well this is my first bear here in state and wowww what a trip. little black [ 200 lbs ] shot him with my handloaded 338wm. loaded with 250 gr horn spitzer bullets, 60 gr imr-4831, mag primer, rem cases == around 2300 -- 2400 fps.
this bear was shot at around 230 yds and ran off into the brush. went in after him and finished him at 35 yds after a hair raising stalk thru tight brush. finishing him thru the neck and lights out.....fun fun fun!!
after hangint the meat for 5 days, cooked some with mushroom gravy and yummmmm. blue berry bear is the best ive ever had.
cant wait to recieve the next oppertunity to bag another of these tasty morsels.
anybody tryed to cook grizz?? im a little hesitant to kill something i wont eat. ive heard both that they are not good dog food and also they are edible if cooked rite. any suggestions? we have a few around here and id love to try them but dont want to waist the meat.
ted

Great job I have found bears in the 100 to 200lb range to be very tasty.Pictures please

sorry...no pictures. i have some but they are in my phone and i havnt gotten a patch cord to download them into my computer yet.

just got back from a short moose hunt and bingo...little spike. this is my year i think.

ill get the pic's downloaded soon and will post a couple on here.

this 338 is wonderfull...i can touch three bullet holes at 100 yds with it and my handloads. it wears a ruger overmolded stock which takes the bite outta the rifle.

thanx
ted

Hello Ted:

Congratulations on your bear. A few years back I took my daughter caribou/black bear hunting east of Aniak. She tagged a nice bear the second day that had blueberries in its intake and blueberries in its tailpipe when we dressed it out.

Because it was so hot, (mid-August) and there wasn't convenient snow in which to store it, the four people in our party ended up eating most of the bear before we flew out. I've never had better wild game than that.

Dave Manson

The Aleuts where I hunted Brown Bear at Cold Bay Alaska think different from folks in the lower 48 and you, when you state "don't want to waste the meat". They said that the Bears were the top of the food chain, to remove them from the chain would disrupt it. If the body of the Bear were left the other Bears would feed off it and the food chain would be maintained. In that area they also said that the Bears were reincarnated, if you ate the Bear meat you would kill the soul of your dead grandfather. They were real serious about this. They said when outsiders (meaning white men) removed the flesh of animals from that environment, they were upsetting the food chain. I asked where outsiders fit in up there, they stated (with an animated smirk) that on occasion one should be left for the animals to feed on, thus maintaining the food chain. Now, who is doing the wasting. Good shooting.

phurley5,
thats interesting. i have lived in and around these native people for 10 years now and iv never heard of such stuff. these great people i know believe that a wasted animal that is not used for its intended purpose [ feeding and perserving life ] is a sin and that the spirit people will curse the person who kills and wastes an animal that was "provided" for the continuing of life. these people also guard their elders and provide them food and winter warmth to make their elderly life as comfortable as possible.

im glad i dont co-exist with the people that you describe. i live in the bush about 30 miles north of fairbanks and would rue the day that i had to live with and around the very people that are raping and just taking from this great land that is provided us for the life we so enjoy.

try coming up for a potlash with a village and just observe the family and care that these people observe.
ted

ted ----- You miss my point, the Aleuts looked at it as if they were another animal in their part of the world. They felt like they were a part of that food chain, it was the white hunter that was the intruder, that came to hunt and removed animals from the native land. The Aleuts also felt like they were the chosen people. I am sure the natives you live with feel the same way. Ask them what they know of the Aleuts, who were persecuted and killed by Russians, before the Americans became the owners. You state the purpose of the animals is to feed and perserve life. They beleave that is true for the natives and animals, of which they are a small part. Good shooting.

maybe i did missunderstand. im very protective of the natural way of life iv learned from these great newfound brothers and their way of life.
interesting fact; the natives here until recent, did not get along at all. they were at constant war with each other and the only thing that stopped this was the influx of white men. the native ways are slightly different from each other.
the money and white ways have diluted the natural way that has been for eons. the central and northern people have been trying to deal with the money and alchohol and are losing the battle. its hard for them to pass up a 6000.00 hunt for a white man for a grizzly or a moose. this goes against the way they have treated nature for millenia.
ho hum...ill get down off my soap box and thank you for a chance to spout off a little.

i also have recieved a small moose again this year for table fare. so along with the bear [ 1 of three we can get a year ] we will eat very well again this winter.

