Live weight VS hanging weight

[Bigtime]

I'm curious what everyones opinion is on the percentage of weight you need to ad back on to a bear after it is gutted to estimate a live weight.  Any info would be greatly appreciated

[JJB11B]

Why dont you weigh them before you kill em. Then they have all the blood and stuff in them. At least this way you wont have to do any of that stupid math stuff

[BULLBLASTER]

Since bait was banned itnis very hard to get them to stand still on the scale to get an accurate live weight. Bring back baitingnso we can know live weight of our bears!

[pianoman9701]

Hanging weight is actual and live weight is the lies we tell our hunting buddies about the "1K lb bull, 10x10 that was so close I saw his sphincter clamp shut when I breathed".

[Fowlweather25]

Generally as a rule of thumb you lose about 50 percent when you remove guts, hide, legs and head. That's with any animal. Deer, elk, pigs, bear, etc...

Example, if you put meat and skeleton on a hanging scale and your animal is 150 lbs. Then it was right around 300 live. Ish!

[Rufous]

A gutted bear would be about 85% of its live weight, or so I have heard.

[Fowlweather25]

Ish, remove the head legs and hide and you have hanging weight, roughly 50%

[deadyote]

I have heard the 50% thing for deer and bears before, but I have my questions about it.  Three years ago I shot a super old buck and the hanging weight was 187lbs.  That would make a 350+ lb mule deer?  Not sure about that one.  I just look at how much meat I get and that's enough for me.

[Fowlweather25]

Wouldn't surprise me to see an old mature mule deer over 350 on the hoof. My buddy shot a whitetail this year that was 324 on the hoof. We weighed him whole on a slaughter truck that a rancher friend of mine had

[deadyote]

I didn't think mule deer got that big, but I stand corrected!!  That old sucker was turned into all burger and peperoni.

[Fowlweather25]

Haha I bet!