Bear Size

[Hodag Hunter]

Mike,

I assume you weigh all your clients bear they kill.

I think a great thread would be to post trail camera photos of the bear and have guys guess the weight. You probably have tons of examples.

The bears shot at my camp are never gutted in the woods (only under certain circumstances we will), we bring them back to camp whole. We weigh ever bear, live weight and dressed, take tooth and did rib samples when the DNR wanted us to and sent them in. We have found out that the guts and blood loss are about 17% to 19% of a bears body weight.

Ok. What I assumed you did.

I am also assuming you have trail camera pictures of the bear before it was shot.

Posting the trail camera pictures members here would guess the weight and you post the actual live and dressed weight after a few days of guys guessing.

I think it would be quite educational posting big and smaller bears. Guys can get a real feel what an actual bear weighs when looking at trail cam pictures.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Mike Foss]

Will see what I can come up with.

[Schultzy]

Good thread! 130lbs dressed. I might even be high. My 1st year bear hunting (1989) I read some where that the average bear weight wise shot in Minnesota was 130lbs dressed. Everyone guesses way high on bear. Or maybe I should start using their scales. It seems everyone is shooting a 300lb bear. lol.

[Edcyclopedia]

I wish I could play the game but don't live in NH.
I'm from the land of misfits...

Speaking of misfits Hi Schultzy it's been awhile my friend!

[willy11674]

Little late to the conversation. I might not be the best "expert" to ask but of the 30 plus bears i weighed and skinned over the last few years the average would be 115-120 pounds. Of course this average is not the true average which would be measured by total weight of harvest bears over the number harvested. The average would have to exclude any outliers such as bears under 100 pounds and bears 250 pounds and greater.What i'm saying is that of all the bears harvested the greatest percentage would be between 115 and 120 pounds. This is why it is sometimes frustrating when some one comes back to camp with a 175-200 pound bear and someone else says "that's a decent bear". A 200 pound bear with a good coat is a GREAT bear! Don't get me wrong, most people don't grasp that because they only are able to draw a tag every few years, not there fault at all. That being said black bears remain the hardest big game animal to judge the size of, at least in my humble opinion.