My bear rug is finally done!!!

[lovebigbluegills]

I'll get some pictures of it and put on here, as well as some trail camera pictures of it. I shot her during the 2007 season, and she was a 425 lb chocolate. I didn't realize she was chocolate until she was on the floor at the taxidermists, as I'd only seen her in low-light conditions. More story to follow with the pictures.

[lovebigbluegills]

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg459/lovebigbluegills/Bearrug1.jpg

http://i543.photobucket.com/albums/gg459/lovebigbluegills/Bearrug2.jpg

There she is--she is 69 inches from the tip of the nose to the tail and was 425 lbs. There was a little more than 4 inches of fat on her back when I butchered her.

The really neat thing is I shot her about 400 yards from my house. I was born and raised here and hunted all but 8 years of my life here (while I was in the service). After my dad died I moved out here (been here since 2004). This was the first bear I'd ever seen within 10 miles of my house.

My neighbors were out cutting wood out of some piles of tops left from logging the mature poplars out, and saw her cross a meadow. That's when I started baiting her. I saw her a number of different nights from my stand, but it was after shooting time. The last day of season she came out about 45 minutes before the end of shooting, and that was it.

[lovebigbluegills]

[kr8r.tom]

he's nice, i always wanted a brown phase bear. he's got good long hair and dosen't looked to have been rubbed at all.

[picksbigwagon]

Well Hot snot, that is one fine looking rug............

[lovebigbluegills]

Hot snot????

[picksbigwagon]

I think I heard it one of my kids movies. used instead of "Hot (water retion device used on rivers to create man made lake impoundments, followed by the letter "N")"

[lovebigbluegills]

Gotcha...thanks for the compliments, I'm glad it turned out as well as it did.

I've got a question for the fellow bear hunters out there--Do any of you do anything with the meat besides make sausage with it?

The reason I ask that, is because I'm not a huge fan of most types of sausage, and would rather have steaks, roasts, etc. While butchering, the only meat I could find that didn't have fat "marbled" into it was a couple different muscles in the hind quarters (two of which were cut into steaks-YUMMY!!! and the other two I made as roasts, and they were fantastic too). Even the backstraps were intertwined with fat. Is the intertwined fat just as "gamey" as the fat trimmed off the outside?

The majority of the meat, I ground with a little pork and made pepper sticks which were great for passing around at get-togethers, ice-fishing, etc.

[DonBo]

I've had the whole hind quarter smoked. Like ham, only MUCH better! Slow heated over charcoal, maybe the best meat I've ever had.

[lovebigbluegills]

Interesting...if I'm fortunate enough to shoot another bear, I'll definitely have to try that.

[mrklean]

great looking rug, what does it cost to get a rug like that done?

[lovebigbluegills]

Thank you, it was $600

[Boar]

Hey lbbg, I usually take what roast I can, incredable in my mind, I like to take some steaks, stew meat, an ground the rest into hamberger, I dont like to put bear meat into sausage, a waste of time an money, it's good, yea but I'll take all of the abouve before ever considering putting it into sausage. The hambergers on the grill are awsome, boar

[lovebigbluegills]

Boar,

Does the "marbled or intertwined" fat have the gamey taste similar to improperly butchered venison? Or does it make the steaks/roasts better like beef marbling?

I too would prefer more roasts, steaks, burger as opposed to sausage. Did you grind any pork in with your burger? Or straight bear?

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

jerky jerky jerky so good

[LOTWSvirgin]

She is a pretty bear

[Random guy]

Nice rug. Some guys make the face look like a mankiller out of some nightmare, that one is perfect.