Caribou Gear

First Black Bear.

BrowningBLR

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Joined
Oct 24, 2011
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Big Sky Country
On Wednesday afternoon I decided to try and find a bear... I had been out quite a few times with no luck. With the weather being in the 80s on Wednesday I thought it would be a good idea to hike deeper into a hell hole that I know about with a creek running at the bottom... it would be a shaded area, cooler, and I thought it would be a perfect place for a bear on a hot day... turns out, I was right. Found this bear in a little clearing, at about 20 yards I decided I should take a shot. He never saw me but when he heard me @#)(# my gun (shooting a lever-action). He took one look my way and took off running. I ran about 20 feet, kneeled down and shot him through a clearing at 50 yards. First bear down!!

I didn't have the proper tools or knowledge to skin him in the mountains (didn't want to mess up things up for a rug!) so I just field dressed him. My only option was to throw him over my shoulder and pack him straight up and out the 3 miles... I consider myself in pretty good shape and this thing felt like it weighed a ton while I carried it out. Not sure exactly how long it took me but a few hours!! When I got home, I weighed it...190 pounds (so probably 230-240 live weight?). I also weighed myself for fun... 158. Needless to say, I am pretty sore. Long story short, it was a blast!! (beside the taxidermist bill for a rug!!)
 

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Good job on the bear. Nothing like a first bear.

Mine was sooo long ago.
 
BrowningLBR...good grief man, that is a crazy thing you did....how you didn't kill yourself just shows that miracles still happen. My shoulders and hands are little sore after carrying out a turkey.:eek:
 
Nice bear! 3 years old? Do you know the dimensions of the head? It looks like it has a pretty big melon... Nice work!

And you're definitely tougher than me... 3 miles. Are you kidding me?
 
Congrats. Looks like a very good bear. Save your back next time. Just reading what you did made my back hurt. Funny to read, though.
 
Still thinking about that 3 mile "hike". Did you wrap your bear in orange so some "texan" wouldn't shoot you (sorry noharlelyyet and other Texans!)
 
Nice bear! 3 years old? Do you know the dimensions of the head? It looks like it has a pretty big melon... Nice work!

And you're definitely tougher than me... 3 miles. Are you kidding me?

I measured the head before it was skinned... from the nose to the eyes = 7 inches. from the nose to the back of the skull = 14.5 inches. and from ear to ear = 9 inches... that's with the fur, so I'm sure the skull itself is quite a bit smaller.

Still thinking about that 3 mile "hike". Did you wrap your bear in orange so some "texan" wouldn't shoot you (sorry noharlelyyet and other Texans!)

Damn Texans :) Unfortunately or fortunately, I guess, I wasn't too worried since it was dark by the time my hike started...


Way to go, but really packing a bear uphill for 3 miles. Your one tough mutha. How many ticks did you get after that?

I found 2 ticks crawling on me, hadn't attached yet... I would say that I am probably no tougher than any of the other guys on here, just an egomaniac who thought carrying a bear out 3 miles was the "right" thing to do :)
 
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No... you're tougher. Don't sell yourself short. I am about your size and there's no way in the world I would have tried that. I would have tagged it, left it right there and hiked out to find someone with horses. You're an animal.:eek:
 
That's a pretty good sized noggin' for a medium sized bear... and I agree with the others, you're one tough SOB!
 
Nice bear indeed, and yes, you are an "animal" but doing things like that will get you a screwed up back and joints like I have at age 63! I was once very proud of the fact that if you could put it onto my back, I could carry it...yeah, I now I hobble around like an old man. But that IS a very nice black bear, and my compliments on taking it!
 
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