My 2019 Spring Bear - Freezer Full!

[dustycool]

Well, I read enough of the stories on here, I figure it’s time I share one of my own. As an adult onset hunter, and mostly self-taught, I feel like I’m starting to figure out some success. It took me four years to get my first bear, and now I’ve added 5 more in the next four years.

Here’s my addition for spring 2019. This bear matches the longest bear I’ve previous taken at 5’6”, but he’s a tank and lived a tough life. I’m super happy with this one, love that I could find a nice region 2 bear just 30 minutes from home.

Sunday after lunch, my wife tells me she wants to go for a walk. I tell her it’s still bear season, lets add a short drive, a rifle, and a picnic to the walk. So, that’s what we did. After a short drive, we were able to walk the rifle to the end of a local FSR where we sat and enjoyed the view while eating left over bear pizza. My wife read some of her book to me while we soaked in the evening sun.

As the sun was going down, we got up to head back to the vehicle. I paused for a quick pee break, and look up just as I unzip and see this nice bear limping down across the cut we were heading through. He disappeared into a dip and didn’t reappear. I pulled out my fawn in distress and blew on that for several minutes to try and draw him back out, but saw nothing. My wife and I then backtracked to the nearest timber line and headed up along the edge of the cut in the direction that I had seen him travelling. Sure enough, halfway up the timber line we look into the cut and there he is standing up on his hind legs looking over at us. I quickly got set up against a tree and let him move across in front of us broadside. He stood up on a stump like he was the Lion King, showing a perfect angle on his vitals. One shot from 80 yards and right down immediately.

As he lay:



Bear only pose:



From the top:


Photo of me:

[dustycool]

I mentioned that he had lived a tough life and had been limping. He had scars on his head, and several teeth missing or wrenched out of place. He had been walking on the back of his left forepaw, where he had a thick callous and all the fur worn off. Actually he was putting most of his weight on his other three legs. After butchering, I compared the two shoulders (below). The upper arm bone looks like it had been broken clean through and then re-healed with the broken ends parallel to each other, essentially shortening his leg by several inches. I also found a small chunk of lead on the far side of his flank. I was shooting solid copper, so it would appear he’d been shot before and probably that is what broke his leg. Comparing the muscle mass on his lower fore-legs, I’d say he’s been limping around like that already for a couple years.

Shoulder Comparison:

Forelimb Comparison:

All the injuries aside, this bear had a very healthy body weight. He was thick muscled and had a better layer of fat than I’ve seen on any other spring bear. After all our butchering and grinding this week, we’re left with 95+ pounds of meat in the freezer, which is great because black bear is my favourite! Friends keep asking me what I think his live weight was. All I know is that he was a lot of work for my wife and I to get out of the cut and into the vehicle. Anyone know a rough ratio of meat per live weight? I’m confident that he was well over 200 lbs based on the effort we put in to get him out, but based on the meat weight I’m wondering if he was closer to 300. Anyway, plenty of food to feed us and friends for a while. My wife also makes awesome bone broth soup, so there’s not much going to waste!

The Meat Haul:

[Jrax]

wow what a bear and nice story too! my wife would have lost her marbles if I pulled out the fawn in distress haha especially where there is a bear like that around

[835]

Well there you Go!

[Grumpa Joe]

Well done! Good story and a great memory. No expert by any means but I've found I get about 40% of on the hoof weight as meat.

[IronNoggin]

Good Job! Well done & some Fine Vittles!

Interesting analysis of the injuries he sustained previously.
Certainly goes to show you just how damn tough these buggers can be!!

Thanks for the tale & Pix!

Cheers,
Nog

[Harvest the Land]

Awesome job and great write up. Really enjoy reading about how much interest you took in actually studying the bear and trying to understand his past. Tip of the hat dustycool!

[Ron.C]

Fantastic job!!!!! They are tough animals for sure. Thanks for sharing.

Some good summer eats there

[LegerSmash]

Reading that story and seeing the pics got me really psyched. Great read and awesome job on the comparisons. Can't wait to be able to post something like that.

[TrickleCharger]

Thanks for the write up! Love the labeling on the packages