Spring Bear with 32 Win Special

[Markopolo]

Pucker up baby...


After processing oysters this morning....



And bagging them up, my son and I decided to take the new to us 1949 Marlin 32 Win Special out for a dance near a muskeg on Sarkar Lake for Bears. We try to take 3-4 Spring eater bears every year. I was shooting a mystery Boolit around 180g that 6pt-sika sent me a couple weeks ago over 16.5g of 2400. Boolits were prolly around 12bhn and gas checked. I shot these boolits last week and they really worked well for the new to me Marlin 336.

So off me and the son went on a trek to find a young bear for spring bear burgers.. we headed out off the canoe lake, for an afternoon hunt. We were out looking for about an hour, and started to backtrack when we saw a perfect candidate for our famous bear burgers... he turned broadside at just about 100 yards, and I let the Boolit fly. Bear leapt up into the air and completely flipped, landed and twisted around once and was dead. Gutted, dragged him back to the road, loaded him up and he hangs in my shop..

Special shout out to 6pt-sika for providing the boolits that made my 32 win special a bear killing machine... thank you sir.. first bear of the year.





Marko

[MT Gianni]

He should be the right size for good eating. Nice going.

[slownsteady22]

What a day, great hunt and story. Bear hunting is on my to do list. Thanks for sharing

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[Tripplebeards]

I am completely jealous!

[Bazoo]

Thanks for sharing, petty awesome. I've not taken a bear yet, but I hope to take many.

[Beerd]

"first bear of the year", I like the sound of that.
..

[Markopolo]

Usually try to get 3 or 4 young bears like this.. I never shoot the big ones.. and they get huge on the island. Lots of B&C bears come from Prince of Wales island. By taking the young eaters, the breeders stay breeding, and not so many young bears around causing trouble in the Neighborhood... and they are yummy. It works good for our tiny village.. each member of the household can harvest 5 between sport season and subsistence season. But lots of folks don’t eat them or hunt them. More for me... bear season is only closed for about 45 days a year here. I always keep a tag or 2 around in case a problem bear shows up while fishing or at the house.

Marko

[Bazoo]

Lots of folks don't eat them? Can't imagine not liking bear if it ain't been on fish or garbage.

[Markopolo]

Even if they been on fish, there are ways to fix that... best Brown Bear bacon I ever had was from a September killed on a salmon stream huge Brown Bear... takes special attention, but many parts are edible.

[Bazoo]

What if they been feeding on garbage? Any way to cook that out of them?

[dangitgriff]

Hey Marko—I don’t know a dang thing about eating bears, like is there any special way they have to be skinned/butchered, what parts are best prepared/cooked a certain way, etc...
Could you possibly start a separate thread when you have time to explain it all in more detail? I’m interested in learning, as we have just started hunting bears again here in Florida’s Ocala National Forest.
—Griff

[Markopolo]

Best way I know of to treat a bear that has been on fish, or garbage, is simple.. it’s like weight sorting 22 cal boolits. Simple, be Meticulous. Ultra meticulous. No fat, no gristle, no tendon of any sort can be included with the meat from a junk bear. Most folks don’t wanna go to the extreme to rescue a junker. But it is possible... the more white fat, tendon, or gristle, the worst it tastes. I don’t worry too much about a nice young bear... but if you wanna harvest a questionable bear, it requires incredible meticulous attention to the meat to make it edible. Clean kill, clean meat, meticulous detail makes for good eating.. I am lazy though. Young spring bear is automatically good eating.. good kill, good care, good bear = good burgers. Also good suet is a plus. I grind all my bear. I don’t even bother trying to do roasts and so on.. I have one purpose in mind.. bear burgers smothered in Bacon and onions on home made bread is the only way for me... and a fat bear is a total bonus. Baking, tallow, bullet lube... all good stuff.

[richhodg66]

I'm a fan of the .32 Special. Few years ago, happened upon one in a pawn shop that needed rescuing. This after I had sworn not to buy anything that I didn't handload and cast for already, so it was new dies, brass, bullet molds, etc., but I have a soft spot for old waffle tops. After some work, she turned out to be a good shooter and worked real well on a Kansas white tail with cast that year.

Bear sounds good. Don't have them here, doubt I'll ever hunt one. Four or five bears, I wish I could shoot four or five deer a year (I could, but it would require a lot of tags, not all of which I could use in my region of the state).I'd like to try some bear some day. You can keep the oysters.

[Bazoo]

Thanks for the info Marko.

I too would like a tutorial on bear processing. Roasts and steaks and stew meat are top on my list but burger ain't nothing to sneeze at either. Ain't had bear stew or burger yet.

We got blackies in the state here with a season in the eastern part. Me and a buddy been thinking on getting over there on public land and trying our luck. Also it's possible we could get lucky and get a no draw elk if one wanders outside of the designated zone. Man that'd be sweet.

[smoked turkey]

I give a big thumbs up for everything about this hunt. You made it sound so easy, which it is not. I suspect you and your son just know how to do it. I know that when I did a black bear hunt in Northeaster Canada a few years ago it wasn't easy. We hunted five days without seeing any and I finally got one on the 6th day in the afternoon. Congratulations to you and your son for such a nice story. My bear was a spring bear and it was absolutely delicious.

[RugerFan]

Very nice! Hoping our baits get hit soon.

[CastingFool]

A friend who went spring bear hunting in Canada told me he didn't bring any meat back. He said the guide told him it was not fit to eat, cuz the bears had just come out of hibernation. I thought it sounded fishy to me. Like the guide wanted the meat himself.

[swheeler]

Congratulations on the bear, enjoy the burgers. Those oysters look pretty darn yummy too!

[Texas by God]

That is outstanding!

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[fatnhappy]

everything in this story is about the good parts of life. From friends helping friends, to family feeding themselves. This is the good stuff.

I have a pre-war .32 special winchester. She's too beautiful to risk harm, I inherited her from my FIL's father.