Friday, December 8, 2023

My HUGE 2023 Wisconsin Black Bear

 I usually have long-winded hunting stories with lots of details and historical facts thrown in, but this hunting story will be short and sweet.  I drew a bear tag here in Wisconsin this fall and figured, why not.  I recently learned the art of making hand cream and lip balm from bear tallow, so I figured if I could fill my tag on even a smaller bear, I'd be happy with some meat and some bear fat.  I didn't put out a single bear bait all summer, even though you are allowed to bait starting in April.  The season opened in the beginning of September, so one week before the opener, I put out a hollow log with some old bear bait and hadn't had anything hit it except a sow with cubs.  A few days after the season opened, the acorns really dropped and per usual, most bear baits for hunters across the state ran cold.  In the past, when this occurred, I used my super secret bear lure, sprayed in the trees and on the bark around the bait, and the bears usually come in within days.  This year, I did the same thing, I sprayed my bear lure at the bait site, then sat in the stand the next afternoon.  

Rather than try to recall the details, I'll insert the social media post that I made the following morning: "I’ll be completely honest here and say that I definitely do not deserve this bear. I focused so much on fishing this summer that I didn’t even put this bait out until last week.  Wasn’t sure what bear were even in this property that I hunt and trap on, so just picked a thicket between a creek and an oak ridge. This was only the second night that I sat since season opened. As of last night the bait hadn’t even been hit in many days, so my expectations were low. I had an otter swim through right by me but otherwise it was an uneventful night until I heard a quick rustle at 7:09, looked over to see a huge bear practically running in, I made sure there were no cubs following, aimed center mass and shot him 10 yards below me. He took off and immediately disappeared into the thicket after one leap.  The whole hunt took like 4 seconds.  Per usual when one of us shoots a bear, a whole bunch of my family dropped what they were doing and quickly came to my rescue.  Luckily my uncle recovered him because the minimal blood trail was really difficult to find. My cousin used pure brute strength to wheelbarrow this giant out of the thick and my uncle stayed with us to skin it out all night long. I was completely unprepared for such an animal so I took off work today and spent 4 hours getting it all completely cleaned up, which is very difficult when you can’t even budge the carcass an inch. I don’t own a big game scale and we don’t have any kind of bear camp to hang it around in, the priority was getting the hide off the carcass and getting the meat quartered up to cool, so I don’t have a weight, but I’m okay with that because the number doesn’t matter, and at some point all the inches and pounds and stats take away from the animal when comparing on social media. It’s the biggest bear I’ll ever shoot and every muscle in my body is hurting today. Might make B&C though?  Can’t thank my family enough for all the help, I literally wouldn’t have been able to do any of this alone."

The bear was large enough that I can estimate it equals the same as harvesting 4-5 whitetail deer in terms of meat in the freezer.  He did not have a lot of fat on him, but I was able to get a few jars that I use for cooking, hand cream, and lip balm.  For some reason, there is a misconception that hunting  black bears are for trophy hunting purposes only, when in fact, that is a mistake, and harvesting one large bear provides 200+ pounds of meat and several dozen quarts of rendered fat.












The backstraps are huge and marbled beautifully!


Slow cooked black bear ribs

I make hand cream and lip balm from the rendered bear fat.

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My 2023 Archery Buck

 This harvest was so important, you have no idea!!

I had some really difficult struggles last deer season and it’s haunted me daily for the past year…so to harvest this nice buck from the same stand I lost a buck last year, completely wiped away all the bad memories and replaced them with a perfect shot and easy track job!
A hot doe came running through being chased by a grunting buck, I was standing backwards in my stand at full draw after the doe ran through the thick, because I didn’t know how big the buck was that I could hear, and there was just a small window to shoot. Once a small fork emerged, I let my bow down, went to face forward, and saw this big buck in my peripheral vision RIGHT AT MY LADDER below me! He busted me, started to run away, I drew back and let out a deep loud buck roar and it stopped him at 30 yards, so I let it fly. Amazingly, he still ran 250 yards while pouring lung blood.
God is good, all the time!!!



I didn't use many trail cameras this year so I don't have too many photos of this buck.

Frothy lung blood made the tracking job very easy!  The woods was painted red for 250 yards.




These are the buck's backstraps cooking in bear fat from the black bear I harvest just one month before, how cool is that!










Wednesday, January 19, 2022

Cooking up Meat from Trapped Bobcat




Bobcat Meat Tacos

Early in the trapping season this year, I trapped a healthy mature bobcat and I had a harvest tag, which meant I could keep it instead of releasing.  In Wisconsin, we only get one harvest tag for bobcats every 3-5 years.  I've always wanted to try the meat of bobcat, since everyone raves about mountain lion and bobcat meat being delicious, so since this cat was healthy, free from disease, and fresh, I decided to harvest it's hindquarters and backstraps, here's my process.

