A NM Bear

[Rembrant]

Congrats on gettin that really big bear.

You can quit bear hunting now.

Mike

[hunter4life]

I was along with my dad on his elk hunt and it was turning out to be a pretty tough hunt. We had only seen one bull right before sunset that was too far off to get in on for a shot. Elk sign was pretty scarce, but there was a little bit of bear sign that we had been seeing. My dad has been buying a bear tag every year for the past several years, just in case he runs into a good bear while hunting elk or deer. In the morning we had been glassing a large set of canyons, but nothing turned up and it turned quite cold and some low clouds moved in cutting visibility. We decided to hike into some new country and had only been hiking for about 20 minutes when I spotted a big black looking blob on the hillside. I threw up my binoculars and confirmed what I was thinking, which was that it was a bear. I told my dad that it was a bear and that it was a very big one. He handed me the rangefinders and I ranged the bear at 275 yards as he was sitting down and getting situated for a shot. The bear was quartering slightly away when my dad shot and it turned after the shot and ran into some thicker brush. It never reemerged and we found it right where the pictures that my brother (NMTcoueshunter) posted.

This was one of the fattest bears I have seen. The hindquarters were covered in 4 inches of fat, and they came off the bear looking huge but when all the fat was cut off they shrunk down quite a bit. The bear had been eating juniper berries and some other seeds, judging from his scat. Like my brother said the hide with the head and four paws still left inside weighed nearly 90 pounds in the frame pack, which means it probably weighed about 80 pounds without the pack weight. The circumference of the bears' neck was 33 inches. I have always found it difficult to estimate weight because I always debone animals before carrying them out and have never weighed whole carcasses, but I would guess this bear at around 450 pounds. My brother shot a bear two years ago that was 7'1" and had a skull that was 20 12/16, and I think that this bear might have a slightly larger head. We will find out in a few months after we get it back from the skull cleaning place that uses dermestid beetles.

[coues7]

The pics arean't working....just red x's.