Speaking of Bears...

Jeff Higgins · 02-06-2006, 06:20 PM

The thread on the little girl in Maryland shooting the black bear brought back a few memories. Here I am, with about the third largest black bear ever taken in Washington. Official B&C score was just under 21", field dressed he came in in the mid-400 pound range. For you non-hunters, that puts him in the mid to upper 500's live weight. Fair chase; no hounds or bait. Killed with an 1870's vintage Ballard Pacific in .45-70 shooting black powder and a home-cast lead bullet. Sorry for the poor photo quality.

Joeaksa · 02-07-2006, 04:42 AM

Very nice job and glad you did it with a real cartridge and not something modern. The .45-70 does a very nice job, even over long distances if you work with the drop on the extremely large bullet.

Did you keep the trophy?

JoeA

Jeff Higgins · 02-07-2006, 05:17 AM

It got turned into a very nice rug, and I have the skull all boiled out and lacquered. He was an old boy, probably somewhere around 15 years old. His molars were almost completely ground down and one of his canines was broken off at the base. There are some deep scars that show even into the bone on his skull; he had been in some pretty good scraps over the years.

He was actually right out at the fringes of a small herd of cattle when my son had spotted him. He had shot a nice 26" 3 point muley the day before, and we were actually looking for one for me. When my son pointed him out I actually told him to be quiet and keep walking; it looked like a yearling calf to me. He convinced me to look through my binoculars, and sure enough, it was a bear.

Then the fun began. He was way out of range of my old .45-70, so we began to put the sneak on him. After about an hour or so we were about 80 yards away and I planted one on his left shoulder. He went down immediately but, low and behold, he started rolling like a big old beach ball down the hill he was on. We were at the base of that hill. He regained his feet about 30 yards away and seemed a bit grumpy, so I put one on his right shoulder. That really made him mad. He kind of stumbled down into a slight depression where we couldn't see him and really started tearing up the place. This went on for about ten or fifteen minutes before all went quiet.

We stayed right where we were for a good couple of hours. When we felt the coast was clear, I made about a quarter mile loop downwind and up the hill behind him, leaving my son with his 6.5 Swede right where he was, to guide me down the hill to where the bear should be. That took another hour or so, but I found him laying right where he should have been. He still looked like a calf laying there. My son teases me to this day; every time we see an all black calf it starts all over again...

Usmellgass2? · 02-07-2006, 07:16 AM

21" Nice Bear. Looks like my neck of the woods. Wise to show respect to even a blackey. They can flat tear things up when they get a mind to.

126coupe · 126coupe's Garage

One word............Redneck

Jeff Higgins · 02-07-2006, 08:36 AM

Central Washington; yup, your neck of the woods. Outside of Oroville up above the Similkameen River in the Shanker's Bend area.

And yup; redneck all the way. And damn proud of it.

Usmellgass2? · 02-07-2006, 08:55 AM

Im in Wenatchee, If you head over this way drop me a note. Fellow Pellicans n Rednecks are aways welcome at my shop and BBQ

Leland Pate · 02-07-2006, 02:47 PM

Quote:

One word............Redneck

Yup, I completely agree. The lifestyle you have chosen is clearly better than Jeff's.

fastpat · 02-07-2006, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by procon
Bag it, tag it & send it to the butcher.

I shot a black bear in Montana when I lived there, much smaller than Jeff's at maybe 300 pounds, and did eat part of him. It's a rich tasting meat, like pork with the color of beef.

craigster59 · craigster59's Garage

Quote:

Originally posted by Minkoff
One word............Redneck

Yeah,... way to go Jeff. Now who's going to prevent forest fires???

Jeff Higgins · 02-07-2006, 04:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fastpat
I shot a black bear in Montana when I lived there, much smaller than Jeff's at maybe 300 pounds, and did eat part of him. It's a rich tasting meat, like pork with the color of beef.

Even 300 pounds is getting on the big end of the eatin' range. That's still a pretty darn respectable black bear for the lower 48. The best ones are much smaller, like in the 150 lb class. Bear meat is certainly nothing if not "rich". I like it, but not many people do. The fat is the culprit, so that's why the little ones taste better. There is an enzyme in that fat that permeates all the meat around it.

I've found the key is to trim absolutely every visible piece of fat off before wrapping it. If you wait until you take it out of the freezer to cook it, it's too late. What makes it very difficult on the big ones is that the meat is so marbled you simply cannot get enough of the fat out. It can taste really nasty then.

My field dressing/skinning knife has a 4" blade. I had to take two cuts on his rump to get through the fat; it came more than half way up the handle. Six inches or more of fat, and this was the last week of September. He still had a couple of active months to fatten up even more. Not that Washington bears truly hibernate, but they sure eat like they are going to.

fastpat · 02-07-2006, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
Even 300 pounds is getting on the big end of the eatin' range. That's still a pretty darn respectable black bear for the lower 48. The best ones are much smaller, like in the 150 lb class. Bear meat is certainly nothing if not "rich". I like it, but not many people do. The fat is the culprit, so that's why the little ones taste better. There is an enzyme in that fat that permeates all the meat around it.

I've found the key is to trim absolutely every visible piece of fat off before wrapping it. If you wait until you take it out of the freezer to cook it, it's too late. What makes it very difficult on the big ones is that the meat is so marbled you simply cannot get enough of the fat out. It can taste really nasty then.

My field dressing/skinning knife has a 4" blade. I had to take two cuts on his rump to get through the fat; it came more than half way up the handle. Six inches or more of fat, and this was the last week of September. He still had a couple of active months to fatten up even more. Not that Washington bears truly hibernate, but they sure eat like they are going to.

I shot mine in the spring, up in the Beartooth range not too far from White Sulphur Springs, MT. He didn't have that much fat on him, but the one weird thing was, when I had him hung and finished skinning him out, other than that head, he looked way too human for comfort.

I had to shoot mine twice, but fired three shots. First, I shot him and the bullet hit a branch in between us, throwing it off. That shot was at about 30 yards. The boy ran about 50 yards along a creek bed and climbed a tree. I shot him and nothing happened. I shot again, and he dropped out of the tree. The two bullets had hit within an inch of each other, passing through completely. He just didn't know he was dead from the first round. The rifle was a .257 Roberts caliber with handloaded 117 grain Nosler partitioned bullets.

This was a long time ago, more than 30 years.

Jeff Higgins · 02-07-2006, 05:58 PM

Spring is the best time if you are planning on eating them, especially if you are in an area in which they actually hibernate. The fat is just about gone at that time of year. The coats are a little sparse, but that's the trade-off.

The similarity to a human, once you can see what they look like under all that fur and fat, has got to be one of the most unnerving sights in all of hunting. This guy looked like Ah-nold hanging from the meat pole. Pretty damn gruesome. I get the creeps every time I see one hanging.

.257 Roberts, huh? I shot my first deer with a borrowed sporterized surplus '98 Mauser so chambered. 117 grain round nose from a factory Remington load. Great little cartridge. When it was time to get my oldest son his first hunting rifle I just about got him a Ruger M77 so chambered. I wound up getting him a M70 Featherweight in 6.5x55 instead, only because a buddy made me "an offer I couldn't refuse", knowing it was going to my son. A Ruger #1 in .257 Roberts has been hovering at the top of my "must have" list for some time...