Why is it that....

[boneaddict]

as for a 55 pound coyote.   I've weighed or have been part of weighing more bears than most, and also have measured more deer than most, but I'm not sure I have ever weighed a coyote.  I'd imagine thats a big one.   I can see shooting a big one then saying I bet it weighs 60  pounds.......  (fish story)  and that might be why bear are so exaggerated all the time.  How many of you have actually weighed that many bear.

[lokidog]

A bear guide we knew would measure the girth and had a chart for estimating pig weights that he would compare it to.  He helped guide for or killed hundreds of bears in his life and claimed it was pretty accurate.

[Bigshooter]

I've seen about 50 bears in my life (no idea if that is a lot or not  )  But I can only think of three that I thought would be 300lbs.  One I thought might be as big as 400+lbs.  It was huge.  I have only killed one.  And it might have been 150lbs.  I would say most of the bears that I have ever seen were between 150lbs - 220lbs with the average pretty close to 175lbs.  When somebody tells me they killed a 300lbs bear I just roll my eyes and ask for some pics.  A 300lbs bear is a really big bear.

[cohoho]

We put down 22 bears off two bait stations in five years in AK, we got one bear that went maybe 300lbs.... (and that is a big maybe)... You can really tell you got big boy when you go to grab the front paw to pull it out of the brush and you can't budge it or get your hand around the leg....  Most in the ball park of around 150+ and around 5.5 squared- a few in the 6 foot range and the big boy that squared right below 7...  I miss that for sure.... 

[jackmaster]

back in the day when we could bait, i always used wood to make up the size of a 50 gallon drum or a sheet of ply wood. that was a great tool if they were as big as wood then they were big animals. as for me i have got a bunch of 200s a couple 150s which were the absolute best eatn i got a 350 and a 400 hundred. my cousin how ever killed a 556 pound bear about a half mile out of the town of orting, i wish i could post a picture of it but i am lucky enough to be able to find this site every day and the picture is in our family huntin album

[ML_Hunter]

ML Hunter,

What you just said leaves me to thinking was that a measurment that you got after stretching the raw skin on both bears?  Or was one raw when you took the measurment and the other rugged by a taxidermist and measured by a the taxidermist?  Were they both rugged and measured by the taxidermist?

Both were measured before I took the hide off of the bear. I just measure from the nose to the tail.  I always have one of the little 3 foot tape measures in my pocket on my key-chain so I took rough measurements. I thought about just having the hide tanned on the first one but it has a real mangy hide.  But since we're on the topic, I figured that if the bear were to be mounted the hide would lay flat, so i took the measurement going from the nose down the back, then over its butt to the tail.  Is the curve of its butt changing the measurement a taxidermist would give me .

[jason4429]

When i use to hunt bears with my hounds .We caught alot of bears and the average weight was around 175 lbs.

[longrange7mm]

I have wondered that myself i cant tell you how many buddies tell me they killed a 6 ft 300 then you run to see it and they brought it out whole by themselves  and its maybe a 150lbs bear
My guess is that the reality of it hasnt set in and it is a trophy in the eye of the hunter so I just let them go with it,
 First pic is one i figured 160- 170 maybe 5'4"
 Second Bear i figured 180- 190 maybe 5'6"
 Third bear I figured 330-340 and maybe 6'1"
 

[longrange7mm]

this one was 308 lbs and 6'3"

[huntnnw]

a aquaintance we knew up bear hunting says " i got a bear yesterday" tells his story and where he got it and how he loaded this 300 lb bear on his quad whole byhimself oh and had to drag it up hill abit to the quad.. my ass if anyone has experience with dead bears they are about the most awkward animals to move around. I love seeing photos on here of whole bears at the lodges.. hmm

[longrange7mm]

I love seeing photos on here of whole bears at the lodges.. hmm

They are a pain in the ass to move and no one would ever be able to drag a 250+ lbs bear anywere let alone load it after dragging it. It took 3 guys to get mine loaded on the quad and then me being 250 sitting on the front rack to keep it from flipping as we loaded it. Just because they are whole doesn't mean there not big huntnnw. When I was working on the Beluga river I seen a 9' brown bear brought out whole and filled the whole back of a F350 long bed, Just depends on the situation. About the same when you see a moose or elk whole hanging in the barn or in the truck doesnt mean anything pertaining to the size of the animal  hmmm 

[high country]

I know this much, the bear in my icon was taken in the spring. I was weighing about 260 @ 6' and have hauled a lot of big bucks on my back. that SOB would not budge when I tried to drag it. praise the lord for wiches and riggin'. never weighed a animal I killed yet other then batches of sausage. I have seen and killed enough bears to know a shooter when I see it. weight is not a big thing to me.....although one of those 600lb maine/penn bears interests me.

[boneaddict]

You are at least 50 heavy on your 3 pics longrange. (third one is kinda tough with clarity)  The bear loaded is a gorgeous trophy though.

[huntnnw]

my comment had nothing to do with size.. more on the way they were harvested

[high country]

loading a 300plus pound bear is a million times worse then elk or deer. the bears seems to be a furry waterbed bladder. I should have taken a pic of the riggin it took to get mine loaded solo. winch up a tree, back the rig in and as lowering the bear I set up a pulley on a rope between the oh shucks handles in my 4 runner. good thing I had no intentions of shooting a bear that day and left my truck at home....lol