For a close gussetamation on a black bears weight,Measure cross wise of the front pad print,,a 4 1/2 inch pad is usually a good size animal 300+ pounds.If you get a 5 inch+ pad your looking at a animal up in the 4-500 pound range.
It definnatly sounds like a nice size animal you have raiding the bird feeder.
Can you bait bear in your area ,if so I would get a bait station started sounds like he would hit it easy enough.
The average black bear harvested is 187 pounds,Anything in the 300+ range is a trophy animal.
I wish you luck in your persuite of your bear.

The length of the rear paw is not a great indicator of size.As a rough guide take the width of the front paw ,add one and this will be the approximate length in feet of the bear.Of course this is only approximate because bears feet vary in size in relation to their body size like humans.I have seen many bear tracks both black and grizzly and the numbers provided by the outdoor life article seem inaccurate and basically meaningless to me as both black bears and grizzlies vary so much in size.Many black bears are in fact larger than many grizzlies.

i' ve never seen any really big bears in my neck of the woods , about 4 to 5 hundred is the biggest that i' ve heard of around here. but as i said , i' ve never seen them

did anybody else read that article in outdoor life , as i thought that it would be accurate beings it' s a hunting/fishing magazine , that' s why i posted it. i' m sorry if anybody is upset about it