This subject is open to much speculation because very few brown bears and hides have been actually weighed. I hear all kinds of exaggerations. When Joe Want was operating on Kodiak, he had the largest skull average of all Alaska guides. He also actually packed a scale with him several times and weighed hides and quarters of some of the largest bears taken by his hunters. He said that most 10’ bears weighed 800-1000 pounds with a rare exception being larger. He said the hides weighed almost exactly 10% of live bear weight. So 80-100 pounds covers most of them when skinned close (not much body fat or pad fat) and with head and foot bones removed. A bear killed in swampy areas or during the rain will be heavier and the quality of the hide makes a difference as well. People talk about 150-200 pound hides but I’ve never carried one that heavy that was properly skinned.
As far as how far the bear is killed from camp, that depends on the day of the hunt when killed and the physical fitness and aggressiveness of the guide and hunter. Early on a hunt, it is a mistake to glass too far from camp and stink up the country. Later in the hunt if I’m not seeing new bears from my glassing points near camp, I get aggressive and range out much farther. For example, the pictured 10’3” bear was killed on day 13 on the far side of a different giant valley to the west of the giant valley we were camped in. We killed the bear at 6pm after spotting him earlier from the top of the mountain ridge separating the two valleys. We didn’t get back to camp until 4:30am and exhausted and that’s after burying the skull and hide under sticks and rocks on a river gravel bar at the bottom of the valley where the bear was killed. The GPS distance from the kill spot to the gravel bar was 1.8 miles as the crow flies. Probably 2.25 miles hiking around obstacles and through swamps. It’s not a sidewalk out there! The hide was picked up later by a Supercub pilot that landed on the gravel bar I had cleared of big rocks and driftwood.
