HIGH COUNTRY BEAR?

[HUNTNORTHWEST]

Hi,

Im headed on a high country bear hunt next week for three nights. Ive been bear hunting before up high.
My question to all of you, who have some bears under your belt is do you believe that bears that hang out above 5000ft
are smaller then the ones that rummage around much lower?

All the bears ive come across lately seem young and small, ive only seen one bigger maybe 300 or over bear up high.
Maybe theres no difference at all about elevation but I just have been curious.

Thanks.

[X-Force]

If your hunting that high wouldnt you want the bears to be smaller? Big bear =heavy packout


I havent seen any big difference in size when it comes to elevation.

[mountainman]

Generally no difference, but have seen the same bears, years after years, in the same basins that never get hunted, and live to reach a ripe old age..so yes, in those cases can be alot bigger!!

[boneaddict]

Most of the super monster bears I have seen have been lower in elevation.   There is more available food more of the time.  Meeking out a living on top of the mountain is harder than you might think.

On a sidenote, a grizz I have been "following" for years, stays fairly high, but he travels A LOT!

[HUNTNORTHWEST]

With two other guys pack outs become a lot easier! But I see your point x-force.

I had the same thoughts in my head about living on a mountain has to be harder, I guess we will see if I find a monster next week
 
been looking forward to this for a year.

[boneaddict]

Just shoot a 150 pounder.  By the time you get it out it feels like 400+ and then you tell everyone you shot a450 pound bruin.    

[RadSav]

You can always shoot a 150 pounder and just tell everyone you guestimate his weight around 300#.  Why should you be different than everyone else 

Those high mountain bear will start to put on weight extremely quick as the sugar rises in the berries.  A lot of those 150# bear you see will be 225# by October.  The wife took one 450# up around 5,000' and the biggest swamp bear near sea level we've taken was 548# on the Bumble Bee cannery scale.  I believe I have seen one even bigger here in Washington at a 5,300' elevation in early October.  So I guess you can say the big ones are where you find them.  Not sure high/low makes much of a difference.

[deerslyr]

On a sidenote, a grizz I have been "following" for years, stays fairly high, but he travels A LOT!

Any pics by chance?? I know you must have pics 

[Austrian Hunter]

You can always shoot a 150 pounder and just tell everyone you guestimate his weight around 300#.  Why should you be different than everyone else 

Those high mountain bear will start to put on weight extremely quick as the sugar rises in the berries.  A lot of those 150# bear you see will be 225# by October.  The wife took one 450# up around 5,000' and the biggest swamp bear near sea level we've taken was 548# on the Bumble Bee cannery scale.  I believe I have seen one even bigger here in Washington at a 5,300' elevation in early October.  So I guess you can say the big ones are where you find them.  Not sure high/low makes much of a difference.

Holly mother of jesus, 548# Black Bear 

[boneaddict]

On a sidenote, a grizz I have been "following" for years, stays fairly high, but he travels A LOT!

Any pics by chance?? I know you must have pics 

I don't.  I have always been one step behind him.  Thankfully he feeds in the particular berry patch I put my September digs in about August 31-Sept 2.   This last year I was about 24 hours behind him.  He has done some serious excavating in the area.   Pretty cool to see. 

[3nails]

 All of my biggest bears have been up high. I believe all the bears follow the food source and when the berries are ripest in the high country, there they all are.

[RadSav]

All of my biggest bears have been up high. I believe all the bears follow the food source and when the berries are ripest in the high country, there they all are.

One thing that I find both in the high country of Washington and the high country of Canada is that there are very few sows and cubs in the high country.  Mom tends to keep the kids away from those nasty old grumpy men!  We have a spot here in Washington at 5,000' we've taken 15 or 20 bear out of since '88.  I shot one small one eared sow out of there around '95.  And I thought it was a boar...Ooops!  So much for being an expert   That is the only sow I know of that has ever been seen in there by our party.  Never ever seen a cub in there.  But there are still plenty more breaking 300# in there during October.

[3nails]

 Yeah once the boars move in, that's the end of it. I shot a nice boar out of a large south facing berry field around 5500' a few years ago that had 6 boars in it. None of them would ever get closer than 80-100 yds of each other. It was a pretty comical dance.

[RadSav]

Yeah once the boars move in, that's the end of it. I shot a nice boar out of a large south facing berry field around 5500' a few years ago that had 6 boars in it. None of them would ever get closer than 80-100 yds of each other. It was a pretty comical dance.

   Yeah when the wife got her big one there were three small boars in the berries.  She missed one of the smaller ones and all three ran into the timber.  The moment the three entered the timber the big boy ran out into the berries.  As if he was making sure all the little guys were gone.  Stood up on a big perch and just scanned the area for trespassers! One trespassers left was a little squaw with a big gun   He was a BIG target!  No way she was missing that guy

[mountainman]

Yeah once the boars move in, that's the end of it. I shot a nice boar out of a large south facing berry field around 5500' a few years ago that had 6 boars in it. None of them would ever get closer than 80-100 yds of each other. It was a pretty comical dance.

   Yeah when the wife got her big one there were three small boars in the berries.  She missed one of the smaller ones and all three ran into the timber.  The moment the three entered the timber the big boy ran out into the berries.  As if he was making sure all the little guys were gone.  Stood up on a big perch and just scanned the area for trespassers! One trespassers left was a little squaw with a big gun   He was a BIG target!  No way she was missing that guy

[deerslyr]

On a sidenote, a grizz I have been "following" for years, stays fairly high, but he travels A LOT!

Any pics by chance?? I know you must have pics 

I don't.  I have always been one step behind him.  Thankfully he feeds in the particular berry patch I put my September digs in about August 31-Sept 2.   This last year I was about 24 hours behind him.  He has done some serious excavating in the area.   Pretty cool to see.

That sounds really cool bone, hope you get some pics of him this sept!

[180-GRAIN]

To be honest the area I hunted last year I seen probably 25 bear in that area over 5000 foot in elevation. only 2 were smaller than 250 pounds and they were cubs. All the other bear were big. The smaller bears 120-200 were down low early in the season. I guess I would say big bears are where you find them, but I have seen the majority of bigger ones above tree line.

[seth30]

This thread is useless without pics

[Houndhunter]

Biggest bear ive seen bout 400lbs id guess, was at 6000' at least. But that being said, high elevation bears definitely are not not as big as your low elevation bears. They get big by the food, not a lot of food up high. However there is alot more bear up high, or atleast it's easier to see/find bear at higher elevations

[ghostshell]

there is something to be sad about packing that high country bear out. know your limits. the views and experience had up high are priceless and only can work for a small window of time for bears. i think hunt high during the time nature allows because river bottoms etc have a much greater time to hunt than high due to food source, snow melt etc. east side huckleberries were full on at 3500' to 4500' then blueberries full on up to 6000' any higher and they have not even flowered just slippery ground for now.