Would you shoot this bear?

[TexasWalker]

What are your thoughts on this bear,I let it walk and shot it with the camera instead.
I'm not a very avid bear hunter so I haven't field judged many bears,I think it is 3 year old sow.

Anybody care to guess age and sex?
Would you have punched a tag on this bear?

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv67/bigmike_420/bear/hunting2011008_zpsb80e72e0.jpg (http://s670.photobucket.com/user/bigmike_420/media/bear/hunting2011008_zpsb80e72e0.jpg.html)

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv67/bigmike_420/bear/hunting2011011_zps5d49c358.jpg (http://s670.photobucket.com/user/bigmike_420/media/bear/hunting2011011_zps5d49c358.jpg.html)

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv67/bigmike_420/bear/hunting2011017_zpsc80daff2.jpg (http://s670.photobucket.com/user/bigmike_420/media/bear/hunting2011017_zpsc80daff2.jpg.html)



http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv67/bigmike_420/bear/hunting2011020_zpsc2d6843c.jpg (http://s670.photobucket.com/user/bigmike_420/media/bear/hunting2011020_zpsc2d6843c.jpg.html)

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv67/bigmike_420/bear/hunting2011016_zpsdbee62ff.jpg (http://s670.photobucket.com/user/bigmike_420/media/bear/hunting2011016_zpsdbee62ff.jpg.html)

[proguide66]

Good call , its a girl. Looks to be hanging out , nothing up tree's ?

[TexasWalker]

Good call , its a girl. Looks to be hanging out , nothing up tree's ?
No cubs with her as far as I could see and she stood there and checked me out for like ten minutes at about thirty yards and then just walked away into the thick shit.

Why do you say girl? Narrow forehead is why I pegged her for a sow.

[REMINGTON JIM]

I think Sow too and No would not shoot it BUT nice pictures ! :-D RJ

[scottwh]

Great pics! Sow for sure. Nice looking bear!

[outdoorsk]

WOW how could you tell it was a girl? Great looking bear is all I can say.

[Weatherby Fan]

Honestly I couldn't say one way or the other ? Looks like decent sized bear.
Great pictures by the way, thanks for sharing
WF

[The Dawg]

Sow is what I see. Longer narrow face.

Looks to be a decent size- not small but not huge.

[Surrey Boy]

Is this your first or second tag we're talking about?

[longstonec]

No cubs with her as far as I could see and she stood there and checked me out for like ten minutes at about thirty yards and then just walked away into the thick shit.

Why do you say girl? Narrow forehead is why I pegged her for a sow.


Eyelashes.

[Dour]

That bear wanted a bullet in it I would have shot him/her as long as nothing was in the trees it's has a nice white v

[Caribou_lou]

Good choice not shooting her. You can tell in the photos she is paying too much attention to that large tree. Even if I couldn't find cubs up there I still wouldn't shoot.

[Caribou_lou]

Now that I take a second look, it looks like she is standing on a dirt pile. Possibly from digging. Cubs may have been down below.

[TexasWalker]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/shades_of_green/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by Caribou_lou http://huntingbc.ca/forum/images/shades_of_green/buttons/viewpost-right.png (http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=1335929#post1335929)
Good choice not shooting her. You can tell in the photos she is paying too much attention to that large tree. Even if I couldn't find cubs up there I still wouldn't shoot.





http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/shades_of_green/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by Caribou_lou http://huntingbc.ca/forum/images/shades_of_green/buttons/viewpost-right.png (http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=1335931#post1335931)
Now that I take a second look, it looks like she is standing on a dirt pile. Possibly from digging. Cubs may have been down below.




She was digging around feeding on something around that dirt pile and downed tree I watched her for quite a while before she knew I was there.
I can say with 100% certainty there was no cubs with her.


My decision not to shoot wasn't based on the question of cubs,it was more the German shepherd looking ears lol

[Chopper]

Decent bear , for me ... not a shooter

[bchunter181]

Doesn't sseem to be cubs nice bear would probably shoot this bear

[hunter1947]

I would say sow I would let her walk she might be a 5,1/2 footer..

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Definately a sow but definately not three!

[HarryToolips]

Good choice not shooting her..I'd guess a sow so I woulda done the same..

[f350ps]

Sow for sure, you can clearly see the scowl on her face! :) K

[kennyj]

Great photos. You can't go wrong not shooting.
kenny

[Auto Girl]

nice looking bear!!

[greatwhitehunter]

Looks like sow to me, eyes closer together and narrow nose. I'm thinkin it is good size.

[Wild one]

If it looks like a sow I let them walk because cubs hide way too well

[steel_ram]

I'd say a girl but with the absence of cubs only one way to no for sure, regardless of previous posts.

[TexasWalker]

Definately a sow but definately not three!

How old you figure she is?

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Definately a mature, sow probably 5 or 6 years old. Sows,a alot of time will not out grow their ears like a boar.

[proguide66]

No cubs with her as far as I could see and she stood there and checked me out for like ten minutes at about thirty yards and then just walked away into the thick shit.

Why do you say girl? Narrow forehead is why I pegged her for a sow.
For me personally , the ears alone would make a no go. Further observing , no scars , dainty beak tapering to the tip.... Lets face it , the average joe could smoke a 6 pack of blackbears a day in average BC by noon most days....makes passing and waiting for small ears and scars way easier !!! and makes for more time in the field = more fun !!

[BCKyle]

the average joe could smoke a 6 pack of blackbears a day in average BC by noon most days....

