WEBVTT - Judging Black Bears for Dummies 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:04.640 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network powered by 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:08.520 Interstate Batteries from your truck to your trail camera. Interstate 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.440 Batteries as you covered. Visit your local Interstate Batteries store 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:17.880 today or online at Interstate Batteries dot com. Interstate Batteries 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:27.160 outrageously Dependable. My name is Clay Nucleman. I'm the host 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:31.120 of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.760 host into the world of hunting the icon of North 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:40.839 American wilderness. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation who will 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.720 also bring you into some of the wildest country on 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:55.160 the planet Chasing the Battery. Thanks for checking out the 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.800 Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I want to relay some news 0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.680 to you guys that is very much so related to 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:07.080 the podcast. If you remember, several weeks ago, on episode 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.959 twenty one, we interviewed a man named or A Lee Province. 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:15.120 It was the title of the episode was Old Mountain 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:20.280 Hunter or Lee Province. We received word this week that 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:26.039 Mr Or passed away on April fourth. It was really 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.600 a shock because we were just at his house. He 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:34.200 was full of life, years old, was in great mental health, 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:39.800 and just we had an incredible conversation with him that 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:43.360 I'm so so glad that we were able to record, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:48.680 and we were grieved to hear the news. But I'll 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.440 tell you what, Mr Or lived a heck of a 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:56.480 life and he was he maintained his health throughout his 0:01:56.600 --> 0:02:00.240 life and passed away at the age of nine. And 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.080 I'm just so grateful that we were able to record 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.040 some some of his oral history just as we sat 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.240 down with him and talked, and so I wanted to 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.560 I wanted to let you guys know that, and just 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:16.000 the Province family, all the Bear Hunting magazine folks, and 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.000 our our deepest condolences to you. But also we just 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.000 want to celebrate the life of an old mountain hunter 0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.240 who he wasn't just a mountain hunter or to his family, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:30.320 was known as an incredible patriarch, a man of great faith, 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.960 a leader, a man who maintained a strong biblical value 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:39.919 system his entire life and it never swayed. And that's 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:41.679 that's the kind of man that I like to tip 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:46.520 my hat too. And so hey, our condolences to the 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:54.160 Province family onto this episode. This episode is the third 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.880 in our series about all things related to Spring Bear Hunter. 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.360 We wanted to bring some really relevant content. The first 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.160 was about spring bear hunting for Dummies, where we just 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.000 went through the ins and outs of wind, where, how 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:11.280 and why spring bear hunting. The second was about shot placement. 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.720 And this episode is about judging bears. Black bears are 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.000 some of the most difficult animals to judge. We're gonna 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.600 go through multiple, multiple things and have a really in 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.760 depth conversation, not just about stuff that we've searched on 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.640 the internet, but these are things that we have seen 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.239 in the field that we that I use, that Ryan 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:37.360 Grab uses to to truly judge bear. And honestly, I've 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:40.800 seen a lot of information online and in different places 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.000 that I just I don't think it's applicable everywhere, and 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:48.200 some of it just isn't isn't always dependable. So we 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.440 we give some insight into judging bears that I think 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.600 will be really good. I want to bring up one 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.800 more thing today. We released a video called Alaska Wild 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:01.960 on the Bear Hunting Magazine YouTube channel. It's a it's 0:04:02.000 --> 0:04:04.480 a brown bear hunt in Alaska where Billy Moles and 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.360 his hunter take a massive bear that they predator called 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.320 in It's incredible video. We even have some footage on 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.880 there of a big nine and a half foot bear 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.440 breeding a soal incredible, incredible video. Go to our YouTube 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:19.920 channel and check it out. While you're there, check out 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:24.040 our Tea Spring account t Spring. It's basically a merchandise 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.360 m an online merchandise store that's attached to specific YouTube channels, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.000 and it has allowed us to offer a wide range 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:39.240 of merchandise bear hunting related merchandise from hoodies, longsleeve shirts, 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:45.360 coffee mugs, iPhone cases, um women's clothing, all kinds of 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:49.720 stuff in all kinds of different unique, fun, custom designs, 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.200 and all kinds of different colors that we've never been 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.640 able to offer before. So check out the Bear Hunting 0:04:55.720 --> 0:05:01.680 Magazine T Spring account t Spring Store on our YouTube channel. