Got my bear after 5 years!!!!

[allan f]

So it finally happened yesterday.  I got my bear! I am going to try to post a picture of the bait site first and if that works I will get a story together for you guys.

 

[mancole5]

Conrats!!! Bring on the story!

[luv2bowhunt]

Bring on the story bud!!! Congrats  

Kevin.

[Guru]

[robtattoo]

       

[Tim Fishell]

That is awesome!!  Cant wait for the details and more pics!          

[Over&Under]

     

Congrats!!!!  Looking forward to the story.

[Sharpster]

Excellent!!!    

waiting, waiting, waiting..  

Ron

[jimmerc]

[maineac]

Good job. Way to persevere.

[allan f]

All right so that seemed to work....a lot of firsts for me.  First time killing a bear first time posting pictures.  So in the picture above you can see the trees on the right with the bait barrel going left you see two very skinny trees about a foot apart This is where I put the real goodies of the day to get a 15 yard shot.  Going further left you see a bare dead evergreen, the big trees to the left of that is my stand. Here is a view of my stand from the bait.

 

You can just see my stand above the light green bush on the left side of the picture.....hard to see but thats the idea right? Here is a view of the site from the stand itself.

 

Pink bucket is where I got the shot  14 paces from the bottom of my tree.

Heres another photo on another occasion (a few days before my bear) I have pruned some stuff back to get better shots.

 

[allan f]

Now a lot of you guys here know that I had a bad hit on a bear two weeks ago and I spent a lot of time and miles trying to recover it.  Since then with help from a lot of you guys here I think I got a non-fatal hit on the bear and he will be fine.  The reason that I bring it up is that I have a hunting partner who is letting me hunt this land. He is a rifle hunter with no real experience of the bow let alone the recurve. We have never killed anything together so when I got a bad hit on a really good bear our first time trying to recover something together, he was pretty doubtful at my skill and choice of weapon.

We had a coupe of good talks and I did some shooting in the backyard showing him that I could shoot and be accurate.  I took full responsibility for the bad, but he gave me the green light to go again.

Since that time I have had opportunities on three bears at 15 yards but I didn't take the shot. I wasn't going to accept anything but THE PERFECT KILL.  Not to say that isn't what I want all the time, but this time I was really picky, I wanted my partner to se that the Tradbow can be a great weapon.

Like I said there were some bears around.

 

[allan f]

We decided to meet at the bait and 6am.  I snuck in and by the time I was in my tree I had seen a big bear down the valley testing the wind.  I quickly got ready and with in 6 minutes another average size bear was coming into the bait ( the one I would shoot later).  She came in slow and looked around.....me too, since my partner was going to be showing up any second    

One minute later she heard a stick crack and slid into the side hill. A bit of a smaller bear came in and followed her up the hill. My guess is a little male trying for some love.  Just as the bears disappeared my partner came walking in. I signalled that there were 3 bears around and two in the area just under his treestand......he signalled back some profanity      

We waited 1 hr ( I knew she was dead but thems the rules!)

I walked the blood trail which was very bright red and plentiful, and this was what I found.

IMG]http://i574.photobucket.com/albums/ss185/drfradsham/IMG_1712.jpg[/IMG]

She was flat on her back.  She died quick and close, I was pleased as punch.

Now heres the fun part.  Remember how my friend wasn't sure about the bow and its accuracy.  He took the shot with the rifle and hit her front leg.  Nothing fatal it was absolutley the arrow that killed her fast and well.  He was very impressed.  I am really happy about that, I think I have him firmly believing the bow is a great hunting weapon.

  He kept saying to me "I will never forget the sound of the soft thud of the bow and the thunk if the arrow as it went through"

[allan f]

So here it is, a couple of photos and my thanks to all of the help and advice I have gotten here at "The Gang"  I couldn't have done it without you guys!

 

 

 

[allan f]

I like this one!  One missing arrow in the quiver and the bear.

 

 

I like this one too, you can see the broken arrow in the quiver.


So that's the story.  Autopsy report confirmed that a double lung   hit was the cause of death.

My buddy apologized  for shooting him, I couldn't blame him, and alls well.  The hide is okay we didn't lose any meat and I think next time he will hold back.

Having said all that we skinned him out and I salted the hide and put him in the freezer.  So next up is doing the rug myself....any tips here would be appreciated.

My gear was a 59# Chekmate Hunter T/D  I was using Carbon Express 250's cut to 29" with hardwood internal footing tapered in the first 7 inches.  I had 100 grain brass inserts and was shooting single bevel Tusker Concordes with  100 grain steel inserts.  Total arrow weight 740 grians.

I am happy with this set up but the broad head bent ....tough to say if it was inside the animal or when she rolled on it after it blew through her....any thoughts?

So there it is my first bear and all went well and I am proud as anything

Thanks again guys your support and advice have been priceless.

Allan

[leatherneck]

Awesome! Thanks for taking us along.

[jeff w]

Congratulations, and well done on the photos and story!

[Irish Archer]

Congrats on your bear! Nice one. You may want to check on trying to freeze a hide after you have salted it. Seems like I've heard of someone losing a hide because the salt kept the hide from freezing. Can't swear to it, but I think so. Again, CONGRATS!  

[caleb7mm]

freeze it first. And don't freeze it rolled up, fold it like a blanket. It helps heat escape while cooling. You will have less of a chance of slippage that way.

As far as preparing it for tanning, pm me when you are ready if you have any questions.

And by the way, NICE BEAR!!  

[JimB]

Very nice.Congratulations.

I will tell you,you definitely should not freeze a hide after salting unless it is dried first.You also should not salt a hide until the feet and toes are completely skinned out,the eyelids,lips and nose are split and the ears turned inside out,as well as the flesh and fat needs to be removed from the entire hide.

Until these details are done,the salt can't reach the inside of the skin in these areas and so,can't do it's job.

Once it is properly fleshed,salted and dried,there is no need for freezing.

You may have already done all those things.I couldn't tell from your post.If you didn't,I would urge you to get it to a professional as soon as possible and have him flesh and re-salt it.It would be money well spent.

Irish Archer is right,if it was salted and put in the freezer fresh,you stand a good chance of losing the hide after a period of time.

Once everything