bear meat taste

[olympia]

i realize bear meat tastes accordingly to what the bear has been eating and thats why guys prefer bears that have been eating berries and grass, but if you were to harvest a bear near the coast where there are lots of fish but get harvest just as they emerge from hibernation, would their meat have been purged of this awful taste since they have not eaten in months? theoretically if you get him just before he gorges on garbage,fish, carrion he shouldnt have any bad odour in his meat? am i right or wrong?

[Surrey Boy]

Before the spring runs, yes. Coastal hides are often in great shape as well.

[olympia]

thanks surrey boy i can always count on you for an answer

[tomahawk]

Its not only the fish that create the bad fishy taste in the bear. Low tides create a harvest that a lot of coastal bears faithfully attend daily for a feist.

[BiG Boar]

I have personally never had a bear that the meat smelled, or tasted bad. Including many bears on the coast. Is there any science that would make sense as to why a bears meat would taste or smell fishy if thats what it had been eating? I could see the stomach tasting fishy, or the entrails, but the nutrients absorbed by the bear, building muscle, doesn't really make sense why it would taint the muscles of the legs and back. What I do know to be a fact is if the bear is rolling in salmon, and a person skins that bear which smells fishy, chances are the smell will transfer onto the meat, by the same hands that removed the skin. Just my 2 cents.

[greenhorn]

I've never had a bear that tasted fishy but I have had bear that tasted really strong and bad...

[Drillbit]

I have personally never had a bear that the meat smelled, or tasted bad. Including many bears on the coast. Is there any science that would make sense as to why a bears meat would taste or smell fishy if thats what it had been eating? I could see the stomach tasting fishy, or the entrails, but the nutrients absorbed by the bear, building muscle, doesn't really make sense why it would taint the muscles of the legs and back. What I do know to be a fact is if the bear is rolling in salmon, and a person skins that bear which smells fishy, chances are the smell will transfer onto the meat, by the same hands that removed the skin. Just my 2 cents.

Not a scientist, but there is a science to how food is dealt with in a body, and different foods change things. Feed lots can't be wrong?!

I know a beef finished off with grain is way better than one right off the pasture. Color of the fat is even different.

[BCBRAD]

Bear meat reminds me of mutton, which I don't really care for. So any bear we get is processed into sausage etc. The trick is to strip all fat from meat, the odd flavors are in the fat. Some people have an aversion to bear, as a food source, but that is usually the cloven hoof thing or something else they been told.

[Gateholio]

Without a doubt, different food supply will give mammals a different taste. It's why grass fed beef is different than grain fed as one example. Many examples of this are present in wild animals killed in different areas (farmland deer compared to alpine deer)

Coastal bears can certainly taste fishy, even early on in the spring.

[pappy]

Spruce grouse don't taste good, when they have been eating pine needles, I have read somewhere a while ago that it is best to let the bears get a few good grassy meals in and let them take the nutrients into their bodies before shooting one. This is on the basis of they hold their sh*t and piss for the better part of the winter and their bodies filter and store their waste until they are sh*tting regular. Its proven that they don't piss in their dens so its gotta go somewhere. Because of this they don't taste good right out of the den. I can't remember where I read this info, it was a few years ago. Maybe its one of the myths about bear hunting but it makes sense to me, I have never shot a bear right out of the den so I can't compare.

[sawmill]

Coastal bears,the ones that actually live by the saltchuck,don`t hibernate.They don`t have to.They may go down for a few days but there is lots of food to be had,most of it stinky.I`ve seen bears in mid January eating off a dead whale on the beach in the Queen Charlottes.