bought a bear skin from a ex airforce guy that says he shot it while he was stationed in alaska. it does not have the claws attached but are in a bag that came with it and the front claws are a little over 2" in length. the skin from tip of nose to the tail is a little over 5' and the color of the hair is a lite brown with a lot of yellowish tint on the ends and its very yellowish across the back and the first 3 feet behind the head is almost all  very lite and looks like a yellowish color to me.the hair behind the head on the back is around 4" long.

is this a alaskan bear? what type? I guess I should of asked the guy more questions but was in a hurry this mourning as I had to go with my better half to a picnic.

what is a hide of this type worth? I want to see if I got a good deal or just ok. its it in fantastic condition no slippage at all very pliable  

Sounds like a very young ALaskan Brown Bear.

Nothin' like goin' after cubs to make sure you come home with a trophy.

M4 I totaly agree with you as I would not shoot a cub either. but I also did not want to pass up buying what I thought was a grizzly hide or other words a alaskan brown bear. after your post I looked up on the internet about these bears and found out a few things and how to kind of tell its age and size but there are I guess from reading a few things to take into account when I do this.

#1 where was it taken (this I have no ideal) the fish and wildlife folks up there say the average male weighs between 500 and 900 pounds but can reach 1400# females weigh between 1/2 and 3/4's of what a male weighs.

#2 inland bears are quite smaller as there food source is not as great as the costal bears (could be inland?)

then I went to a sight that gives how to judge a bears age and size by a few methods.

#1 to square the hide by measuring from tip of nose to the tip of the tail and then by measuring from the tip of one paw to the tip of the other then add the two together and then divide by two. I really stretched it out and it was 5'5 long by right at six foot without the ends of the paws. you need to do this while the skin is wet before you salt it and it did not say what the shrinkage would be so that it would be hard to tell butt diffinatly not a large bear.

#2 it also says the best way to tell is by the length of the bear. to do this you take the length of the head and compare it to the body of the animal,
when I do this it comes out that the head is slightly longer than 3 1/2 lengths of the body.
by their caculations a cub  would only be around 3 head lenths , a 3 1/2 head lenth bear would be around 4 years of age and thats what I figure it to be. also it states that a cub will have a blond ring of hair around its neck most of the time and this bear does not have that.

so to some it up if it was a costal bear it most likely was maybe a female or if it was a inland bear it was most likely a fair size female or a 4 year old male. but since we do not know all of the facts and can only go by what I have in front of me thats what I come up with.
it also says the average alaskan brown bear stands up at 8' on its hind legs. so if this bear was to stand up it should most likely be close to 7' give or take  one way or the other.

I have never hunted bears so if the info that they gave me up there on the alaska sights is wrong let me know and whats a hide like this worth anyway?