Some of you who follow my journal know that after wolf trapping ends, I will be transitioning to an attempt to harvest my first brown bear. I plan to put in a couple of baits, and see what I can do.
I have been successful baiting black bears back in MN (a couple of decades ago). It wasn't that difficult. Find an area with bears. Make a pile of food on the ground. Get them coming. Sit in a tree and pick your bear. Not once did I ever hunt beyond opening day. But I imagine baiting here in AK is different in many ways - especially with brown bears, which I have no first-hand experience with. So, I am looking to get tips from those of you who have done it. Not so much the where, but what when why how. I'm starting from scratch here in Homer, Alaska. I may also be up for some spot and stalk - so open to discussion on that as well.

The only advice I can give is shoot until it’s dead. Don’t put too much importance on the one shot kill story. Tracking a wounded bear through the jungle is no fun. I stopped an attack one year but the bear managed to get into the timber and willows with two shots in it. It was already too dark to follow so the next morning me and a couple CO’s tracked it and put another bullet into the noggin. The two wounds from the night before were packed with dirt and leaves. Tough animals. Don’t stop shooting until your certain he’s dead.

Ryan - I've been having good success shooting Blackies with the 30-06 in the high shoulder. I try to break the shoulder and get the lung. Surprisingly, they just go right down and stay there (so far). I have not needed to do a follow up shot or track them at all. I'm a big fan of Hornady ammo. I like them to stay on the beach when I shoot them there. The alpine has more room, but that is a different story altogether. I prefer the beach!

Having said that, I am going to upgrade to a .338 - which is more beefy and appropriate, I think. You can bet I will set up so I can keep shooting, and I will if it is moving. We can stitch up a few holes :-)

Just be sure you are legal with the bait station

I have never hunted over bait, but have taken my share of bears. Best advise I can give you is to look at as many bears as possible. It is un-likely that the first brownie you see will be the bear of your dreams. They all look big from a distance, but with practice, and patience, you will KNOW when a truly big bear is in front of you.
Also, big bears tend to be old bears. They have seen a thing or two. They don't make a lot of mistakes.

I don't know that I'm going for "the bear of my dreams" the first go around. I think I would be thrilled with a good sized boar - just like I was with my first wolverine. I can build on that.

So what is a "respectable" brown bear boar? 8 foot plus?

An honest 8' plus bear is a good bear. However, the difference between an 8 foot bear, and a 9 foot bear is dramatic. I have only laid eyes on one that I know was a 10 foot bear, that was alive. It was un-real. I didn't kill it. Would have, if I could have, of course.
Kind of like an honest to goodness 8' black bear, ( only maybe even rarer). I have tried for a true 8 foot blackie for 3 decades. My best was 7'-8", squared, and several others between 7' & 7'-4". I have, however seen at least a couple that where 8' bears, but could not close the deal.
All that said, I now take any decent adult black bear in the spring with my first tag. I love sausage.

I helped skin a 10 foot bear that one of our hunters took in PWS. Biggest I've taken myself was an honest 8' sow. I hunted more for coloration rather than size.

How exactly do you measure?

The “dumb” end of the tape represents zero and you read the tape in whole inches and fractions as you move away from the dumb end. Duh!

This pretty much sums it up....

http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/80416-how-do-you-measure-YOUR-bear

Hope you find your bear. I have become less picky over the years of the bear that I put chin down on the turf. It does not diminish the experience, at all, for me. Actually I have come to enjoy being present when someone else dumps a bear and I am only a spectator or a second shooter.

Never bothered to do it before. I have a couple that I tanned that I will have to check. And of course, the brown when I get it...

Thanks for the link...

Very good advice on what goes down after the first, second, third...
I have no hesitation of adding an additional burning hot hole through a bear. I expect anyone who I am with to do the same.

This is a side topic - but I thought it worth mentioning.

Back in MN - the FIRST thing people do is weigh their bears - if they are big. People go through great lengths to haul their black bears out whole, so that they can be weighed in their entirety. We have had several blacks up over 800#. They almost always make the news all over the state.

