Shootin' Bears

Sisco · October 28, 2002, 12:44 AM

From time to time on different forums the subject of "Is my xyz caliber big enough for bears?" comes up.
Found these paragraphs at the Alaska Fish & Game Dept. website. http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/wildlife...ng/biggame.htm

Except for big bears, there is no need to keep shooting at an animal after it has been well hit once in the lungs. An oldtimer once told me that “it doesn't matter whether a moose is shot well once or a dozen times, the beast will not die for a minute and 55 seconds.” He was right. It seems to take almost two minutes for a lung shot moose to bleed out into the chest cavity and fall down. More shots just make more holes, a big mess, and wasted meat.

On big bears keep shooting until the bear is down and stays down. Big bears are nothing to mess around with trying for that “one shot kill” so popular in sporting magazines. Approach all downed big game cautiously from the rear with your rifle chambered and in a ready position. Stop well away from bears and moose and look to see if there is any regular movement of the chest due to breathing. If so, dispatch the animal humanely with a shot to the brain (or base of the neck on a trophy bear).

Does that answer any future questions?

Libertarian · October 28, 2002, 06:17 AM

This is an honest question: Unless it was attacking toy, why would anyone want to shoot a bear? Can you eat the meat? It seems a shame to kill it if you're only doing so for the pelt.

I only hunt and fish for what I intend on eating so trophy hunting never made sense to me.

Pappy John · October 28, 2002, 11:22 AM

I 've never killed one myself, but I have eaten bear, backstraps cut into medallions, grilled over charcoal, very close in taste and texture to pork. Also used as the base meat for chili...too disguised to tell what it would have been, so thats no test really.

I personally get too much of a kick out of seeing them to kill one for sport. I see them from time to time, but not often enough to lose the novelty. Don't have a problem with bear hunting by others though.

And the rugs are really expensive to have made.

DaleA · October 28, 2002, 01:07 PM

Thanks for the info SK.
Bears and snakes do come up a LOT in magazines and forums.

I doubt the subjects will go away even with this info.

One of the best replies on the snake topic I remember reading was "If you see the snake you can walk around it. If you don't see the snake it doesn't matter what gun you're carrying."

bronco61 · October 28, 2002, 01:12 PM

I just called my local wildlife biologist and asked his opinion on trophy hunting:

1. Non-resident hunting licenses provide most of the money made for wildlife conservation and management in Alaska.

2. This is a renewable resource. You can kill a number of animals without affecting the population because of reproduction.

3. Meat hunters take as much meat from the kill as possible, thus, taking away part of the "cycle" of life from the ecosystem. Trophy bear hunters leave the meat, which is "returned" to the ecosystem. A 900 pound brown bear carcass will be completely eaten in less than a week! This is anything but "wasted meat". Remember, this is an animal that has been living off the ecosystem for many years, by taking the whole thing (meat and all), nothing is given nothing back to the ecosystem it has been living off of.

4. Trophy hunters are looking for old animals which are past their prime (not in ALL cases, but MANY cases). Taking this animal makes room for younger, more genetically viable males to pass on their genes. Meat hunters on the otherhand want younger animals in their prime.

5. Have you ever made love on a bear rug in front of your woodstove? (Black bear hides are MUCH better for this purpose. They are softer. I haven't tried a brown bear rug yet as the fur is much more coarse). This is a very positive experience for your love-life

6. Bear rugs last generations. How long does meat last after being eaten?

Attached is a pic of my wife next to my 9' brownie taken just 7 miles from my house.

Libertarian · October 28, 2002, 01:13 PM

I had no idea that anyone would willingly eat carnivore meat. I tried dog twice and didn't care for it either time. I've always thought of bears as big dogs that can't be house broken. Thanks.

