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Aim for the middle of the circle and hope your margin of error isn’t bigger than the whole circle!
Aim for the middle of the circle and hope your margin of error isn’t bigger than the whole circle!
Mike Ukrainetz's Link
Where to aim and how to judge size and sex?
Aim for the middle of the circle on this good sized male bear. It gives the best margin of error, stays completely off shoulder bone, even if you miss your dead centre mark and hit the outer edges of the circle. It will give a complete pass through, with entrance and exit holes. Shoot a big SHARP broadhead, preferably a mechanical and you are golden even if you hit the rear of the circle or worse.
How do I know it’s a male? How do I know it’s good sized? The 36” tall white topped post behind him is all I need to figure it out. Tall as the post to the shoulders, shoot!
Besides the beautiful color he’s a probable 4 1/2 yr old, 290 lb spring weight boar, upper 18 inch skull, with a hide a bit under 7 ft. I say probable because we, hunter Brendon Degner, gave him a pass last spring to hopefully grow him up to the next year which is actually the minimum age and size we prefer to take our bears at. He’ll grow to about 330 lbs, 19+ inch skull and 7 ft. The only difference in look will be less than an inch in shoulder height, 2-4 inches in body length in this profile and a bit more filled out, slight hanging belly. Overall he’ll still have the long body, high belly line, longer looking head, and neck, bigger ears.
Want one with little ears, a forehead crease, hanging belly? Then wait about 5-6 years and feed the heck out of him!
That's a beautiful color! What percent would you say of your bears are color phase?
About 35% colored at birth, say 1 out 3 Cubs including females, so about 1 out of 6 male Cubs is colored. But only about 1 out of every 10-12 boars makes it to 4 1/2 yrs old as a colored bear like this one, so still pretty rare to get one. (They get killed in the fall by local hunters as 2 and 3 yr olds.) Go to the next year and maybe 1 out of every 15 to 18, 5+ yr old boars is colored. (As 4 1/2 yr old boars they’ve mostly learned to avoid being shot by local hunters in the fall and we try to avoid killing them too but some still get shot.)
Then only about 1 out of every 20 boars is 6+ yrs old or with a 20+ inch skull, over 7 ft hide, over 350 lbs as a colored bear. It’s a rare beast that gets to be a huge colored bear!
Make it a 20+ inch skull, true blonde with yellow claws and all, and it’s 1 out 200 mature boars roaming our neck of the woods, so, so rare!!
I killed a 6'7" , gross 19 1/8 skull cinnamon in Sask back in 2015. Never did hear back on hold it was. We sent off the tooth. I guess the outfitter probably heard eventually. It weighed 307 in the spring.
Mike,
That is a beautiful bear! You would not welcome me in your camp as I would not be able to pass.
Thanks for the good info. Hope to be able to get into CN for a hunt this Spring.
This is another great post and photo Mike! That bear should be a beauty this year! That circle is definitely the sweet spot to shoot! And the white marker post is also a great frame of reference ...I will say this...when a 350lb+ wanders in...u will be in awe as to its size!
Pretty bear!
Dead center in that circle, is exactly where I hit the only bear I ever shot at, almost 40 years ago (very large boar).
Rolled, snarled, and snapped for about 30 yards, and died in plain sight (after the "death moan").
Dean’s bear, 380 lbs, 7 ft 3 in hide, 20 0/16 green skull
Dean’s bear, 380 lbs, 7 ft 3 in hide, 20 0/16 green skull
Matt’s bear, 380 lbs, 7 ft 3 in hide, 19 9/16 green skull
Matt’s bear, 380 lbs, 7 ft 3 in hide, 19 9/16 green skull
Here’s a couple of interesting pics from last years trail cams with two different boars we killed, both 380 lbs, both hides squared out at 7 ft 3 inches. Very different looks though, with the fat headed one, Dean’s, going 20 0/16 green and Matt’s measuring 19 9/16 green.
Thanks Mike! Way better shot placement advice than MOTM. Awesome bears!
LOL. I put the last pic around 130- 150 pound.... Guess I need more practice judging size....
Thanks rattling_junkie! And I might even move the circle a bit more forward because the bears front legs are staggered a bit back, but not much, maybe an inch. It would still keep it in the V of the front leg bones, no lower or higher though for the most margin of error. I do realize too that if you are calm, confident and the bear is close you don’t need all the margin of error and might drop your aiming point a bit lower and closer to the shoulder, but to me it’s an unnecessary risk.
And looking at the two bear pics I would call myself full of sh*t if I hadn’t gone through the trail cam pics several times and am certain of which trail cam pic belongs to which dead bear. I know it looks ridiculous...
Same bait site as Matt’s bear, 425 pounder for another comparison, 7 ft 8 in hide, 20 4/16 skull
Same bait site as Matt’s bear, 425 pounder for another comparison, 7 ft 8 in hide, 20 4/16 skull
Another interesting comparison of size, overall look to add to the other two big bears. To me you can really see the big frame Matt’s bear had even compared to this giant. I hope others find this helpful when they are running their own baits?
Matt's bear is a tank. Sheesh. These pics certainly turn up and look better on a PC than on my phone...Ok. I had better get back to online teaching rather than snooping around the Bowsite.
Seems like one of the best measures is the size comparison to barrels. It looks like all of these bears are bigger than the barrels.
Mike do you find you get some boars that are short and stocky? We have called these bears "gorilla bears." They always give me pause as they almost look like a very mature sow.
Rattling_junkie, yes we do. Boars that are 35” tall to the shoulders on the post and filled out, short legs, broad chest, usually fat looking head. And yes if you compare a pic of a jumbo sow they are hard to tell the difference. The sow might be 33” tall so the difference isn’t much and of course you don’t always have a clear comparison to the post or the barrel, further confusing it.
There is really a sweet spot on camera distance, about 8-10 yds that gives the best pics. This spring we were going to try to standardize all the camera set ups better, as close to a certain distance and height on the tree. Dang trees don’t always grow where you need them though!
Thanks for asking, I appreciate any comments. I love bears!
