Finally got my big boy I have a green score of 21 5/16. I have to wait the 60 days but as long as he stays above 21 it will go in the all time record book.

GOOD lookin bear!

NICE!!! big old pumpkin head

WTG man! Really a good lookin bruin.

What did ya shoot it with? Distance?

Nice going.

Thanks, I am so excited this next 60 days is going to take forever. I am usually a meat hunter but has always been a goal of mine to get into that book. Now I just need to get in there with a elk.

Good one!! Put the skull in beetles and you should be fine.

Guy

I shot it with a Marlin 45-70 at 7 yards. he was down over the hill to the right of the pictures, we call it the [beeep] hole. Its straight up and down and full of dead fall timber. It was quite the chore to drag him up the hill and get him to the spot where those pictures were taken. Actually it was more then a chore about 10 guys, two broken 4-wheeler winches and countless pieces of broken rope and cable. Thank goodness I had help

Great job and nice bear.

That's a pig!!! Way to go.

Great job !!

did you weigh and measure him at all ?

the one hitting my bait at night is very similar to yours...

WAY TO GO !!

Congrats! That's a heck of a bear.

We did not weigh him but had lots of people that see tons of bear guess anywhere from 500 to over 600

he squares out at over 7 1/2 feet

So I'm presuming it was a spot and stalk?

7 yards. Wow, that would be a little spooky being that close to that big guy. By yourself or have somebody else close?

That's a great bear! Congrats! Nice looking rifle too.

very nice trophy....you will remember that one a long time. congrats

Nice, Very Nice, Great Looking Bear, CONGRATULATIONS.

Real nice loking bear. I would like to see that sucker as a rug, I bet he would turn out nice.

Tim

I was by myself it was a now or never sort of thing, My heart was pumping so hard, even after he was down I had to just sit there a few yards away and watch him for a while with the rifle ready to go, it took me a while to calm down enough to walk up and touch him.

Is the rifle a 1895 or 336?

1895

has it been 60 days yet aaaaaaaa

What did you end up doing with the skull?? Is there anyone over on that side of the mountain that has beetles??

Guy

we are just going to boil it, have you ever heard that using beetles will not shrink the skull as much as boiling it. The taxidermist said he didn't think there was any truth to it. and it would be more money and we are already way past my limit.

be careful boiling... have seen 2 skulls fall apart from not being done right ! very sad.....

You might want to spray it with a pressure washer. It just cuts that meat and stuff right off. We did it on a buffalo skull, and a friend did it on an elk. It works great!

don't even say that, you don't know how heart broken I would be if that happens.



I use a pressure washer on all my elk and deer but boil them first, are you doing it with a raw head?

use a wire wheel if you boil it will shrink the skull, it even suggests on numerous websites that it will downsize the record! buuut i have no experience with this at all! i wonder if you could send it out to a taxi in another state?

Yeah, we were.

Just getting into this game. This spring was the first season for me and it definantly wont be my last. Congras on the bog boy.

man you guys have got me worried now, how much do you think it will shrink?

quite a bit!

look it up on google!
id send it away for a professional cleaning!

Shoot me a PM. My brother has a beetle colony and does skulls. Boiling is a bad idea if its that close to making book, I wouldnt take the chance if it was mine.

Guy

I got a phone call tonight asking me to look at this thread. 1st off, great bear, congrats. 2nd hold the horses on your plans. You want the skull either bugged or macerated.

Definitely don't boil it. I did more euro's last year than most will see in a lifetime. Boiling ruins more skulls than you can count. At best you do it right and you end up with a forever yellow skull that you'll never get the grease out of. The heat sets in stains and short of a can of spray paint it will never be white.

You also run the risk, the really good risk, of it just falling apart in the pan. If you use sal-soda or similar to help with the tissue and aren't mindful of the heat, constantly, you'll end up with bone chips.

Boiling and bleach is the best way to end up with a pile of white powder that I know of.


So what I'm saying, don't boil it.

Power washing also has a habit of blowing a skull into pieces. Bad enough when it's your 5th deer of the season, probably a nightmare in your situation.

If you want to do it yourself send me a PM, I'll send you an instruction book on how to finish once the flesh is gone. You can go 100% on your own and get good safe results, you can have someone just bug it and get good safe results, or you can have someone do the full job.

Lastly you need to slow down and expect a whole lot of patience required from this point on. Bear are greasy animals, it can take months to fully degrease so you'll have a nice and permanently white trophy. Deer can take a couple weeks, or a couple months. Each skull is different and trying to speed things up just leads to a bad trophy.

Bears and pigs are much worse on the amount time they'll require to be fully done. But if you're patient you'll be very happy.

No reason not to wait until all the measuring is done before you deal with the skull if that's allowable by B&C.

Misc. skull pics
http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q45/NdIndy/Skull%20Works/unused/

http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q45/NdIndy/Skull%20Works/

Actually, anyone can PM me their email address and I'll send the instructions out. I wrote it myself, so it's the best I'm only doing bugs this year, all my equipment is broken down for a remodel, so it's bugs and instructions for everyone. But I'm only charging $25-$35 so I don't feel too bad

best advice!

