Bear Hunting 2012

Did some scouting yesterday. With this hot weather, I need to make sure I can reach it pretty quickly or else serious spoilage. Guess it doesn't matter, everything seemed to staying out of the heat. Did see a few grouse on the way back though.

 

Where did you scout at?

 

On the edge of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. South of Lake Blethen by ~2miles and 4100feet altitude. The biting flies were all over the place. No sign of anything it was so damn hot. I'm going to drop down to 2500feet and do some hiking on the lower hills. It would be a lot harder to see at that altitude because of more vegitation but that's where I've seen more signs.

On a good note, wife was in Portland this weekend and picked up the .338.

 

Woo!! I went scouting in the clearcut near my house this morning and found a pile of scat and a bunch of berry bushes. Looks like I know where I'm gonna be waiting.

 

That describes every bear I've seen in California. I call it the "Don't Care, Don't Have To Care" routine. When you weigh 400 pounds and have a mouth full of 2"+ canine teeth, can bitchslap a mountain lion without trying, and each of your feet has 5 claws that can open up a car door with minimal effort...well..you don't care much.

 

until they get a arrow through their lungs and heart. and they snap back like a bee stung them trying to bite whatever "bit" it.

but ive never seen the I dont give a fuck bears. One came out the brush 40 yards from me last year, all i could see was its head. i was hoping to god hed step out and give me a broad side shot, but he winded me and was gone. they are some spooky animals, and wheneever i see em, tend to sense you and want no part of it.

 

THIS!!!

 

OK, this made my morning. Too true!!!

Bears like to eat anything, and they just Do Not Care about much else in life. I swear, the hippies in California want to hug them, give them free colonoscopies and debate the merits of socialism with these animals.

I want to hunt them, drag them out and eat their tasty bits.

Which reminds me, I have 10 more claws to dismember and turn into gifts.

Any of you guys do anything creative with non-edible bear parts, other than rugs or cleaned-skulls, mounts, etc?

I gave my mother the best claw of the ones I've taken off so far. She took it to a local jeweler who put a really nice sterling silver mount on the bone end and made a really good piece out of it. I'm not one much for the decorative aspects, but it really came out nice. And he got a high shine on the keratin that I cannot replicate (I've tried everything).

 

How did u do the claws? I tried with my dads last year by cutting them off, then buried em to have the bugs eat all the meat. But the bones fell outta the claws n the claws turned all funky

 

I had the idea of using the claws as jewelery as well, no idea how to go about cleaning them or anything though.

 

First I skin the paw itself and put that fur back in the freezer for later use. (You can do a quick preservation by removing as much membrane as possible from the skin and then laying it flat in a pan of non-iodized salt).

Then you dismember the claw+first bone from the rest of the foot. At this point I use my knife to scrape and pull off whatever flesh I can. It's hard because there is lots of tendon to deal with, but remove what you can.

Then I bury the claws in a bowl full of borax. This desiccates the tissue and loosens it a bit (the tissue, not the nail). I would pull them out daily to inspect and to mix up the borax a bit. Overall this part takes 1-2 weeks.

Then I try to remove more of the tissue with a sharp knife. Slow and easy, since you don't want to cut the nail. At this point I also use some wax carving pics to clean the quick, dirt and funk out of the underside of the nail itself. I also remove any outer layers of chipped/cracked nail at this point.

Once I have removed as much tissue as possible, I hang them in a 50/50 mix of unscented chlorine bleach (Clorox!) and water. You have to be careful to soak just the bone. Bleach will eat away the remaining tissue or soften it up to the point that you can remove it with a small blade or dental picks. You have to be careful here, as the bleach will also eat away at the nail and the bone itself! So check constantly during this step. If there is a lot of tissue, I will do the first soak for 8-12 hours. Then I remove, dry and inspect. If it needs more time (almost always does), I will replace the bleach-water mixture and soak again for 2-4 hours, check, repeat as needed.

Eventually you'll have 99.9% of the tissue remove. Remove the rest by hand.

To polish up the nails, I wet sand them in this order - 600 grit, 1200 grit, 1500 or 1600 grit. If the nail is particularly rough, I may do the 600 grit as a dry sand, but ALWAYS wet sand with your last two stages of 1200 and 1500/1600.

Then I take a clean, damp rag, and wipe down the nail, removing any loose bits/powder. I apply a little bit of Flitz polish to a paper towel and polish the nail. By this time you have a good shine. The last step is to use a flannel buffing wheel (I put one on my dremel, but you can use any rotating tool) to get as high as shine as possible. Be careful here - too much heat from the flannel will mar/discolor the nail. Those imperfections are hard to get out.

I think the jeweler uses jeweler's rouge (like a fine, fine, superfine grit) for the 2nd to last stage, before buffing, so I may try that next time.

I would say 1 claw takes about 6-8 hours of actual hands-on work, not counting the removal, drying, soaking and polishing.

Some people ask "Why dry the tissue if you're just going to get it wet again in the bleach/water?" Well I have tried both ways (straight from bear to bleach/water mix vs. remove, dry, soak) and found the remove/dry/soak method to work better. I think the drying out lets the bleach work more effectively to remove and dissolve the tissue outright.

Whatever you do, DON'T rush and use straight bleach. I made that mistake and dissolved part of the nail and bone. I was able to save the claw, but it doesn't look as good as the others.

It may also be possible to use dermestid (flesh eating) beatles for this, but I don't have any. The taxidermist did my bear skull this way and it came out real nice.

 

^^ WOW - that is some information. Each step is volumes more knowledge that I can claim to have. Thanks!

 

Sure! If you end up with some claws and need more info, PM me. Don't mind helping.

 

ya thanks man! def a long process. I dont wanna turn it into no jewlery, but just something easy shits and grins. lets hope i get a bear this year and ill follow this up

 

My buddy tagged a bear this past weekend up in unit 26 in AZ. They saw about 10 of them. One was pushing about 400 pounds, had a huge head but the rear quarter of it was almost bald from rubbing himself. He ended up shooting this smaller bear because it had a good coat and had some red on it as well as a white patch on its chest. Weighed in around 300 pounds.

 

I gave a couple away (illegal to sell in CA, but these went to friends and family, so I wouldn't want $$ for them). One each to the wife and kid (kid loves hers, but I had to take it away - she's too little - she "plays bear" with it and it's dangerous!), too.

For my part I took a small drill bit, may a hole across the long dimension of the bone and strung a leather strap through it. Sometimes I wear it when in the mood to annoy liberals and anti-hunting idiots.

I almost forgot. To make the bone a little nicer (it won't come out white, but yellow-ish), make a paste of borax and hydrogen peroxide and soak JUST the bone in that for a few days or hours. Then sand the bone (dry) with some of the 600 grit and 1200 grit sandpaper. Finally put the flannel wheel to it. It takes a nice shine, but it's not gaudy.

 

Nice bear! Mine was the same primary color, but with that light tan color around the muzzle and top of the head. Still waiting on the taxidermist for my pelt, almost a year later.

 

i hear ya... biggest one I have seen too... But I should have mentioned he tagged this one and saw all of the others on the Rez.... everything seems to grow bigger on the Rez...

 

Missed a 300 lber today. I've never have missed with my rifle, until that damn bear. Talk about bear fever

 

not as big as the one i missed, but for my first bear and with a bow, ill take it.