Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game How Big Is This Bear?

You guys with experience.....how big do you THINK this bear is? We don't get to see many where I hunt.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNRdtc48Xbc

https://youtu.be/rNRdtc48Xbc

That's a difficult one. Bad angle.

His demeanor makes him look mature, but his ears say he's young. If I had to guess, I'd say his physique and head profile for that second you can see it make me say he's somewhat young, but for sure not a cub.

A broadside shot would help, but I assume if you had one it would have been posted.

That is a tough one...but I'd say 250...

👍

5’x 7’.5” Rug 😁😎

T Inman & ingwe:
Good evening to you both, hopefully this finds both of you gentlemen well.

Although by no means do I profess or pretend to be a bear expert, we see a fair few out here every year - sometimes in the yard - so I'd agree with you both.

The ears look a wee bit too long to be a real oldster and though he's got a bit of a double chin starting, the really mature guys appear to have even less neck.

This guy - I believe - is about the size of the one in the video.


On the other hand, this one has the short ears, double chin, no neck look and also telling - appears to lack ground clearance.


Here in our part of BC, the black bears don't get super long, but they get rounder, closer to the ground looking and the ears get shorter looking.

Anyway I hope that was useful information and as always is only one old Canuck's thoughts on the matter and nothing more. All the best to you both this Fourth of July too.

Dwayne

Yes sir...the neck thing is often a reliable sign of a bear's maturity...as is the double chin and ground clearance but unfortunately there's no good shot of any of those in the video.

That's a really nice bear in your second picture...

Agreed on the 250.

T Inman;
Good evening again and thanks for the reply.

Yes, he's a pretty good one for an Okanagan bear - though for a Vancouver Island bear he'd not be considered that big.

Anyway this guy and I have a bit of a history - or at least I think he's the same one I bump into every few years in the same spot. When I next bumped into him it was 4 years later when the kinickinick crop was more bountiful than I've ever seen.

He'd just flop down into a heavy patch, eat off his belly for awhile, then stand up, shuffle over and flop down again.



It was really early in the morning and I tried to use the digital zoom on the camera to get a closer shot and it didn't really work, but one can kinda/sorta see his size.



Anyway I was up there trying to sweet talk a 6 point elk into rifle range and though I carry a bear tag, I've not decided to shoot one for many decades now and as long as they behave like the one in the photos - that's to say leave when they wind me, then I'll be happy to just watch them eat kinickinick henceforth.

That said, I don't have any issues whatsoever with folks who do want to turn them into hams and European Weiners either! Our eldest daughter still has designs on doing that and when we see "the one" that's what's going to happen to it - hopefully!

Thanks again and Happy Fourth of July to you sir.

Dwayne

Funny thing about bears is how the basic frame makes all the difference in how big the bear really is and all the character marks just supply the local knowledge. Spring bears and fall bears in the berries of legal status are all pretty much shot on sight for food, so the markers for trophy judging are usually wasted here... and with limits of at least three per year...

I always hesitate to guess a weight because we simply do not ever weigh one so the numbers never get verified to show how close the estimate was. But in western NY you are close to the hogs of PA and I would guess the frames run a little larger than average. If I were a betting man I would suggest 250 was low. But I have seen obese small-framed bears and skinny large framed bears.

between 250 300

I guess I'm the odd guy out, I'd say about 200 pounds.

If you don't get many bears in your country, I'd shoot him in a heartbeat.

Guessing a bear's weight from photos, even moving ones, is kind of like guessing the weight of a fish that is swimming in the open ocean. Without something in the pic for specific size reference, it is even harder, like guessing the weight of a salmon in a burlap bag. We see LOTS of bears where I live but I've never weighed one nor know anyone who has. So I'd trust the judgment of someone in your area who does weigh bears after seeing them on video and shooting them, especially someone who has done it on a number of bears.

Sitka has it right that frame is critical, then maturity characteristics on that particular frame. Is that a body beginning to show some blocky maturity on a dwarfy frame, an average frame, or a huge frame? I've been in on one bear with a hide over 7' that turned out much bigger on the ground than he looked when alive. He was an enormous bear but was still young enough to not show all of the massive old body characteristics. Like most humans, however, most bears are not exceptionally big.

So I'll guess 350 unless we actually weigh the critter on a scale, and then I'll play ordinary probabilities and say 205... or a smidge under.

Dwayne, good pics.

I'm with Steelhead, around 200# though that would be at the most. My initial thought upon seeing it was more in the 160-180 range at the time of the photo. It does not appear to be a young bear though it is not an old boar. My guess it is a mature female without cubs as that would satisfy the majority of the visual cues. Such bears tend to run in the 180-220# range through their fertile years which would meet the mature looks and smaller size criteria. Going out on a small limb, I would place its age from 5-10 years of age based on a lot of time sitting over baits and a few years working a big game check station where I got to see a couple dozen dead bears a year.

As mentioned, the physical dimensions of the bear would help. There are some decent reference points in the picture but the angle of the bear and not knowing the actual dimensions of the tree nor distance from the tree of the trail makes for a lot of guessing.

Yeah, 175-200 was my first thunk. Still is

~250# 6' tip of nose to tip of tail. About a $1000 rug and might just barely make Pope and Young minimum 18" skull.

Thanks for the replies and pics.

If I get additional video, I'll post it. Two years ago we had two around, one appeared to be a cub in the double digit weight and a bigger one that had a field day with one of my cameras. I believe he was shot the following spring for getting into a locals beehives?? NYS DEC granted a nuisance permit amazingly fast on that one I was told. I'll load that video.........(cool audio too!)

https://youtu.be/RN2CYqeN6zo

Another one from 30 yards further up the hill (same logging road) from this years bear but this clip is from two years ago. No damage to the camera from this one though.........

https://youtu.be/cD5gRE9Rr4o

Edit........date on camera is wrong. It isn't THAT green in WNY in February.

And no more. And probably less.

Only ones I've seen personally were young ones going out to seek a territory for themselves. That one looks like more of an adult but I'm not an authority on bears so I can't even take a guess on the weight. Very neat video though. Had a young one in the woods next to the house about 10 years ago. Caught him crossing the road at dusk a couple times, found his tracks in the woods along with bear scat, etc........ But this one must have been camera shy; as he refused show up in front of any trail cams. Dept. of Environmental Conservation guys eventually live trapped him and relocated him .