How much do a bear's guts weigh?

[Outlaw 3]

How much do a bear's guts weigh? Is there a percentage of the total weight that is lost when you field dress a bear.

Thanks,

[Nolte]

From my records it sort of depends. On smaller bear I've always figured about 18%. When you get to big bear it seems to work out to about 16.5% if you clean dress them from the wind pipe down.

[catdogs]

A good rule of thumb to estimate live weight is:

Add 10% to a dressed bear if its a big one, 15% if its medium sized, and 20% if its a small one.

[bob baldwin jr]

Well we only did this once as most all bears we do kill are Field dressed in the woods So when someone asks me I always say Dressed Weight .

About 3 years ago we had my nephew up hunting with us . The chase was only about an hour . The last five minutes we could hear the hounds chasing the bear towards the road we were on I moved the truck to get closer and we all got out .The bear ran out on to the Road and stopped " BIG MISTAKE " My nephew Put one shell into him he jumped up on to the Berm where the road was cut through and died .

We were literally lucky enough to to back up to it and almost slide it on to the tail gate .after the hounds were loaded .VERY NICE BEAR BIG OLD BOAR .

Took the bear to town to tag and weigh him :

Live weight 428 lbs
My son had a 55 gallon drum on the ATV trailer .He wanted the gut kit for winter coyote Baits So we Dressed him out at the tagging station . Suppose we could have but never weighed the bear guts .
After Field dressing rehung the bear .
Hanging Dressed weight 381 lbs .

so if my math is correct this bears Gut kit was 47 lbs Maybe 12-13% of live weight
Also remember this bear had at least 3 inches of Fat on him . According to my log book / journal this was the last week in Sept .

That is what make bear hunting challenging .Seem like NO 2 bears are the same It all depends on Size , Age , Bone Structure , Fat thickness .What the bears diet has been .

As for myself my best to date has been 395 lbs Dressed Still looking to crack that 400 pound mark As a group we have 3 tagged over the years that went 400 pounds plus
405 , 412 ,418. Heard reports of Bigger but has NOT happened to us yet TROPHYIES like Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

[Nolte]

Bob,

You sure are right that it varies. One bear in WI last year weighed 736 live and 630 dressed or 14.4% of live weight. A friend of ours got one that weighed 617 live and 570 dressed or 7.6% of live weight. This bear had the most fat I've ever seen on a bear. Most times it seems to be between 11% to 14.5% live and 12.5% to 16.5% dressed. And I usually go with the biggest estimation to make the story better. If the % is too far under 10% the bear is either unusually fat or someone is leaving a little in there to boost the weight.

It also depends on which percentage a guy is using. I generally use the % that you'd use to figure out the live weight. Most times you've got the dressed weight and are trying to figure out what it weighed on the hoof. I sort of having a running total I use from big bears we've got or I have pretty good knowlege on what they weighed.

[Borderpond]

This is the official Maine Guides method of determining a bears weight of guts. If a clients bear is weighed whole, the guts dont weigh hardly anything.If the bear is weighed field dressed, the guts weigh about half as much as the bears weight. Example, a dressed bear that weighs 240 actually was a 360 lber with his guts in. This is a time honored method and is so accurate that it often results in much bigger tips.

[bob baldwin jr]

SPOKEN LIKE A REAL MAINE GUIDE

[spruce mountain]

The state of Maine bioligist say that the percentage on bear averages 21%,16% for deer and 33% for moose.

[bob baldwin jr]

spruce : 33% for moose does seem high . I 've only gotten 1 moose tag " COW ONLY " Tagged it in Greenville , Shot it in Long pond several years ago . Hanging Dressed weight was 560 lbs . They also had a butcher processor there from Windham with a big refer trailer .Soon as it was officially tagged and checked in the the butcher made short work of it . hide off , Head off , Foolishly decided to Mount it .Feet off Again Foolishly turned the feet into a lamp 3 guys 1 with a meat type saws-all " Quatered it out " in about 2 minutes and had it hanging in the freezer trailer .went down to Wyndham 2 weeks latter and picked up my Boxed Boned out Moose . I recall 200 - 210 lbs of Moose meat Great stuff and YUMMY . does that amount sound about right to any of you guys I guess it all depends on how PICKY we want to get.