Teen’s Bear One Of Georgia’s Heaviest Ever

Sixteen-year-old Grayson Collins, of Blairsville, standing next to his 620-lb. bear taken in Union County on Oct. 22, 2024.

A 16-year-old hunter killed one of the biggest bears ever taken Georgia—the second heaviest ever from north Georgia and the fifth heaviest overall.

On Oct. 22, Grayson Collins, of Blairsville, managed to take down the bear of a lifetime. The behemoth weighed 620 pounds on certified scales. Grayson was hunting a few miles from Ball Mountain in the Town Creek area of Union County on a private tract.

On that fateful Tuesday morning, 16-year-old Grayson climbed in his ladder stand around 6:30 a.m. and waited patiently for daylight to break around 7:15.

“Other than a few squirrels there wasn’t much much movement,” Grayson said. “I about fell asleep two or three times while I was sitting there.”

About an hour after daylight, Grayson saw something coming down the trail, and the hunter was instantly wide awake.

“I could see it was a real big bear, he was coming from a corn patch out of the holler, and he was headed back toward the mountains,” said Grayson.

Focused on the task at hand, Grayson shouldered his 300 Weatherby and waited for the bear to present a shot.

“He was behind a stand of poplars, and I couldn’t get a good shot on him the way he was turned to me,” said Grayson.

After what seemed like an eternity, the bruin finally worked his way out of the poplars and passed behind a beech tree.

“As soon as the front half of him came behind that tree, he was lined up good for a shot. That’s when I squeezed the trigger,” said Grayson.

Thirty-three yards from Grayson’s ladder stand, the bullet connected, and the bear went down hard, dropping in its tracks. Knowing the bear was much bigger than any he had killed before, or seen for that matter, Grayson and his family took the bear to McClure’s Processing in Blairsville to try and get a weight.

“He bottomed out their 440-lb. scales instantly,” said Grayson.

Knowing a much larger set of scales were going to be needed, the bear was hauled to Georgia Mountain Grinding and Recycling to get an official weight.

“We drove on the scales and they weighed our truck and trailer that had the bear on it, then we drove off, unloaded the bear, and drove back on to get weighed again.”

The massive bear’s weight was recorded at 620 pounds when the scales settled. According to the owner of the facility, Terry Kane, this is a number that can be trusted.

“The scales are certified by the Department of Agriculture, and they show weights in 20 pound increments. So, if the bear weighed anywhere from 611 to 630 pounds he would register as 620 pounds,” said Terry.

Before Tuesday, Grayson’s biggest bear to date was in the 300- to 400-lb. range. Grayson and his family will be processing the bear themselves, a job that is sure to keep them busy for a while.

Adam Hammond, WRD Senior Wildlife Biologist and Bear Project Leader, said, “There are only six entries in our harvest records of bears weighing 600+ pounds. This one comes in at No. 5 of the six, but only the 673-lb. bear from Rabun County (the heaviest Georgia bear on record) is also a north Georgia bear. The others are all from the southern bear zone.”

Georgia’s Heaviest Bear

“The bear harvest in the north Georgia mountains this season has been good thus far,” Adam said. “White oak acorns are somewhat limited this fall—abundant in some places and yet hard to find in others. Although firearms season has only just begun, the best opportunity for a mountain bear often comes early, and as the white oak crop plays out, hunters may have to work harder to find bears late in the season. Red oak acorns and hickory nuts are more readily available this fall. Generally, natural food shortages, especially involving preferred foods like white oak acorns, create competition. This can lead to bears being concentrated around limited food sources. Find the food, find the bears. The opposite may also be true, when food is abundant, bears move around less, are potentially more spread out, and generally this makes for harder hunting.

“We have recorded about 320 bears taken so far this season in north Georgia—more than the entire season last year when we recorded 315 north Georgia bears in 2023. I’m sure we’ll continue to see the harvest tick up gradually from here to the end of the season; however, I’ll be surprised if the total harvest approaches, or exceeds, our record for north Georgia of 532 bears taken back in 2011,” said Adam.

Grayson Collins with his 620-lb. black bear taken on private land in Union County Oct. 22, 2024. Grayson’s bear is one of the heaviest ever recorded from Georgia.