Bear Size Compared To Track?

[BuckNAze]

Quick question. We have several bear where we live that measure around 5 1/2", measured one that was a little over 6" and not in powdered dust. Now my question is do you think you have bigger bears down south or places that have less competition for food? We have had people report 16 bears within a mile range, which is a lot but all seem healthy. I would say a good size bear here weighs 400+lbs and thats about with a 5 1/2" track. Now would that same size track produce a bigger bear somewhere else?

[Hunter]

I've talked to acouple biologists and they say that if you take a bear track (in good condition) and measure it cross ways. Take that measurement and add 1 to it. This gives you a pretty good estimate as to the size of the bear. So say you have a 5 1/2 inch track, that would add up to a 6 1/2 foot bear. One did say that there are some "freaks" out there with big feet that turned out to be small bears when she trapped them for research. (she left biology and was a nurse and delivered my son. my wife was pissed when all we done was talk about bear while she was pushing ) All said it's almost impossible to determain the weight of a bear by the track. But, you can take a girth measurement on a bear (after it's dead) and get a very good gestimate as to the live weight. It's really pretty simple really. If you think of the size of your pants girth and what you weigh a bears is pretty close. A 32 inch girth on a bear would be around a 130# live weight. A 200# bear will have about a 38 inch girth. 45 inch is a 300#er, 50-51 inch would be 400#er and so on. Hope this helps ya.

[BuckNAze]

That does make a lot of sense and I have heard of adding an inch to their track to kind of determine how tall or long they would be now that you mention it. Thanks. Hope some other people chime in, that was really helpful

[BARTAMENKO]

I HAVE ALWAYS FIGURED ABOUT 50 LBS PER INCH MEASURED CROSS WAY ON THE FRONT PAD. NOT ALWAYS RIGHT BUT CLOSE ENOUGH FOR ME.

[BuckNAze]

That makes some sense to. Our big ones seem to weigh around 450lbs. I know for a fact that there are some well over 500lbs but havent caught on yet. Seen them before but that was before I started running hounds.

[cfassben]

I know of a group of guys that killed a bear earlier this year by where I hunt, The bear had a 4 1/2 inch track and the bear only went 140 lbs

[BuckNAze]

Seems like there are some freaks out there that have some big paws but end up being small bears. I know I have seen quite a few like that. So you cant always judge by a paw, but its a good indication that it could be big

[BBGH]

I caught a bear two years ago that I would have said the track would be easy five hundred pounds. The track was so big I could put my foot inside his back foot and his track was still bigger then mine. I put the dogs on it and in thirty mins. they had it treed. When my buddy and I got there it was a rat, maybe 150, and it had the biggest feet I have ever seen on a bear.

[beaglewalkerhunter4]

Bucknaze, where do you hunt?

[Rem700]

I read somewhere, after 4 1/2 inches wide, an inch equals 100 lbs., starting at 450. But bears run heavy in P.A. 500 - 600 lbs are pretty common, with 700 lbers taken every year.

[Arkansas Frog]

we treed a bear on the Klamath River in N Calif, that had big Feet and was skinny as a rail, and my friend from there said he ate only ants.some bears only looked for ant hills , I don't know but he had big feet.

[BuckNAze]

Yeah track size is definetly decieving. We have caught a couple that had a little over 5" tracks and they ended up being not small but not a big boy either. Some have been really skinny. Could just be younger bears that havent grown into their feet yet, or they could just be really skinny during the spring if thats when you caught them