Glad I put the fear of GOD into ya !!

hate to see a trophy skull go down the drain ! lol

no pun intended of course

guywildstorm and NdIndy I sent you guys a PM

thanks again

Yotes2call you can say that again, I know some people don't trully get what that crazy book means and maybe I should just let it go and focus on more important things in life, But I want my name in there dagnabit

SWH that smile on your face reminds of the cat that swallowed the canary.

Beautiful animal, congratulations!

My wife was mad said "you don't smile like that for family photos" I had no responce for her


I take it you really like colorado or you are from colorado?

Yours or hers? Wait, don't answer that.
Flowers and a new rifle might help. On second thought I'd just go with the flowers.

Nice bear my friend, very nice.

I was to late the boiling is already done, I will just have to wait and see what happened and it is what it is. will know more on monday when we get a new score for it, then have to wait the 60 days.

Re-read this post and follow the advice... Beautiful bear that would be a shame to screw up. If any questions remain contact anofficial B&C representative closest to you.

As for the rug, a lot depends on the color phase of the bear. Our bear in Oregon range from blond to cinnamon to dark brown to jet black.

The colors of felt material can effect to final look of the rug. I've had different colors of brown, beige, and cream used for brown color phase bear and we've used shades of gray and even red with jet black ones.

Here are a couple of examples of variations used on two of my brown colored bear.... Sorry I can't find my brown full rug pictures today..





Congrats on a very nice bear......

I went with the same color brown on the bottom as you and then a rust or dark red for the top. But I can't seem to be sure on anything anymore, after this boiling thing I keep second guessing myself.

did you shoot those with the pistols.

That is a Booner all right. Smokin' good bear. Congrats!

Black Bear and Mountain Lion are both on my list of "Gotta call one!"

The top bear was shot with the S&W Mod. 29-2 8 3/8" 44 Mag shown in the picture. It was a huge bear too. The bottom right bear was actually shot with my S&W Mod. 57 6" 41 Mag. (the one pictured with the bobcat in my avatar picture). The 500 is a recent purchase and I'll be hunting both bear and elk with it this year.

The odds are your skull will still be fine for B&C measurement. Bear are very thick boned and the skull can take a lot of abuse. You may get a tiny bit more shrinkage than using other methods but unless your bears measurements are hovering around the minimum scores it shouldn't matter much. Let us know how the official B&C measurement comes out.....

The following pictures are examples of what your skull should look like prior to official measurement...

that skull looks great even the stuff inside the nose is still intact, somebody did a great job on it.

I don't think I could hunt bear with a pistol I am a horrible shot with one, I think I will stick to my rifle or even a bow.

Got the skull back today, it looks good. right now it is at 21 2/16 now I have to wait the 60 days,
Any ideas on what it will shrink now.

The Boone and Crockett Club produces two books. One is the "Awards" Book and the other is the "Records of North American Big Game," which is the "All Time" Book. You can be included in both books if you reach the "All Time" minimum score. You can be included in the "Awards" book if it doesn't...

The "Awards" category measurement minimum for Black Bear is 20.

The "All Time" minimum for Black Bear is 21.

Shrinkage can be a very difficult occurrence to predict. Your bear measures 21 2/16 green. In my opinion it's going to be very tight for you to make the qualifying "All Time" score... Keep your fingers crossed. I think you're easily "In the bag" for at least the "Awards" book... and that too is a recognition you could be extremely proud of..

Either book inclusion would permit you to lay claim to being recognized as having a trophy included in the Boone and Crockett Book... Not many people can make such a claim..... no small feat when we realize thousands of Black Bear are taken every year..

Let us know when a decision is made... We're pullin' for ya!!

this thing started at 21 5/16 if I miss the all time by 1/16 I will be heart broken.
like you said I will be happy with both books or just one, to me it's a trophy even if there were no books. I will let everyone know in mid november what happens.

longest wait of your life i bet super white hunter!

haha

My wife sais i am worse then I was when she was pregnant with the kids.

Did the officiall Boone and Crocket score yesterday and ended up with 21 1/16, made it by the skin of my teeth. It shrank a quarter inch but I am still happy my name will go in the all time book, now I need to go for number 1, Ha.
next year maybe I will find a elk big enough to go in.

Tried to edit the title of this topic to say that I made it but have no idea how.

Congrats!!!

Nice!
They killed a black bear in my area last Monday (PA week long archery bear season) that weighed 744lbs field dressed, with an estimated live weight of 875lbs! Supposedly the 2nd heaviest bruin killed by a hunter in the world! We grow them big here in PA!
I'm sure that one will make the book.
Our 3 day rifle season started yesterday here. The local check station had three bruins brought in over 500lbs.

Holy smokes 875 is crazy I bet he was fun to pack out.