good hunting to you and good luck

ted

Caution:
Be careful if your going to eat ANY bear in Alaska. The Ak. Dept of Fish and Game Biologist figure that most, if not all bears in Ak. have trichinosis. If you are going to eat bears, be sure to cook them well done. You need to kill all the little trichinosis worms in the meat. If they are not killed, they will get in every joint in your body and cause severe pain.
I would eat my Danners before I would eat bears.
Ask your newfound brothers how many villages get trichinosis from eating bears in the spring.
Enjoy your bear meat.

quote:

Originally posted by ted fries:
i live in the bush about 30 miles north of fairbanks

Uh,..........."The Bush," doesn't occur 30 miles north of Fairbanks. "The Suburbs" occur 30 miles north of Fairbanks. "The Bush," is a fair piece off the road system, not "Outta City Limits,".

Additionally, try and eat a coastal brown bear and get back to us. If you tell us you do anything other than gag at the smell/ flavor you're full of it. Years of eating dead, rotten washed up on the beach salmon makes these coastal bears un edible.

I got another one last week, (hunting report soon to follow,) and other than the hide and skull we left the whole thing where it laid to rest. Same as we'd do with a wolf or coyote or squirrel.

I'm going to take a great big PASS! on the "Look at what a great steward of the land I am," routine.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott King:

quote:

Originally posted by ted fries:
i live in the bush about 30 miles north of fairbanks

Uh,..........."The Bush," doesn't occur 30 miles north of Fairbanks. "The Suburbs" occur 30 miles north of Fairbanks. "The Bush," is a fair piece off the road system, not "Outta City Limits,".


Additionally, try and eat a coastal brown bear and get back to us. If you tell us you do anything other than gag at the smell/ flavor you're full of it. Years of eating dead, rotten washed up on the beach salmon makes these coastal bears un edible.

I got another one last week, (hunting report soon to follow,) and other than the hide and skull we left the whole thing where it laid to rest. Same as we'd do with a wolf or coyote or squirrel.

I'm going to take a great big PASS! on the "Look at what a great steward of the land I am," routine.

Too f&*^king funny. Scott, well stated.

Lou

well i stand corrected i reckon!! thanks for setting me straight on where and how i live.

i guess that in the subs you folks live without electricity and haul your own water in and outta your cabin , as we do. i further suppose that in the sub's they dont plow our 6 - 8 feet of accumulated snow all 8 mounths of the year either.

i may live closer then most " bush people " but i challenge you city dwellers to come live 10 years like we do and not be offended by the ignorance ive read here lately...especially from someone that dosnt know beans about what they talk about.

about the bear meat...thanks for the heads up and i will watch the cooking of it so as not to contract these little bugs.

ted

quote:

Originally posted by ted fries:
well i stand corrected i reckon!! thanks for setting me straight on where and how i live.

i guess that in the subs you folks live without electricity and haul your own water in and outta your cabin , as we do. i further suppose that in the sub's they dont plow our 6 - 8 feet of accumulated snow all 8 mounths of the year either.

i may live closer then most " bush people " but i challenge you city dwellers to come live 10 years like we do and not be offended by the ignorance ive read here lately...especially from someone that dosnt know beans about what they talk about.

about the bear meat...thanks for the heads up and i will watch the cooking of it so as not to contract these little bugs. ted

Ted, that's definitely roughing it like Grizzly Adams, but nonetheless, Wal Mart, Mc Donalds, movies, Krispy Kream, and all the other modern amenities are still within 30 miles. That's a 1/2 hour ride on a snow machine or car. You can do that in any state in the union, even most counties - the Uni Bomber did. When you have to take a skiff or fly 100 miles in a cub or Cessna to a small airport, then fly Pen Air for another 400+ miles to get to those amenities, you live in the bush. Yes, there are those folks out here that still crap in a five-gallon bucket, but most of us choose not to. That's a pleasure we save for hunting camp.

Here is Wikipedia's definition of Bush:

The Bush is a term for the portion of Alaska that are not connected by North America's interconnected system of roadways.

The vast majority of Alaska's geography is located in the Bush, but the majority of the population lives in or near the two main urban areas of Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Most Alaskans refer to any place besides Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and the towns of the Kenai Peninsula and Mat-Su boroughs as falling within the Bush.

Although the Bush in Alaska is generally described as any community not "on the road system," there are distinctions within how different parts of the state define this term. Residents of remote Eskimo villages, for instance, do not consider communities connected by the Alaska State Marine Highway ferries as properly part of the Bush. Also, Juneau is not connected to the road system and yet is not referred to as part of "the bush".