In MN, you MIGHT hear some talk about skull measurements, but there is NEVER any talk about how many foot square it is. That is why this is so foreign to me. It's a different world up here!

"What the bear squares" is western talk, and Alaska talk, and perhaps Canada talk. I have only seen it in magazines and books. I'm finally experiencing it firsthand.

I need to get my hands on some 55 gallon drums, or similar container. You guys got any advice?

I also want to put up some trail cams. I've seen some information over on the Alaska Outdoors Forum because they have a "Bear Baiting and Stands" topic. Seems some people are having trouble with cameras taking photos of the brown bears - perhaps because of the thick fur and sensor issues with the camera?

I do know that several guys on here use them at their bait stations to keep track of furbearers, and I'd like to hear from you on what works best for you. Especially Mr. Bushman...

Square this one pilgrim and I'll get you another!

I've been purposely passing up small bears. Hunting for the biggest ones I can come across in any given year. I would love to shoot a giant brown, but won't set that expectation for myself the first go-around. If it happens, it happens.

You can go ask the local wildlife biologist - who has registered the two biggest black bears in this area in the past two years. A bear hunter himself, he is always incredulous at how I am consistently doing this. Not bragging - just saying, these were some pretty special bruins, and I was fortunate to harvest them. I will tell you, I worked HARD, and put in a TON of time. More than the average man can even think about doing. I have the pleasure of "being out there amongst them" all day, every day during spring, summer and fall. I am always watching.

But here's the point. I don't know if either of those bears would measure six feet square? I just measured the biggest one. The rug looks like the one posted in the photo above. Hard to get a good measurement from a dried up, crinkled up skin. If it were wet and laid out, as in - just skinned, I might be able to squeeze 6-6.5 feet out of one of them. That said, the skull was over 19 inches. Not record book, but pushing it. It was a gnarly old bear with broken, worn down teeth. So, I can see where having a bear that "squares out big" can be impressive, but that ain't everything either. Skulls and weight are equally impressive to me. Just my opinion.

I will HAPPILY take a tubby brown with a big noggin - no problem!

Well this is gonna be long but I hope you don’t mind . Here’s my bear baiting tutorial. I should post this with pics some time, but I’d have to locate them. Maybe I’ll take some fresh pics this spring. This is how I bait black bears, but it works better than I’d like it to for brownies. I bait almost exclusively with popcorn. There are lots of other successful ways to do it, but so far I like this one. It’s very easy, quick and cheap to get going.

