Field judging black bears

[Swamphunter]

Well, my buddy had decided he wanted to kill a bear with me and we had been in touch with Shauns Uncle's place since early this year. While I was deer hunting with bdboy53, he told me that he was unsure on how to tell if a bear was a shooter or not. I told him that I read a lot about field judging bears online, and from links provided to me from the guys here. I went back to my Sask bear hunt thread, and the links to those sites are broken now and no longer exist. Does anyone have a link to a good site that shows field judging bears so I can forward it to bdboy?

Thanks

[bruse]

Not sure of the site but I can tell you this. I was told look at the ears. Look at his legs. That is not true. A little bear will have little ears and they all appear to be on the side of their heads, They all look the same. When I was on my bear hunt I saw a good bear the first day and never picked up the gun cause I was didn't know if it was a good bear or not. I watched him so long I could decide. The best way I know is to have something to compare him to like a large rock or stump. Good luck but I will keep looking

bruse

[Cybertech_hound819]

Yes look at the ears. but they wont look small. a little bear will have big ears and will look funny because they will be out of praportune to his head. a big bear will have small ears. Also look at hes head and neck. if hes neck is smaller than his head he is small but if hes neck is as big or bigger than his head he is big.

look at thsi bears ears and how small they are compaire to his head. also his neck is the same size as his head. This bear was 552 pounds and is the new state recored for NH

[wtail]

I have been guiding bear hunts in saskatwan for 12yrs now and what we do to help hunters out to judge bears is we will take orange ribbon and rap it around trees at 45 gallon drum hieght.if a bear back is up to the ribbon pull the trigger.as for the ears you can't always go by that some huge bears have huge ears.when I am hunting them and a bear comes in and looks like a 45gal drum walking I shoot. We hunt over bait there.If your spot and stock try and get as close as you can,and take your time to figure out the size.they are very hard to judge when they out a couple 100yrds.here is the last bear I shot and he had huge ears his skull was 20" but when I seen his belly draggin on the ground I knew he was a shooter.

Edited December 11, 2008 by wtail

[buckee]

Black Bear

Bears are the hardest animals to judge because even the little ones look big. Some bowhunters are most interested in a large, thick hide, while others are looking for a bear with a large skull of recordbook dimensions. To spot a big one, look for a bear that seems to have a belly close to the ground. Bears that appear to have long legs are on the small side. There's another method of judging a bear, but it contains a paradox. Look for a bear that appears to have a small head and ears. Usually, this means a bear with a body so huge it makes its head look small. On the other hand, it could be an average bear that really does have a small head that won't qualify for the recordbook. The Pope & Young minimum for black bear is 18 inches -- the combined width and length skull dimensions. For B & C, it's 20 inches.

Why Are They The Toughest To Judge?

The black bear doesn't grow anything on its head that the hunter can use to help them judge the size of the bear, and nor is there any obvious morphological differences between males and females. So that leaves only relative scale. The difficulty begins when the bear is either farther away or closer than the hunter thinks. A "farther away" bear will usually be bigger than the hunter thinks while a bear that is closer than the hunter thinks, will generally be smaller.

Surprisingly, the problems don't cross over into judging grizzlies or brown bears. The difference between a monster bear, and a medium bear in these species, speaking in terms of hide squaring, is a couple feet. In black bears, the difference is a few inches! A giant black bear will only stand three or so inches taller and be a few inches longer than a medium bear black bear.

Solution:

Don't only judge black bears by their relative body size, use their behaviour and physical traits to help determine both the sex and size of the bear. Big old boars will act like bullies; they'll be fearless and swaggering. They'll be on the very best food sources at the best times of the day. Big old boars will have thick forearms, like Arnold, as opposed to sows, which will have dainty wrists. Big old boars will have deep, wide snouts and a greater distance between their ears. Often they'll have a clef between the muscles on the top of their head. If you have good optics, you can often sex the bear definitively before the stalk begins. A smaller bear's chest will appear to slope upwards to the bear's armpits and their step will be quicker and lighter. Last but by no means least, get closer. We muzzleloader hunters are fortunate in that we have to get closer to the animals we tag up on, this makes judging black bears far easier. The closer you are to a black bear, the more sure you will be about the call. That said, whenever black bears are involved, there is such a thing as too close!