Originally Posted by
caddisguy
Pretty much the same as a deer, just more fur.
It's not a bad idea to decide before hand which method you want to go with, traditional, gutless + bone in, gutless + bone out.
We don't keep hides, so we usually make pretty quick work of it and skin only what is necessary as we go along. Our way is probably a tad strange to most, bit of a mix, but after years of experimenting with several bears, I prefer to just to remove the front and rear quarters with the hide still on, making sure to keep a nut attached to one of the rear quarters, hang the quarters up by the paws, next skin around the neck, just enough to slice around the neck meat and remove it as a whole. Then we skin down one side from the spine down just passed the ribs, cut out the backstrap, then remove the rib meat using rib roll method (you will want to Youtube this to see how it's done... once you know it, it's super easy and useful) roll carcass over and repeat on the other side. After that, I remove the hide from the hanging quarters. Depending on the pack out scenario, we either debone the quarters or not, then lastly detach the quarters from the paws and off we go.
Do be prepared for flies. They can get pretty nasty and swarm especially on a hot day. Our "skin as you go" method goes a long way to prevent flies from getting at the meat and with the help of game bags, it's pretty much a non issue. A 50/50 vinegar/water solution (and I think black pepper?) is said help keep them away, but we haven't tried that one
We usually don't keep the skulls these days (have some good ones already) but if we do, it's easy enough to detach quite effortlessly just with a little knife work.
As for cooling, it all depends, we generally have a cooler with a couple frozen water jugs (4L ones like milk jugs or the ones you'd buy distilled water in) If there's a nice and cold creek flowing by and if feasible sometimes we put the game bags in doubled up heavy duty garbage bags and leave it for an hour or two. Gotta be careful though, to make sure nothing is going to puncture through the bags as introducing creek water isn't ideal. Rubbermaid container is safer and works great if you have a creek around camp. Generally if we get a bear during the day we just head home same day. If it's in the evening, temps this time of year are usually not too bad. 7 degrees or less, we've just left the meat outside in a rubbermaid cracked open a bit to vent. Edit: Just read your note about not being able to hang anything in camp. A big cooler with a few 4L frozen jugs is probably the best option next to racing off to the butcher.
Not sure about the butcher stuff. We just take it straight home and grind it all.