Baiting Bear - Advice Needed

[RadSav]

I could be wrong but that bear sure looks like a sow to me.  Has a sow type head.  You'll have to zip an arrow through and let me know if I'm right. 

I was thinking the same thing. 

[CAMPMEAT]

I know a guy, great start huh, that would bury a pipe in the ground and fill it full of treats. Then he would scatter tidbits around the pipe so the bears would come in eat the tidbits and have to stay there and work the site trying to get the food out of the pipe. 6 inch pipe buried 3-4 feet in the ground.
He said it worked great.......

[quacksmoker]

I could be wrong but that bear sure looks like a sow to me.  Has a sow type head.  You'll have to zip an arrow through and let me know if I'm right. 

I was thinking the same thing.

What do you base that on? With that in mind, are they all sows coming in?

[RadSav]

I could be wrong but that bear sure looks like a sow to me.  Has a sow type head.  You'll have to zip an arrow through and let me know if I'm right. 

I was thinking the same thing.

What do you base that on? With that in mind, are they all sows coming in?

It's a bit difficult to see the whole body in one picture, but combined I think we get an ok view.  Maybe not enough to be 100% certain though.  Shoot'em and find out for sure    Can't say about all of them as we only have those pictures you posted to judge from.

Generally a sow has a narrow nose, flat forehead, and larger ears than does a boar.  Also, in mature animals a boar will have shoulders larger than the rear, where a sow will have small shoulders and a large posterior.  Mature boars give a sense of intimidation by the broadened head and large shoulders.  Rarely do you get that feeling when looking at a sow.

I have witnessed a few sows that go against everything you think of about sows.  One such 350# sow in BC was about three seconds from taking a 150 grain slug from my .308 when her cub wandered into view.  Just moments before I would have bet a months wages that was the most beautiful bad arse of a blackbear boar you'd ever see.  She had it all and then some.  Luckily I was waiting for a perfect shot just long enough to find out I was wrong and was able to back out of the shot.  One more step forward with the right front leg and she would have been sausage.  But, she was an exceptional specimen unlike any sow I have ever seen.  After you watch hundred of bear it gets quite easy to tell the difference.  Until it's not of course

[Machias]

What do you base that on? 

Years of watching bears up close and checking facial features and body type.  I've been wrong before, but that bears body says sow and that face.  Not very broad in the face, bigger ears, body is thick but not very long, looks like a sow to me......but then again, I could be wrong, you'll have to let us know.

[quacksmoker]

Machias and RadSav---thanks for the help. This is only my second year hunting bear so I have a lot to learn about differentiating sow from boar. My thoughts were the head just looked smaller based on the body size of the bear but based on the thinner shoulders and broad rear end method I would say it is a sow.

Thank you to everyone for the feedback and ideas. I hope it works!

[RadSav]

Sows eat really good in the fall!  And that one probably will have a faint taste of Fruitloops   Sounds yummy to me.  I'd say she should be one heck of a first bear.  And camera seems to be lacking in the presence of cubs so I'd say tag her!  Absolutely nothing wrong with that bear.

[MLBowhunting]

Good luck.  Hope you get one 

[quacksmoker]

Sows eat really good in the fall!  And that one probably will have a faint taste of Fruitloops   Sounds yummy to me.  I'd say she should be one heck of a first bear.  And camera seems to be lacking in the presence of cubs so I'd say tag her!  Absolutely nothing wrong with that bear.

I got one last year in the same general area. The biologist that pulled the tooth said it was one of the oldest bears he had ever seen and estimated her age at over 20 years! She tasted like hamburger buns. Haha!

[RadSav]

I've yet to find a bear that doesn't think Snickers are the best dang food on the planet!  Cut one in half length wise and tie it just out of reach from a branch as far away from the base of a tree as possible.  Set up a camera or sit in your tree and enjoy the show.  Although it makes some bear so mad they've climbed into my treestand and left a rather stinky present for me.  Think it was there way of calling me the name from which it came 

[sebla]

get a small radio and keep it on at night real low they will stay away. when you come in to the bait turn it off and give it 30min bear down. GOOD LUCK that is a good lookin bear

[cody29]

I thought you cant bait bears in washingtion

[h20hunter]

I thought you cant bait bears in washingtion

you cant legally. Go back....first post....first line...idaho.

[RadSav]

Very first line of the OP..."I am hunting in Idaho."

We've got quite a few Idaho bear hunters on the site.