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.560 When you check out Billy's video on our YouTube channel, 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:12.720 use code b h M to get off all your 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:18.400 Bare Hunting Magazine Tea Spring purchases through April. Let me 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:25.880 say that again. Use code b h M at checkout 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:30.640 on the Bare Hunting Magazine Tea Spring Store to get 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:36.159 off all your purchases through April, and again you access 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.839 to t Spring Store through our YouTube channel. It'll be 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.279 like right down below the YouTube channel you click on 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:49.640 it all kind of awesome stuff. And trophy hunting, my friends, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.080 is actually what saved North American big game by taking 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:54.640 the emphasis off the young and the females, putting it 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:58.000 on the older mature males. So man, I will take 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.760 zero flat from anyone on the planet saying that we're 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:02.840 trophy hunters because we want to kill big bears and 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:06.279 not little ones. Who is the conservation hero my brothers, 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:09.440 the guy that shoots the first juvenile bear to the barrel, 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:16.240 or the brethren like in this room, who wait for 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:23.479 the big ones. Welcome to the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.760 We are going to have another one of our technical, 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:37.560 nitty gritty nerd out bear sessions about judging bears in 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.279 the field. Judging bears, trying to tell if a bear 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:45.440 is a male or female, if it's a older mature male, 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.800 or if it's a juvenile male. Basically judging bears just 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.000 like we would whitetails. Judging you judge a whitetail by 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.839 all these different characteristics we're gonna talk about bears. Bears 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.880 are one of the hardest animals to judge in the field, 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.320 for sure. I mean, I think you could talk to 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.000 guys all over the country that have hunted all over 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.039 and they would say the hardest animal to judge in 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:12.360 North America, it's a black bear. I have with me again, 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:17.960 Ryan Grab also known as flint Face Grab. Flint Face. Yep, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.360 Ryan is Kobe. You wouldn't know this. Ryan is was 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:26.800 notorious for taking pictures with animals and just having this 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.640 like flint face, just like just flint face. So I 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:35.800 started calling flint Face. Now he's now he smiles more 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.160 on these big trophy photos. We've got Ryan Grab here 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:41.680 with me. Yeah, now he grins like a girl scout. 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.160 I got so Ryan Grab is here. Ryan's been on 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.600 the last couple of podcasts. And I've got to say 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.000 it just in case you haven't listened to the podcast before, 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.080 but Ryan is an expert bear hunter, troubled with me 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:59.480 many places in Canada. But you've you have done your 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.600 bare big in this here in Arkansas. And that's how 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:05.480 I know you as being a expert Arkansas bear hunter. 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.200 Been hunting. I mean, you've killed a ton, You've killed 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:10.320 a pile of bears here in Arkansas. And as I've 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:12.360 said in the last three podcasts, you were killing bears 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:17.440 when my Mama was still wifing my nose. Would you 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.840 agree with us if you say so? All right? All right, 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:23.600 So that's Ryan Grab. I've got Colby moorehead with me. 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:27.400 I've introduced Colby to Colby works for Bear Hunting magazine. 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.720 So Kobe is, uh, you don't really even have a 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.360 job title, do you know. It's just like now, Kobe. 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:35.720 Kobe does all kind of stuff for me, Bear Tech, 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.360 bear Tech. Koby is a bear hunting magazine, Bear Tech. 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.559 Mr can do, attitude, can do. That's all right. Koby 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.680 is doing a ton of stuff for me, including getting 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:49.240 Bear Horizon on Amazon. I don't know when this podcast 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.280 is gonna be released, but you can be looking for it. 