bearhuntr

I thought the PA bears had big bodies but small skulls?

j3k2c1

very true about pennsylvania. and according to boone and crockette, p&y, and SCI it is the skull that matters. I still think that the largest bears on average are up in alaska eating salmon and getting very large.

bearklr

Bearhuntr, in fact the total opposite is true of alot of the bear here in pa. Just look at mine for example. He only weighed 420 live weight, however his skull measured almost 21". This is the average skull measurement of a boar in the 500 - 600 pound range. Every body that sees the skull guesses the bears live weight at almost 600 pounds, even the boone and crockett scorer. I'm not saying this is true of every bear in pa, but it's true of most of the ones that I have seen.

SnoBall57

vtbuckrulrss, the GC always seems to report LIVE weight on any big bear that is checked in , and for the life of me I can't figure out why! Like I said, nearly every bear that is checked is gutted, but the GC evidently has an over zealous press person upgrading the kills by adding in the weight of the innards, which weren't in the bear when it was checked! I wish they would just report the actual field dressed weight, and let whomever is interested add on the % for the guts. It would make things soooo much less complicated!

As far as skull measurements go, the largest bear ever killed in PA had a skull that was equal to a lot of bears killed in Alaska and Alberta, but those bears were only half as heavy! We do get some nice bear with record book skulls, but generally our bear are big and heavy with smallish skulls for their size.
Oh, and a little side note: Here in PA we only have a fall season so all of our bear are usually at their peak weight, or close to it when shot. A lot of the northwestern trophy bear are killed in the spring when they are at their lowest body weight for the year!