When hunting brown bears you need to make sure you’re looking a mature boar, and you also need to know how to differentiate between a female and male. It can be very difficult to determine the sex of a bear. That is the number one thing you need to determine before evening thinking about the size.

Sows usually have longer snouts, less shoulder mass, tapered forearm to the paw, and are usually seen with cubs. Those are the most identifiable attributes of a sow. Be sure to determine that before moving on to field judging the size to shoot.

There are 5 things to look for when field judging a brown bear. 

Walk: Big mature bears will walk as if their front legs and back legs are operating independently of one another. In addition, it is a mature bear if the bears back end is larger than its shoulders. If you see a group of bears, you will know it is dominant if the other bears are skittish around the big boar. The big boar knows he dominates because he walks with confidence in a group. 

Legs: In a juvenile or sow bears front legs, you will be able to distinguish the elbow from the shoulder. Likewise, you will be able to see its ankle flip as it walks. The forearm will taper to the paw. In a mature bear, you will be unable to see the elbow. Its shoulder to the elbow and elbow to the paw will be uniform. The front leg will look completely uniform to the paw.   

Forehead: Big, mature bears will have a prominent triangular shaped divot on their forehead. Their foreheads will be wide and blocky. Juvenile bears will often have more elliptical shaped divot higher up on their forehead.

Ears: The smaller the ears and the further out on its head the ears are, the more mature the bear is. Juvenile ears can be bigger and will often sit on top of the bears head facing forward. Mature bears ears will be smaller, sitting on the outside part of a bears head and turned a little. 

Belly: A big ole bear will have a hanging belly even in the spring. Juvenile bears bellies will be further from the ground than a mature bears.