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The OMNR announced the resumtion of the Ontario Spring Bear Hunt. Non-residents included.

Will wonders never cease?

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There does not seem to be any shortage of bears.

Do you think more bears mean fewer moose calves living till fall?


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I'm not one of those who subscribe to the conventional wisdom that we have more bears now than when we had a season in the Spring. We always had a lot of bears in this area. I have noticed that the bears we do have are a lot bigger than they used to be.

Bigger bears might mean more predation on moose--and its not just calves. I helped a local biologist necropsy an adult cow that was killed by a bear.

I gave up my BMA many years ago and have no intention of going back into the buisness.

I am a little baffled by what I perceive as a reduction in the moose herd--predators of course have some bearing on that but I'm not convinced that its the primary cause.

Unregulated hunting by Natives I would think would have at least as big of an effect--and I'm Native.

I've had a lousy moose season so far but I think its more weather related than anything else. Cold wind rain and snow.

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Wow, that was switched originally back in the 90's, I believe.


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I like fall bear hunting ..... love spring bear hunting....glad it back....

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The only Bear I have taken was on a spring hunt in Ontario,
Chapleau.


A Doe walks out of the woods today and says, that is the last time I'm going to do that for Two Bucks.
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This yr we had 5 diff bears on camera in orchard at hunt camp destroying trees, used to be about 1 a yr to deal with.
YES, I believe it is due to no spring bear hunt.

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As a dedicated meat hunter, that has never hunted bears, I think if I were to take a bear, to harvest meat, fall season should be best, right ?

& conversely, if hunting for a trophy "rug", spring would be my huckleberry ?


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I believe the spring bear is best to eat because there's way less fat in the meat...or so I've heard.

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Originally Posted by bea175
The only Bear I have taken was on a spring hunt in Ontario,
Chapleau.


You sure it wasn't a hairy French-Canadian hitting the bait??? grin


"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Prov 4:23)

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Originally Posted by New_2_99s
As a dedicated meat hunter, that has never hunted bears, I think if I were to take a bear, to harvest meat, fall season should be best, right ?

& conversely, if hunting for a trophy "rug", spring would be my huckleberry ?


New 2 99s;
Top of the morning to you sir, I trust the holiday season has been treating you and your fine family acceptably well.

The topic of bear meat flavor is a hotly debated one here in the mountains to the west of you good folks.

We've only sampled a handful of bears and then over the years processed another double handful - so maybe 2 dozen or so in total - and all were local BC bears. As well a good friend used to guide for black bears up on the north coast and I don't believe he was in on any less than 5-6 dozen being shot. So based on that here's what we think.

Bear meat varies in flavor more than the local ungulates and that makes sense because their diet varies so much more. While a mulie on this side of the mountain may eat less sagebrush and more Saskatoon branches, it's still primarily a cellulose based diet.

Bears will eat anything almost - so Bighorn lambs, moose calves, rotting fish, mulie fawns, clover and in summer mountain berries will all be on the menu.

We had a few names for bear size - "pocket bears" - self explanatory, then circus bears which would be the sub adult size and then the "popcan" models which left droppings popcan diameter....

[Linked Image]

The absolute best flavored bear meat we've had the pleasure of eating was a pocket bear who was shot as a favor to the vineyard owner by a contractor buddy who was working on a job there.

We boned out the entire back leg, wrapped it, applied the correct dry rub spices, seared it in a pan and then placed it in a turkey roaster. Honestly it smelled like we'd marinaded it in grape juice.... you could cut it with a fork and we still talk about it. grin

However on the other side, buddy from the north country said one should never, ever, even on a bet for large sums of money attempt to consume a rotten salmon eating bear.... eek

I quit spring bear hunting after I shot one that must have been minutes - or days - out of hibernation and was rail thin. He just tasted "wrong" for lack of a better term, although we did give the meat to a trapper we knew then and he said it was acceptable table fare.

We were always a bit suspicious that Stan was part coyote however....

The fall bears are very much more marbled with fat that's true.

The fat does however render into some of the finest lard you'd want to see. Another good friend's wife proclaimed it the best pastry lard she'd used - which was good because they ended up with two coffee cans of it from one "popcan" sized boar.

Hopefully that was of some use to you sir. Please do shoot bears in your home province and if you're so inclined then by all means come here to BC and take two - we've got plenty to spare.

Happy New Year and all the best to you and your family in 2016.

Dwayne


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Well, now we're onto one of my fave topics, bear fat. My buddy, who is a basement gun dealer, and also guides bear hunts in northern Ontario, used to call me up every August, 'come and get the bear fat', which I would render to varying extents, and use in a variety of ways.

Only problem was, when I went to pick it up, he had it bagged, and often frozen in huge quantities. I swear I injured my back a few times loading/unloading the stuff. Generally, it was more than I could handle, and did send samples around to some of my buckskinner buds. On one occasion I did send about 60 lbs to an indian somewhere in the Southwest. Although, he did wait over a year to do so, he did reimburse my postage.

Last edited by sse; 12/30/15.

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sse;
Top of the morning to you sir, hopefully you all are keeping well, warm and dry this winter.

I'd make an educated guess that one wouldn't want to be rendering out the fat from either a salmon eater or one that was snacking on carrion from avalanche chutes, but otherwise it should be fine.

We go by smell with bear meat- if they smell a bit rank while they're being processed, the owners mark them for smoked sausage of some sort. If not then we do roasts, chops and burger much like an ungulate.

A long passed on buddy who had a trapping licence sent some bear claws down to a chap in New Mexico one time - he made traditional claw necklaces I believe.

As far as I heard no payment was ever received back for that either, but then who knows how many laws were bent out of shape with that transaction....

Things used to be different back in olden times so maybe it wasn't forbidden then, I'm not sure and I know my dear departed friend would have cared very little if it was or was not. grin

He was born in the Kootenays and came from a family of German/Cherokee extraction who's migrated there from north Texas in the dustbowl days.

Anyway sir, thanks for twigging the fond memories of a good friend this morning. I believe I'll raise my coffee cup to him in fact, as when I knew him he'd just quit "the other stuff" and we only shared coffee or pop together for the 23 years I knew him.

Happy New Year to you sir and all the best to you all in 2016.

Dwayne

Last edited by BC30cal; 12/30/15. Reason: added info

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One time for Thanksgiving, had a slew of family coming over. Prepared all the usual goodies, plus I decided to do a pot of stew over a fire in the back yard. I used venison and bear meat. I had everybody going out there to sample it before I told them what it was. It came as no surprise that between the venison and the bear, they all preferred the flavor and texture of bear meat, and this from people who had never tasted game meat before.

Getting it going...

[Linked Image]


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Dwayne,

Happy New Year to you & your family.

Thank you for your, usual, insightful reply.

A very sincere, all the best to you and your family for 2016, from the not so frozen Northwestern Ontario.

smile



Paul.

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SSE,

Bear fat/lard !

Thought you were the "margarine" Guy !

whistle

Happy New Year to you.


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LOL

Thank you, and the very same to you and yours...


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