1) Locate your bait site, compliant with all applicable laws.
2) Go to an auto shop or other source and get 2 used oil drums.
2b) Round up 4-8 ft of chain and a couple shackles or bolts and nuts to fasten it.
3) Go to a restaurant or the dump and get used fryer oil.
4) Go to a warehouse grocery store and get a bulk bag of popping corn.
5) Remove bungs and pour any remaining oil from the drums into a bucket, then into a jug. There are plenty of uses for clean motor oil.
6)Stand the drums upright and pour in some king of good degreaser (Dawn soap etc), add water, put the bungs in and roll the barrels around. Dump out soapy water. Repeat if you want, but I don’t think bears care too much about their eating surfaces.
7) Cut one drum in half around the middle. This gives you a fire ring and a cooking pot.
8) The half with the bungs is your new fire ring, if you don’t already have one. Flip it over and cut a circle out of the end, leaving a 2”-4”” flange around the edge. Keep this cutout piece. It also helps to put some air holes in the sides of any fire ring.
9) Start a fire. Put some bricks or rocks on the flange of the fire ring, put your cooking pot (the other half of the barrel) on top, dump in some used cooking oil and start making popcorn. Dump each batch of popcorn into a trash can (or a 3rd barrel) and when it cools put it in a heavy duty trash bag. That’s how I transport it.
10) While you’re waiting between batches of popcorn, make the bait barrel. Stand the remaining drum bung-side up. Remove the bungs. Drill or cut a hole in the SIDE of the drum next to where the large bunghole is. When you attach your chain, run it through the large bunghole and out the hole you cut in the side. This is the most reinforced way to attach a chain, since it goes through the threaded bunghole and around the crimped corner of the drum. This prevents bears from ripping the chain out, as happens when someone drills 2 holes in the side with nothing but sheet metal in between.
11) Get the piece of metal you cut out in step 8. Lay it on the bung end of the barrel and trace it. Now cut a hole 1”-2” smaller. This is your fill hatch, and the scrap of metal is your hatch cover. Attach it with a few sheet metal screws.
12) Make the feeder hole in the opposite end of the barrel. I like feeder holes centered in the end because it doesn’t let all the feed out when the barrel rolls. It forces the bears to sit there and eat one handful at a time, which is the goal. Don’t cut a hole. Draw the hole size you want. I use a 5” hole for blacks. Cut a star across the circle you drew, then fold the tabs inside so you have a smooth folded edge instead of a sharp cut edge.
13) I cut a few little 1” holes in the sides of the drum to let a little bit of popcorn fall out when they roll it around, but not a lot.
14) As soon as you’ve got a batch of popcorn made you’re ready to head to the woods. When I’m hauling the barrel out I’ll duct tape the holes and fill it with popcorn at the house to save space. In the future I just haul popcorn in trash bags.
15. Fill a gallon jug with extra cooking grease.
16. When you get to your bait tree, chain the barrel to the tree. Fill with popcorn if you didn’t already. Dump the gallon of grease you brought in the barrel to soak the popcorn. Bears love calories.
17. I always leave the barrel standing on end “upside down” with the feed hole on the ground. This serves 2 purposes: 1. Helps reduce loss from mice and squirrels, 2. Provides an easy visual indicator when something big (a bear) has knocked the barrel over. If you can’t leave the barrel on end for some reason, always put a big stick in the feed hole for the same reason. You can easily tell when you come back if a bear has been there.

Hope this didn’t bore you, and happy hunting!

Great tutorial, Kid!

KK - this is exactly the stuff I was looking for of course you didn't bore me! Thanks so much. I never thought of popcorn before...

I also never heard of "bung" and "bunghole" used in that way. I guess I don't know much about oil drums haha. I will definitely be following some of this advice. Thanks!

Do you use cameras?

climb a hill and sit there with Binos... much easier....

^^^^^^
This. However, I've never baited brown bears before, but if you have suitable terrain I would just glass for them.
If you do bait for them please remove your barrel and other stuff after you're finished with your hunt.

For those of you who love "spot and stalk" - I do too. Love the alpine. Love the challenge. Love spending the whole day, or two, or three. Thing is, I am almost always alone. And, I do plan to take the whole bear. The meat. The hide. The skull. I won't leave the meat just because some say it's no good. I will find out for myself. As in, never had a "fishy black bear" and I've shot plenty eating rotten salmon. I'm not saying YOU haven't. I'm saying I haven't. So, I'm gonna give the Brown Bear a whirl and find out for myself.

In many cases, I know the glassing and spot and stalk is going to be remote - way the heck out in the boonies. Thus, I could use a good partner or two. I got pals coming up from the lower 48 for the fall, but not the spring. That is my only reluctance with the spot and stalk. But if I can get a few days, I might just give it a try.

WH, I'd love to hear about those blacks from MN going 800#.
Never heard of one.

B&B - not sure how old you are, but for me, that would be over a long, long span of time. I'm 53. Going on many years (decades) of reading about such things - ever since I could read basically. The records are there, if you look. Probably some obese, dump bears. Last one I remember was on the edge of the bear refuge up by Ely, I think. It was controversial because it was being fed, and hanging out at the refuge, but going off the refuge, and thus, hunt able. The bear was there a long time. And, it had a name! So, as you can imagine, people squawked when it was harvested. Another big bear, somewhere up on the north shore along Lake Superior - but this could be a decade ago, or more. Anything 6-800 pounds is crazy big! I feel amazing if I can get one close to 400# here in AK.

