Bear

Chris

Well-Known Member
Nice bear Chris and nice shot. I'm also admiring the length of the fur on that bear. It looks exceptional for a fall bear. Any one of the claws would pay for the lost brass also. Can you legally sell bear claws in NY?
Thanks Rally, the shot was not difficult just walking toward me at 50 yards. I had been tracking it. It was meandering all over, not straight lining it as they will do, so I knew it was right there. It zigged so I zagged, and it looped right back on its track. Might have had a den nearby, no chance to look.

I will look into it the matter of parts sale. I know they buy bear gallbladders so maybe. I will make a call to DEC and a taxidermist, I'll let you know as a matter of professional interest.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Good morning and Congratulations !!! Nothing wrong with that caliber or cast slug.
That is a fine looking Blackie ! Thanks to God for sending it along and good hearted "Brothers" who will help ya with the real work.
No one have a ATV that can cut down some of those steps ? No tractors ?

Brass... I hear your desire to find that case.. I feel bad loosing any brass that works well. When does the snow melt up there... it will still be there. Just drive a limb into the dirt and flag it.

Thank you and I agree with you. A blessing.

This on state wilderness land so no motor vehicles permitted, and it is pretty rough and basically inaccessible. Got to do it the old fashioned way.

Map attached. Bear is where the hourglass is. Road is 2.5 miles west.


fingers map.jpg
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Looks like it will be mostly down hill to the road... That will help some.

It is mostly downhill. In the past I have carried venison up over the top and to the other road, but I'm older and smarter now. Downhill is good.

We finally hit the road at 7:30 PM, so 3 hours mostly in the dark. Cut it up and carried, but my old frame pack gave up the ghost and I used a spare built along the line of what you give cub scouts. Painful experience carrying that. I'm a little lame.

Anyway, made it out ok with 65-70 pounds of meat and another adventure with my son! Just getting ready to pack up pic. Hindquarters lay left of the hide, not yet tied on. Had to leave the hide hang but I can grab it soon when I'm hunting back there. It's cold enough to preserve it.
IMG_8326.jpg
 

John

Active Member
It is a lot of work but equaled in the satisfaction of a successful hunt. You should look back on this with fond memories.
 

Kevin Stenberg

Well-Known Member
Chris I have no experience with bear. Are they usually out and about when there is snow on the ground? You said that you had been tracking it. So they must be.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Chris I have no experience with bear. Are they usually out and about when there is snow on the ground? You said that you had been tracking it. So they must be.

My experience is that boars tend to go to ground later than sows. Sows with cubs make dens earlier and they are usually filled with leaves to make a nice bed.

To the point, I will see bear foraging late like this when it has been warm, as this year. Also there are beechnuts and I imagine that is a big draw to keeping the bear out.

This bear was a sow, but appeared to have no young. I'm thinking she has a den nearby and was working out of it. I will send a pre-molar to the DEC, they age the bear and inform as to age.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Where was this Chris? Topo looks like that range off 28N...Burnt Mountain maybe? My memory is foggy. I know that rifle, remember when you got it. Still the same pants and coat too! But I don't see the beard? Matt shot a small bear some years back with that 250 Savage Ruger 77 I got from Bruce. 100 gr partition does the job! Couldn't manage to save that hide. It "slipped", I think that's the right word. Too warm by far and I had to work out of town.

Bear are moving in up here. You'd think they were zombie apocalypse bears the way some folks react. If those bear ever figure out what in those 50 yard long silage bags there's going to be a lot of angry farmers up here.

Good job, hope you find the brass!

Yeah, this is in NYS where you can't use the land unless you're on foot. I could launch into a long diatribe on the fundamental stupidity of that and NYS in general, but I won't subject the fine folks here to such blather. Suffice it to say I'm agin' it!
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Where was this Chris? Topo looks like that range off 28N...Burnt Mountain maybe? My memory is foggy. I know that rifle, remember when you got it. Still the same pants and coat too! But I don't see the beard? Matt shot a small bear some years back with that 250 Savage Ruger 77 I got from Bruce. 100 gr partition does the job! Couldn't manage to save that hide. It "slipped", I think that's the right word. Too warm by far and I had to work out of town.

Bear are moving in up here. You'd think they were zombie apocalypse bears the way some folks react. If those bear ever figure out what in those 50 yard long silage bags there's going to be a lot of angry farmers up here.

Good job, hope you find the brass!

Yeah, this is in NYS where you can't use the land unless you're on foot. I could launch into a long diatribe on the fundamental stupidity of that and NYS in general, but I won't subject the fine folks here to such blather. Suffice it to say I'm agin' it!

That is the valley along East Inlet Brook that runs into South Pond. You would see the valley if you looked left on your way to Indian Lake maybe a mile after Deerland corner. That is sort of the core of country I hunt.

