities.
“I believe in free speech and I don’t mind the initial criticisms,” Melvin explained. “You can disagree with hunting … and while I may not agree, I grew up with a red-headed Irish mom, so I’ve got thick skin,” he joked. “But when you start threatening someone’s family, that’s where my patience runs out.”
Despite the vitriol, Melvin remains determined to educate non-hunters about the realities of legal, regulated hunting and its role in conserving our nation’s wildlife, including ensuring that none of his massive bear went to waste. He donated the animal’s fat for soap and candles and has an experienced in-state butcher processing the meat for him. Still, the backlash reveals a deeper division over hunting practices, even (shamefully) among some fellow hunters.
“A lot of hunters reached out to criticize the use of bait,” Melvin explained. “People think you just throw donuts in the woods and shoot a big bear. They don’t understand the discipline and strategy it takes to pattern an animal like this.”
The controversy surrounding Melvin’s hunt is a perfect microcosm of New Jersey’s ongoing controversy over managing North America’s most dense black bear population. After the state briefly banned bear hunting in 2021, rising human-bear conflicts prompted N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy to reinstate the season in 2022. For Melvin, the harassment has finally begun to subside, but the experience has left its mark. “We’re all good now, but those threats—they lost me there,” he said.
Hunting isn’t just about the kill. It’s about conservation, respect for the animal, and being part of nature in a way many people will never understand.
About the Author
Cody McLaughlin is an outdoor writer, conservationist and hunting advocate based in Alaska. He recently launched Trout Stream Studios where he serves as an executive producer for podcasts and livestreams in the hunting and veterans’ affairs spaces. McLaughlin serves on the board of the Alaska Outdoor Council and is a former board member and lead spokesman of the New Jersey Outdoor Alliance, helping to represent the state’s 1.2 million sportsmen in the political arena.