I have a friend who personally shot one well up over 600# if I remember correctly. I went to see it at the taxidermist before it was skinned out. Like I said above, many Minnesotans will go through great lengths to bring in their whole bear, and get it weighed. This one was from the 1980's. I will see if my pal can get me the picture. It was so impressive. What I think I remember, is that it was in the back of a Toyota Pickup, and the bear was so thick that the hips stuck out above the top of the bed, and the bear took up the vast majority of the bed. I think that is the biggest black I have ever seen.

"According to the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota, the heaviest black bear reliably weighed was an 880-pound 10-year-old male killed in Craven County, North Carolina, in November 1998. Not far behind was an 876-pound 12-year-old male from St. Louis County, Minnesota, killed in September 1994. Also, an 856.5-pound bear was killed by a car near Winnipeg, Canada, in 2001. The largest recorded in Wisconsin was an 802-pounder killed in 1885."

I just went and found this in an article in about two minutes. They are RARE, no doubt, but they do exist!

Easier is a relative term. Here on the K-pen, we have to climb to the alpine. Most of the access is not easy. And if you’re planning on whole harvest, like WH is, then packing it out is not easy either. I enjoy the pursuit of mountain bears immensely, but I wouldn’t plan on harvesting a whole brownie that way.

Baiting allows me to kill meat where I can drive to it; hunt mornings, evenings and weekends whenever I’ve got a couple hours. Seems pretty easy to me. I could use dog food instead of popcorn and make it even easier, just a lot more cash expense.

Maybe I am misunderstanding you WH. Are you talking about a 400# black bear or brown bear ?? Also remember that your buddies that are coming to visit in the fall can't hunt brown bears . I know you know that, but we don't want to even suggest something that is illegal.

WH.
I have spent every year since 1985 hunting/ guiding bear hunters in MN.
I've never heard of an 800# bear taken?
Not saying it hasn't happened but never heard of one.
I've seen a couple that would tickle 600 but that's it.

We thought the post was on Brown Bear Hunting Tips for spring 2019?

Good luck with your bucket list WH

White - 400# pound black bear, here in Homer, are hard to come by. The vast majority of what I see are under 200#. A 250# would be above average! If you really want to get a big one, you have to either get really lucky, or put in a ton of time and work.

About my pals from the lower 48 - I consider them to be my pack mules, of course. They would come all the way up here, just to have an adventure and experience the hunt. But they always buy a non-resident tag of some kind. This fall, I got pals coming for black bear, and caribou too.

I would reciprocate any day. Like, I would go to New Mexico to help them harvest a big bull elk, and butcher and pack the thing out. And I would never hunt. That is the way we are.

You're right, I do know this.

I repeat...

"According to the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota, the heaviest black bear reliably weighed was an 880-pound 10-year-old male killed in Craven County, North Carolina, in November 1998. Not far behind was an 876-pound 12-year-old male from St. Louis County, Minnesota, killed in September 1994. Also, an 856.5-pound bear was killed by a car near Winnipeg, Canada, in 2001. The largest recorded in Wisconsin was an 802-pounder killed in 1885."

I just went and found this in an article in about two minutes. They are RARE, no doubt, but they do exist! 876 pounds!!! This is the one I was talking about and for once, my memory served me well.

You are correct sir! We got side-tracked and we digressed!

I'd pay attention to bucks and bears.

Yeah, but who doesn't love stories about 800 pound black bears? They are not at all common (the bears I mean; the stories are common!)

Most 800 pounders are "shot" in bars after a few beers! I doubt there has ever been one that reached that weight in Alaska; they simply stay "in the den" too long instead of stuffing their faces like in the warmer states.

But since the thread has already digressed and followed that bunny trail, here is a picture of an 800+ lb black bear from, of all places, New Jersey. I saw it myself with my own beady brown eyes a few years ago, at a State Check Station while it was on the scale. Who would have guessed that garbage cans full of pizza crusts and dirty diapers would put that kind of weight on a bear?!!!!! Apparently there is more nutrition in those things than in acorns and roots and berries!

