Please judge these bears

woodruffhunter

woodruffhunter

Long Time Member
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I could really use some help judging some bears. I will admit, I do struggle a bit with judging but I believe there may be at least one good bear from these pic's. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

By the way, I am hunting Utah. I did pass up one bear that I would estimate would square around 5 - 5 - 1/2'.

Pic 1.JPG
 
It’s really hard to tell from these pics, but the bear in the second to last picture looks pretty good. You could always pound in a stake with a known height to help you judge them.
 
CFMuley said:
It’s really hard to tell from these pics, but the bear in the second to last picture looks pretty good. You could always pound in a stake with a known height to help you judge them.
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Thanks, I am actually going to do something like this to better judge them.
 
They have to be about the toughest for me to judge their SIZE unless I can clearly see their face/snout, belly and legs ......and if they're standing next to an adult sow. Then I can tell something about size.

The brown daytime one looks nice to me.

I ran across my first honest 7'+ black bear a couple years ago.
No thinking and no surprises on that one. Bang/flop!

Best of luck to ya bruh!
Zeke
 
Lumpy: it looks pretty good to my but hard to tell from that angle.

Zeke: we returned late last night and hunted this morning- nothing. We looked at the trail cam pics from the past two days and bears have constantly been hitting the baits. I did have one really big boar hit about 1:00 AM. There was no question that he was a shooter. It was not 7’ like the one you saw but it was over 6’, and FAT!

Just got back to blind, hope he decides to come during shooting hours.
 
2lumpy said:
I’m not falling for this again…… I can’t tell a hamster from a mountain lion, when it comes to the size for fur bearing creatures.

How big’s this bear? View attachment 112663
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Ya, I knew it would be hard to tell, that’s way I chose that picture. Bears are deceiving unless you can add all the signs together and it’s even then hard for me.

This is a year old cub, but by only seeing it’s fat butt it’s not enough info unless you’re a pro at bear hunting…… in my opinion anyway.

Here a picture with the same cub and it’s Momma.

Now we can tell!!!!

Three different sizes in the one picture.

I gentleman that makes his living hunting bear told me a week ago, one way that helps is to know how high they behind their front shoulder. They use plastic water drums for baiting. A standing barrel is 35” +/- tall. If a bears back is as tall as a barrel drum, it’s a mature bear of decent size. Where we can’t use barrels to bait in Utah, I’d mark some trees next to the bait or pound a stake or two that tall next to the bait pile. It would at the very least give you a fighting chance.

Good luck on your hunt tonight!

9A93CCB5-31E0-44F7-B4DD-F2626F55C373.jpeg

0FCEE341-501D-4B4A-9F45-1EF739A31021.jpeg
 
That’s a great couple of pics for learning how to judge!
I had 3 bears come to my bait with older cubs. They did not look like cubs from the trail cam pics.
 
The only "big" bear I see is that last one in the dark. A big old boar not coming in in the daylight may as well be on the moon. If that nice looking chocolate cinnamon comes in I would be tempted. Have fun! My wife just finished her hunt up, fun hunting bears over bait with a bow!
 
The above just came in. Looks big? It was a sow with two cubs. They walked right up to our blind. When the sow was at 5 yards I snapped my fingers. That was about all I could take ?
 
2lumpy said:
Ya, I knew it would be hard to tell, that’s way I chose that picture. Bears are deceiving unless you can add all the signs together and it’s even then hard for me.

This is a year old cub, but by only seeing it’s fat butt it’s not enough info unless you’re a pro at bear hunting…… in my opinion anyway.

Here a picture with the same cub and it’s Momma.

Now we can tell!!!!

Three different sizes in the one picture.

I gentleman that makes his living hunting bear told me a week ago, one way that helps is to know how high they behind their front shoulder. They use plastic water drums for baiting. A standing barrel is 35” +/- tall. If a bears back is as tall as a barrel drum, it’s a mature bear of decent size. Where we can’t use barrels to bait in Utah, I’d mark some trees next to the bait or pound a stake or two that tall next to the bait pile. It would at the very least give you a fighting chance.