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.240 We're gonna have our Bear Horizon show on Amazon. That's 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:56.480 one thing that he's done for me. But anyway, he 0:08:56.520 --> 0:08:58.280 does a whole lot of stuff. But that's neither here 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.280 nor there. Let's talk about jo and bears. We're gonna 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.640 try to just jump right into this thing. Toughest big 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:09.120 game animal in North America to judge by many standards. Um, 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.320 bears don't have antlers, do they? Have you ever killed 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.680 the bear with antlers? No? I've only seen a couple 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:22.040 on trail Kim. But bears don't have antlers, and this 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.600 is just the truth of it. A hundred pound bear 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:31.040 has this has a lot of fairly similar to characteristics 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.920 as a four hundred pound bear, and that again, we're 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.360 gonna get into the nuances to disprove that. But I mean, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.439 if you were to see hundred pound bear on a 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:47.080 hillside five yards away, you could be deceived into thinking 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:50.160 that that was a big one because of what we're 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.360 gonna talk about scale. But what what we're looking at 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:58.439 is we're fine, We're we're we're nitpicking the nuanced features 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.640 of a bear to try to understand what makes a 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.640 trophy bear. And we're gonna use that term. Let's let's 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.080 let's let's not use the term trophy. Let's use the 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.240 term mature. A mature male. That's what we're after. Inside 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.600 of bear hunting, the target animal and almost any situation 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.680 is going to be an older class, mature male animal. 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:23.680 That's what we're after. Okay, traditional methods, what would you say, Ryan, 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:30.080 are the traditional statements that people use to describe big males. 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:37.440 I'd say the most notorious would be small ears, yep, 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:46.400 creased head, yep, um, you know bigger risks pads for sure. 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:52.480 Probably the small ear myth. Yeah, that's that's what you 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:54.560 hear people say all the time. Like you could Google 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.160 search small ear bear and it would be there'd being 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.640 articles all over the place. But let's go ahead and 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.600 just jump right into this is that I have seen 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.199 you have seen times when that didn't characterize the characterizing 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:15.200 older mature male at all. Um. Definitely, the classic big 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.240 bore is gonna look like he has small ears that 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.559 are on the side of his head, you know, because 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.720 his skulls so big, head so big that it's like 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:27.120 those ears as he gets older just kind of moves 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.760 down his head. But I've also killed some whop or 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:34.600 bears that to me had mickey mouse ears. For instance, 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.360 the bear I killed this year in Oklahoma, I called 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:38.920 him Batman because of how big his ears were. He 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.960 had these big curled ears. I have also found that 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:46.040 bears have different shapes and looks based upon what part 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.880 of the country they're in. I mean, I've never seen 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.679 in Arkansas, and correct me if you think I'm wrong. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.640 I personally have never hunted a really big giant bear 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.360 in Arkansas or Oklahoma that I would have categorized as 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:04.800 having small ears. Would you have no, You know, I 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:09.840 think there's almost to me a difference and the way 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.920 they look in the Washingtaws here and you know, mid 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.760 Arkansas compared to the Yeah, it seems like they've got 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:25.160 distinguished facial features. Maybe even hide is a little different. Well, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.040 then there are two separate populations. I mean they really are. 