Thanks for the support Pete! Len here in Homer has been telling me that I need to meet you. Thanks for posting.

My policy is that I don't engage the trolls and naysayers who thrive on conflict and division and creating alliances, one against the other. I don't let them "suck me in." They can think what they want... believe what they want. It really doesn't matter at all to me if we differ. I don't need to change them. They are likely not going to change me. I say what I mean and I mean what I say and I am 100% confident in it. This is my journal, and I want it to remain positive, and I have a lot of control over if and how that happens by whether I react or respond.

That is a (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) of a big bear! Geez they can be impressive... I just love em, and really, that is our common ground, isn't it? The super big anomalies are so, so interesting. Hey, it happens with people. Why not bears?

Clarification - sorry, this ain't my journal, but I did ask a question and start the thread!

We can post a few photos of 800# bears if that helps, or we can get back to the matter at hand. What say you all? :-) Either way, it's all good....

Very dramatic. An 8 footer squared would cover sixty-four square feet. A ten footer would be one hundred square feet. I use this for illustration purposes only but it gives folks the idea of how dramatically the size changes on the upper end of the scale.

IMO, brown and grizzly bear are too majestic an animal to be baiting with jelly donuts. Saddens me to see what Alaska has been reduced to.

We had to shoot them at the village dump where they were eating diapers to make it safe to take out the trash.

Good thing I haven't found where people can afford to get enough jelly donuts to use them for bait, I have enough of an eating problem as it is.

We have a lot of places where, if we are going to have moose/caribou to shoot for meat for the table, we simply have to reduce the number of bears (and to some degree, wolves) that prey on the calves. Areas where over 80 per cent of the calves are taken by large predators.

We are trying a number of different ways to reduce bear numbers. "Majestic" and how you "feel" about it has nothing to do with the issue. We are trying to reduce predation and thus we have to reduce bear numbers temporarily.

When I hear people prattle on about "jelly doughnuts," it sort of tells me that they do not understand much about bear baiting, nor do they have a good grasp of the predator/prey dynamics at work here.

You can be "sad" if you wish. But we are trying to solve an important conservation problem.

Pete

Speak for yourself, that's exactly how I "feel" about it.

I spent a good number of years in Alaska, maybe before you landed there. I have a solid understanding of the issue.

Oh, Posco. You clearly don't know much about Pete.

I'll stand by to be enlightened.

Check your messages, Posco.

Viking, why not just let him bask in his own ignorance. It's entertaining!

Well, I shared a tiny sliver of Pete's endeavours privately
If he chooses to blather on, I have no doubt he will be further "enlightened".

When I encounter "experts" on anything Alaskan, I usually just shut up and listen. The ignorance can be astounding.

Well, You see Ken has my signature as "two years without censor".
It is indeed the result of mighty effort on my part!

I didn't claim to be an expert, just a lover and former resident of the state. Jay Hammond was governor when I first moved to Alaska. I mention that only as a means of conveying what I know Alaska to have been and what it has become in the present. You guys seem to have a really exclusive little club here and I should have known better than to set foot in it. You carry on with your mutual admiration and I'll go back where I belong. Sorry to have interrupted your peace and quiet. Where do you buy your donuts?

Egan ( Alaska's first governor) was in office when I first set foot in Alaska. The point of the thread was advice on baiting brown bears. The magnificence or lack thereof has nothing to do with baiting. It is a method of hunting where you can be extremely particular about the animal you choose to take. It has only been legal to bait brownies for a very few years and then only in units where there is a need to reduce predation on ungulate calves. There was no need to criticize or diminish an individual's choice in legal harvest method.

Amen.
How 'bot those Vikings!!!

Well THAT didn't take long to digress.....!

Threads usually take on a life of their own and go off on tangents. I knew my point of view wouldn't be popular when I posted it. I apologize to the OP for hampering his question.

Well no reason it can’t get back on track.

I’ll be heading down to kodiak in a month to Hopefully find a big ol bear.

