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Booshway
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Well fellas, I'm back from the mountains of western Maryland early, all done the bear hunt! Success!!

My pal and co-permitte Mike 'Snake' Snyder and I had a blast, saw a couple bears and only spent one day actually hunting. I ended up shooting a bear with my .58 flintlock the first evening, on public land, on the ground, at only 10 yards! She looked big as a barrell with feet waddling through the woods, came on a line straight to me. If I hadn't have shot she would have walked over me! That .58 roundball didn't agree with her though, as at the shot she fell on the spot, kicked and grunted a few times and was done. She looked huge, we were actually surprised it was a sow and not a boar when we flipped her over. At the check station the next morning she weighed 300lbs dressed, and they estimated the live weight at 354lbs.

I was very thankful that evening that we had actually been hunting a quick backup spot 150 yards from the road due to other hunters at the main spot we'd been hunting all day nearly two miles back into public State Forest. It was all Snake and I could do to get her to the truck from where she fell. I had taken my wheeled deer cart along for the hunt, and it was a big help, but even it gave up before we got her out - just as we reached the edge of the woods one of the wheels snapped in half and fell off. I can't believe how long we'd have been cutting, quartering and packing if I'd have shot it two miles deep. Ughhh.

We got two five gallon buckets of fat off her, it was 2" thick in spots. Going to try rendering down for some bear oil. Plenty of steaks, roasts and sausage coming too.

More excitement for this hunt than I can even begin to tell. Talking to the bear biologists over the past few years, we believe this is the first flintlock killed bear in the modern hunt in Maryland, which began in 2004 after a 50 year absence.

I'll post some pics when I get to town...
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Good going! Congratulations!


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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WELL DONE !!!

Big Grin

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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Congrats!! Great job!
 
Posts: 101 | Location: Davidsville , PA | Registered: 10 August 2016Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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You did a great job, Osprey.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Here's the pic!!
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Congratulations Osprey. Can you quarter your bear in MD? Here in PA outside of gutting it, you have to bring it to the check station whole. I guess the PA game dep't. must have a deal with some hernia docs.
 
Posts: 353 | Location: Pocono Mts. in PA | Registered: 12 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Yes, we can quarter but must leave proof of sex attached to one of the hind quarters. If we had been any farther in that was the plan, but it would have taken even longer.
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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FAR OUT!!!!(not really,snicker) Glad you didn't have to drag her very far.Can't say that I've ever had bear meat,but I've heard it's good if you get it in the Fall...


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Graybeard
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Congratulations! That's a nice bear!


Experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce.
Osborne Russell Journal of a Trapper
 
Posts: 212 | Location: SW Montana | Registered: 17 December 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Hmm,I guess you're gonna have to get a bigger cart too.... Wink


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Free Trapper
Picture of TurkeyCreek
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Congratulations Osprey! I salute you sir for that fine bear! Sounds like you had a great and memorable hunt.


"They do not live their lives 'by your leave'! They hack it out of the wilderness with their own two hands, bearing their children along the way!" - Cora Monroe - "Last Of The Mohicans"
 
Posts: 186 | Location: Turkey Creek on Cimarron Drainage | Registered: 10 September 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Idaho Mountainneer
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Congrats. Sounds like good times.
 
Posts: 330 | Location: Twin Falls ID | Registered: 29 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of wattlebuster
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Congrats to ya. Oh my at the bear oil/grease. Those who have bear in their hunting grounds do not know how lucky they are.


Nothing beats the feel of a handmade southern iron mounted flintlock on a crisp frosty morning
 
Posts: 354 | Location: Heart of DIXIE | Registered: 18 November 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Working on the fat today. Butcher kept a 5 gallon bucket to make lard with to try, gave 6lbs to a lady that makes soap (be neat to see how that turns out) and I still had a 7 gallon bucket left. So far I've got 8 quarts of bear oil in mason jars and still cooking...
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Bear soap,eh? Sounds intriguing....


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Ended up with 14 quart mason jars, had a bit more fat but ran out of jars to put it in!
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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One of the guys in our gunmaking group took some of the bear lard for baking, and last night he brought in two apple pies he made using the bear lard for the pie crust. Oh my, that is good! I've never been much of a crust guy on pies, but I couldn't get enough of that! He definitely gets another jar...

Smiler
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Oh yeah,gotta encourage cooks!


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Not much else going on now, so thought I'd stoke the fire with a bear update. Almost done all my share of the bear meat, only a pack of stew meat and one pack of chops left of my half. It was awesome, I definitely have a grand appreciation of good bear meat now.

Skull is back from being cleaned, it measured out at 17 7/8", only an 1/8" short of longhunter. Oh well, sow skulls are always smaller, that's how it goes.

Got my rug back awhile ago, it's gorgeous. Big, too! I'm 6'1" and with the head draped over my noggin it almost drags the floor behind me.

Made several necklaces from the big back claws. One for me, one for my pal Snake that hunted with me, and one for my 11 year old neice - who bugged me relentlessly until she got one! She's had a blast wearing that to school and ballet class. Big Grin Kid can scarf down some bear meat, too!

Got two shoe boxes full of soap from the lady. One was cedarwood scent, other was a mix of cedar and fruit scents. Gave some as shoot prizes at a muzzleloader match, some to my co-hunter and am still using the rest of it. Really good stuff.

Got the aging results back from the bear just last week, the tooth they sent off at DNR showed her to be 10 years old!

Still using the lard. It works really good for patch lube in some of my rifles, but in a couple it makes the patch/ball combo too slick. Sprays shots all over the target like it's too slippery to grab the rifling in the barrel! Probably would tighten up with thicker patching, but the same patching shoots great with spit on it. Interesting to see the difference. Does seem to load easier and is much easier to clean afterwards than any other lube I've tried.

C'mon August, I'm ready to apply and hope for a tag again this year!!! Smiler
 
Posts: 429 | Location: Delmarva | Registered: 22 December 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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