Good means of estimating bear weight

[Rufous]

I read through the thread on bear weight and how folks often over estimate the weight. There is a guy who developed a chart that I have been using for many years. His name is Jim Hackiewicz (he posts as JJHACK on some forums). He killed many bears while working for timber companies. He then would measure the length nose to tail and their girth (around the chest behind the front legs) and then weigh the bear whole. I carry a tape measure in my pack to measure length and girth. It is the kind used for sewing and measuring fabric, not a stiff metal one but a flexible plastic kind. Anyway it really helps to get a reasonable estimate on live weight. Another method that I came up with is to weigh the bears 4 legs after the hide and paws have been removed. I have never been able to take a bear out whole so I always have broken the animal into pieces, carrying out the legs and backstraps. I have come up with the weight of the 4 legs multiplied by 3.3 to be close to the bears live weight (when comparing to the chart developed by JJHACK). So if you guys would measure the length and girth before any skinning or gutting and then compare to the chart or at the very least if you bring the bear out in pieces you could weigh the 4 legs and report that weight. I have killed 10 bears so far. My biggest bear's legs weighed 120#. Here is a link to his website and chart:
http://www.huntingadventures.net/index.php?nav=newsandarticles&id=8

[Machias]

Awesome, thanks Rufous!

[coop2424]

That is very good info.  Hopefully will get to use it in the future.  Thanks for posting.

[epq21]

Thanks to the individual that posted the thread, “A good means to estimate weight! After I posted my story about my "First Bear," there was a great deal of discussion about estimating weight. Because of that I went back to my freezer last night and weighed all the quarters individually. The total weight of the quarters without the paws, head and cape was 68 lbs. Based on your information: 3.3 X 68 equals 224.4 lbs. I have the weight of the cape with paws and head attached as well but it does not seem to be very important. The cape and all is still frozen and folded so I am not going to thaw it to take measurements until the taxidermist is ready. That weight of 224.4 is above what we had estimated even though that really is not very important to me it makes me feel better about what we had guessed. I removed the weight from the story just because of all the discussion but thank you again.

[Rufous]

To clarify what I mean by the 4 legs. I do not mean 4 quarters. To me a quarter would be 1/4 of the carcass. I just mean each of the 4 legs, no ribs or spine.

[epq21]

Yup, got it! The ribs and spine were not included in the weight total. Thanks

[MtnMuley]

Interesting.  Thanks.