Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game estimating bear weight

I've killed quite a few, but usually they come out on my back in pieces so weighed only one. Any tricks to estimating a bears weight? What do you think of this one? I saw him today a couple times and passed him up looking for a pig, but he's a nice bear, no?

I figure he needs another 3 or 4 years and 150 pounds. LOL

I would imagine the weight of bears, like hogs, is vastly over-estimated.

Quien Sabe,

GWB

He's big enough if I wanted a bear. Good video

I'd prob have shot him but he's not "big". I'm guessing 200 lbs.

It's not easy to judge the size....if I knew how big the trees were it would be easer to get an idea the bears size.....

Not a very big bear.....head looks large so do the ears so its not a very large bear....it might weigh 150 lbs......

Seems to have some length, body and neck.
I look for that, a big blocky muzzle, and thickness of the legs and ankles right down to the foot pads.
Like people some get short and fat, some long and lean. Optics can do odd things as well.
I don’t know your common types out there but here in MN I’d guess him to dress better than 300 but that’s purely a guess.

In northern MN we bait them so I always set a marker stick they’ll pass showing back height and one 6 feet away showing standing/walking length. A bear showing length of 6’ on all 4s or walking plus curvature over the back will be better than 6’6” nose to tail and over 300 dressed which is what we strive for in camp. Again, that’s MN bears. Tracks tell us a lot as well.

Osky

Big ears and leggy.... 150-175 lbs

Depends on how much uphill is involved in getting him out……..😁

I can say with certainty he outweighs the one I weighed at 250. Beyond that???

Baby bear 149 lbs

Bear look at the ears and legs. If the ears are on top of the head and prominent and it's a lot of leg showing he's not really big. They're one of the harder animals to judge though. That one might go 200 after a good meal imo.

Black Bears are all 300# @ birth and average 450#+ by age 2.

It's one thing to try and judge a bear by a pic, another up close and personal! Photos can be very deceptive... even judging a live bear from a distance. I was present when a partner shot a "good bear" getting a drink at a pond 65 yards away. But before he'd come into the open, he'd pushed over a tree with a crash. Dominant bruins of an area often do that to intimidate other bears (or humans) to demonstrate their dominance. As a bear hunter, I've often had that experience when I knew from other evidence that a dominant bear was in the area. But when that particular bear showed up at the pond rather than the bait, he was not that impressive from 65 yards - just "another" bear! My friend shot him broadside just behind the shoulders through the lungs. That bear spun, ran up the hill as though not hit by the 150gr Partition and disappeared in the surrounding bush. Silence! It was getting very dark as the sun had gone down 1/2 hr earlier. Then he began to ball - eleven times, recorded on video. That's how I found him in a thicket of briars using a flashlight, just his hind end sticking out. My partner finally caught up and the two of us pulled him from the brambles, slid him back down hill... and he asked me "how much does he weigh?" "350 to 400 lbs", I said. An hour later, before field dressing, he weighed 399 lbs - I would never have guessed that from what I saw at the pond. Likely, I would have said 250.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Definition of ground shrinkage.

If he looks like either of these squeeze the trigger

So we've got alwaysaloser @149 and a buddy of mine in Alaska says it's bigger than his 300 pounder. So you guys are in about the same boat I am. Nobody knows. LOL

That second one is about to pop out of his skin. 😳

Not a trophy bear. Head looks kind of wedge shaped and skinny rather than wide. Ears are upright and relatively large and not too far apart. Lots of distance between belly and the ground. Immature animal. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! 🤔

Pretty sure a buddy of mine killed that one. Dressed out 440 the next morning on scales