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:31.920 In Arkansas, we've got basically to what they call ala 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.240 Patrick populations of bears, which means they're kind of independent 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:38.600 of one another, based upon some geographic and man made 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.520 barriers of the Arkansas River which is not man made 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:45.160 to Kolbe, but the Interstate forty, which runs right by 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.920 the Arkansas River is man made, so that it separates 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.720 these two populations. And very few bear bears are crossing 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.839 over to breed into these different places, and so there's 0:12:54.840 --> 0:13:01.320 even slight differences in between ninety miles. You know. Um, 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:06.760 there's some generalizations like for instance, um, well these aren't generalizations, 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:10.439 these are true. Uh. Newfoundland is known for having big 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:14.920 skulled bears. Uh, Prince of Wales Island is known for 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:19.280 having large sculled bears. There's other places that are known 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.199 for not having big skulld bears, but you still might 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.240 have a big bear that is huge body wise, but 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:31.000 his skull would be smaller. Um. There are definitely different 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.400 characteristics of bears, just like white tails. I mean, you 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:38.119 have some places where white tails are gonna have express 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:41.640 this big, massive, heavy horn deer, like Canada, and they 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:45.400 have other places where they're not as much. UM. That 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:51.120 being said, bears are not affected by the um is 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:55.000 it Bergmann's law that states that the further you get 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:59.000 away from the equator, the larger body sized mammals are 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:01.800 to retain heat. That's why Canadian white tails are bigger 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:05.400 than white tails in the Florida keys. Bears are exempt 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:09.600 from that law that because they hibernate during the winter. 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.359 They technically don't hibernate, they go into state of torpor, 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:19.520 but they they are exempt from that law because they 0:14:19.680 --> 0:14:22.920 are not enduring the cold temperatures, just taking it right 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:25.720 in the face like all these other animals. So, bears 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.880 in Florida, bears in Arkansas, bears in Oklahoma, bears in 0:14:30.000 --> 0:14:34.120 North Carolina could be as big or even bigger than 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.080 Canadian bears. Okay, let's just separate that out. There's just 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:42.400 some bared knowledge, bare nerd technoledge. I wish we had 0:14:42.480 --> 0:14:45.560 the body size of the Carolina bears. This gap. That's 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.880 not amazing, no doubt. I mean, we've got big bears, 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:53.400 but they've got some monsters. They do they do. Some 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.480 of the biggest bears in the world are on the 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:59.040 Eastern Coast. Some of the biggest skull bears in the world, though, 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:03.200 are also in Pennsylvania. Some of the top five bears 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.680 skulls in the world have come come out of Pennsylvania. 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:07.840 And part of that probably has to do with their 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.800 age structure, because they've got a lot of older bears 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:12.800 because they don't hunt over bait or with hounds. They're 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:16.040 just spotting stock or drive hunting these bears, so they're 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:20.760 really not taken out a big percentage of the bears 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.600 every year. But so okay, we've established that there are 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:26.960 bears in different places are going to be different, They're 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:32.240 gonna look different. Um, we've established that ears and a 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:36.040 crease on the head are sometimes that's what somebody might say, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:37.880 small ears and a crease on the head, that's the 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.040 only bear you shoot. Well, if that had been the 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:41.880 way that I judge bears, my whole life. I'd have 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:44.960 very few bears, A lot of the big bears that 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.360 I've killed. As a matter of fact, the only Boone 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.840 and Crockett bear that I have ever killed, Ryan, I 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:53.360 would say, didn't have either one of those didn't have 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:55.760 a crease on his head, and I would say he 0:15:55.800 --> 0:16:00.440 had big ears. Um and well, I don't want to 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:02.440 get into body weight yet, but let's just talk about 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:06.640 those two things. Um My, good buddy Heath Martin, expert 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:09.320 bear hunter here in Arkansas, has a story of going 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.800 to Canada and shooting a color phase bear that had, 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.280 I mean just a ripple crease down its forehead. They 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.480 were hunting the big color phase mail. This color phase 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:20.520 bear comes in. They think it's the big male, has 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.480 a big crease. He shoots it and it's a sal 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.320 Sal with a crease. And I've been noticing that more 0:16:26.320 --> 0:16:29.080 and more. The more I see bears, the more I'm like, 0:16:29.200 --> 0:16:31.720 man sALS will have a crease on their head too. 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:36.040 Have you have you seen that before? Ryan? Not so 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.520 much here in Arkansas probably no. Uh, I've seen some 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:43.000 big sales. I think a lot of the determining factor 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:47.320 on the sales is seems like they're muzzle wants to 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.840 blend in even to where they have the blonde brows. 