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Old 05-14-2017, 07:18 AM
broadfieldpoint broadfieldpoint is offline
 
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Default Ideal weather for trophy bruins?

In your experiences, what were the weather conditions when you shot your largest bear?

Mine was...... sunny, 18-20 degrees....mild conditions.

Does weather play a role in harvesting a 'trophy black bear'?
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Old 05-14-2017, 07:33 AM
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Is your definition of "trophy" the same as my definition of "trophy"?

Spot and spook hunting, or sitting a bait?

FWIW: my largest Ursas americanus was a farmland nusance bear, taken while driving on over to where I planned to go sit that evening. It was mild and calm at the time probably 15-17 degrees, with full sunshine, it was around 4 in the afternoon, when the Mrs and I bumped him outta the willows along the old equipment trail down by the river.
7' cinnamon, boar, with a 20" noggin.


I've had my best as far as activity, sits over baits when it's a calm calm evening, typically with clear skies, although calm but damp evenings seem to be not bad either. Windy with thunder boomers are least productive. If you're not besieged by mosquitoes you're not in for a good hunt, is my experience.
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Old 05-14-2017, 07:46 AM
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Crazy wind makes em spooky.
But over a bait I would say hunt the days you believe he thinks you wont be there. As you said trophy, we are not talking normal bear activity. Big bears are a whole new can of worms.

I have seen smaller bears on every occasion weather wise.
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Old 05-14-2017, 08:06 AM
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4 inches of snow in last week of May , 10 years ago . A 7 foot blackie that fisherman guy remembers well .
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Old 05-15-2017, 04:08 AM
broadfieldpoint broadfieldpoint is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by H380 View Post
4 inches of snow in last week of May , 10 years ago . A 7 foot blackie that fisherman guy remembers well .
. So, in your example.....nasty weather doesn't seem to be an issue. Almost all of the large boar sightings that I've ever witnessed have always been on calm days but that's just me.
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Old 05-15-2017, 06:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by broadfieldpoint View Post
. So, in your example.....nasty weather doesn't seem to be an issue. Almost all of the large boar sightings that I've ever witnessed have always been on calm days but that's just me.
Not saying this was the norm , maybe I was just lucky . OP asked what weather conditions were when we got our biggest . When I walked into my stand site and saw his tracks I wasnt sure it wasnt an undesireable . In this case it all worked out .
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Old 05-15-2017, 07:51 AM
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Only ever hunted bears in BC, only ever shot a couple bears myself but went with guys who shot bears. Baiting is illegal there so it was spot and stalk and we would drive around on logging roads looking in the slide areas, clearcuts, meadows, and just as often see them on the sides of roads eating the new grass and veggies. We would see lots of bears, (BC has tons of bears), when we saw one we wanted we would stalk it and shoot it. I don't know if it was because we hunted more on nice clear sunny days but that's when we saw the most, sometimes 10-20 a day when they first come out of the den and are feeding in the openings where the first green stuff pops up. As more green stuff pops up and the green belt moves up the mountains as snow melts the bears would follow it up eating the fresh tender new growth. Never saw near as many and sometimes we wouldn't even see any on those nasty wet windy days. Never hunted bears here in Alberta though.
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Old 05-15-2017, 10:36 AM
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I don't trophy hunt.

That being said, most of the Bear I have shot, were shot in nice weather.

The biggest Blackie I have ever seen shot, was shot mid day on a hot spring day.
The biggest Blackie I have shot was put down on a hot fall afternoon.
The biggest Blackie I have ever seen was shot late one stormy day in early April.

None of those Bears were measured for trophy potential.
The first one listed was too large for two men to load into a pickup truck. They had to use their truck to drag it out of the garden.

The last one listed was big enough I thought it was a Dead Moose when I saw it.

It was noticeably bigger then number two on the list. That Bear was over eight feet long from nose to toes and too heavy for my brother and I to load.
He is 6'2" and 225 pounds. I'm 6'1" and 210 pounds.

A neighbor shot a Blackie on his front porch one rainy spring morning.
I saw the hide before he shipped it to the Taxidermy shot to have it made into a Rug.
The head of that Bear measured 22" from one ear to the other.
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Old 05-15-2017, 02:33 PM
Kenmore Kenmore is offline
 
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My 2 biggest were taken around 8:45pm first 2 days of may...dead calm and warm.
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Old 05-15-2017, 03:04 PM
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all the best animals show up on my cameras on work days
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Old 05-15-2017, 03:42 PM
Pathfinder76 Pathfinder76 is offline
 
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Spring and fall weather, for me, is the best.
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Old 05-15-2017, 03:52 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reddeerhunter View Post
Crazy wind makes em spooky.
But over a bait I would say hunt the days you believe he thinks you wont be there. As you said trophy, we are not talking normal bear activity. Big bears are a whole new can of worms.

I have seen smaller bears on every occasion weather wise.
Crazy wind makes all game spooky, But once it quit, they've got to makeup lost time feeding. Worked for me a couple of times.

Grizz
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Old 05-15-2017, 03:58 PM
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The best time to hunt bears out of a stand is anytime you can get your arse out there IMHO.

Time spent observing and hunting is time in the field and time in the field equals success.

LC
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Old 05-15-2017, 06:22 PM
Pathfinder76 Pathfinder76 is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lefty-Canuck View Post
The best time to hunt bears out of a stand is anytime you can get your arse out there IMHO.

Time spent observing and hunting is time in the field and time in the field equals success.

LC
It is a reoccurring theme. Remove yourself from couch. Hunt. Success.
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Old 05-16-2017, 09:54 PM
broadfieldpoint broadfieldpoint is offline
 
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Anyone else?
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