Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 76 dayz till....spring bruins in Big Sky country

Thanks, I've always measured mine by doing just nose to tail on the skinned hide, same way my taxidermist measures for pricing. I'll have to measure them and see how the numbers compare.

Good info GH. Thanks.


Travis

I once heard you measure the length of the front pad (on a track) and add one and that's what the bear's hide will roughly square. It's close, but I'd never not follow a 5" track. Anything that's 6 range is a really big bear.

"Hippie" must be Irish for "without vagina".


Travis

Greenhorn's right about measuring the wet hide. It's always amused me to watch guys "readjust" the hide a tad side-to-side or nose-to-tail after each measurement. I bagged my best black bear to date just last year. Squared just a tad under 7 feet. Skull made SCI, which isn't difficult to do, but not B&C. Fine with me. Sucker was HUGE...

I've always heard the same, but assumed it was linear length. Squared makes a lot more sense though. The track of the bear I looked for all day yesterday has a 4 inch front pad... We have different standards, haha.

Just measured my first bears hide. He's 5'1" nose to tail, 5'9" nail to nail on the front. So 5'5" squared. Is the wingspan normally that much longer than the length? Or is that more for the younger, lankier bears?

The measure the pad method which comes fairly close as long as the ground isn't too mushy..works when you measure width not length of the front pad.

Or at least that's the way I've always done it.

Measure the width of the front and add an inch and viola it'll be close.

Dober

the only one i had tanned measures 6'8" nose to tail, and 6'11" wingspan

Sorry, that linear length was meant as length of the bear after the calculation, not the pad measurement.

Dats kool-we know what you meant..

Dober

Here's a paw pic I put up earlier in the thread, this ones just a skosh bit better than your average bruin, even in the soft soil it's pretty obvious how good he is...

Dober

Interesting measurement ideas Greenie. The bear I shot last year was measured by our taxi friend to be 6.5'. Not sure how he pulls or stretches, but when I went to pick up the skull your cleaned for me, that is what he came up with.

I did not measure him from nose to tail before skinning, but I did measure the front pad. It was just over 5.5" Not sure how much the pad width varies from track width, due to curvature or formation of the feet when they walk. Anyhow, it seems that add 1" to the width of the front pad must be pretty close.

Here is a pic of that bear's foot. Got my letter from FWP that the bear was 8 years old.

I want to find one like that one Fin.

The waiting till Sunday story turned out to be a lie. I got too excited and went tonight. Lots of snow, no bears, and a little rust knocked off the joints. Post-holing with snowshoes is fun.

trying to do the track width + 1" thing on a picture from late last spring (i'm bored)
ignition key is 2.12". looks like about 6" wide on the pad (in fairly firm mud). add an inch and i'm not feeling warm and fuzzy about the Glock 17 i was packin' that day

Claws lookin a little far forward on that one......

Ingwe

yea, this was in the AB, so anything's possible. just a short walk from the trailhead, though. (explains the dog prints)

here is the other front in the same mud hole.

Oh, yeah...definitely lookin like the kind you can't get a tag for....

Ingwe

G-Bear!!



Quicken's your pulse crossing one of these!!

probably throws out the "width of the pad + 1" thing" LOL

the track in your pic is almost twice as big, Pat! looks as big as the plaster cast of the track from the Bob that floated around gift shops a few years back.

toad, did you ever bump into any big black bears over in the Crazies when you were a kid?