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:55.080 Have you noticed that? And probably the total length of 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:59.880 the bear. The boars will always have lankier, longer body 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.760 versus a sale they're more compact. Yes, yes, I've heard 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.560 people describe it that a sal is pear shaped like 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:15.600 a narrow front end, big back end. Uh. So, let's 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:17.080 see where do I want to go? There's so many 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:21.399 different places we could go here, let's go Let's go 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.400 ahead and just describe the characteristics of older mature mail 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.000 as we would just say it now. We're not saying 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:30.720 that ears increase are not indicators of an older mature mail. 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.240 For instance, one of the first years I spring bear hunted, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:36.920 we went to Alberta. We killed six poping young bears 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:40.880 in five days in our camp. One of those bears 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:46.240 I would have considered as a traditional style big older 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.560 male who's straight up had small ears, straight up had 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.040 ears on the side of his head straight up had 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:58.080 a crease. One of of six. Well, I mean I 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:00.560 said we killed six bears of five days. The bears 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:02.920 that the two bears that I killed which were nineteen 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:05.760 inch but nineteen inch plus bears, which are that's a 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:10.160 big bear, well above the pope and young minimum um 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.720 probably weighed in the three hundred three fifty pound range 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.800 in the spring, which is a big bear. These are 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.879 big bears. They all had what I would describe as 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:21.119 mickey mouse ears, and they were tall and look like 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:27.200 a race horses. Okay, um, they but the the defining 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.160 features of them that made me know that they were 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.320 older mature males was that they were tall, they were 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:38.680 very tall, and that they were long, and that they 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.800 had their front legs the front leg of a boar, 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:46.320 A big boar, he's gonna have like stove pipe legs, 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:51.639 like a bulldog, big ankles and big pads, as in 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:55.600 contrast to a sow, which is gonna have thinner legs, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.000 thinner ankles, smaller pads. To me, almost every big bear 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.200 I've ever killed ryan I have noticed his feet. I mean, 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:06.240 like if you were to show it, and I'd almost 0:19:06.280 --> 0:19:08.480 go to that more than the head. Like I see 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:11.639 some pictures of sALS and get truil camera pictures of 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:13.520 sALS and I was like, if you just showed me 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:16.520 the head of that bear, I couldn't tell you. I mean, 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.160 I would assume it would just be a big boar, 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:20.440 But to be a sal I would almost rather look 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:24.320 at the bear's feet than anything. It seems like the 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.640 back feet also want to sell as not as long 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:32.240 as the boar's you know, in length, their paths just don't. 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:41.600 Sal's a lot shorter. Yeah. So when I when I'm 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.240 looking at a boar or looking to determine if a 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:46.560 boar's trophy size, looking at his feet, looking at his 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:51.760 front shoulders, looking at his height, that's that is a 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.400 massive factor. And when you're hunting over bait, typically you've 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.960 got a fifty five gallon drum. This this rule could 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:01.480 be applied anywhere on the earth where there's black bears. 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:03.960 Was early in North America. But a bear that is 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:08.080 as tall as a thirty six inch tall drum, if 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:12.480 his shoulders, not his hairline, but his actual shoulders come 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:15.520 up to the top of that barrel, that's a that's 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:19.400 a big bear, is it not? Ruyan Yeah? Usually shooter, Yeah. 0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:22.000 I mean, you just don't see an immature bear or 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:25.840 even a a salve that's gonna be as tall as 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:30.399 a barrel, do you. Every once in a while, like 0:20:30.480 --> 0:20:34.320 the say the sal I had trouble with in Canada? 