Squaring hides is the most lied-about or misunderstood thing in the sporting world. They will grab the hide and pull in one diection, release and pull again to measure the other.
Cannot say how many truly incredible bears I have seen shrink between another's measure and my own. Had a young fellow a short while back that has only ever killed three Southcentral AK black bears and all three were at or over 7'.
I have skinned at least 100 of them and NEVER saw a 6'6" example. Sad thing is the taxidermist shrank all of the 7' bears and left him with 5 1/2' rugs. Stinkin' taxidermists!
At the upper end of the spectrum the skull size and rug size have far less correlation than earlier in life, but the skull says that is a pretty good bear.
I believe there are unusual 8' bears... I have seen some on video that were unreal that way. They will have to be coastal bears with lots of salmon, IMHO.
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