Ed Giddens of Valdosta, a student at Lowndes High School, set a Georgia state record when he killed this 574-pound bear while hunting with his dad and a friend in Fargo.

VALDOSTA – The Georgia state record for largest bear killed during hunting season was broken last month by a teenager from Valdosta.

Ed Giddens, a 15-year old student at Lowndes High School, shot and killed the bear while hunting on Oct. 5.

“It feels pretty good at the time, but it’s more of a moment to me,” said Giddens. “It’s amazing. I never thought it would happen to me.”

Giddens, who weighs only 130 pounds, shot the 574-pound bear at the Sweetwater Hunting Club in Fargo. It was nearly 300 pounds bigger than any bear he had killed before.

The Club, which is run by Jimmy Steedley, had just seen a 570-pound bear killed. Coyt Roundtree had shot a 570-pound bear the previous day.

“I was happy to see it, but I was like, ‘I wish that would happen to me,’” said Giddens.

Little did he know, 24 hours later, it would.

Giddens has been hunting almost his entire life. This is his fourth kill.

It’s not so much the hunt itself that has attracted Giddens to the sport, but rather man’s best friend.

“Really it’s the dogs. It’s like an adrenaline pump,” said Giddens. “It’s hard to say. It’s kind of like running the dogs on a deer, but there’s more action. It’s something you wouldn’t think you’d be able to do.”

The big kill is on the minds of hunters every time they go out, but on that October day, the kill almost didn’t happen.

“Some bears, the smaller ones, will go up a tree when the dogs get to him, but he was big and bad,” said Giddens. “The bear went to the road and back, then went into the woods.

“Then my dad, Lanier Griffith and I were told if we wanted to kill the bear, we had to go get him.”

That’s when Giddens, his father Bill, and Griffith, a 16-year old student at Clinch County High School, took off chasing the bear over hundreds of yards. Giddens and Griffith then left Bill and continued the chase through the brush and waist-high water.

The two boys finally caught up to him, but were unable to make the shot.

“Since we run through deep brush, we don’t load the gun before,” said Giddens. “I tried to load it, but then he took off again.”

So Giddens and Griffith continued the chase about another 100 yards, until Giddens got close enough to pull off the shot, and hit the bear square in the head. From 60 feet, Giddens shot the bear with a 45/70 Marlin.

Now that he’s set the state record, Giddens would like to increase it.

“I don’t really have any new goals now, but I would like to kill a bigger one,” said Giddens.