Field Judging

[208backcountry]

Had a boar at 280 yards this weekend. I gave him the pass. My goal is to shoot at least a 5.5 foot boar.

I was guessing him to be roughly 4.5-5 foot. I am not an experienced bear hunter and I am not experienced at field judging bears.

I have shot one bear in my life. It was about 6 years ago, we measured it at 6.5 ft, but we are not experienced bear hunters and I’m not sure we measured correctly. We saw many bears that season and it was visibly one of the largest we saw. I don’t remember how we went about taping it, but I definitely remember seeing 6.5 ft on the tape. We did it at home, I think we did it nose to tail with the skull still in.

The main reason I say that I think we messed up with our measuring is because the soft-tanned hide is significantly shorter than that. Sometimes I wonder if I even got the same hide back. That’s a whole different conversation.

Here is what I’m wondering. What do the experts put this bear at? I want to be able to compare to this bear for future reference. Also how exactly are you guys measuring length on dead bears, so I know I am being consistent with people who know what they are doing?

 

[208backcountry]

Ooops it won’t let me attach pics because the file size is too large. Anyone have any tricks to get them on here?

 

[208backcountry]

For the time being, PM me your number and I can text the pics

 

[MrTim]

How could you tell that it was a boar?

 

[208backcountry]

How could you tell that it was a boar?

Because it had nuts LOL

 

[Squamch]

I've been told when the ears are waaay out on the sides of the head, AND look small. When they have a big hanging belly, a hump on their shoulders, and an attitude like "I'm the f***king big man around here!" Then it's a big bear.
Dominant bears hear something and look around. Smaller ones spook, then stop and look around.

This is all just what I've been told. I've shot a total of one bear in 20+ years hunting. Not for lack of opportunity, but for lack of ability to be sure it's a good one!

 

[roosiebull]

really big bears are easy to tell, and really small ones.... the in-between bear are VERY hard to judge to know exactly what you are looking at.

like mentioned, small ears that are set farther apart, crease down the middle of the head, low belly, seemingly short legs, and the shoulder ridge (which isn't that reliable depending on body position)

bear are crazy hard to judge when you are looking at a 150+lb-sub 300lb unless you have some reference, which we generally don't in real life.

I love hunting bear and have done a lot of it, and I still struggle knowing exactly what i'm looking at with medium sized bears.

if it looks fake because it's so big, it's a good one.... if it looks small it for sure is, and if you are trying to figure out if it's big, it probably isn't.

none of this really matters if you aren't hunting BIG bear.... it also matters a whole bunch. i'm not a great trophy hunter, I like filling tags, and like eating wild game and I don't have a lot of wall space left...

I only like killing big bear, especially in the spring, because it's the only way to be sure I don't kill a wet sow, and killing a wet sow would end my spring bear hunting for good, so I take that seriously.

I cannot tell you how many times I have watched sows with cubs (confirmed) when the cubs weren't visible for a long time.... like an hour or more.

I saw a sow this year I was positive was a boar.... not a monster, but a decent one.... a bear I figured I would keep tabs on in case I hadn't killed a bear later in the season.... I went back a few days later to see if that was a reliably found bear, and it was, and had a couple little fur balls with her that time.... for sure the same bear, and the biggest sow I have seen by a fair amount.... another day of bear school, one I was happy to have, to minimize my chances of messing up some day.

last week I found a good bear I could have shot, but it was in thick cover, not so thick I couldn't shoot, but too thick to assess the situation well. I want to find that one again, because it might be a good boar, but I couldn't get a good enough look that day to be positive.

for me it seems about 50 bear encounters to a shot opportunity, it either has to be obviously huge, or I have to see it on a few occasions to be sure. I may be overly paranoid about killing a wet sow, but that's ok with me, I like hunting bear more than killing bear.... we always have enough deer and elk it's not completely about the meat, though I love having bear meat in the freezer.

I like the idea of baiting in the spring, it will never be legal here for many reasons, and I doubt I would go through the trouble to do it if it was legal, but the concept is sound.... you have time to judge, you can place objects for size reference, and I think it's a more foolproof way of not shooting the wrong bear.

I think there are folks who are really good at judging bear, in a super high density area, and a person who really loves bear hunting.... most think they can, but I haven't seen it around here.

there are quite a few like me who just stick to big bear or no bear, that's the safest bet if you aren't putting eyes on 100's of bear per year.

I have my opinions on some bear I see, and am fairly confident what i'm looking at, but i'm not confident enough to pull the trigger, so i'm not that confident in my judging ability outside of BIG