1st Try at Bear Hunting.

[Bow Walker]

I went out last night - after work - with a good bud to see if we could connect on a "tasty" one. But if you're going to go hunting, it might just as well be with a good bud, after all, who wants to spend quality time with someone that they can't get along with?

No luck. But we did come across some fairly fresh scat and tracks. The front pad part of one of the several we saw was as wide across as my hand. It was at least 5" across, maybe a bit more - then there were the 'finger' parts, and lastly the claws.

Now, I've been told that I have rather large mitts. I've also been told that you can convert inches to feet (add 1 and just convert to feet) to get a rough estimate of the size of the beast. Like 5" + 1 equals roughly a 6' bear, nose to tail.

The scat can also give a relative indication as to the size of the bear. The bigger the diameter of the "log", the bigger the size of the bear. Now, I didn't get right down in there to do any accurate and/or detailed measuring, but let's just say that if it had been a human, there should've been a bit of blood in with the poop. It was a tad large for a human - even some guys that are known to be big A-holes.

On another note....I/we got stuck in the snow at about the 2500' level. Got sorta high centered and had to dig the wheels out a bit and finally put the floor mats under the wheels.





All in all it was a great way to spend 4 or 5 hours.

[houndogger]

Add a inch to it's front pad. If 5" it should roughly square out to be a six footer. I would not go up so high, don't go any higher than the green grass.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

What hounddogger said. 5x100 is not even remotely close in the spring and not even close in the fall. Add 1 to the width of a front pad and that is farly close in feet.

[bochunk2000]

Dan that was about an inch of pad equals about an inch nose to tail. Maybe a bit more. The weight would be way off sorry if I was confusing Hahaha. It was a nice sized Bear in there. BIG poop too. We'll do it again soon.
Steve.

[Eagle1]

Still a little early for this year, we've had a lot of snow. When a bear first starts to move around they want the new green grass to get their bowels working again.Try a little lower where the grass is starting to grow and nice and green. This year more like into the middle of May and you'll start to see bear. Good luck. IMO

[todbartell]

looks chilly. I would head lower elevations did you pack archery or 270?

[johnes50]

You might want to try your luck around the San Juan campsite. No snow at all, lots of skunk cabbage and I saw a big bear there last Sunday under the bridge.

[Bow Walker]

My mistake was pointed out to me before I read the replies here.

OOPS - MY BAD.

Fixed it in the original post.

[Bow Walker]

looks chilly. I would head lower elevations did you pack archery or 270?

Well, since I lent my archery tackle to a bud I was packing my 270 to back up an archer.

Still a little early for this year, we've had a lot of snow. When a bear first starts to move around they want the new green grass to get their bowels working again.Try a little lower where the grass is starting to grow and nice and green. This year more like into the middle of May and you'll start to see bear. Good luck. IMO

Dan that was about an inch of pad equals about an inch nose to tail. Maybe a bit more. The weight would be way off sorry if I was confusing Hahaha. It was a nice sized Bear in there. BIG poop too. We'll do it again soon.
Steve.

Yeah, we headed up there to see what it was like. It wasn't frozen up there, just quite cool. I was still in a t-shirt, but the headlights were definitely 'on'.

We'll try lower next time, but away from the river.

[870]

The scat can also give a relative indication as to the size of the bear. The bigger the diameter of the "log", the bigger the size of the bear. Now, I didn't get right down in there to do any accurate and/or detailed measuring, but let's just say that if it had been a human, there should've been a bit of blood in with the poop. It was a tad large for a human - even some guys that are known to be big A-holes.

Thank you for explaining this in such fine depth Bow Walker.