How did it react to that turn your head and cough exam?

Darn, my guess was wrong.

Do things cease to be identified by gender when they are dead?

I wondered that myself. You know what they say about a penis in hand being worth two in the bush. Did you get him?

Yep! Got him yesterday!
And he is a beaut!

Nice, that is a beauty! Congrats.

Awesome!

Nice bear,BF

Yep that is a nice one congrats!!

No ground shrinkage there! Nice bear.

The comment on the 2 killing a moose while you hem and haw was partially humor. However, take the time to speak with Glenn Stout (459-7218), the area bio for where you live, and you will learn that bear predation of calves is a significant contribution to moose mortality. With so few rural Alaskans killing bears the moose need all the help they can get.

There are plenty of reasons to shoot your limit of bears, with "just because I can" NOT being one of them. Blacks in your area should be good eating, tho fall presents fatter bears. Likely their are still folks in that vil who would appreciate some bear meat. I think I can say that sharing food with the locals helps with the line of work your in. But in your area you can shoot 3 blacks AND..............2 Griz per regulatory year. Since your in a 2 Griz limit area, you can sell the hide and skull of the griz, and you can also sell the hide and skull of the blacks. See page 24 and 25 of the reg book. Now 5 bears is alot of work. Even a guy who likes killing bears is unlikely to put that much time into their hunting, salvaging, etc. However, again, with the line of work your in, a few bear hides and skulls sure wouldn't hurt the bank account.
That is a really nice looking bear. I bet there's a few here that would like to hear the green score on the skull! Animal looks a lot bigger dead than it did alive.

Thanks all! I am very happy with it!

martentrapper- I have talked with Glenn and he has share what they suspect are moose calf mortality rates because of bears and wolves. There are actually quite a few who take bears around this area. Some intentionally and some opportunistically. There seems to be a higher grizzly population than there was five years ago, but they are more difficult to hunt imo. The unit I am in is a 1 grizzly unit so no selling if I was to harvest one, but I could go to another unit and harvest a second bear. As you said that is a lot of work. Oh and yes most of the meat is cooked up for potlatches etc.

Make a nice rug.

That's the plan!

Beautiful bear always enjoy seeing different color phases. Thanks for sharing with us

That should make for a beautiful rug. Congrats on the other bear, you're on a roll.