Saw a big bear.

Yesterday on my way to our cabin a good sized Black bear crossed the road from a corn field into a farmers grove. We stopped and warned the family that a bear was very near their house. They had a young dog tied out and he was really nervous. They took the dog in. We showed them a picture.

 

I’ve never seen one in the wild. Very, very cool. Great pic too!

 

Another picture I guess 350 to 400 lbs.

 

Closer to 200 lbs, maybe less. A 400 lb black bear is pretty rare. They do get that big, or bigger. I've seen one that weighed 515. The biggest killed here in GA was 600+. But 185-200 is typical.

This one went 260. This is after gutting it. Probably just over 200 lbs in this photo. He was filled out before



This is a big bear.

Large black bear killed in Rabun County shatters state weight record (onlineathens.com)

 

Maybe, a 500+ bear was shot a mile away. Your guess is probably better than mine. Thanks

 

Pennsylvania has some huge black bears. 600 pounds plus.

 

That’s a big bear, based on the yellow center hash. Some guesses and trig, maybe a 6 foot long bear? I don’t think 400 pound male is a bad guess.

 

I think they are 3 feet.

 

I see bears often. Most of the time they are crossing the road. Closet i been to one outside of a vehicle. My son and i were shooting on one of the old mines. After we were done. We walked over to another spot about a 100 yards away to look for brass. When we started to head to the car. The bear was eating some trash that was dumped. It was a younger one. We walked towards the car. Had our hand guns low ready. The bear didn't pay us any mind. It was enjoying it's snack. I think it was watching us shoot. And waited for us to leave where we were. So it could have its snack.

 

Maybe this picture will help, he was pretty fat and filled out, no skinny like 300 lbs bears.

 

Looks to be about 200 to my eye, we get some big bear around here. Seen a few over five, was one so big I locked up my brakes to check it out, looked like a black Angus walking in the field about 350 yards away.

 

Nice bear and I’m not an expert but I’m getting better due to how often we see them, this one in my estimate.. probably around 5 foot from tail to the nose. They are a little hard to judge at first with the long hair they look bigger than they skin out. The width of the head is a give away of youth or gender.

I’n other words it’s not a Bruin.

 

Large ears in relation to skull size and lanky looking. Not a huge bear. Decent size though.
How do I think I know? I see bears at my place quite often. No hunting season for them in Florida and they get quite brazen. They stand on the side of the road or in my yard and aren't real spooky.

I've only seen one really large bear and he was almost touching the bottom of a feeder bucket full of corn while standing on his hind legs reaching up. The bottom of the bucket was 9 feet high. He was about 325 lbs. by my guesstimate.

Bears here don't hibernate so they eat year-round and get quite large. The east coast North Carolina bears get huge though .. must be the genetics.

 

It seems like there are more and more bear sighting around here lately. A ranch where my friend hunts has lots of them, they keep getting into his hog traps and then climbing out- one was spotted yesterday in Crestview. Every now and then some get seen by my house raiding trash cans or animal feed.

 

I'm curious how your conversation with the family with the dog went. Were they outside or did you knock on their door? Were you friends with them to begin with or were they complete strangers?

 

While I commend the OP for stopping and warning, it probably would have been better to suggest they not have garbage outside and accessible and to empty the bird feeder. Food is the major attraction for black bears in urban areas. As for the dog.....having it outside was probably the best method of keeping the bear away. Don't take a very big dog to scare a Black bear, even the bark of a small ankle biter is enough to make them run. Have lived in and around Black Bear country all of my life.....have never heard of a bear attacking a dog tied up in a yard. But they will ignore them once they realize they are tied up/penned.

 

They were strangers, knocked on the door. The bear had been feeding in a large cornfield across the road.

 

Here's what an 829 lb. bear looks like:

https://www.ammoland.com/2011/12/829lb-black-bear-takes-record-in-nj-bear-hunt/#axzz7dg2ZMCnV

 

Friend in Wilkes Barre PA happened to send me this today. He’s a bird feeder eater.

I was motorcycling in the Jersey highlands with a friend on a dirt road when I saw a cinnamon colored dog in the road. As we got closer I realized it was a bear cub. Friend wanted to stop and take pictures, I put the kibosh on that.

 

We had one in my town of Greenville last year that was 550 dressed, many bigger most aren't weighted. Hard finding a scale over 500lbs when your rushing to get a bear cooled down after waiting for Dec or a weight station.

 

I used to do off road motorcycle riding not far from you in Ravena NY.

Didn't see any bears there though.

 

You maybe talking about the Greenville in Greene county, yup there's 2 in ny and it's a pain sometimes. I'm in the Orange county one. About 20 miles from that big bear posted above. Not many bear in Greene county, here we have a lot and there big, getting bigger since soy bean is popular lately.

Gun mechanic on the forum, I watch his son shoot his bear 4-5 years ago, that was 500 something dressed.

 

Hunting guide here in NM said he saw a 500 lb. bear chasing an elk.

 

When I live in PA (my first 50 years) we had bears in our back yard everyday through July-Aug because the huckleberries were ripe on top of the mile long hill we lived on. They would cross the road above our drive way and hoof it on up the hill on the other side of the road.
We had a big bore that visited me often. He would come up on our deck and look in the kitchen window at us when he was alone.
Usually he had about 4-5 females with him and they weren't all that friendly, A lot of distrust in their eyes. They probably had been shot at before.
That big old bore though didn't seemed bothered by me. I'd be out working on my garden tractor in the back yard and he would come up through the woods into my yard and usually take a break there. He would acknowledge me and I would him. He seemed to always want to make sure I made eye contact with him.
He didn't bother me and I didn't bother him, we just tolerated each other almost to a point where we were almost comfortable around each other.
He eventually got shot in bear season and dressed out at 609lbs, he was the third largest black bear shot in PA at that time.
I doubt I would ever "almost" trust a bear again, that one was just, well, different.