mungojeerie
06-02-2011, 11:22 PM
Well, I took my first black bear this past Sunday. Before I bought my tag I had told myself I was wasn't going for a big bear as I had heard they can get more wormy with size/age.
Wasnt up the FSR 10 min when I spooked a big bear off the road. Took me a little while to find him again but I did and now I had some humming and hawing to do. It was a big bear, bigger than I was planning on taking also it was down this steep gully littered with log debris and I was by myself... would have been a lot of work. But I decided it was early in the day so I'll take him. Just as Im readying to fire, he bolts.
I move on and an hour later Im walking up a road and hey look at that there's a bear beside me. I stop, slowly bring up my rifle, the bear looks at me, damn near jumps 3' in the air and off it goes into the bush and up a huge tree.
I sat down and drew a bead on it then lowered my gun, thought god this guy is kinda smaller than I was thinking. hummed some more and then finally decided I would take it after all I had planned on taking a smaller bear and I had hopes the meat would be good (Ive had bad experiences with larger bears taken in the fall) Also it was small enough that I could manage it myself easily enough.
I took the bear. It was fairly small, Im guessing at 175-200 lbs.
Here is my question. This bear was a female and as I said 175-200 lbs. Not a big bear. How old do you think it could be? It's teeth were in bad condition. all 4 canines were ground down flat to maybe 3/4 length and its other teeth looked in rough shape too. The bear looked in good shape, healthy and the meat looks good, but it's teeth looked like what people have described seeing in really old bears they've shot. I wish I got a better photo of them before I put it in the freezer. Im no expert on the matter but I would have imagined that for the size and likely young age the bear would have had better teeth. Two years ago my buddy and I took a much larger male while moose hunting in October and it's teeth were quite good.
35023503
Wasnt up the FSR 10 min when I spooked a big bear off the road. Took me a little while to find him again but I did and now I had some humming and hawing to do. It was a big bear, bigger than I was planning on taking also it was down this steep gully littered with log debris and I was by myself... would have been a lot of work. But I decided it was early in the day so I'll take him. Just as Im readying to fire, he bolts.
I move on and an hour later Im walking up a road and hey look at that there's a bear beside me. I stop, slowly bring up my rifle, the bear looks at me, damn near jumps 3' in the air and off it goes into the bush and up a huge tree.
I sat down and drew a bead on it then lowered my gun, thought god this guy is kinda smaller than I was thinking. hummed some more and then finally decided I would take it after all I had planned on taking a smaller bear and I had hopes the meat would be good (Ive had bad experiences with larger bears taken in the fall) Also it was small enough that I could manage it myself easily enough.
I took the bear. It was fairly small, Im guessing at 175-200 lbs.
Here is my question. This bear was a female and as I said 175-200 lbs. Not a big bear. How old do you think it could be? It's teeth were in bad condition. all 4 canines were ground down flat to maybe 3/4 length and its other teeth looked in rough shape too. The bear looked in good shape, healthy and the meat looks good, but it's teeth looked like what people have described seeing in really old bears they've shot. I wish I got a better photo of them before I put it in the freezer. Im no expert on the matter but I would have imagined that for the size and likely young age the bear would have had better teeth. Two years ago my buddy and I took a much larger male while moose hunting in October and it's teeth were quite good.
35023503