I'm looking in the wrong places! :evil: :mrgreen:

[s0ylentgreen]

"Lets face it , the average joe could smoke a 6 pack of blackbears a day in average BC by noon most days"

that hurts my feelings......... I've been out about 8 afternoons looking for a Okanagan Bear and have only seen Sows with cubs and a small 2 year old..

what gives?

[Fred1]

Great photos. You can't go wrong not shooting.
kenny
Good call! Be sure, those cubs are tricky and have cloaking devices...

[dana]

For me personally , the ears alone would make a no go. Further observing , no scars , dainty beak tapering to the tip.... Lets face it , the average joe could smoke a 6 pack of blackbears a day in average BC by noon most days....makes passing and waiting for small ears and scars way easier !!! and makes for more time in the field = more fun !!

Bang on describing it! Sow all the way based on those ears. I also agree with Chilcotin Hillbilly that it is a mature sow. I also will add that I would not hold it against any bear hunter that pulls the pin on a bear like that. People bear hunt for different reasons.

[The Hermit]

Well that would be a tough call... if I had my longbow in hand I'd have tried getting twenty yards closer and taken the shot... with a rifle maybe not but that is a nice bear... not huge enough to be all wormy so would be good eats!

[Steeleco]

After some careful time to see that she was alone, I'd shoot her. No if's and's or but's!

[Jagermeister]

I'm still not sure it is a sow. The ears seem to be long indicating a sow or young boar but it appears to have good body bulk. The lack of cubs suggests to me that it is a young boar and there does not appear to be nipples indicating a lactating bear. Granted, a sow could be barren, but if it were a sow in her prime, she should have some little rascals.
The bears have not been out all that long and are now just beginning to search for harder digesting foods after purging their intestinal tracts with new grass and forbs. The bears have not added any substantial weight yet so the ears would tend to appear longer.
I am with Steelco, I would have taken the bear considering the length of observation time and the fact that the bear was not in a hurry to move off.

[steel_ram]

Juvenile male for sure.

[hunter1947]

To bad the bear did not lay on its back for a picture so we could see if it was a male or female LOL..

[RiverOtter]

The first pic almost made her look better than she was, especially with the dome between the ears, though the pointy snout is a dead give away for a female.

Prolly one of the nicest "Chevrons" I've ever seen on a sow though.....

[Jagermeister]

Okay, I see how you guys determined it is a sow. That cheveron is the dead giveaway, it's her bra line.

[Ambush]

Until you see it pee or roll it over, you can't be 100% sure.

That's a bigger bear than many people shoot and it has no cubs, so why not shoot it? This province, or at least my region, is over run with calf-eating black bears. Anybody that hunts moose should be filling both their bear tags in their moose hunting area.

If you want to hold out for a monster, fine, but not everybody has the time, money, access or inclination to wait for multiple opportunities.

Would I shoot that bear. No. But if I had a newer hunter with me, we'd be skinning that "sow". Most plentiful and easy to get big game animal in BC. Perfect for someone eager to cut a tag.

[Jagermeister]

Good post.
Until you see it pee or roll it over, you can't be 100% sure.

And I would add "or another bear mounting it".
I think that a large majority of hunters are not interested in hunting blackbear because of retrieval requirements and or not having a taste for it either. Of course, you could freeze it and feed it to your dog.
Increased blackbear harvest would certainly be benefical to the ungulate populations, especially at this time of year when the young are being birthed. Nothing like the whiff of placenta to draw a blackbear on the run.

[Ron.C]

I'm far from an expert but I will say that on Black bears, unless I see cubs with an adult bear I can't say for certain that it is a boar or a sow. I can be pretty sure and make a educated guess if its a really large bear ie big head making the ears look small, heavy nose, face is scared up, large heavy body, temperment......

Where I hunt, there is no problem finding bears and in most cases we have tons of time to make up our mind if its a shooter for us and determin if it is without cubs. And on some hunts, this bear would have been making the return trip home with us.

[steel_ram]

To bad the bear did not lay on its back for a picture so we could see if it was a male or female LOL..

Yup. That's the ONLY way to tell what a lone bear is. Bears vary so much in appearance.

[chilcotin hillbilly]

Yup. That's the ONLY way to tell what a lone bear is. Bears vary so much in appearance.

I beg to differ. You see enough of them and you get pretty good a judging them. When you start seeing 40-50 a year in trees you can get pretty good a sexing them.

[TexasWalker]

Juvenile male for sure.


Yup. That's the ONLY way to tell what a lone bear is. Bears vary so much in appearance.

So how are you so sure it's a juvenile boar?:mrgreen:

[steel_ram]

I beg to differ. You see enough of them and you get pretty good a judging them. When you start seeing 40-50 a year in trees you can get pretty good a sexing them.

Definately a mature, sow probably 5 or 6 years old. Sows,a alot of time will not out grow their ears like a boar

Never definately.

[steel_ram]

So how are you so sure it's a juvenile boar?:mrgreen:

I was contradicting the "experts" just for the sake of it. Don't know, don't care. Unless you can see the balls, or the other two mentioned scenario's, there is know way you can definately or for sure call a sow or boar on ears, eyelashes, sexy swagger or whatever.

[TexasWalker]

I was contradicting the "experts" just for the sake of it. Don't know, don't care. Unless you can see the balls, or the other two mentioned scenario's, there is know way you can definately or for sure call a sow or boar on ears, eyelashes, sexy swagger or whatever.
How many bears have you shot?

[steel_ram]

I have personally killed three bears with my bow.

[Jelvis]

Wouldn't even think of shooting it
Jelly Bear