Good luck on your hunt tonight!

View attachment 112673
View attachment 112674
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I guess I should have read the rest of the thread to see you have the answer. Unless your putting your bait next to redwoods, that’s clearly a small bear.
 
The above bear came in that night. It was very big but had yearling cubs. I would have thought it was a boar. After it left, a young boar came in which I passed. Another bear chased it off, that was bigger. I ended up taking that bear. It was a sow. I was a bit disappointed that it was a sow but it was older and good sized. I’m very happy with it.
 
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woodruffhunter said:
The above bear came in that night. It was very big but had yearling cubs. I would have thought it was a boar. After it left, a you g boar came in which I passed. Another bear chased it off, that was bigger. I ended up taking that bear. It was a sow. I was a bit disappointed that it was a sow but it was older and good sized. I’m very happy with it.
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Congratulations. Good for you!.
 
Thanks Lumpy. It was great and even better, my two sons and dad were there that day (one son was in the blind). Seeing the different sows with cubs was really neat. Very enjoyable hunt…
 
woodruffhunter said:
Thanks Lumpy. It was great and even better, my two sons and dad were there that day (one son was in the blind). Seeing the different sows with cubs was really neat. Very enjoyable hunt…
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Yep, I agree. Nothing better than hunting a new game animal. It’s like hunting for the first time again.
 
Bigwiffy said:
Just ate the best burger I've had in a long time! Take the meat!

View attachment 112775
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That burger looks good Wif. I know I will get grief by saying this but I have a hard time with bear. We took the meat from sons bear, last year and donated it to my friend (my son took some as well). They both liked it. My friend said it was by far better than deer.

My friend asked me for the meat from this bear as well. We cut it up yesterday. No strong smell to it and it looked really good. He is going to take one of the strips and put it on his smoker...

My friend does not hunt but loves game meat and that is about all he eats. He hardly ever eats beef.....
 
woodruffhunter said:
That burger looks good Wif. I know I will get grief by saying this but I have a hard time with bear. We took the meat from sons bear, last year and donated it to my friend (my son took some as well). They both liked it. My friend said it was by far better than deer.

My friend asked me for the meat from this bear as well. We cut it up yesterday. No strong smell to it and it looked really good. He is going to take one of the strips and put it on his smoker...

My friend does not hunt but loves game meat and that is about all he eats. He hardly ever eats beef.....
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Most people struggle with the mental part of eating it for whatever reason. In my opinion it's about as good as it gets. My wife's bear from this year is superb. Good on you to take it and give it to someone that will enjoy it!

My Dad took a big bear roast to a family party years ago and told all his in-laws it was a beef roast. They went back for seconds and raved how tender and good it was. He never did tell them it was bear.
 
Bigwiffy said:
Most people struggle with the mental part of eating it for whatever reason. In my opinion it's about as good as it gets. My wife's bear from this year is superb. Good on you to take it and give it to someone that will enjoy it!

My Dad took a big bear roast to a family party years ago and told all his in-laws it was a beef roast. They went back for seconds and raved how tender and good it was. He never did tell them it was bear.
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That is a funny story Wiffy and reminds me of a story that my Grandpa told me years ago when he was still alive (he passed away in 1992). He would often (usually once a year) go to Lake Pend Oreille on a guided fishing trip (in the 60's and early 70's).

Anyway, my Grandma and Grandpa were invited to a locals cabin for dinner. They served some meat for dinner and my Grandma kept raving about how good the meat was. The friends said something to the effect of "I am glad you enjoyed the bear". My Grandpa said my Grandma just about lost it right there. As they got into the car and were leaving, my Grandpa jokingly asked my Grandma about the bear meat and she said something like "Get that #$%^ away from me". It was always a running joke in the family as my Grandma hardly ever cursed.....
 
Thanks for the comments.

Joe: Yes, I believe the bear you are talking about looked very good. Too bad it would not come in during shooting hours.

There was a lot of activity at the bait site.
 

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