2016 archery bear blog

[Ron]

I'll use this space to keep a journal now that Ive drawn a WI fall bear tag. I will be hunting zone D with Northern Bayfield County Guide Service which is owned by Art Hyde.

I plan to hunt with a bow and arrow as I have no interest in hunting bear with a firearm. Im leaning towards using a traditional bow and most likely one Ive made myself. I plan to make my own broadheads and arrows as well as other homemade items for this hunt. Ive taken deer with all homemade gear but Ive not taken a bear so here's my chance. I have 6 months to prepare. I will chronicle all of that here.

[Ron]

Im making a new set of single bevel broadheads the upcoming WI bear hunt. Im planning on using field points and 7 1/4" circular saw blades for the main blade. Im slotting the field tip (ferrule) and can peen the tip of the ferrule onto the blade but the joint at the back end is more challenging.

Over the weekend I starting messing around with a prototype. Now Im thinking of instead, using a threaded adapter rather than a reshaped field point.



Beveling made easy with the right tool for the job. I get to use my own product.

[Ron]

The field points are steel and heavy. I wanted a little lighter version for the bear hunt broadhead so I switched from the re-shaped, steel, field points to aluminum adapters.

Since they are aluminum I can use a micro saw and a Dremmel tool to cut the slots.









Then it was back to the saw blade





I used my broadhead sharpening guide to make the single bevel.





I will use J.B. Weld in the slot cut in the adapter to fuse the blade and I will peen over the tip of the adapter in the hole in the blade to further trap the blade on the adapter. The J.B. Weld and eventual paint will have the final broadhead around 180 grains. Here is a video of the fit up before fusing the parts.

[Ron]

The first head is fused to the threaded adapter with J.B. Weld and by peening the tip closed in the hole in the blade. Then it was primed and painted.

In the universe of possible colors for broadheads, Ive always felt that glossy plum has been under-utilized. I hope to rectify that. Who knows, it might catch on. I took an indoor and an outdoor photo and you would think they were two different broadheads based on how the colors seem to have changed based on the lighting.



I calculated exactly just how much J.B. Weld and how much purple paint would be needed to get the head to exactly 180 grains....................... Nah, I just got lucky. The goal was 180 grains but I didn't think I would hit it spot on. Its better to be lucky than good. Now I just need to make a few more.

[Ron]

The archery bear hunt is fast approaching. In a little over a week, I make the trek to far Northern Wisconsin near the town of Cornucopia just south of Lake Superior's Squaw bay.



I will be hunting with Art Hyde of Northern Bayfield County Guide service. Over the summer the focus has been on practice.





Now the camo has been washed in baking soda and when dry will be placed in the homemade ozone locker.



More practice and then the homemade broadheads will be rehoned with the homemade broadhead sharpening guide. The countdown clock is ticking fast now. The season (for me) opens on Sept 12th.

[Ron]

The bear hunt was short and sweet (almost too fast) I just dropped off both of my bear at the Butcher. Normally I would do them myself but Im 5 hours from my home butcher shop.

Interesting and exciting story on how I ended up killing two bear. Im putting together a video with pictures and video explaining.

[Ron]

Part one one of the trad archery bear hunt



Part 2

[Ron]

This bear hunt came about as the result of The owner of NBC guide service (Art Hyde) donating the hunt to the Wisconsin Bowhunters Association for their annual convention 4 years ago. As I wait in town for the 2 bear to be skinned and deboned and frozen for the return trip home, I ran through a lists of the costs associated with this "free" hunt.

The cost that bugs me the most is the skin and debone at $400 for the two bear since I do custom butchering and even have an addition on my house that is a game processing and sausage making kitchen and I have processed my own bear in the past. But because Im so far from home, I didn't have a lot of options. The other costs were either optional, dumb luck or self inflicted but here is the tally so far.

[Ron]

Here is an update on the bear hunt. The meat and hides were picked up yesterday (Thursday) for the return trip. I didn’t think it would necessary to unroll the hides to inspect them at the butcher

(again, I hated having to use a butcher since I do my own butchering and processing and sausage making but I was away from home and it was warm so I was in a tight spot so I used the local butcher)

After making the long drive home I unrolled both hides to salt and flesh them and discovered the butcher destroyed the hides. I instructed him to skin the bears for rug mounts so I don’t know why he cut the rear feet off and both hides were so full of knife cuts/holes from skinning that they are both useless. In addition, he used a saw to cut the spine and rather than using a knife to cut at a vertebrae joint behind the skull, he sawed through the back of the skull ruining the skull mount. Clearly this butcher shop had no experience butchering bear. I called the butcher to vent my frustration and he apologized but offered no satisfaction and stated that the feet were included in the box with the hides (as if that were some sort of consolation)

On the up side, both hides were to go to a nephew who is a fledgling taxidermist in training and the hides were going to him so he could practice since I already have bear on the wall and bear skull so I did not intend to mount them for myself but that is beside the point. This butcher clearly had no business processing bear.

Currently Im cleaning/whitening the skulls. Here are the hides with the feet positioned so at least a picture could be taken.

[Ron]

I have not missed an archery deer opening day in a long time but because I have two bear to deal with I had no choice. Friday night, the meat was thawed enough to work with so I began cutting and trimming. I also began the process of doing Euro mounts on both skulls as well as salting the smaller (truck killed) bear skin. The other skin is in the freezer for my Nephew.

On Saturday I completed the cutting and wrapping of the meat. I kept the lions share for sausage making but saved some roasts, steaks, loins as well as cubed meat for stews and chili. Later on I will make snack stick and perhaps summer sausage.



I got all the meat off the skulls and applied 40 volume whitener and the skulls will now sit for a few days until I rinse them.



Then I turned my attention to the small hide. Im thinking of tanning it myself and perhaps making a quiver or hat or gloves so I cut off the remaining front feet and the head. (I will harvest the claws at a later date so the feet went to the freezer) The hide sat salted for 24 hours then I rinsed it and fleshed it out. I use a piece of PVC as a fleshing beam.





Here is the hide after all the flesh and fat and membrane are removed. The prime areas of the hide really stand out (dark blue area)



Then I salted it again.



Tomorrow I will rinse off the salt and twice bathe the hide in hot water with Dawn dish soap to degrease it and then rinse and hang it.

[Ron]

6 Days since the hunt and I got both skulls cleaned and the first whitening completed. The hide is still under salt.