Shooting Sports > Archery

2016 Archery bear hunting blog (the homemade edition)

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Rancid Crabtree:
Part one one of the trad archery bear hunt

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgeX6JQGkAw

Part 2

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCimT43VNKo

Rancid Crabtree:
This bear hunt came about as the result of The owner of NBC guide service (Art Hyde) donating the hunt to the Wisconsin Bowhunters Association for their annual convention 4 years ago. As I wait in town for the 2 bear to be skinned and deboned and frozen for the return trip home, I ran through a lists of the costs associated with this "free" hunt.

The cost that bugs me the most is the skin and debone at $400 for the two bear since I do custom butchering and even have an addition on my house that is a game processing and sausage making kitchen and I have processed my own bear in the past. But because Im so far from home, I didn't have a lot of options. The other costs were either optional, dumb luck or self inflicted but here is the tally so far.



The total experience however has been priceless. It was a hell of a ride. Now its time for the WI archery deer season.

Rancid Crabtree:
Here is an update on the bear hunt. The meat and hides were picked up yesterday (Thursday) for the return trip. I didn?t think it would necessary to unroll the hides to inspect them at the butcher

(again, I hated having to use a butcher since I do my own butchering and processing and sausage making but I was away from home and it was warm so I was in a tight spot so I used the local butcher)

After making the long drive home I unrolled both hides to salt and flesh them and discovered the butcher destroyed the hides. I instructed him to skin the bears for rug mounts so I don?t know why he cut the rear feet off and both hides were so full of knife cuts/holes from skinning that they are both useless. In addition, he used a saw to cut the spine and rather than using a knife to cut at a vertebrae joint behind the skull, he sawed through the back of the skull ruining the skull mount. Clearly this butcher shop had no experience butchering bear. I called the butcher to vent my frustration and he apologized but offered no satisfaction and stated that the feet were included in the box with the hides (as if that were some sort of consolation)

On the up side, both hides were to go to a nephew who is a fledgling taxidermist in training and the hides were going to him so he could practice since I already have bear on the wall and bear skull so I did not intend to mount them for myself but that is beside the point. This butcher clearly had no business processing bear.

Currently Im cleaning/whitening the skulls. Here are the hides with the feet positioned so at least a picture could be taken.

Rancid Crabtree:
I have not missed an archery deer opening day in a long time but because I have two bear to deal with I had no choice. Friday night, the meat was thawed enough to work with so I began cutting and trimming. I also began the process of doing Euro mounts on both skulls as well as salting the smaller (truck killed) bear skin. The other skin is in the freezer for my Nephew.

On Saturday I completed the cutting and wrapping of the meat. I kept the lions share for sausage making but saved some roasts, steaks, loins as well as cubed meat for stews and chili. Later on I will make snack stick and perhaps summer sausage.



I got all the meat off the skulls and applied 40 volume whitener and the skulls will now sit for a few days until I rinse them.



Then I turned my attention to the small hide. Im thinking of tanning it myself and perhaps making a quiver or hat or gloves so I cut off the remaining front feet and the head. (I will harvest the claws at a later date so the feet went to the freezer) The hide sat salted for 24 hours then I rinsed it and fleshed it out. I use a piece of PVC as a fleshing beam.





Here is the hide after all the flesh and fat and membrane are removed. The prime areas of the hide really stand out (dark blue area)



Then I salted it again.



Tomorrow I will rinse off the salt and twice bathe the hide in hot water with Dawn dish soap to degrease it and then rinse and hang it.

Rancid Crabtree:
6 Days since the hunt and I got both skulls cleaned and the first whitening completed. The hide is still under salt.

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