PA Bear Hunt

[Clean Harry]

I go to PA every year to hunt deer with my Dad & Brother. Dad is 87 now but still gets out a little. This year I went a week early and took in the bear season. Bear hunting in PA is a team effort - you have to drive them out. No bait or dogs or anything like that - we are our own dogs. There were three of us. On the 2nd drive we set up, I was the driver and jumped a good sized bear, got one shot at it but it went out tward the watcher. He shot six times. It was up hill above him about 80 yards. At the first shot the bear sat down, looked at him and then charged. He kept shooting, six time all together and it finally fell 10' from him. 434 lbs. and 6'4" nost to tail.

 

[264Magnum]

That's a fat bear. My bear was a full foot taller than that one and didn't even weigh that much.

 

[deerwhacker444]

Very nice...! So I know alot of people eat them,...do you..?

If so, give us a rundown on bear meat.

 

[Clean Harry]

Well we're going to give it a try. I brought 8 roast home, all between 3 & 4 lbs. My brother says its better than beef - he cooks it, throws out the juice that cooked off, then cooks it again like a beef roast with onion soup mix, potatoes & carrots. I haven't got my wife motivated to give it a whirl yet.

 

[264Magnum]

I hope you have better luck with the meat than I did. I had a whole team of people cooking it in different ways and none of them came out good. It didn't even make good jerky. Ended up throwing most of it out.

 

[DRC458]

Man, what a gas! You talk about an adrenaline rush!!! What was he shooting, and how many of them actually found their mark?

 

[Clean Harry]

Man, what a gas! You talk about an adrenaline rush!!! What was he shooting, and how many of them actually found their mark?

The bear was hit 3 times. He was shooting a 30.06 with 150 grain bullets. We have been telling him he needed to go to 180 or 200 grain for bear.

 

[imhntn]

Good job Harry! It has been years since I have seen you. Are you the one in the back of the bear?

 

[Clean Harry]

I just wish I was that young again. That is my Brother - 15 years younger than I am. The other fellow is who shot the bear, his Father-in-Law. This is his 3rd year in a row to get a bear and his 4th bear. His son got a 27 year old bear the first day. They knew the age because it was collared and they had been tracking all this time. It was on the decline and only weighed 190 lb or something like that.

 

[lightningkylej]

My hunting partner has a really nice jerk marinade designed for bear (he is from northern part of NY) that we use on a lot of our game. I am sure he would share the recipe if you would like it.