Just a quick note to hunters and hikers, I have not seen many ticks this fall. A good thing!
BUT
Don’t be fooled, be prepared.
Stay vigilant an spray clothing, boots, backpacks,tents etc with Permethrin to avoid deer ticks.
My favorite spray is made by Sawyer.
The Nosler Partition bullet is renowned around the world for penetration. I used it exclusively on an African Plains game hunt thus my selection for bear hunting. My Browning Speed in 7mm Remington Magnum was my choice.
On my Maine Foggy Mountain black bear hunt, I tried to get 175g Partition bullets for my bear adventure. Unfortunately, they were not available, luckily, the 160g Partition bullets were.
I have chronograped my new hand loaded 160g Nosler Partition at around 3050 fps using IMR 4831 powder. That is cookin’
As you can see below, I shot my bear in the slightly quartering toward front left shoulder.
The bullet exited the off side ribs wrecking the lungs. No death moan aka no lungs. I estimate the terminal energy at around 3400 ft-lbs. Wow! The boar went 25 yards and piled up. Funny, I never felt the recoil estimated to be near 28 ft-lbs.
On inspection during meat processing, the wound site had a 2 inch by 3 inch wide football-like cavity beginning at around an inch in after entering. I did not hit shoulder bone.
The bullet continued through lungs, ribs and exited. Was that overkill? Many bear hunters use the 300 Win Mag with 180g bullets. delivering 3700 ft-lbs at 25 yards and hitting you with 35 pounds of felt recoil.
If I go on a trophy black bear hunt, where bears often exceed 300 to 400 pounds, I may opt for a 300 Win.
Big Canadian bears can be aggressive, like climbing into your treestand and popping their teeth.
If you can handle heavy felt recoil… not a problem.
Good Hunting!
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GOT GAME MEAT?
I love my LEM meat grinder.
I use it mainly for game meat grinding and occasionally for sausage making. Mine is a #8 Grinder with only 1/3 HP. Most are now 1/2 HP and only cost around $375 dollars for many years of worry free grinding. I have done three moose, a dozen deer, four wild boars and a bear and it still looks new.
What makes this grinder so great is the quality stainless steel grinder parts and it sets up really fast.
I keep the original shipping box to store it.
Amazon sells it!
Check it out!
One of the biggest complaints I hear and read by “bear guides” during the recovery phase is “lack of a blood trail” on a supposedly lung shot bear.
Bear fat, experts suggest, can often plug the exit hole if the exit hole is small and dense bear hair can absorb blood as well. Exit hole size on exit can aid in blood flow if the hole is large enough. Energy to penetrate and exit is equally important. Bullet caliber?
Bigger bores work but you also need penetration.
Are we missing more here? What about the bullets construction?
What about the sectional density of the bullet? Is the bullet monolithic copper, standard cup and core, is it bonded, or is it partition/A-Frame?
Terminal ballistics tell the story here. Both bonded, partition, and monolithic bullets lead-the-pack in penetration. Cup and core, jacketed lead works but tend to separate thus penetration is often less in big game such as elk, moose and bear but cost much less. I have used both monolithic copper, bonded and partition/a-frame more than typical cup and core styles. They do cost more but I’m a good, better, best kind of hunter. Often seeking the best in bullets.
My recent Maine bear was hit with a 7mm 160g Nosler Partition In the shoulder at 3000 fps.
The internal damage was devastating and left a 2 inch wide tunnel on entering the shoulder, wrecked the lungs,exited and left an immediate blood trail for just 25 yards where we found the bear piled up.
The bullet mushrooms extremely well and the rear core remains intact for deep penetration and often exits.
The Nosler Accubond is one of the worlds best bonded and accurate bullets but Nosler says the Partition bullet is best on penetration for an exit wound.
And they were right! The Nosler Partition did the job very well. Go Nosler!
Good Hunting!
I’m thinkin’; “Get the processing/butchering done as soon as possible.” Accordingly, I pulled my briefly frozen bear leg meat to thaw. Just enough thaw to begin cutting and processing.
To read about my September 9th hunt, look back four articles or so to my hunt with Foggy Mountain Guide Service. It was an adventure in the deep woods of Northern Maine.
Onward to processing meat and meal ideas…
Meat Process Tools:
Sharp Knives
Large Cutting Board
Salt for periodic cutting board sanitizing if you stop for more than 1 hour or so.
Clear large plastic bags
Vacuum sealer and quart seal bags
Step 1
Cut fat from leg.
Step 2
Remove silverskin
Step 3
Cut and remove leg calf meat from bone and bag it in large bags kept in your fridge. I will make burger with this later.
Step 4
Debone shoulder and rump leg meat. I found front legs and shoulder blades hard to debone so I boiled meat off. Rear rump leg meat is easier to debone.
Place bulk cuts of leg meat in large bags in the fridge as you go. I label the bags stew, steak, roast, backstrap, for burger, and trash meat.
Below backstrap cut for roasts.
Later pull bags from the fridge for making finish cuts, vacuum seal label and freeze.
Grinding Burger
I use 20% pork butt to add to the meat. The grind is done in two stages; rough and finish. Looks Great.
The key to cooking bear meat is to use a meat thermometer to ensure the meat reaches an internal temperature of 160ºF or more to destroy Trichinosis. Just like we did with pork some years back.
For tenderness, I found that stewing the meat at a slow boil for three to four hours with salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf and veggie mirepoix (don’t forget the garlic) until tender produced very flavorful meat. To speed this up, I have used a pressure cooker in the past as well.
I toss out the mirepoix and save the cooked juice with the meat and freeze it in pint containers.
Stewed tender meat that has been cooked well beyond 160F can be used in a variety of dishes such as my signature bear stew with vegetables and gravy below.
I rave about the tender mouth feel of stewed bear meat.
Chopped stewed meat makes a great lunch soup with noodles, peas, carrots and beef broth or beef bouillon.
We use it for our spiced up bear tacos.
You can use the stewed meat to make a bear stroganoff too over noodles and so much more.
The ground burger raw meat with pork can make a mouth watering meatloaf or chili as long as the cooked meat hits the 160F. The best way to ensure that the right temperature is reached is to either measure temperature or cook/boil/stew/bake it for some time.
I hope this article was helpful in creating your own adventure in the woods and your cheffing in the kitchen.
Good Eating!
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