It's one thing to try and judge a bear by a pic, another up close and personal! Photos can be very deceptive... even judging a live bear from a distance. I was present when a partner shot a "good bear" getting a drink at a pond 65 yards away. But before he'd come into the open, he'd pushed over a tree with a crash. Dominant bruins of an area often do that to intimidate other bears (or humans) to demonstrate their dominance. As a bear hunter, I've often had that experience when I knew from other evidence that a dominant bear was in the area. But when that particular bear showed up at the pond rather than the bait, he was not that impressive from 65 yards - just "another" bear! My friend shot him broadside just behind the shoulders through the lungs. That bear spun, ran up the hill as though not hit by the 150gr Partition and disappeared in the surrounding bush. Silence! It was getting very dark as the sun had gone down 1/2 hr earlier. Then he began to ball - eleven times, recorded on video. That's how I found him in a thicket of briars using a flashlight, just his hind end sticking out. My partner finally caught up and the two of us pulled him from the brambles, slid him back down hill... and he asked me "how much does he weigh?" "350 to 400 lbs", I said. An hour later, before field dressing, he weighed 399 lbs - I would never have guessed that from what I saw at the pond. Likely, I would have said 250.
Bob
www.bigbores.ca