23 pound male bobcat caught in a bridger 2 dogless fully modified trap.

Unlike coyotes whose fur gets worst as the season progresses, bobcat pelts stay very good early and late in the season.  This nicely spotted cat will be tanned for a hat.


The most important part when handling furbearer meat is to remove the fat and glands that are imbedded between muscle groups.  Each gland looks like a gray kidney bean and is usually in a pocket of fat where two muscles meat. 


It's also important that prior to handling the meat, you very carefully skin the bobcat pelt off the carcass, taking care to not let any urine, feces, hair, or dirt touch the meat.  Be sure not to cross contaminate: change gloves before touching the meat or anytime you touch anything that would contaminate it, and never, ever use the same knife for processing meat that you used to skin the pelt.  Even the blade you use to cut the fat/glands out should NOT be your meat blade. 


This is what that same fat/gland pocket will look like after removing the parts that would ruin the taste of the meat.


After removing the good meat from the carcass, I then give it a very thorough cleaning to remove any hairs that might have come in contact, then remove any real big chunks of silver skin or fat.  Finally, I soaked it in whole milk and meat tenderizer overnight to move the excess blood that creates a gamey taste.



This is not a cooking blog, so I don't have a cute little recipe card for you to print, and I won't even list my recipe.  I literally just googled a slow cooker fajita recipe using chicken, and did everything the same except I used bobcat meat instead of chicken.  I went with a spicy meal just in case I didn't like the taste of bland meat.


After slow cooking everything for 8 hours on medium heat, I whisked the entire pot together and the meat fell apart just like pulled pork.


Viola! Here is the finished bobcat meat taco with all the fixings.  Look delicious right?  So here's my honest critique.....it was good, it tasted like chicken, HOWEVER, after trapping the animal, skinning the animal, and processing the meat, my brain could not separate the smell of the animal's urine/pelt from the finished meal and I just couldn't eat it.  My family however, children included, had 4-5 tacos and ate every bite, stating that it was amazing!  Therefore, I believe if you have a sensitive nose and can't separate the smells, you'll be like me and not like it.  Just a side note, I also can't eat beaver because when I try, all I smell is castor from when I trapped it!

The landowners were very happy to finally have this cat removed from their property.  It was bold, and would kill make chickens, ducks, bunnies, turkeys, and their house cats were at risk as well.  Last year they had alot of pets get killed by him right up at the house, but there wasn't a tag available to remove it.  This year, I was able to harvest this mature tom and now they don't have to worry!



 

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

2020-2021 Wisconsin Trapping Season Year End Photo

2020-21 season totals: 18 coyotes (3 tossed due to mites) 6 red fox Not pictured: 6 bobcats 16 coon 3 skunk 19 beaver 3 wolves 6 weasel 2 otter 1 badger 1 possum 1 muskrat 0 fisher 0 gray fox 0 mink

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Wisconsin Trapping Season 2020-2021

 

44 pound beaver and a 24 pound otter, second otter tag of the season



A big male coyote I caught on the very last day of the season in a cable restraint.  I set this cable on the first day and checked it every day.  It never caught anything until the very last morning.
You can watch the making of this set here:  Cable Restraint Set


Large female wolf I caught and released; gave me a "thanks" look before walking away.

Large female in heat caught on a drag in a Bridger 2 dogless, fully offset and laminated.  The release video of this animal can be watched here:  Open Field Drag Wolf

This was the third wolf I caught and released from the season.  The Wisconsin Wolf Hunt opened just 2 weeks after I caught this female.

Another large male wolf caught by the hind foot in a Bridger offset/laminated, set as a pee post for grey fox.

This was the second wolf of the season.  Caught just 3 weeks prior to the Wisconsin Wolf Hunt.  Though large and beautiful, this is actually still just a juvenile.
The release on this animal can be seen here:  Hindfoot Release






You can watch a video describing this set here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VlpNY0IZZc



This sandy colored bobcat release video can be seen here:  Light Colored Bobcat






This was the first otter tag of the season filled on a foothold drowner using Gator Oil as an attractant.


This was a very aggressive bobcat, the release can be seen here:  Mean Bobcat


A photo that I take frequently, but just showing how you can't even tell which paw the animal was caught by.



Released





This release video can be seen here:  Young bobcat release








This release video can be seen here:  Badger release























This is the first wolf of this season.  Another juvenile male.  You can watch the release video here:  Wisconsin Wolf Release and Hand-in-Trap Demo





This release video can be seen here:  Bobcat release