No beard because that is not me... that is Caleb who volunteered to help me carry. He also hunts back there, that area has fed this family for many years. Yeah, same traditional hunting clothes too. Dunno why, I just like wool and so that's what we wear. Makes me look like an old fart... wait, I am an old fart!

Trying to see if I can find any interest in the hide, hate to waste it. Couple folks want it but nobody is willing to walk back and help carry.

You get your firewood in... ready for winter?
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Caleb?!! Well, I guess that explains why I was thinking, "Gee, I wouldn't have recognized Chris at all!" Of course it has been almost 25 years since I saw Caleb or you.

Not ready for winter at all. Nothing new there.

That country you're hunting always looked "bucky" to me, the kind of place I'd expect to see big bucks, bear, etc. I don't know if I ever told you back in the day, but I saw a mountain lion on that old landing on the east side of the road about 1/2 mile north of the DOT site by the bridge over..... Salmon river maybe? Never said a word to anyone as I thought they'd think me either crazy or a liar. No doubt of what it was and that maybe 3 air miles from where you're hunting.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Bret, I saw two cougars at about the same time, there were many sightings locally even local forest rangers were seeing them or tracks. There was a female with two kittens wintering at Upper Saranac Lake, showed up to beaver carcasses steady.

Now here is something I have never talked about: I spoke with a senior wildlife biologist at DEC headquarters... we knew each other through work and the topic came up in a natural way after we were done with work stuff. He said that they were under orders to deny cougar presence despite the reports. You know how that outfit is. However, this is interesting: he said they had been compiling records and DNA evidence from a suyrprising number of dead cougars (hunters, roadkills), I want to say 20-30. Apparently the DNA testing resolved to Central American stock, not western USA... and the hypothesis was that someone was deliberately stocking them. Make what you will of that, but that is what this guy said... but it was 20 years ago.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Wouldn't surprise me at all. The guy that ran the Lynx restocking program and moose tracking program out of Huntington in Newcomb has a place up here. The way he talks, anything and everything is good to go not matter what the outcome or cost.
 

Edward R Southgate

Component Hoarder Extraordiniare
Congratulations . Wish we had bears around here close . I got my dads old BLR .358 and his High Wall 38-55 and would love to put them both to use on bears but deer is as close as I got without traveling .

Eddie
 

pls1911

New Member
Brass.... uncommon brass has always put me off... in a woods situation I don't want the distraction of distress over a dropped or lost case.
I respect the fine rounds in Weatherby, H&H, Lapua, and such, but I've not found them to kill critters deader than common .30s ( 30-30, 308, 30/06) 35s 35 Rem, 358 Win, 35 Whelen), or 45/70, especially using cast bullets.
I ask myself, how often have I shot deer at 100 yards in over 50 years of hunting? Once.
Most of the time, I'm talking maybe 20-30 yards in the Texas hill country, but often less.
I think of it more as a sneak harvest than a hunt.
 

earlmck

Member
I'm hoping to get it to 2200. I like the looks of it though. Anybody shooting .35's, I could send you some to try if you are interested. My guess is .358 Win. and up, too heavy for .35 Rem?
It's not that it would be too heavy for the 35 Remington but the 35 Rem with the normal factory chamber has virtually no throat, so it would be really hard to chamber that baby if you seated to the crimp groove. I have one 35 Rem rifle that has been throated so it would handle that bullet, though it sure wouldn't get it to 2200 fps and stay in 35 Rem pressures. My other 35 Rems wouldn't like that at all unless seated well past the crimp groove.

I agree that it is a very nice looking bullet! And a fine looking Bear.
 

Chris

Well-Known Member
Earl, I lost my .35 Rem recently. My first deer rifle bought in 1970, jeez I don't know how many bucks I shot with it, also a few bear and some coyotes. I'm having withdrawl symptoms, always my favorite rifle. Shipped it to my daughter in MT who shot her first buck with it... sort of a sentimental thing, but she will hunt with it out there and that is good.

So I can't try this NOE bullet without a rifle, but I take your point about lack of throat. For me, this bullet is for the .358 Win. but I would love to see how it might shoot in the .35 Rem. You are almost certainly correct in your assessment, though.

Over the years I had the best luck loading 200 Rem Corelokts in the .35 Rem., they are now unavailable. The Hornady 200 RN are ok but a little unpredictable on deer... shouldn't be but they act funny. Blow up fast up close but don't expand well over 100 yards. Maybe I just had bad luck. Always wanted to try 220 jacketed and even the 180's, but too late now. Maybe I'll buy another, the older 336 with the 24" barrel always interested me. Or maybe a Rem. 141 pump, they are slick.

I used to shoot a lot of Lyman 358315, I think that is right, the rifle bullet that looks like a pistol bullet. Never could get it to shoot great but fine for practice. Unique or 4759. Unique was just easier as you might expect. I would always carry a few in the woods and occasionally used them as finishers on down bucks because I am cheap.