Bear down for team caddis

[caddisguy]

Headed out yesterday late afternoon. I asked the boss man if it was cool if I duck out an hour early to get some evening hunting in. It's nice working from home. Normally I have to commute from downtown to Langley, load up the jeep then go. This makes it pretty much impossible to get any hunting in first evening as we hit FSR at dusk at best and can't get to good bear turf until well after dark.

Cruising through the valley, first thing that hit me was all the campers. Along the river it looked like downtown Vancouver parking on a regular business day. Actually had to stop for half a dozen people parallel parking. People were camping in ditches, blind corners on the side of the road... just nuts. I suppose this is expected as the provincial parks being closed. It was like May long weekend times 10. I was a bit worried someone would be camping on the spur road we normally camp since they are camping in ditches, half on the road, etc.

With all that in mind, I was hoping to see a bear that we have seen a couple times on the way in. We're an hour earlier than normal though so my hopes aren't up, plus all the traffic. Sure enough, didn't see him in the pockets we bumped into him before. I didn't want to invest any time into it, as I wanted to figure out the camp situation.

Drove up our spur road, nobody there, except some garbage and lots of toilet paper thrown around the sides... enough for a few deposits from a few people over a few days. Mostly no stains, so probably a lady camper involved. Some shenanigans going on up there too! This week we found a tuna can with holes punched in it. Last week there were apples thrown all over the place around the camp with one cut in half "to get the scent out" I suppose. Definitely not a trailcam setup. I went and collected all I could find and they were thrown from the road and about 20M apart. The low-lives even littered the empty apple bag. I guess they figure they can just park the truck, throw some bait around and be ready with the headlights and rifle. I just don't understand that level of scumbaggery. Not only do you have pretty much 0 chance of outsmarting a bear doing this, it's a heck of a lot more effort and wasted time than just going for a walk around in a bear infested area. Anyway, we cleaned up your stuff, AGAIN... as human waste products are kind of unsightly and I don't need CO's walking up to my camp asking why there are apples thrown around everywhere among your scattered toiletries (you seriously thought a bear was going to fall for that? LOL)

Anyway rant over. It's just for every story there is a background story and some tone setting. Onto the actual story!

I walked into my primary pocket last night. Grass was getting taller and there were still lots of fresh hits. Found some respectable size bear poop as well. I sat for a while, other than a lot of skeeters and a few snaps and cracks, nothing happened.

I slept in this morning, still tired after a work week and knew it was going to be hot enough that I wouldn't be able to nap during the day, so I wanted to get as much rest as possible. I woke up around 8:45AM as caddisgirl had already been up for a bit.

Around 9:30AM we're walking into bear turf. Same deal as last week, where I saw what looked to be a small bear, but when I tried to sneak up on it, it appeared to be larger than I thought. Last week was still a good "pass", size aside, as I was unable to evaluate the situation. Is it a sow? Is it a 1.5 year old cub? It felt like the same situation playing out. It's only about 40 yards but hard to tell with the grass. Optics help. I figured out it was a bear laying down while munching on dandelions and grass, directly toward us. I still have to get closer before I decide. I gave caddisgirl my camera so she could film while I stalked in. I only made it to around 30 yards where the notorious swirling wind gave us away.

This time, it played out differently. The bear stood up head on, then turned broadside and looked at us. I think that 2 seconds was all I needed. I concluded it was a boar and around 180-200lbs. Quickly lifted my rifle, got the cross hairs fixed for the double lung and the 30-06 barked. I can't tell what is a good hit and what is not because of the recoil. It felt perfect, but all I saw was the bear running off and I wondered if I hit it at all. What the heck? After what seemed like 30 seconds (It was actually only 3-5 seconds when I checked the footage caddisgirl filmed) the bear slowed to a snails pace and went down, only about 15-20 yards from where it was shot. It was a perfect double lung, in one rib cage and out the other.

Still bad at guessing weight, but it was small enough we were able to drag it around 10 yards at a time just by gripping the rear ankles and lifting/pulling. Drag 10 yards, take a break, rinse and repeat. I am going with around 5ft and 180lbs.

Bear is in the fridge now. We'll grind it up and vacuum pack it all tomorrow.

The pics / video will stagger in... but spoiler alert for anyone who saw our 2019 threads. We got our target bear last year (after 2 years of chasing him) and hung a trailcam at the carcass. For anyone who watched that video, I THINK this bear was the "main customer" on that video, just with a couple new battle scars. I'll compare that footage later and should have some pics posted up later today or tomorrow, video maybe a week or two out.

