Waupaca Co. woman bags 485-pound bear

WAUPACA COUNTY - At first glance, Laura Detert doesn’t fit the stereotypical hunter profile.

But Detert and her husband Ken have been hunting together since they got married 20 years ago.

Bear hunting since 2006.

"All of a sudden, one year, he's like, 'You're going to get a kill tag this year,’” explained Laura Detert. “And I'm like, 'For what?' And he's like, 'Bear.' And I'm like, 'Seriously? I don't know if I'm ready for that!'"

Call it a family affair.

“There's just something different about it,” Laura said about bear hunting.

The couple celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary last week – one day before opening day of Wisconsin's bear season.

Both already have a couple of bear trophies – which are nothing to balk at.

However, it's what they came across last Thursday that they say could be one for the record books.

"When it started getting later in the day, I put my gun up on the shooting rail [of the tree stand],” explained Laura. “(Ken) was up to my left [on the other side of the tree] and he was like, 'Behind us! Behind us!"

"So I'm sitting here with my gun going, 'Which way is he coming?!’ So I was just watching him and watching him...watching and then (Ken) whistled so he'd stop and I shot him."

When it was all said and done, a 485 pound boar laid dead – roughly the combined weight of Chicago Bears players Brian Urlacher and Jay Cutler.

“Just unusual to run into a big bear like that down here,” explained Ken.

Both had been watching the area for the past couple weeks with some trail cameras, baiting the area on a friend’s piece of farmland.

The two knew there were at least three different sized bears in the area – from small to large.

The one Laura bagged was the large one – but both didn’t know how large this one was until they got a closer look at it.

"So when it finally stopped moving, finally, I think then, I was like shaking my leg! I was like, ‘Oh my God I'm shaking!'"said Laura.

So does Ken harbor any jealousy now that she has nabbed the largest bear between her husband and two sons?

"No, no, very happy for her," said Ken, laughing.

"It's been kind of neat,” said Laura. “People come in the office and they're like, 'Somebody shot a big bear! Did anybody hear who shot that bear?' And I'm like, ‘I did.'"

The Deterts say they'll send the bear's measurements to national organizations to see where he stacks up with other record-setting bears in North America.