Bear Season @ the HellBear

[Markus]

And just when I thought I was done with bears for the season....lol

My buddy Wayne called me to let me know the bear with the object on its neck has been at one of his deer sites every night for a week. He asked if Id give him a hand setting a couple snares for it. No problem....i'm on my way.

We made 2 nice sets and he returned in the morning with his kids. I got a call from the oldest boy that they had a bear in the snare and were just waiting for the sunlight to dispatch it. I jumped in the truck and headed that way. Part way there, I get another call....there's a 2nd bear in the other snare. Neither are the bear we were after. Turns out it was big sow and her 82lb boar cub.



We never want to remove any cubs....or a sow and orphan her cub, but this worked out fine. Wayne had 3 tags and wanted to fill 2 of them, so in the end, he still punched 2 tags. We rebaited the site to see if the bear with the object stuck on it's neck returns. No sign of him yet.

[Markus]

Today marked the final day of the bear work. We had 15 bears to process this year. Our bear hunting friends give me their bear hides so they dont go to waste and I prepare them and ship them to the fur auction in the spring. My buddy wayne processed his own 2, we lost one to taint, 2 have already went to a taxidemist and the remaining 11 hides are drying the fur shed.

I ask my friends to leave the head in them and as a thank you, I skin them out and finish the skull for them. That way the head is properly skun out encase a taxidermist wants the hide. We finished this 408lb boar today and a local taxidermist scooped it up.



The last 2 skulls were picked up.



And the 11 hides in the fur shed will continue to dry until we ship them this spring.



All thats left to do is to make a bit of jerky/sausage and enjoy the bear meat treats.

[ShawnD]

Wow
Thanks for updating your post again!
The amount of work that goes into every animal and you try to waste as little as possible is awesome.

[CBB]

I can relate to all the work you put into them Hides Markus and give you a thumbs up on a great job.

[Markus]

Thanks fella's. It's a labor of love and i enjoy sharing our excitement and experiences for others to enjoy as well.

[Markus]

And thats a wrap! Sorry for dragging this thread on, but I wanted to share the last pic of the season.

We had 14 bears to finish this year. We lost one to taint in the freezer. 1 was sent to the taxidermist for a full body mount. 1 was purchased by a taxidermist for a rug. ! was purchased by a leather worker for craft work. And these 10 were packed up and sent to the nafa may sale to be auctioned off.



Our friends are excited to see how their hides do at the auction and we cant thank them enough for donating their unused hides to our fur shed for processing. I hope we see around the same amount again next year.

[smitty55]

Why be sorry Markus? It's been a great follow.
Love the display. Way to go guys. I hope you do well at the auction. Any idea what to expect this year? I think I read something about expecting more Russian and Chinese presence this year, which should help prices. I'm looking forward to one more post once they get sold for you.

Cheers

[RJ]

While chatting on the phone: "Gotta run I gotta hang a bunch of Bears on a wall for a pic, yak later".

Only Markus..

RJ

[Markus]

Way to go guys. I hope you do well at the auction. Any idea what to expect this year?

Smitty, I'm hoping to see a slight upward movement with prices. I'm not expecting the market to recover too quickly this season. I'm watching the Fur Harvesters sale today and it looks to be trending in the right direction.

[ShawnD]

Awesome, again Markus, thanks for sharing

[Markus]

During the season when we're processing bear meat, we bag up all the trim meat and grind it all later. Usually, we make a batch of sausage, but this year we had a lot of family and friends asking for burger, so we thawed out the bags of trim and made one big batch of burger to share around. We had a small bag of deer trim and made a burger with that too...it's the darker meat in the photo's. Bear meat makes the best burger and thats why it's in high demand from our friends.

[Markus]

The long awaited auction arrived yesterday and 9 of our 10 hides we submitted sold. They held back our best graded hide. They wanted more for it and the bids werent high enough I guess. Hopefully they sell it by the end of the auction....or it'll be offered again in the summer auction.

It's always a risk with bear hides. You can get $20 or up to $300 sometimes....just depends on fur quality and the job you do with handling it. We are very happy with our results this year.