This one should be tasty. I am glad my wife "panic bought" sloppy joe sauce :)

[srupp]

Hmm Congradulations. .and thank you for my hunting FIX until next week's hunt..
Cheers
Srupp

[Liptugger]

Great story, I drag mind by the head, it drags with the grain of fur instead of against.

[Bkool12]

Congrats. Good story

[landphil]

Nice! Looking forward to the pics. Black or brown phase?

[caddisguy]

Nice! Looking forward to the pics. Black or brown phase?

Black phase this time. There's only one other brown phase (kinda more rusty guy) I know about that frequents that area (within 5km) at this time of year.

For fun, I'll preemptively post up this trailcam video from last year and say it's the same bear that dominates this video. Then over the next day or so I'll get the pics from this weekend and we'll figure it all out :)

For now, I have to unpack the jeep before someone steals all my stuff and tend to my wife who is pretty beat up... poor lady... borderline heat stroke and soar all over. Rough shape. That's one difference we have... she's a "use the force, get it done kind of person" while I am "let's be slow, methodical and pace ourselves" (there is tension putting together anything from Ikea) That said, she did most of the work this time so I gotta go take care of my lady woman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWIuQtaHr5I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWIuQtaHr5I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWIuQtaHr5I

[HarryToolips]

Congrats!........

[Salty]

Congrats! Glad you were able to navigate the gong show and connect. Must have been a slog in this weather all right, I hope caddis girl is feeling better soon.

[45freezer]

Sounds like it was a good weekend for bears, there will be another write up incoming at some point this week ;)

Congratulations man, be cool if it turns out to be the same bear off your camera!

[MichelD]

Great!

Greased my boots. digging out my hunting gear, freezing my water bottles, getting ready for my first trip out this coming week.

[caddisguy]

Great!

Greased my boots. digging out my hunting gear, freezing my water bottles, getting ready for my first trip out this coming week.

Freezing your wattle bottles? For ice? We have been doing something similar. Crush ice / block ice... forget it. It always leaks and pools up in the bottom of the cooler. We buy the 4L water jugs (like milk jugs except 2x thick) ... we fill those up and freeze them. They last WAY longer and other than condensation don't lead to any water in the bottom of the cooler. No cost really either... we replace them once every 20 freezes or so, they start to crack eventually.

[caddisguy]

Great story, I drag mind by the head, it drags with the grain of fur instead of against.

Turns out we did it in that direction too. I think we found lifting the heavy end and pulling was much more efficient the dragging it from the heavy side. I haven't dragged a lot of bears, normally just bone them out on the spot but we had our reasons. Luckily this one was drag-able and it was flat. Often they are bigger and there is terrain involved.

https://i.imgur.com/QHtnZ3b.jpg

[caddisguy]

Some more pics...

https://i.imgur.com/JdtipSE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4yv9R5m.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Cg21zbO.jpg

[caddisguy]

Congrats! Glad you were able to navigate the gong show and connect. Must have been a slog in this weather all right, I hope caddis girl is feeling better soon.

Yeah I didn't anticipate how many campers and hunters would be in there. Looked like a wall of cars with people camping and hunters behind every stump.

I think caddisgirl will be fine. Pushed herself too hard in the heat. I think the dragging and pack out was a little much and she tweaked all sorts of little muscles and joints. We've dealt with way more BS and way bigger bears but it was hectic and rushed as we knew the heat was coming and there would be swarms of flies coming. Wanted to keep the meat good. She's sleeping off and on. For a while she kept waking up worried about joint pain and chills. Poor lady woman just worked her bones too hard, in the heat to boot, but I'm keeping a close eye.

[45freezer]

Nice beauty scars!

[caddisguy]

Nice beauty scars!

Little guy was a scrapper for sure. I'm 90% sure it was the same bear from the video I posted. Always pretty stealthy and "aware". I've passed on him a few times last couple years. He's not getting any bigger or anything. One time I took my brother out and he tried to "chase" after the same bear. My brother is trying to navigate through the brush, meanwhile I'm watching that bear which had already scooted up a rock face staring down at him to analyze the "threat" ... it was kind of funny. I have mixed feelings about taking that guy as he seemed to be what a "good bear" should be, but I'm at peace with it. I wouldn't "undo" it if I could. That is a "thing" though. When you get some history in with different bears year after year there's often some kind of bond. Sometimes you just have to think "stop playing with your food, it's food".

