Bears, Bears, Bears... how big do they come?

[piddy3825]

In the interest in saving time I decided to quarter the magnificent beast that I had finally dropped just outside of Trapper's.   I ended up with 8 bags of meat, each weighing in at 9.3 kilos, dead carry weight.  It seems like a lot more than I usually get.  I typically get at least 5-6 bags maybe seven at best, or at least it seems that way.  

So the question is, how big is big?  

  

what's your typical bear harvest count?  Was this a lot for one bear or just average?  

[odizzido]

I've never actually quartered an animal because it takes too long, but from what I recall the bears I have killed have been around 35kg or so?

[piddy3825]

1 hour ago, odizzido said:

I've never actually quartered an animal because it takes too long, but from what I recall the bears I have killed have been around 35kg or so?

I believe it takes only two hours total time to quarter.  heck of lot shorter time period than slicing up all those steaks...  but yeah 35 kilos to 40 kilos seems to be what the average bear seems to yield.  

[Gun Tech.]

Yeah, 35kg harvested weight that is.

[Serenity]

On 4/5/2020 at 11:07 PM, piddy3825 said:

I believe it takes only two hours total time to quarter. 

And you get the hides and guts for "free" instead of having to harvest them separately

[piddy3825]

In hindsight, that had to be a fairly big bear considering I shot a moose and after quartering it, i got 8 bags of meat.

[Jimmy]

On 4/6/2020 at 5:45 AM, odizzido said:

I've never actually quartered an animal because it takes too long, but from what I recall the bears I have killed have been around 35kg or so?

Quartering is objectively more efficient than harvesting, but only under certain circumstances.

First, only bear and moose are worth quartering from an efficiency standpoint. With wolves and deer, you end up spending more time quartering than you save.

Second, if you don't want the hide and guts, don't bother quartering. With quartering, you get the hide and guts ready to transport after finishing. For bear and moose, the time you spend quartering isn't affected by your tool type either, so when using an improvised knife or hatchet during an Interloper game, you end up taking less time to gain the guts and hide than if you'd spent the time harvesting the carcass.

Third, you can pause quartering and return to it later. Pressing the escape key when quartering saves your progress, though this isn't immediately visible. This means you can spend time in smaller chunks when quartering a big kill.

[odizzido]

ohhhhh that's good. I didn't know that quartering progress was saved. So often I look at the time it takes and then it never seems worth trying because the weather could go bad half way through and all that progress is lost. But it isn't. Good to know, thank you