D-4-No Drywall
Rene Defourneaux
Neillsville, Wisconsin
Clark County, Wisconsin
(and surrounding areas)
Cell: (970) 209-7596
Specializing in Custom Hand Textures
Fully Insured
Over 25 years experience
.jpg)
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 backstraps are huge and marbled beautifully! |
 |
Slow cooked black bear ribs |
 |
| I make hand cream and lip balm from the rendered bear fat. |
<script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-8579158397300292"
crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
This harvest was so important, you have no idea!!
 |
| 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! |
 |
| 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. |
 | ||
| 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.
|
 |
| 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! |
 |
| 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. |
 |
| 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 |
