# Success in Red Oak



## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

After having many different bear on camera, I had made up my mind I would wait for the biggest bear. He was much much bigger than any of the others. Problem is, he only showed in hunting hours twice since baiting started and that was only a minute or two each time.

The first day, I got in the stand early morning and had bears come and go in the darkness. I could see shadows in the moonlight. After checking the camera, the big boy had been there just 20 min before I walked in. I was happy to have not pushed him out.

That evening, I saw a collared sow and her cubs. They hit the trail I walked in on and bolted. I saw no more bear that evening, but again, the big guy was there at midnight.

I got out early again for the morning hunt and had shadows down on the bait again. As it got lighter I could tell there was a good size bear down there but not "the one". He was real nice size with an awesome white V on his chest. He stayed 50 minutes and he wandered off 1.5 min into legal hours. I was sort of kicking myself for not taking him after I looked at pictures. Again, not the biggest, but real nice with great markings.

I replenished bait again that afternoon and got in the stand at 530. At 630 a smaller bear showed up. He was shy, stealing a piece of bait and running off with it. He would return and grab another. He knew a bigger bear was around. I took some pics of him and enjoyed watching.

Then when he returned again, he looked quite a bit bigger. He appeared roughly the size of the bait drum. Seeing he was much bigger than the first bear, and knowing it's hard to judge bears, especially when my references had been trail cam pics from the ground, I decided he was a shooter.

He ran 15 yd and expired. When I found him, I knew immediately he wasn't the dominant boar. However, I was happy to find he was the one I had passed that morning. My brother has more than enough points to hunt next season, and I don't think anyone else very nearby is hunting bear, so I am hoping we get another shot at the bruiser.

Here are a few pics of the bear I took as well as the big guy. I am curious as to how big he really is... We didn't have time to get a scale weight but length and chest of my bear was 65-66" (depending on who was measuring) and 46.5". I could find little on a weight correlation but what I did find put him right around 300. So I gotta ask... But maybe I don't want to know... How big is the big guy? He can barely fit his chest into a standard 55 gal steel drum, and was caught chugging the 55 gal plastic drum lol...


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## Hammer62 (Oct 20, 2010)

Nicely done I actually saw your pics the other day through my Daughters boyfriend.....Congrats fellow Brownstowner!


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## pike man (Feb 21, 2006)

Congratulations, Those are some Big Bear !


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## Scottygvsu (Apr 19, 2003)

No idea on weight, but that's a heck of a nice bear! Congrats


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

I was thinking if mine is close to 300 the other has to be at LEAST another 150 lb, easy... Neighbor got one a few yrs back that was supposedly weighed at 460.

Couple pics of other bear...


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## Welchman (May 12, 2006)

Congrats on a fine bear. I really like your barrel set-up.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

I would be interested in the score of the skull if you get it scored. Congrats.

L & O


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## jjlrrw (May 1, 2006)

Congrats, great pictures I bet if you shot that big one while his head in the barrel that would have been something to see.


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## Musket (May 11, 2009)

Nice looking bear. Big head. Congrats.


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## deepwoods (Nov 18, 2002)

Very nice bear, Congrats.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

jjlrrw said:


> Congrats, great pictures I bet if you shot that big one while his head in the barrel that would have been something to see.


Haha yeah... I thought about that during the sleepless nights picturing him coming in. He couldn't get his head in the blue one if he tried.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Welchman said:


> Congrats on a fine bear. I really like your barrel set-up.


Thanks. I came up with it to try to prevent **** from getting into everything. It helped a LOT but they still get in. Little acrobats...

The biggest thing was that i could easily compare bears by how they fit the barrel and the height of their backs relative to the fixed height of the barrels. Using branches or logs or whatever works for state land but this worked out awesome for me. The pic of the big guy chugging the drum like it's the last sip of beer is awesome. Too bad it must have been foggy or rain on the camera.


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## dmc1651 (Oct 20, 2011)

Congrats on a very nice bear.


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## TVCJohn (Nov 30, 2005)

Congrats!

In your first post, one of those pics looks like the bear is chugging 12oz-er.


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

Based on you measurements, I suspect it was more in the 225-250 range, which is still about 2x the average harvested bear here..... Nice bear !


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Thank


swampbuck said:


> Based on you measurements, I suspect it was more in the 225-250 range, which is still about 2x the average harvested bear here..... Nice bear !


Yeah that could very well be. I found a couple charts and a calculator all putting it closer to 300 (not sure of the exact source) and it felt awful darn heavy but they can obviously be deceiving both in appearance and how hard they are to move. I don't have much experience with them and I am hoping the taxidermist will have a better idea. My first guess was actually 250-270 just seeing it on the ground. I weigh 155 and I didn't think it would be much of a stretch at all to say its darn near 2x my weight.

What would you say of the "one that got away"? I was thinking right around 400 since a barrel of water would be 460lb and he's bigger than the barrel.


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## swampbuck (Dec 23, 2004)

The other one could be pushing 350-400. 

The reason I guessed your weight lower is that I have handled a few in the 5'4"-5'6" range and that was their approx live weight. But really +/- 25lbs on a bear is not even noticeable. Throw that critter on the grill!


