I'm not knocking you at all, nice job on recovering that bear and congrats.
Thank you. I didn’t think you were knocking me at all.
Bear stew is a favorite of mine!!! Bear fat isnt the same as deer fat. Its very useful and palateable if there eating "good stuff" if they are eating on the town dump... Well the fat tastes that way.
Stew sounds good. There is about forty or fifty pounds of good bear fat that I am going to render down into bear grease. This was a mountain bear, so no trash or salmon in it’s diet. I think it will be good tasting fat. I make tamales every year at Christmas, I always use pork lard to make the corn meal based masa dough. This year I will be using bear fat to make my tamales!
My shot elevation was good. I just wish I had put it 3” to 4” forward.
What I am so grateful for is that I got into the bear’s liver. I don’t think we would have found it had I been any farther back with the shot. Basically I got lucky.
I’ve been very critical of myself the last few days. I thought about not saying anything on here about the shot placement situation. But maybe someone will read this and learn that the “middle of the middle” is really a little to far back, especially when hunting with a rifle, where breaking shoulder bone isn’t so much of an issue. Also, that when bears twist around to look at you it can vastly change the location of their vitals in relation to shot placement.
It’s embarrassing to admit that I gut shot a bear “sort” of on purpose. My aim was good, shot placement choice wasn’t.
Speaking of aiming and shooting, I want to thank all the guys on this board for all the reloading advice I have gotten here. I wouldn’t have been able to have gotten in all the shooting practice that I did over the last few years had I not reloaded my own ammo. Especially this past summer when I was working up loads for the 7mm-08. I was able to shoot about 400 rounds through it this summer. It was amazing how fast I got into prone position, using my pack as a rest, and acquired the shot.
Here is a picture of the sunrise a few minutes before I lined up on the shot. My shot was off to the northwest in the other direction, so the sun wasn’t in my eyes.
Ok, now I have to go unpack the rest of the gear in the Suburban.