As for snake, it does fill out the menu when out in the wilds for any length of time but they eat too many rats to want to kill them for no reason.

bronco61 · October 28, 2002, 01:16 PM

attachment failed on last post.

spacemanspiff · October 28, 2002, 01:18 PM

any bear killed in self defense here in alaska must have the hide, paws, and head given to the Dept of Fish & Game. good thing we all carry sharp knives, huh? really good thing we dont just carry a small folder, huh? you DO carry a larger knife when out in the great outdoors, right??

spacemanspiff · October 28, 2002, 01:21 PM

good grief bronco! i dont think the devil himself has eyes that glow that brightly!

bronco61 · October 28, 2002, 01:23 PM

Spaceman,
Wanna know how to do that? Look at reason #5 on my first post! LOL

Field-dressed · October 28, 2002, 01:32 PM

Hey bronco, Sunny looks like she should be a bad girl in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Geesh.

Black bear meat is delicious as long as the bear hasn't been eating salmon. As for brown bear, I've never met a palatable one, but their nonresident $500 tag fee ($650 for nonresident aliens) goes directly into ADF&G's wildlife conservation funds.

spacemanspiff · October 28, 2002, 01:44 PM

but when did you find the time to tack that rug back up on the wall and take a picture? shouldnt you have been sound asleep by then?

Bogie · October 28, 2002, 02:43 PM

Dang, must be kinda difficult anyway, doin' it standin' up against the wall and all that...

bronco61 · October 28, 2002, 02:55 PM

ROFL, well, you guys need to read my first post again..... Black bear rugs are used for that sort of thing. The brownie stays on the wall.

Sisco · October 28, 2002, 05:00 PM

The only time I ever ate bear it was some summer sausage. Felt a need to gargle with gasoline to get the grease slick out of my mouth.

C.R.Sam · October 28, 2002, 07:47 PM

Bar meat great for makin tacos. Don't have to add grease.

Sam

joeoim · October 28, 2002, 09:24 PM

Bronco Thats one nice bear. What did he weigh? I have eaten bear on a couple occasions and altho it has always been good I don't make a habit of eating it. aoffhand I can think of 3 people I know that regularly eat bear. You don't want to try and eat them late in the year when they been cleaning up gut piles from the hunting seasons. Or one that has been killing. When they are on an all vegatable diet they are good. If they have been eating dead animals they're not fit to eat.

vulcan · October 28, 2002, 09:59 PM

A little to greeezy for my taste. Some old timer told me he uses a mason jar of bear lard like a barometer to forcast weather though.

bronco61 · October 29, 2002, 02:10 AM

joeoim

I have no idea what it weighed. I don't think I could find a scale that went that heavy, let alone get it out to where I shot the bear.

It squared out to 9' and had a 26" skull. (Bears are measured by skull size and what they square out to instead of weight) Not super fantastic around here but pretty respectable.

That super-gigantic bear that has been talked about on TFL...the one that was killed on Hinchinbrook Island and has many stories of epic proportions was killed just a few miles from where I got this one.

October 28, 2002, 12:44 AM	#1
Sisco Senior Member Join Date: March 25, 1999 Location: KS Posts: 1,558	Shootin' Bears From time to time on different forums the subject of "Is my xyz caliber big enough for bears?" comes up. Found these paragraphs at the Alaska Fish & Game Dept. website. http://www.state.ak.us/adfg/wildlife...ng/biggame.htm Except for big bears, there is no need to keep shooting at an animal after it has been well hit once in the lungs. An oldtimer once told me that “it doesn't matter whether a moose is shot well once or a dozen times, the beast will not die for a minute and 55 seconds.” He was right. It seems to take almost two minutes for a lung shot moose to bleed out into the chest cavity and fall down. More shots just make more holes, a big mess, and wasted meat. On big bears keep shooting until the bear is down and stays down. Big bears are nothing to mess around with trying for that “one shot kill” so popular in sporting magazines. Approach all downed big game cautiously from the rear with your rifle chambered and in a ready position. Stop well away from bears and moose and look to see if there is any regular movement of the chest due to breathing. If so, dispatch the animal humanely with a shot to the brain (or base of the neck on a trophy bear). Does that answer any future questions? __________________ "I don't mind it when stupid people say stupid things. Stupid people should be encouraged to say stupid things, that way we always know who the stupid people are." ~ Ted Nugent http://www.awbansunset.com/awcountdown_sm.gif

