Mark Matysek, a retired Baltimore City police lieutenant, conceded that he almost stayed in bed.
"I didn't have any confidence that I was going to see anything," he said.
His hunting buddy, Curtis Moore, persuaded him to go out to their scouted spot in Garrett State Forest.
"I was looking to my left when I heard a snap," Matysek recalled. "I saw a black form, and my heart started pounding. It was behind a tree, and it took a few steps. When I could make a good, clean ethical shot, I touched it off."
The bear, weighing 117 pounds, will be turned into stew and chili, he said.
DNR biologists weighed each bear, took DNA samples and tested for West Nile virus.
Moore, a retired Baltimore police sergeant who has a weekend home just outside Oakland, said he has been surprised how quickly bears have filled the Western Maryland landscape.
"I've been up here for 20 years. The first 10 years, you didn't see any bears," he said. "Now, you see them all over the place."