I was hoping to find this bear we call "He-man" ... massive front end on that guy, with average waist / hind. Looks like Hercules or something. Seen him around a couple times. I think he's safe this year. I believe I am done for the spring.

[NorthCoastHunter]

Beauty bear! Congrats!

[AllDay]

I can relate to having difficulty judging size with bears! Super difficult sometimes. Especially the times when I have only a few seconds to make a choice. Luckily, I don't discriminate. A bears a bear... Younger ones taste better, and bigger ones go on the wall. Win-win! I am all beared out this spring. We harvested 4 this season (I was apart of 3). We had to work harder than normal, but it's good for the soul.

[nature girl]

Nice bear caddisguy the bear in the fridge just awesome. Your lucky you have a women like caddisgirl that enjoys hunting and fishing like you. Hope she feels better soon. Did you keep the claws then you can make caddisgirl a necklace.

[IronNoggin]

Nice Work! Congrats!!
Certainly was a scrapper alright!
Great size for a grits bear!

Cheers,
Nog

[albravo2]

I always enjoy your hunting posts and this one didn't disappoint. Nice work!

I hope CG feels better soon, it sucks to be under the weather when the sun is shining.

I've noticed a lot of campers too, I'm hoping it is the fact that the provincial sites are all closed. The Duffy Lake rd was not quite as busy as a summer day but way busier than I've seen over the past month.

[caddisguy]

I always enjoy your hunting posts and this one didn't disappoint. Nice work!

I hope CG feels better soon, it sucks to be under the weather when the sun is shining.

I've noticed a lot of campers too, I'm hoping it is the fact that the provincial sites are all closed. The Duffy Lake rd was not quite as busy as a summer day but way busier than I've seen over the past month.

Thanks! I always try my best to tell the story so it puts the reader in my boots. I think a lot of people prefer stories to pics. I know I do. And there are definitely people who prefer pics/videos over stories. I try to get a little both of both.

Update on caddisgirl, she's pretty much 100% now, just the usual "day-after" soreness. I'm feeling that a bit myself. The thing that usually gets me the most is my legs from squatting and hunching while working on the bear. Usually lasts a couple days. Perhaps I should try regular exercise LOL.

[Salty]

Glad to hear CG is feeling better. Probably a bit of heat exhaustion. Been working out in the sun a bit and I sure feel it quick, I know it takes me a while to get used to the heat every year. By July.. piece of cake.

Re. the ditch campers. lol I think we got a few things going on. Health officials opening things up slightly last week, rec and park camping still a no go and this gorgeous weather. People have been cooped up to some extent or another for a couple months and this near 30 degree weather for a few days has people out in droves. And if they're camping there isn't much choice for those that don't leave the main roads, which is the vast majority.
Being a retired bum I can pick my times so I'm happily staying home this weekend working in the yard but the traffic volumes on highways in and out of town this weekend are like 4 times what its been the last couple months. Its like a switch has been turned on. I see we're back to cloudy and rainy this week. Yay :)

[caddisguy]

Glad to hear CG is feeling better. Probably a bit of heat exhaustion. Been working out in the sun a bit and I sure feel it quick, I know it takes me a while to get used to the heat every year. By July.. piece of cake.


Yeah I think you're bang on. Little bit of exhaustion trying to work too hard too fast mentally and physically on a hot day while the body was no where near climatized.

I usually pass on late morning or early afternoon bears this time of year but have done it a couple of times. This was one of those times. Just really wanted to top off the freezer and fill up the freezer for mom for mothers day without having to go to the grocery store.

[DannyO]

Congrats! And thanks for the great thread!

[caddisguy]

Congrats! And thanks for the great thread!

Thanks! Every year I forget how much work the cutting, trimming, grinding and vacuum packing is. 3 hours into it we are about 2/3 done... taking a 10 minute break every hour or so. Guessing we should have it all packaged in another 2-3 hours. Mom is gonna come pick it up. Happy mothers day... here's a bunch of meat... make us some chilli LOL

[whitlers]

How crazy do you go on the trimming? I find bear to be full of blue skin and tendons. If I had a better grinder I'm sure I could save a lot more but I'm finding that I'm left with more waste then I'd like on a bear.

That being said damn they are tasty!

