How do you tell the size of a bear by looking at it . also how to size them by there foot print .thanks for your imput. Bob

I would imagine DFC could give you advice on this!!

I couldn't resist that,,, sorry.

Big head most of the time big bear. I look for small ears if the ears look small it is a bigger bear eye spacing if the eyes are far apart the bigger the head. They just look big has a ass that look like the back end of a trk most likely a big bear. If your bait hunting you can put done a sizing log to compare the bear too. Big track most of the time big bear.For blacks anything with over a 5 in front pad is getting big.

To add a little to what pds said. Say a bear is really far off and you can't get a good look at it...but you can see its moving around kinda fast. (really active) Chances are its a small one. If your 9 miles from your truck.
SHOOOOOT!
Took 2 days for a friend and I to get a nice one out on a backpack hunt this Sept. And we left the hide.

sidewinder-say what you left the hide?Your joking rights?

"GET TO THE HILL"

Dogz

If the bear's stomach looks like it's dragging the ground it's a big bear. Young bears are thinner. If he's looking you in the face from three feet away, he's big enough!

No...We left it. It was a really nice hide too. Not rubbed up either. Neither one of us wanted it. The groceries an the skull and our camp were all we wanted to carry. I would liked to have weighed our packs. I'm sure they were over 100 lbs. We spent the first day getting the quarters to our camp. Never go on a backpack hunt and stray to far from camp without your backpack... Then we boned it and got some sleep. Then got an early start and were out by about 1:00 pm.

The next bears we shoot the hides are most likey going in the trash.We like to eat them the shulls make nice trophys. But it is getting why to expensive to process the hides just having them tanned is running around 300 plus. Unless I can find a market for them they are gone. You only need so many laying around.

You really need to pay attention to the head.
-If the ears look big its a small bear.
-If the snout looks overly long probably a small bear
-Distance between the ears should look farther.
-I have noticed that a big track will result in a older bigger bear by age but not nessesarily by weight. Depending on feed and time of year a bear that has a big footprint may be underweight.

It is difficult to just look and judge a bear unless you do it all the time. Couple of years ago a freind of mine missed a bear opening day in CA. He said that it was real black, white patch on the chest and was at least 350 lbs. Well that afternoon we went to the same area. I had not left my buddies more than 30 minutes when I saw the black phase bear with a white patch on his chest feeding uder a cedar tree at about 200 yards away facing me. Well it picked up his head ans spotted me. Realizing it would be gone in a second one well placed 300HH shot later I walked up to that bear that was 130lbs. That could have been a diferent bear but I doubt it. Under the tree in the shade to me it did not look that small and I am sure that same bear running thru the meadow did not look the small to my hunting partner. But it was. Skull still looks good, pelt tanned out nice and backstrap was tasty. If you are looking at a trophy it is difficult unless you runn across a couple of 800lb blackies like they shot in PA this past season.

I'm certainly no expert as I've only killed three Black bears. But I have seen quite a few out in the boonies, so have made this observation... in addition to size of head and ears.

If you can see the bear walking away, notice if it has a WIDE rump, and kinda waddles. That's usually indicative of a pretty good sized bear. If it looks kinda skinny, and taller than wider, then in my experience, it's probably not too big.

The biggest Black bear I've killed weighed about 400 pounds, paws were seven inches wide, and the skull (B&C measurer) was 19 2/16". The wall rug I had made was an honest 6 1/2'. He was big in the head and wide in the rump. That's about all I can offer.

FWIW. L.W.

Thanks for the info . now I at least have an idea of what to look for when i get to go hunting for one of those critters one of theese years . Bob

I know a couple of hunters in PA that have shot small bears
when they were excited and were quite certain the bear
weighed 250 or more before they shot it.

Pretty good advice so far, thought I would show a few bear pictures and their weights:

A nice 300+lb cinammon phase black bear, used an '06/W 165NPs:


A nice 300+lb black bear, used a 7-08/w140NP:


A nice 400+lb chocolate phase black bear (20+"B&C) taken by a pard, used 06/w165BTs(poor choice)& myself - 7-08w/140BTs (I was after deer):


A nice blond phase black bear est at 200+lbs while scouting, sure was pretty though:


And finally a true 600lb black bear(weighed)B&C 21", used a 7RMw/160NPs:


Hope this gives you some ideas of a "good bear".

MtnHtr