Check-in stations weigh field-dressed deer because everybody guts the deer to start the cooling and to make it easier to drag the carcass out of the woods. I wonder what the bear weights are like after being field-dressed. I would like to see gutted vs. whole weights.
“I would like to see gutted vs. whole weights.”
I field dressed it and was shocked to see how small the gut pile was. A whitetail gut pile is about 20% of the live weight. I suspect the bear gut pile is much lower.
The meat was very good. We ate it mostly as roasts with a lot of the fat trimmed off.
Bear had a massive jaw abscess that was likely causing it a lot of pain.