October 28, 2002, 06:17 AM	#2
Libertarian Senior Member Join Date: October 26, 1999 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 2,117	This is an honest question: Unless it was attacking toy, why would anyone want to shoot a bear? Can you eat the meat? It seems a shame to kill it if you're only doing so for the pelt. I only hunt and fish for what I intend on eating so trophy hunting never made sense to me. __________________ "Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." JFK My other favorite forum is The Armed Citizen My PGP key is 0x780B7C0A

October 28, 2002, 01:13 PM	#6
Libertarian Senior Member Join Date: October 26, 1999 Location: San Antonio, Texas Posts: 2,117	I had no idea that anyone would willingly eat carnivore meat. I tried dog twice and didn't care for it either time. I've always thought of bears as big dogs that can't be house broken. Thanks. As for snake, it does fill out the menu when out in the wilds for any length of time but they eat too many rats to want to kill them for no reason. __________________ "Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom." JFK My other favorite forum is The Armed Citizen My PGP key is 0x780B7C0A

October 28, 2002, 01:18 PM	#8
spacemanspiff Senior Member Join Date: January 16, 2002 Location: alaska Posts: 3,498	any bear killed in self defense here in alaska must have the hide, paws, and head given to the Dept of Fish & Game. good thing we all carry sharp knives, huh? really good thing we dont just carry a small folder, huh? you DO carry a larger knife when out in the great outdoors, right?? __________________ "Every man alone is sincere; at the entrance of a second person hypocrisy begins." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." - Soren Kierkegaard

October 28, 2002, 01:21 PM	#9
spacemanspiff Senior Member Join Date: January 16, 2002 Location: alaska Posts: 3,498	good grief bronco! i dont think the devil himself has eyes that glow that brightly! __________________ "Every man alone is sincere; at the entrance of a second person hypocrisy begins." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." - Soren Kierkegaard

October 28, 2002, 11:22 AM	#3
Pappy John Senior Member Join Date: March 29, 2001 Location: the lower Susquehanna Valley Posts: 848	I 've never killed one myself, but I have eaten bear, backstraps cut into medallions, grilled over charcoal, very close in taste and texture to pork. Also used as the base meat for chili...too disguised to tell what it would have been, so thats no test really. I personally get too much of a kick out of seeing them to kill one for sport. I see them from time to time, but not often enough to lose the novelty. Don't have a problem with bear hunting by others though. And the rugs are really expensive to have made.

October 28, 2002, 01:07 PM	#4
DaleA Senior Member Join Date: September 12, 2002 Location: Twin Cities, MN Posts: 5,316	Thanks for the info SK. Bears and snakes do come up a LOT in magazines and forums. I doubt the subjects will go away even with this info. One of the best replies on the snake topic I remember reading was "If you see the snake you can walk around it. If you don't see the snake it doesn't matter what gun you're carrying."

October 28, 2002, 01:12 PM	#5
bronco61 Senior Member Join Date: April 9, 1999 Location: Alaska Posts: 518	I just called my local wildlife biologist and asked his opinion on trophy hunting: 1. Non-resident hunting licenses provide most of the money made for wildlife conservation and management in Alaska. 2. This is a renewable resource. You can kill a number of animals without affecting the population because of reproduction. 3. Meat hunters take as much meat from the kill as possible, thus, taking away part of the "cycle" of life from the ecosystem. Trophy bear hunters leave the meat, which is "returned" to the ecosystem. A 900 pound brown bear carcass will be completely eaten in less than a week! This is anything but "wasted meat". Remember, this is an animal that has been living off the ecosystem for many years, by taking the whole thing (meat and all), nothing is given nothing back to the ecosystem it has been living off of. 4. Trophy hunters are looking for old animals which are past their prime (not in ALL cases, but MANY cases). Taking this animal makes room for younger, more genetically viable males to pass on their genes. Meat hunters on the otherhand want younger animals in their prime. 5. Have you ever made love on a bear rug in front of your woodstove? (Black bear hides are MUCH better for this purpose. They are softer. I haven't tried a brown bear rug yet as the fur is much more coarse). This is a very positive experience for your love-life 6. Bear rugs last generations. How long does meat last after being eaten? Attached is a pic of my wife next to my 9' brownie taken just 7 miles from my house. Last edited by bronco61; October 28, 2002 at 02:56 PM.