As long as we are off track, I am ORIGINALLY from MN, and the Vikings suck. Good thing we have a reasonably good viking on here who is putting great effort into making it three years without censor!

As you were....

I was waiting at my gate in Seattle for a flight to Fairbanks a couple weeks ago. The Alaska Airlines pilot was waiting for them to get the airplane ready and we got to talking. He noted that I was wearing a necklace of hornpipe that featured a brown bear claw. He asked if I was a bear hunter (I told him I used to be....!) Then he proclaimed that he was very excited because he had been drawn for a GMU 8 Brown Bear permit at Zachar Bay for this fall!

We had a great talk while we waited for them to get the airplane ready for him to drive it to Fbx. I guided at Zachar Bay back in the mid-70's. Times have changed, but I was able to relay a few tips on good places to glass from. I also explained to him how I learned not to take a sounding out one side of the skiff and then jump out on the other side. Don't ask me how I know!

Last I heard the cannery there had been turned into a "lodge" of some sort. It's probably more crowded in Zachar Bay, than it was the last time I hunted there (May of 1978!)

Pete

Yes I believe I researched that as a place to stay. I think they call it "The Cannery." DIY place but you can go guided too.

Keniakid, that is some really good info you shared Over the years I have lost a few barrels due to tear outs. One actually ended up in the river, we had no idea were it went, about a month later the water dropped and we found it. I use your method now.



Another thing I have changed up is where I put the hole on the barrel. I use to put it on the sides, but learned that once a brown bear can't find any more food in it they get angry and pancake it. I put the hole on the top, stand it up and put a piece of ply wood over it once it is topped off. pretty good indicator you got hit when it is knocked down.

One problem I have is having both brownies and blackies come in. The blackies love the sweet stuff and will stick around if it is sweet. If it is just dog food and oil they do the hit and run. A brown bear will hit it irregardless whats in it and will stick around till it is all gone.

Another observation I had is that once a barrel gets emptied a brown bear normally moves on and is looking for the next easy meal unlike a blackie that keeps coming back. Everytime I have found half eaten barrel by a brownie I have seen it that evening. If I show up and it is empty I don't see that bear again for a while.


I had marshmallows mixed in with this, the dang bear sat there and all but emptied the barrel gold mining those dang things



I hang a cut milk jug at the bait station to help scoop that mess up and put it back in the barrel.

The other thing I do for both types of bears is I spray the area down with a mix of cooking oil and skunk. Any left over skunk lure I have I smear all over the place, acts as a attractor and as a cover scent.

When I was baiting, I too used metal drums. I drilled the hole only 1 - 1 1/2" in diameter.

One might think that they would get frustrated and leave, but they do not! They know that there is food there and thus they keep coming back and rolling it around. Frequently... You go through a lot less bait (grain, dogfood, popcorn, etc) because it does not fall out as easily.

Also, if you attach the cable around the RIM of the drum (one hole on side, one hole in top of drum) it will last longer. Run the cable around the rim 2 or 3 times and clamp it. Multiple strands of cable will not cut metal as badly as a single turn through there.

Pete

Unfortunately this brown bear baiting has forgotten its purpose. I believe the first place it occurred was in the armpit. It was only suppose to occur under a predator control program as a method to reduce bear populations To increase survival of moose to increase the moose population to objective. Now brown bear baiting is legal in many places where ungulate populations are above objectives. Reducing brown bear populations is against the sustained yeild principle mandated By the Alaska constitution. Reducing bear populations to help ungulate populations makes sense. Harvesting bears at a level that just reduces the bear populations to low levels for no reason makes no sense.

I disagree Dirt. After talking to the bio in Palmer in ref to unit 16, the predatory program they implemented in that unit was only somewhat successful and they did not meet their objective. Hence they continued allowing baiting to at least keep the numbers down and somewhat in check. The area I hunt in that unit sure as heck has not seen a decrease based on the trail cam pic's I have over the past 3 years.

Weird how calf survival went from 8 percent to 40 percent with no change in the bear population. I wish i believed in magic.

