Below is a short video of frequent (possibly the only one) visitor to my bait station.
I know in this neck of the woods you may get bigger one. Season ends Oct.04, so I'm debating whether I should wait for bigger one and take this one next spring (how much would he grow, I'm feeding him pretty good).
Would you take him for a rug?

[link]http://members.shaw.ca/LeftyArcher/Black_Bear.WMV[/link]

I'm a bow hunter.

First, bears have an extremely large home range so you have to be pretty certain that he will be around next year to make passing on him this year worth it. Second, if you do pass on him what are the chances that someone else will take him. Third, how much bigger would a bear have to be in order for you to take it. If the difference wasn't that much then I would take him. He looks like a decent size bear to me (guessing around 250-300) and his coat looks excellent so that is a deciding factor as well. I guess IMHO I would take him because there are too many factors that come into play as to whether or not you'll even see him next year, however if you can be possitive that you'll deffinately see him next year then that would be the only circumstance in which i would let him walk.

Nice looking bear... I'd take him....

I would definately take that bear!!! Though he is not huge, it is a beautiful coat, and as was stated before, there is no guarentee that he will be around next spring!!

I'd have to say that depends. I agree he looks to be 250-300#. If you’ve never gotten a bear at all, take him out, but if you already have bear of this size, then give him a chance to get bigger.

I've killed a couple of bears by hunting them, but I've never raised one to be harvested. Interesting dilemma.

Thanks everyone for replies.
I know, his coat is beautiful, from my nutritional diet, I must add

LOL

Yes it is becoming a dilema, the longer I watch him, the more I think that the fur looks better on him than on my wall.
I realize that the is no guarantee that he will hang around even this season, and to meet him in Spring 2005 is a really long shot.

Side note,
If you check Black Bear size records, couple of years ago, not far from place I hunt in Manitoba, a car killed Blackie 800 lbs +, it was only few lbs shy from North American record, some people still dispute it because the bear was scaled after loss of gallons of body fluids. Many local hunters were saying that it was "garbage" bear because normally we don't see them that huge, maybe up north, but not 50 miles from Winnipeg - city of 600,000 population.

I know what you mean. The area I hunt harvests 500-600 lb boars every year and we have had three taken here last year that scaled out at over 800 lbs. Pa is one of the sleeper states for huge bear. However, that doesn't mean I'm going to pass up a 300 pounder with a beautiful coat just for a slim chance I may see a bigger one. Like they say, the brass ring comes around once...the smart ones grab it.

How often does he come by your bait? If it is pretty regular and you have the time I would wait to see if anything else comes along. Thats a younger bear. I don't think he would go over 200 pounds. But like others have said, he has a really nice coat. I used to do forestry work in Manitoba. Awesome bears there. I have seen some real monsters and in the west of the province the majority I saw had chocolate coats. An outfitter friend of mine told me that one over 800 pounds was poached in Riding Mountain National Park.


If you are lucky a bigger more mature fella will come by and take over your bait. Even if you take that one though though you will still have a great trophy.

I agree with Bad Hayes. The ears tend to be a little large as I see it on the video. By all means it is a beautiful bear. I look closely at the head on whether to gauge it as a shooter. The ears will stop growing as the head begins to get larger thus making the ears appear smaller on larger bears.. IMO I would say that the bear is between 170-190 lbs. He definately would make a nice rug though.