October 28, 2002, 01:23 PM	#10
bronco61 Senior Member Join Date: April 9, 1999 Location: Alaska Posts: 518	Spaceman, Wanna know how to do that? Look at reason #5 on my first post! LOL

October 28, 2002, 01:32 PM	#11
Field-dressed Senior Member Join Date: August 21, 2000 Location: Alaska Posts: 148	Hey bronco, Sunny looks like she should be a bad girl in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Geesh. Black bear meat is delicious as long as the bear hasn't been eating salmon. As for brown bear, I've never met a palatable one, but their nonresident $500 tag fee ($650 for nonresident aliens) goes directly into ADF&G's wildlife conservation funds.

October 28, 2002, 01:44 PM	#12
spacemanspiff Senior Member Join Date: January 16, 2002 Location: alaska Posts: 3,498	but when did you find the time to tack that rug back up on the wall and take a picture? shouldnt you have been sound asleep by then? __________________ "Every man alone is sincere; at the entrance of a second person hypocrisy begins." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." - Soren Kierkegaard

October 28, 2002, 02:43 PM	#13
Bogie Senior Member Join Date: June 5, 2000 Location: Job hunting on the road... Posts: 3,827	Dang, must be kinda difficult anyway, doin' it standin' up against the wall and all that... __________________ Job hunting, but helping a friend out at www.vikingmachineusa.com - and learning the finer aspects of becoming a precision machinist. And making the world's greatest bottle openers!

October 28, 2002, 02:55 PM	#14
bronco61 Senior Member Join Date: April 9, 1999 Location: Alaska Posts: 518	ROFL, well, you guys need to read my first post again..... Black bear rugs are used for that sort of thing. The brownie stays on the wall.

October 28, 2002, 05:00 PM	#15
Sisco Senior Member Join Date: March 25, 1999 Location: KS Posts: 1,558	The only time I ever ate bear it was some summer sausage. Felt a need to gargle with gasoline to get the grease slick out of my mouth. __________________ "I don't mind it when stupid people say stupid things. Stupid people should be encouraged to say stupid things, that way we always know who the stupid people are." ~ Ted Nugent http://www.awbansunset.com/awcountdown_sm.gif

October 28, 2002, 07:47 PM	#16
C.R.Sam Senior Member Join Date: October 29, 1999 Location: Dewey, AZ Posts: 12,858	Bar meat great for makin tacos. Don't have to add grease. Sam

October 28, 2002, 09:24 PM	#17
joeoim Member Join Date: October 14, 2002 Location: Colorado Posts: 62	Nice Bear Bronco Thats one nice bear. What did he weigh? I have eaten bear on a couple occasions and altho it has always been good I don't make a habit of eating it. aoffhand I can think of 3 people I know that regularly eat bear. You don't want to try and eat them late in the year when they been cleaning up gut piles from the hunting seasons. Or one that has been killing. When they are on an all vegatable diet they are good. If they have been eating dead animals they're not fit to eat. __________________ Joe THOSE WHO TRADE LIBERTY FOR SECURITY......HAVE NEITHER

October 28, 2002, 09:59 PM	#18
vulcan Senior Member Join Date: September 22, 2002 Posts: 265	Dems good eatins....not! A little to greeezy for my taste. Some old timer told me he uses a mason jar of bear lard like a barometer to forcast weather though.

October 29, 2002, 02:10 AM	#19
bronco61 Senior Member Join Date: April 9, 1999 Location: Alaska Posts: 518	joeoim I have no idea what it weighed. I don't think I could find a scale that went that heavy, let alone get it out to where I shot the bear. It squared out to 9' and had a 26" skull. (Bears are measured by skull size and what they square out to instead of weight) Not super fantastic around here but pretty respectable. That super-gigantic bear that has been talked about on TFL...the one that was killed on Hinchinbrook Island and has many stories of epic proportions was killed just a few miles from where I got this one.