What use is the meat from one of these big browns ?

I take it in and get it ground with 10% pork fat and 10% Italian seasoning. Makes for some pretty bomb burgers Oh and chili

I don't automatically believe what I've heard. I go find out for myself. I've heard plenty of guys tell me that they enjoy brown bear meat - especially in sausage; others say it is not their favorite, but it is tolerable. Still others say it is terrible or it tastes like fish, but I wonder how many have actually eaten it?

Personally, I'm not interested in debating. Anyone can think what they want, and I don't really care one way or the other - but I have eaten black bear in all seasons. I've personally shot and eaten black bear that were standing there eating rotten salmon, and they taste and smell fine to me. I haven't found a rank bear yet - but if one is rank, I wouldn't necessarily blame it on fish. The whole thing where you believe that you taste like what you eat seasonally is a pile of crap IMO. Again, believe what you want - but I don't know a biologist who agrees. Yet anyway.

Do you think your meat would taste like sugar, or coffee, or tobacco, or whatever the heck it is that you indulge in all day? If that's the case, I should really be excellent eating cuz I indulge in sugar constantly. I highly doubt it though. Meat is meat. Some is better than others. Ruffed grouse is the bomb! Duck is mediocre. Whitetail deer is excellent. Mule deer not as good. Just my experience.

I shot a big old rutted up rank bull moose once. About the worst wild game I've ever had. If I do it again, I want a young meat bull. Any black bear I've eaten were far superior to the old bull moose - even the "fish bear" haha.

When I shoot my brown, I will salvage the meat - but I am more after the experience, the rug, the skull, the bucket list dream, and so on. The meat is in last place, but I won't waste it. I will grind it up and mix it with some lean beef; perhaps make some sausage. I will butcher it FAST. No dilly-dallying with bears is my motto...

I love bear chilli!

Bear meat care is a lot different then most critters,

1.Never let water touch the meat if you can help it.

2. Get the fat off the meat. It can be tedious, but that is were the fishy taste or what ever they been eating taste comes from.

3. Keep it cold or freeze it, it breaks down quick and can become rancid over night if you just toss it in a cooler without ice.

Sounds pretty standard.

Fyi for pete. Hunting for brown bears over bait is legal in the small list of the following units: 7,11,12,13,14a,14b,15,16,18,19a,19d,20a,20b,20c,20d,20e,20f,21c,21d,23,24c,24d,25d.

I guess they forgot this was suppose to be temporary.

For poor posco your thoughts were common thoughts among decision makers when the bog adopted their bear management policy in 2004.

I can agree with most you write here maybe not all. I have had an incredible amount of bears taken thru my camp here in the bush over the years and eaten more than my fill. A very good friend of mine takes tons of bears in the agricultural area of Minnesota. His bears taste much better to me.
When the MN season opens Sept 1st his bears are on crops and continue to feed even heavier on various crops as the season progresses and different crops ripen. I have been with him at nearly all times in our hunting season and have seen the contents of bears stomachs that were taken. There was virtually no wild foods to speak of, if anything maybe acorns. I liken it to finishing off beef on corn products maybe.
It was mentioned here about bears picking thru bait to get at marshmallows, being choosey. I had access for some years to lasagna from a processor, dated freezer leftover. It was fascinating to lay those out flat and watch each and every bear come directly to those and with incredible precision carefully lift back the layers to lick up a certain cheese they had used. As careful as a surgeon with those claws. Once that cheese was gone they wolfed down those ten pound lasagnes in a heartbeat.

Osky

That sounds reasonable. I have eaten some black bear lasagna that was delicious !!

I've eaten brown bear paw soup.It was good !! Very greasy. Just be sure you cook everything well regardless of species

Don't feel bad for me, I don't. I was just reading an article a friend of mine posted on his hunting blog. A place he once took ten and eleven foot brown bear is now a parking lot replete with beer cans tossed about. That's on the Peninsula. Don't feel bad for me, feel bad for Alaska.