Fall Bear, 2012, Tooth Aging results

[h20hunter]

Just thought I would post this up for kicks and giggles. I just checked online and my Fall of 2012 bear has been aged. He was 5 years old. The butcher estimated the bear at around 275 walking around, was 125 hanging at the butcher, and had a skull right at 16 & 3/4.

[Becky]

Good thing your little man looks like his momma  jk jk that's neat info though, Shaun was saying that you send in the incisor for aging(?), that taxied bear looks like it has them all unless that little gap was where it comes from, so do they send it back? How does it work?

[h20hunter]

Premolar is right behind the canine...you send it in and it gets sent to a lab somewhere in the US. They slice it and age it....kind of like counting the rings in a tree. This year on the spring hunt they were pretty die hard about getting the tooth...pretty much made it mandatory. Currently, for general season, it is not required, only requested.

[crschralping]

Hey H2O can you post the link to look at that info I still haven't gotten anything on my 2012 bear

[mrmoskillz]

H20 if I get a bear can you tell me how to measure his/her skull please?  Can it be done with the fur still on?  I am a meat hunter but it would be cool to be able to tell people how big it is if they ask.  Congrats on your success the last 2 years with bear.

[h20hunter]

Can't do it with the hide on....has to be cleaned and I belive there is a drying period. Score is total measurement of lenght plus width. I believe the spring bear from this year in my avatar is right around 18 or so. I also hunt for meat and agree....the details are pretty cool to know. I don't have calipers for scoring them myself.

[Becky]

Premolar is right behind the canine...you send it in and it gets sent to a lab somewhere in the US. They slice it and age it....kind of like counting the rings in a tree. This year on the spring hunt they were pretty die hard about getting the tooth...pretty much made it mandatory. Currently, for general season, it is not required, only requested.

Ohhhhh okay, oh weird for the Spring bear they wanted it but not any other? Because it was a special draw thing or...

[mrmoskillz]

Oh so is it from tip of nose to back of skull then add the lenghth between the ears?

[h20hunter]

The fella that was in charge of the Monroe unit gave a few reasons.......basically trying to get a handle of age of killed bears during depredation hunts, age of killed bears by region....that kind of stuff.

[h20hunter]

Oh so is it from tip of nose to back of skull then add the lenghth between the ears?

Nope.....any taxis jump in and correct me or anyone else that knows...........clean dried skull......lenght plus width at the widest part. IE....my spring bear has a much wider skull.....look at the pic in the trophy room thread and you will see the "cheekbones" and how much flare out.....

[crschralping]

http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/tooth_age/

found it in your old post thanks. Nice Bear!

[johnnyaustin44]

Cool deal. Do they do this in Idaho? I submitted my tooth in spring of 2012 and don't know if you can look it up.

[h20hunter]

No idea....I know a couple guys on here have some cool bear pics of their bait sites in IDAHO.....they will know.

[Michelle_Nelson]

It is length + width for measuring Bear Skulls.  Calipers or a Slide are what you need to use to measure a Bear Skull.