If you want to go in the book it is all about the skull. Body size, length and weight are just braging rights to your buddys.

I want it all ...lol

I want a big bear with a big head.

I believe the method used most commonly is to visually estimate the weight of the bear, add 50% then multiply by 2. If the bear is wounded and lost, or missed completely, the weight is usually tripled rather than doubled in step 1. Use of alcoholic beverages within 24 hours of the hunt adds considerably to the original estimate.

Around here most hunters are interested in body weight, not skull size.  I register bear kills for the MDNRE and have an electric hoist and scale in my garage (where I do the registration). Most hunters who come in to register their kill, ask me to weigh their bear.  Its amusing how weights increase with each telling. I know what the bear weighed because I wrote it on the registration form, but each time I hear the hunter tell the story, the bear gets bigger!. Some claim that are just "rounding off" the weight, but it is never rounded down, always rounded up!!  And the more time that passes, ie: years, the bigger the bear gets! 

Ya, I think I might have some fish like that. They seem to grow in the freezer.

Some people could also be looking at what will fill their freezer.  A bigger body, or a bigger skull.....

Skull size is objective. Body weight is subjective unless you actually have it weighed before gutting it which, atleast around here, almost noone does.

I agree with Hawkeye. But around here, the game and fish has an intensive management program which tries to get the total weight of the bear and extracts a tooth to accurately age the bear. The trick is getting the bear out of the woods/swamps/pocosin. In most cases, this can be accomplished by the hunter, either by use of 4 wheelers or a tractor. The dept of game and fish has extra biologists on duty during bear season whose job it is to collect this info. They have a number to call to get in touch with these biologist.