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

I measured nose to tail for length. Not sure if that's the right way.

Yes it's a nice bear either way. And I REALLY like the white V on his chest. He's gonna look awesome with a full standing mount 

Gonna cook up some steaks next week. He's all packaged and frozen right now.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Liver and Onions said:


> I would be interested in the score of the skull if you get it scored. Congrats.
> 
> L & O


Didn't measure anything yet but taxi mentioned just by looks maybe 18-19". Not giant but real nice. I will try to remember to revisit this thread for an update later.


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## Biggbear (Aug 14, 2001)

Congrats on a great bear, I love the white chevron. That would make a great looking half mount.


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## Liver and Onions (Nov 24, 2000)

sureshot006 said:


> Didn't measure anything yet but taxi mentioned just by looks maybe 18-19". .........


Thanks.
When I looked at the pic of you and the bear in the back of the pickup I was guessing 19"+. Looking again I realize his head is a little closer to the camera maybe making it look a little larger than it actually is. 
18" is CBM minimum. If you have it scored and enter it in the book, send that photo to CBM for their website. That's the kind of photo they like to post.
Also consider sending that photo to Woods-n-Water. They might be interested in publishing a short story with photos. I would talk with Tom C. before doing an article. They only publish a few such stories about bears each year.

L & O


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Biggbear said:


> Congrats on a great bear, I love the white chevron. That would make a great looking half mount.


Yes, me, too. He's going to be life size. Not a giant bear but he's got some awesome character and a pretty good size melon.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Liver and Onions said:


> Thanks.
> When I looked at the pic of you and the bear in the back of the pickup I was guessing 19"+. Looking again I realize his head is a little closer to the camera maybe making it look a little larger than it actually is.
> 18" is CBM minimum. If you have it scored and enter it in the book, send that photo to CBM for their website. That's the kind of photo they like to post.
> Also consider sending that photo to Woods-n-Water. They might be interested in publishing a short story with photos. I would talk with Tom C. before doing an article. They only publish a few such stories about bears each year.
> ...


Its a good pic for sure and does look a little bigger than in person, but its still a good size head. The taxi was just guessing 18+ when he started thawing it out, but that's looking at a head with fur and meat on it. Didn't think it would go over 19 though. I personally have no idea what an 18" bear skull looks like so I will probably use a pair of squares to get a rough idea and from that decide whether or not to have it officially scored. If it measures 18" I will be a happy hunter.

We've taken 4 other bear in the past and this is the largest by a fair bit.


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## old graybeard (Jan 19, 2006)

Nice bear!


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

swampbuck said:


> The other one could be pushing 350-400.
> 
> The reason I guessed your weight lower is that I have handled a few in the 5'4"-5'6" range and that was their approx live weight. But really +/- 25lbs on a bear is not even noticeable. Throw that critter on the grill!


So I got the measurements back from the taxi.

66" length, 45" girth, 29" neck circ., 5.75" nose to eye.

Using a formula created from field measurement data of bears trapped and tranquilized in the Smoky Mountains, the bear was about 293 lb live weight. How well LP Michigan bears correlate to bears in the smokies... I have no idea. So yeah, I will call it somewhere in the ballpark of 225-350 lbs depending on who asks LOL!

Skull is in the freezer. I will measure that when I get it.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

As promised earlier...
Just cut most of the meat off the skull. Green score using parallel squares was 11 8/16 x 6 11/16 = 18 3/16".

I don't really know the rules for drying and I assume it'll shrink to juuuuuuust about 18". I have always heard if you boil they shrink more than the beetle method. Don't know if I really want to pay to feed the bugs but then again I haven't boiled a bear skull before and don't want to ruin it.


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## Scottygvsu (Apr 19, 2003)

sureshot006 said:


> As promised earlier...
> Just cut most of the meat off the skull. Green score using parallel squares was 11 8/16 x 6 11/16 = 18 3/16".
> 
> I don't really know the rules for drying and I assume it'll shrink to juuuuuuust about 18". I have always heard if you boil they shrink more than the beetle method. Don't know if I really want to pay to feed the bugs but then again I haven't boiled a bear skull before and don't want to ruin it.


Don't skimp now. You've already paid for bait, gas, ammo, etc. For piece of mind and the quality of the skull, I'd send it in for the bug treatment.


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## sureshot006 (Sep 8, 2010)

Yeah I guess in the big picture an extra $150 or whatever it costs will be small potatoes compared to the full mount.


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## Firefighter (Feb 14, 2007)

sureshot006 said:


> As promised earlier...
> Just cut most of the meat off the skull. Green score using parallel squares was 11 8/16 x 6 11/16 = 18 3/16".
> 
> I don't really know the rules for drying and I assume it'll shrink to juuuuuuust about 18". I have always heard if you boil they shrink more than the beetle method. Don't know if I really want to pay to feed the bugs but then again I haven't boiled a bear skull before and don't want to ruin it.



http://skullwork.com/index.html

Don't boil it and shrink it, as well as ruin all the nasal bones.


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