[shleebs]

Congrats on a great hunt and thanks for the read / pics!

[caddisguy]

How crazy do you go on the trimming? I find bear to be full of blue skin and tendons. If I had a better grinder I'm sure I could save a lot more but I'm finding that I'm left with more waste then I'd like on a bear.

That being said damn they are tasty!

I like to get as much the fat, silverskin, translucent film as possible, any thin crusted pieces, etc. We're finished trimming and I'd guess 3-5lbs. The grinder gets gummed up with silverskin that was missed which is convenient... kinda filters it out, but we have to clean the grinder every 5lbs or so or it starts to get jammed up. We're about 1/3 of the way through grinding now and vacuuming now. It looks and smells great.

We could probably put in a lot less work into it, but we take a lot of pride and the finished product, I'd pick over free range organic ground beef any day... except one bear back in 2017... sometimes you just end up with a bear that isn't great from the start but other than that one-off we've always had delicious bear and look forward to it every time.

This year is the first year I'm saving the fat and going to try to figure out what to do with it... how to render it and use it for whatever purpose... deep frying, pastry, or worst case scenario boot

[bottles]

Nicely done. He's been in some battles.

[Rieber]

Lots of work but well done. Nice one.

[Jamesonm]

That video is great, I love the shot of him looking directly into the camera!

[Arctic Lake]

Good story Caddis . Have to say that a good story line compiled with some photos is the deal ! Maybe I’m from the “ A picture is worth a thousand words “ crowd , LOL .
If you don’t mind what make and HP is your grinder ?
Arctic Lake

[Jamesonm]

Are you guys adding any kind of spices etc when you vacuum seal, marinades at all? Or is most of the ground bear used for burgers, etc.

Cheers!
James


I like to get as much the fat, silverskin, translucent film as possible, any thin crusted pieces, etc. We're finished trimming and I'd guess 3-5lbs. The grinder gets gummed up with silverskin that was missed which is convenient... kinda filters it out, but we have to clean the grinder every 5lbs or so or it starts to get jammed up. We're about 1/3 of the way through grinding now and vacuuming now. It looks and smells great.

We could probably put in a lot less work into it, but we take a lot of pride and the finished product, I'd pick over free range organic ground beef any day... except one bear back in 2017... sometimes you just end up with a bear that isn't great from the start but other than that one-off we've always had delicious bear and look forward to it every time.

This year is the first year I'm saving the fat and going to try to figure out what to do with it... how to render it and use it for whatever purpose... deep frying, pastry, or worst case scenario boot

[Jamesonm]

I use my wife's kitchen aid with a stainless steel grinder attachment (think she found it on amazon for a $150 or something) -- did my whole deer last year without any issues.


Good story Caddis . Have to say that a good story line compiled with some photos is the deal ! Maybe I’m from the “ A picture is worth a thousand words “ crowd , LOL .
If you don’t mind what make and HP is your grinder ?
Arctic Lake

[caddisguy]

Good story Caddis . Have to say that a good story line compiled with some photos is the deal ! Maybe I’m from the “ A picture is worth a thousand words “ crowd , LOL .
If you don’t mind what make and HP is your grinder ?
Arctic Lake

I'm actually not sure about the HP of the grinder to be honest. I would have to do some digging in that regard. All I know is that it is a "mid grade" one from Cabela's we picked up on sale about 5 or 6 years ago.

So far it has been great. We have used it on 5 or 6 bears. Normally we just trim and clean up the meat, cut it into "ready for grinding chucks" and vacuum pack those until I realised ground meat actually fends of freezer burn for even longer, as it conforms to the bag so that it is even more air tight.

Anyway, we were almost finished grinding yesterday when I believe the blade became dull enough that it's having some trouble keeping up. It seemed to be less efficient and getting jammed up a little, so we had to freeze the last two bags in chunks. I'll order another blade and see if that fixes it... but not bad at all, it ground the most of at least 5 bears.

Sadly I don't think we really got as much meat as I thought. By the time we had done the trimming, removed the fat, etc, vacuumed it all up, I felt like there was only around 40lbs at the most, maybe even less (we don't have any kind of scale in our home because I don't want to know how fat I get LOL) I think the scale of meat on bears can drastically differ... seems like you can shoot a 250lb bear and get almost 50% that in meat, but you shoot a bear that is around 150 lbs and you might only end up with 40-50lbs. That was the second smallest bear I have taken and I observed the ratio difference with the other as well.

