Today marks the opener of yet another Maine bear season. I got out of work early and was in my blind at about 3:15. For some reason it is unusually hot here, must of been close to 90 today. I did have a nice breeze blowing through my blind though;). for the first 3 1/2 hours I managed to see a mouse who came into my blind and left quickly when I raised my foot to step on him. A rabbit that came into the bait and cleaned up some crumbs. And a pesky, noisy, unwanted squirrel who I was really debating using my 7mm mag on;). I was kicked back in the blind and had just looked at my watch which said 6:58 and all of a sudden there was a bear in front of the bait, just like a ghost!! first thing I looked at was the nose and could of sworn this was a male, nose is so black. So shouldered the gun which was on steady stix and laced it. it looked like it was going down but managed to trot off. I waited for the "death" moan and heard nothing. Got a little worried then! I got out of the blind and looked over to the left where she had run and there was anther bear leaning against a tree. seemed really tall and I honestly thought it was my bear. I shouldered the gun but it ran off, then there was another one about 20ft in a tree. then it dawned on my they were with here but they were not the little fellas I have in all the pictures. they were over a year old and probably 50-70lbs, which brought a sigh of relief to me as I don't want to deprive those little fellas of their mother. All in all, this is a nice looking bear and has a great coat. It dressed at 148lbs and my oldest boy can't wait to cut it up tommorrow, partly because he thinks I am going to give him a knife;). Pretty sure mom will be keeping an eye out for that.

 
God Bless.

Well done David!!!!!

I had an Alaskan White Ale to help you celebrate.

RJ

Excellent David!  Congrats!!!

Wow, very nice David.   Here`s tipping  a tumbler of Makers Mark to ya!    JaDub

Glad I could give you guys a "reason" to crack a cold one:bandana:. I got some better pictures thought I would post them also. get a better look at the bear.
 
heres one at the tagging station!

 
right before we hung it up.

 
good closeup of the head.

 
God bless.

Good job eat a nice steak for me. I'd try to hunt bear here , but it takes 5 years to pull a tag. I just don't have that much patience.

WooHoo! Way to go! Beautiful bear!

150 dressed is a nice bear and about average around here. I'm interested in the skull dimensions, how far it ran, where you shot it, what bullet you used, what the wound channel was like, and what the disposition of the bullet is. I assume it was a complete pass-through.

Anyway, congratulations again. When I thought about how good the eating was going to be, my mouth started watering. I'm not joking!

Paul

Quote150 dressed is a nice bear and about average around here. I'm interested in the skull dimensions, how far it ran, where you shot it, what bullet you used, what the wound channel was like, and what the disposition of the bullet is. I assume it was a complete pass-through

Well now, I will see what I can answer here. I believe this to be an average bear here in these parts also, at least in 9 years of hunting them I have seen more this size than any other bear. Now, for the life of me, I cannot remember if this bear actually got turned around and facing the other direction before I got my gun up. It all want down pretty fast!!!! I do know this, I took her behind the shoulder, shredded the lung, and it came out behind the other shoulder. She looked like she was going to go down and I definitely knew she was hit, but she trotted off in the same direction she came from. She ran about 20 yards before keeling over and dying on the spot. Wound channel was a little smaller than a quarter on both the entrance and exit wound, which seemed really funny to me. Also, blood was minimal because some "organs" had came out one of the holes! The bullet I used was a hornady 162gr BTSP. I have used the 139gr and the 162gr. I just use the 162gr on everything since it has a little better BC than the 139gr. I have shot two bear with this bullet and it has done a good job. Last bear I shot with them it was still legal shooting time but it was pitch black in the woods and I hit about 8" back and 6" high from where I thought I was shooting and it still killed her fast. I thought about using a different bullet when I had a buddy load up about 100 handloads but just would not make sense to use something else when these were killing! As far as skull dimensions, not sure what I am going to do with the head yet. If I get it mounted I will get the skull and measure it and if I don't mount it, I will do the skull anyway, so stay tuned! I hope I answered that without rambling to much. God Bless.

QuoteI hope I answered that without rambling to much.

Probably less than I would have. :D

Sounds good.

WRT the 162 bullet: Tough to change what ain't broke.

Good stuff. Thanks,
Paul

Very nice! Bears are on my wifes "cute and fuzzy" list and are off limits unless they are chewing on me and even then I have my doubts. That's a really dark bear compared to what I've seen around here but it'll make a great rug.
 
Don't worry about rambling, it's only about 1/4 what Paul would have done. :D

Excellent!!!!...........That would make a beautiful rug.....Congratulations....BH51..

OUCH

Paul did that leave a mark?

QuoteThat's a really dark bear

the funny thing is that the closest canadian border to me is 15 min away. drive another half hour and hunt bear and you can see bears of all kinds of color, especially brown!

QuoteThat would make a beautiful rug.....

unfortunately, that would run around 1,000.00. pretty sure the wife might have a word or two to say about that one. But, she did give me the green light to check on a shoulder mount or having the hide tanned without the claws or head. It seems shoulder mounts have gone up since the last bear I had done and are around 400.00. My guy did quote me 70.00 on a tanning. I have been married long enough to know where I am going to go here. I don't have a pelt of any bear I have shot so I was leaning this way anyway! I will recover the skull when I get the pelt and I will bleach it. God Bless.

Cool bear David!

Nice Bear David, i don't think i could bring myself to shooting one though, too many childhood stories involving Bears maybe?, however, you blokes have been brought up hunting them and you reckon they taste great, so why not!.

You should get a few decent feeds off that one, that's for sure.