To determine the “square” footage of a bears hide, you first measure across the hide from the longest claw on the left front foot, to the longest claw on the right front foot. Next, measure from the tip of the nose, to the base of the tail. These measurements are then added together, and divided by two to get the square measurement of the hide. Unfortunately, hide measurements are extremely variable depending on whether the hide is fresh, salted or tanned. In many cases a 10' fresh hide will shrink to under 9' after the tanning process.