I kept some fat trimming from this one, for the first time ever to see what I can do with it. Going to have to look into rendering fat. I know nothing about it.

[caddisguy]

Are you guys adding any kind of spices etc when you vacuum seal, marinades at all? Or is most of the ground bear used for burgers, etc.

Cheers!
James

We make burgers, sloppy joes, tacos, burritos, our famous (to us) "ham-bear-ger helper" among other different pastas. We don't marinade or add spices to anything until it comes out of the vacuum bag, then we can decide what we are in the mood for at the time. Maybe we're making burgers and feel like adding some garlic, jalapeno, etc.

[adriaticum]

Good for you caddis, congrats!

[lakelander]

From the traffic you described, were you travelling along Chilliwack Lake road? It was gong show show there yesterday. Anyways congrats and happy eating!

[Ron.C]

Great bear and awesome story caddis.

[whitlers]

I'm actually not sure about the HP of the grinder to be honest. I would have to do some digging in that regard. All I know is that it is a "mid grade" one from Cabela's we picked up on sale about 5 or 6 years ago.

So far it has been great. We have used it on 5 or 6 bears. Normally we just trim and clean up the meat, cut it into "ready for grinding chucks" and vacuum pack those until I realised ground meat actually fends of freezer burn for even longer, as it conforms to the bag so that it is even more air tight.

Anyway, we were almost finished grinding yesterday when I believe the blade became dull enough that it's having some trouble keeping up. It seemed to be less efficient and getting jammed up a little, so we had to freeze the last two bags in chunks. I'll order another blade and see if that fixes it... but not bad at all, it ground the most of at least 5 bears.

Sadly I don't think we really got as much meat as I thought. By the time we had done the trimming, removed the fat, etc, vacuumed it all up, I felt like there was only around 40lbs at the most, maybe even less (we don't have any kind of scale in our home because I don't want to know how fat I get LOL) I think the scale of meat on bears can drastically differ... seems like you can shoot a 250lb bear and get almost 50% that in meat, but you shoot a bear that is around 150 lbs and you might only end up with 40-50lbs. That was the second smallest bear I have taken and I observed the ratio difference with the other as well.

I kept some fat trimming from this one, for the first time ever to see what I can do with it. Going to have to look into rendering fat. I know nothing about it.

This has been my experience as well. I shot one similar to the size of this one you just harvested and I think I ended up with around 30lbs of grind ready meat. I'm pretty picky on what I keep though. If I spent more time or had a better grinder I could probably get more. The scrap pile from bears is always bigger than I'd like. Maybe I'm just doing a horrible job or shooting too small of a bear haha.

[Salty]

Anyway, we were almost finished grinding yesterday when I believe the blade became dull enough that it's having some trouble keeping up. It seemed to be less efficient and getting jammed up a little, so we had to freeze the last two bags in chunks. I'll order another blade and see if that fixes it... but not bad at all, it ground the most of at least 5 bears.

Nothing like a sharp blade. You likely know this caddis but for others asking the cooler the meat the easier the grinding. The fat is more solid and less prone to gumming up the cutter. And I've found the easiest by far is partly thawed. Even if the chunks are a bit frozen in the middle with our Cabelas 3/4 hp it gobbles it up like nothing and doesn't plug. Found that out by accident at some point in the past doing just what you are, freezing some to deal with later then being a bit impatient on thawing it again... eureka!

[Arctic Lake]

Thanks Caddis ! I was thinking you probably had a Cabelas grinder . I’m familiar with grinders as I worked for many,many, years in the meat industry . Most common names included Hobart , Biro, etc. I do not have a grinder yet but sometimes you can find 5he above mentioned names at auction .
Arctic Lake

I'm actually not sure about the HP of the grinder to be honest. I would have to do some digging in that regard. All I know is that it is a "mid grade" one from Cabela's we picked up on sale about 5 or 6 years ago.

So far it has been great. We have used it on 5 or 6 bears. Normally we just trim and clean up the meat, cut it into "ready for grinding chucks" and vacuum pack those until I realised ground meat actually fends of freezer burn for even longer, as it conforms to the bag so that it is even more air tight.

Anyway, we were almost finished grinding yesterday when I believe the blade became dull enough that it's having some trouble keeping up. It seemed to be less efficient and getting jammed up a little, so we had to freeze the last two bags in chunks. I'll order another blade and see if that fixes it... but not bad at all, it ground the most of at least 5 bears.