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:38.600 Was it two years ago? You know, my first glance 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:42.439 at that, I thought, boy, there's a shooter. And she 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:47.880 was probably three hundred maybe three pound bear, but big head, 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:53.240 she just short. Yeah, I mean that would have been 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:55.760 a tough one. Yeah. Yeah. She had a cup with 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.040 her though. That's probably the only reason you knew it 0:20:58.119 --> 0:20:59.919 wasn't a born Yeah. I mean you might have figured 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.320 out after a while. Yeah, it takes you know, if 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:05.280 you studied it for a minute or two, you could 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.560 probably do you think she was truly as tall as 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:13.760 a barrel like her shoulder, I don't know barrel. There 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.000 was a barrel there, but it was laying down, you know, 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:19.680 it was chained the tree. But it was a tall bear. Yeah, 0:21:19.760 --> 0:21:24.840 it was. Sayah, that's a tricky one because inside the 0:21:24.840 --> 0:21:28.200 bar world there's different variants of height and well there's 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.520 different there's all these different shapes like you could here 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:36.720 in Arkansas have a sal bear that weighed hundred and 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.480 eighty five pounds and she might be eighteen years old 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.879 and be fully mature, and maybe she weighs a hundred 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.960 and eighty pounds. Heath Martin four or five years ago 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:53.000 shot a bear here in Arkansas. Turned out it was 0:21:53.040 --> 0:21:56.159 a sal weighed three hundred and forty pounds on scale 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:01.359 in the fall. And there's just all this variation, just 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:06.200 like in humans. Nope, she didn't she was a big 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:09.600 dry sow in Uh. She didn't have a cub with her. 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:13.199 I mean, they've been getting pictures of this bear and uh. 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.359 And she was a prime animal to take out older 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.000 female and but it just a big bear and uh. 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.240 And he kind of thought maybe it was a sow, 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:26.280 but it was just you know, he took her. Um 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:30.080 weighed three pounds on a scale. That being said, there's 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.480 all this variation, So you can't just always say that 0:22:33.560 --> 0:22:36.200 a sow is just gonna be a whole lot smaller, 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:39.840 because you could very well have a older age class 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:42.120 male board that weighed three and forty pounds. And I'd 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:44.920 take that bear anywhere in the world. I really would, 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:47.919 if I went to Canada. I mean most most of 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:53.280 the time, I'm gonna shoot that animal. Um. So the boars, 0:22:54.000 --> 0:22:56.920 but the one place, and in your deal would be 0:22:56.960 --> 0:22:59.040 an exception, I would say, I would say the one 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.560 place that you could almost always tell a boar is 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:06.760 his height and lengthy. I mean You're just never gonna 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:13.120 have a sow bear that is just this freight train long, tall, 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:19.040 big animal. You're just not gonna see it. And the 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:24.200 first time bear hunter might not distinguish that. You know, yes, 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:26.960 the more time you've spent bear hunting and get to 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:32.480 see tens upon hundreds of bears, it'll be easier for 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:37.000 a guy. And so that goes to the second thing 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:39.720 here we want to talk about is determining the sex 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:43.280 of a bear. When I was in Saskatchewan last year, 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:47.800 we watched bears for eight hours a day for five days. 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:52.159 We were just watching bears like crazy, and I realized 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:56.199 that these older soals were sometimes hard to distinguish from boars. 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.000 The first thing I looked at, though, was ankle size 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:04.240 and pad size. Second was the first thing. The second 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:07.960 thing once they came in is some And the reason 0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:11.080 I'm saying this is these cells were really mature, Like 0:24:11.119 --> 0:24:13.680 I mean, you totally would have said that these cells 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:16.240 had small ears down the side of their head. I 0:24:16.280 --> 0:24:18.840 mean really they were like like if you had just 0:24:18.880 --> 0:24:21.440 taken a picture, I think you could have almost convinced 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:24.480 anyone that it was a mature male. So this animals 0:24:24.520 --> 0:24:27.200 coming in there's not really anything to scale the bear 0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:30.800 by trying to determine is this is this a nice male? 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:33.240 Because in the spring the males are smaller. I mean 0:24:33.280 --> 0:24:36.280 not physical, not this bone structure obviously, but I mean 0:24:36.280 --> 0:24:39.280 they're they're less weight, they've been a then for six months, 0:24:39.280 --> 0:24:43.520 they're thinner. So in the spring a male and a 0:24:44.040 --> 0:24:47.200 female might be harder to distinguish in. The second thing 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:51.040 I look for was a penal sheath. Yeah, like I mean, 0:24:51.040 --> 0:24:54.760 a boar is gonna have these these sheath hairs that 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:58.000 hang down and they're four or five inches long, sometimes 0:24:58.760 --> 0:25:01.040 hanging down right in the middle of the belly. You 0:25:01.080 --> 0:25:04.080 can't see there. You can't see the sheath. Really, it's 0:25:04.119 --> 0:25:06.760 not like something big hanging down, you know, but you 0:25:06.760 --> 0:25:10.679 can see those sheath hairs hanging down, And when you 0:25:10.720 --> 0:25:13.080 see that, all of a sudden part of your equation 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:15.480