Most parts of Alaska that are off the road system can only be reached by small airplane, and travel from place to place is typically accomplished through alternative means of transportation such as snowmobile or snowmachine, boat, or dog sled.

In addition, Alaska has a further distinction that divides Bush communities into two further subcategories of "hub communities", and "villages".

Nevertheless, you're living your dream. My hat's off to you.

For mild amusement and clarification, Dillingham is in south west Alaska on Bristol Bay, 300 something miles from Anchorage the road system and the nearest Walmart. I believe Dillingham is considered a Bush community but perhaps it would be more appropriate to refer to some of the nearby villages like Manokotak or New Stuyahok as "Bush," Your challenge to the city dwellers I'm unsure of. Yes I do live in Dillingham city limits. I am a city dweller. I have met other bush residents living within city limits in communities like Marshall, Kaktovik and Togiak that would belly laugh at your lack of "bean knowledge,"

Living without electricity 30 miles from Fairbanks could well mean you don't pay your bill. (On the other hand if your chosen method of living is so primitive rustic, why does your internet access seem so available?) Hauling water may be a result of not paying for a well to be constructed. Plowing snow? I dunno what to tell you. Most of Alaska gets snow and most Alaskans plow their fair share. Even in Bristol Bay.

Hey look, I think its great you got a nice little bear and bull. All will certainly eat well this season. Lets call a spade a spade. 30 miles from Fairbanks isn't "Bush" by anyones definition. Additionally, Native Alaskans are certainly no more or less careful with wildlife and their management than any other ethnic group. Before you call BS look up the story on the North Slope fellows that shot and wasted better than 100 caribou or the Kohokanok boys that shot and left a bunch of brown bears. Sure, great, I have no doubt, the native Alaskans that are in your homeowners association are exemplary wildlife stewards. There are some right here in Dillingham too. If you keep your head well buries in the tundra you can continue to believe that is a cultural phenomenon.

Livengood,AK has a good bear population to include cinnamon color phase.
Berry fed bear meat is the best red meat there is.
Seperate each muscle group,fillet silver skin,butterfly,baste with butter-
Throw it on the barby!

Harvested bear carcasses that have been feeding on fish/salmon need to be left for the dumpster ducks/eagles.

Trichinosis can be contracted from PORK as well.

wowww guess i stepped in it huh??? well i am having fun and if i deflowered someones sense of "bush living" or stepped into a hurt feeling, well i guess i should opoligize. so there is your " im sorry "

usually this is a great read for most things and i spose i wont soon be sharing my beliefs with anyone here about home and how i choose to live. no i dont have a late electric payment ...if only the choice were mine. i choose to live the way i do and my family and neighbors live the same. yes we have fun and we work together but i guess im letting myself in for some more ruffling here so i will stop and just conclude that if i want the sharing of my favorite sport...shooting and hunting...this should be fairly safe to do so. however if even this comes under fire for something i may say...well ill have to go somewhere else for entertainment...its still my gas i run for electricity and i should be privlidged to read what puts a smile on my face without fear of offending someone......

thanks for the education and believe me...im learning!!!

fellas: did anyone notice this thread was originally about a chap who got his first bear in Alaska?? a bunch of shrill shouting later and folks are arguing about what's considered living in the bush and what isn't.

i wanna more about this hunt.

good on ya, bear slayer!

My daddy can beat up your daddy, my bikes faster then yours, my dogs bigger then yours.

THAT'S WHAT YOU BOYS SOUND LIKE.

Glad you got your moose and bear.

Take care from the wilds of ANC.

By the way I just got back from Somalia does that mean I was in the bush.

Congrats on the moose and bear. Haven't got mine yet. Perhaps in December. Sorry about the diversion.

I want to see the pictures of the bear from your phone! find that connector. Remember I have to live vicariously through all you hunting posters I am holding my 2 month old daughter while i type and wondering if I will be able to get out for a day or two to hunt this year. Keep sending in the stories and photos.

and try to keep the cheap shots to a minimum.

Tim

slimtim,

i'm holding a 2 month old daughter too! Congrats! I'm in Boothbay Harbor how bout you??

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Scott King:
Living without electricity 30 miles from Fairbanks could well mean you don't pay your bill. [QUOTE]

jsl3170,

PM Sent

Tim