dam nice looking bear.....you can see he has the makings of being a monster bear in a few years....that's the rub---do you shoot him now when you have the chance cuz he's real nice or risk letting him grow a year or two to get to the "monster" stage knowing in Idaho they can bait/hound them and he may be gone if you pass him up now....i guess a "bear" in the hand is worth two in the bush....I don't know the area you're hunting but depending on the situation and the amount of bears you have probably already taken (which i guess is a lot) i might let this one go and see what he does next year. I know its a big risk but you cant shoot a 400 pounder if you shoot all the 300 pounder's the year before. I know a lot of people are gonna call me crazy but really----whats the real difference in a 200 to 300 lb bear??? you get some more sausage and the rug stretches a foot more on your wall. I'm not trying to tell anyone what to do but if I honestly had MULTIPLE opportunites on bears during a season shooting the largest may not be the best option...I know I'm gonna take a lot of flack for this but i'm a big man with big shoulders and if someone seriously thinks about it I'm sure that they can see what i'm saying....if you only have one chance a year at shooting a bear by all means whack 'em and stack 'em.....all I'm saying is you can't kill big bears if you shoot all the small ones
I agree, the last two years I have passed on 7 bears. I have killed 8 so far and I only want large males with exceptional coats. This bear is in an area which gets a fair amount of hunting pressure from both bait and hound hunters, so he'll have to be crafty to make it two or three more years. We'll see what he looks like this fall.
