My young lad's bear is at the taxidermist as I type. We dropped it off last Friday. The taxidermist did an early green score on it and it was as big as I figured (that being bigger than the 19 5/16" bear I got last fall up north). Early green score for John's bear is 20 5/16". As it is right now it will 3rd for muzzleloaders in FROW (Ontario's Big Game Record Book). We'll have to wait for the 60 day drying period for the official score. If it stay's over 20 inches it will make the Boone & Crockett and the Long Hunters books

All that by a young lad who didn't want to take a video camera with him. Who stole his daddy's stand and killed a big bugger of a bear with a flintlock rifle. Not too bad for his first time bear hunting and his first bear.



HA

and you forgot ate all that popcorn! Haha. That is a very nice bear.

That's dandy. Nothing like starting out big.

Different stand ... but yes!!! That too!!!!

HA

But look at it this way, he has big shoes to fill now in order to beat that one. But I am glad to hear that his bear scored so good. What was the final weight of the bear?

Very nice bear, there is nothing like the memories that hunting creates.

I have no idea??? I figured he weighed around 350 - 400 lbs. We skinned and quartered it out in the bush so no weight was taken.

HA

Congratulations, that's a tremendous way to start . bear hunting is a dream of mine, but unfortunately where I live it is illegal to shoot a bear. I think it is because it would scare all the other zoo visitors.

The reason I ask is my friends shot a 480 pound bear where I live, field dressed. We weighed it. The skull green scored 19-1/3 inches as I remember. What the final score of the bear was I have no idea. But it hangs in a bar down here. A very impressive bear.

A bear they shot five miles from my place was said to weigh 686 pounds and green scored 21 inches. Now I am not swearing to some of the measurements as it was TOLD to me. I never personally saw that bear.

The bear we shot at my place was 285 pounds field dressed and went 17-1/2 inches skull green. The worst part was he shot that bear and I had scouted his stand and there was a huge bear on the property that year. I would have guessed the bear over 500 pounds as I saw it numerous times, as it used to come into my yard quite often. It looked like a black VW Beetle when it came in. Low belly, wide shoulders, huge skull. Just a real nice bear. The town I am considered living is (although I am nine miles away), is called "The Black Bear Capital of the World." That was because a 10' 7" 665 pound field dressed bear was shot many years ago outside of town. And people all flocked to this area to bear hunt.

So a bear over 20 inches had some excellent body measurements to it. Any way you want to score it.. that is a tremendous bear. I am so happy for your son. That is just a great memory he got there. And to do it with a muzzleloader is even better.

He was big but didn't really seem to have bulked up in the fat department? When we skin bears we always skin them twice. Once to get the hide off and again to get the fat off. As we were doing him up I didn't think he was overly fatty. If it were late October rather than the first of Sept I suspect there would be another 100 or more lbs on him.

HA