Sadly I don't think we really got as much meat as I thought. By the time we had done the trimming, removed the fat, etc, vacuumed it all up, I felt like there was only around 40lbs at the most, maybe even less (we don't have any kind of scale in our home because I don't want to know how fat I get LOL) I think the scale of meat on bears can drastically differ... seems like you can shoot a 250lb bear and get almost 50% that in meat, but you shoot a bear that is around 150 lbs and you might only end up with 40-50lbs. That was the second smallest bear I have taken and I observed the ratio difference with the other as well.

I kept some fat trimming from this one, for the first time ever to see what I can do with it. Going to have to look into rendering fat. I know nothing about it.

[caddisguy]

Nothing like a sharp blade. You likely know this caddis but for others asking the cooler the meat the easier the grinding. The fat is more solid and less prone to gumming up the cutter. And I've found the easiest by far is partly thawed. Even if the chunks are a bit frozen in the middle with our Cabelas 3/4 hp it gobbles it up like nothing and doesn't plug. Found that out by accident at some point in the past doing just what you are, freezing some to deal with later then being a bit impatient on thawing it again... eureka!

Maybe that is what was gumming it up, as we normally grind stuff frozen or partially thawed... sometimes a few bags when first take meat home but this was the first time we tried to do a full bear, albeit it a smaller one at that. It was good through most of it, but started running into some trouble, perhaps due to more fat or silverskin, dull blade or both. I figure I'll order another blade anyway. I imagine they can't be too expensive. Those couple remaining bags of frozen chunks will be no match for a new blade LOL. Thanks for the tip on the frozen aspect. I've heard my wife make that observation in the past when she was grinding but I think it slipped our minds last night.

@Arctic Lake: I went and had a look at the model number. It's 54-0708 which is the "Cabela's Heavy Duty Grinder". It has a 400 Watt motor (so maybe 0.5HP?) I don't know how "heavy duty" it really is compared to commercial stuff. It's great for grinding up some meat once in a while or even grinding up a full deer or bear, but I can't imagine trying to get through a couple hundred pounds of something bigger. It might be up for the assignment, but I imagine there are grinders 10x "beefier" that would take care of that in short order versus many hours. I imagine you have a lot of info on that. One thing I'll say is that we have used a lot over the years and it has been very reliable.

[Arctic Lake]

Good to know Caddis. Thanks !
Arctic Lake

Maybe that is what was gumming it up, as we normally grind stuff frozen or partially thawed... sometimes a few bags when first take meat home but this was the first time we tried to do a full bear, albeit it a smaller one at that. It was good through most of it, but started running into some trouble, perhaps due to more fat or silverskin, dull blade or both. I figure I'll order another blade anyway. I imagine they can't be too expensive. Those couple remaining bags of frozen chunks will be no match for a new blade LOL. Thanks for the tip on the frozen aspect. I've heard my wife make that observation in the past when she was grinding but I think it slipped our minds last night.

@Arctic Lake: I went and had a look at the model number. It's 54-0708 which is the "Cabela's Heavy Duty Grinder". It has a 400 Watt motor (so maybe 0.5HP?) I don't know how "heavy duty" it really is compared to commercial stuff. It's great for grinding up some meat once in a while or even grinding up a full deer or bear, but I can't imagine trying to get through a couple hundred pounds of something bigger. It might be up for the assignment, but I imagine there are grinders 10x "beefier" that would take care of that in short order versus many hours. I imagine you have a lot of info on that. One thing I'll say is that we have used a lot over the years and it has been very reliable.

[wideopenthrottle]

Freezing your wattle bottles? For ice? We have been doing something similar. Crush ice / block ice... forget it. It always leaks and pools up in the bottom of the cooler. We buy the 4L water jugs (like milk jugs except 2x thick) ... we fill those up and freeze them. They last WAY longer and other than condensation don't lead to any water in the bottom of the cooler. No cost really either... we replace them once every 20 freezes or so, they start to crack eventually.

I have noticed that when freezing jugs if I leave an inch at the top and then give the jug a little squeeze as you seal the lid it doesn't stretch the plastic as bad and you can get more freezes out of your jug

[barongan]

great story, congratshttps://babang.xyz/assets/10/o.png

[Daisy]

Wow awesome shots on the trail cam! Thanks for sharing! :redface:

[whitespringer]

Awesome Caddisguy. Bear master!