Grizzly Hide - no photos yet

Guy Miner

Master Loader
Apr 6, 2006
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Okay - sorry - no photos yet. Light was crummy today and this deserves a good photo.

My son and I drove up to Okanogan County and picked up the grizzly hide from the tannery. My goodness... The folks at the tannery didn't want to see it go, they were pretty proud of it. They were surprised when I told them I'd shot the bear with a 30-06, they figured I'd used some cannon. So am I, kinda.

I didn't have them rug it, so it measures considerably smaller than the measurements taken in the field, up in the arctic. But my goodness! The fur is thicker and more beautiful than I remembered. The claws are bigger and scarier than I remembered. My son was suitably impressed. He's shot two black bears, both big, but... Not a grizzly. I've shot a few black bears, but only this one grizzly.

The hunt was almost a year ago. There were delays in getting the grizzly and wolf hides delivered to Washington, and the tannery was pretty slow. But they did a beautiful job.

All I had done was to have the hide tanned. Not turned into a rug, and certainly not turned into a full body mount as my guide recommended. The tanned hide will be much easier to display here at home. Rugs take a huge amount of room, and full body mounts take a huge amount of money. So, a tanned skin is all I'm doing. Along with the cleaned skull which has been sitting on the bookshelf in my loading room for about 10 months.

I'll take some photos later this weekend, weather permitting. Meanwhile this will do:

VtoSyttl.jpg


Regards, Guy
 
Congratulations Guy. Beautiful Grizzly bear.
Looking forward to seeing the pictures.

JD338
 
Lots of memories came flooding back on our trip up to the tannery and back, it's about a two hour drive each way. Then seeing the grizzly, and touching it, running my fingers through the thick hair. Just like I did nearly a year ago, up in the arctic, on day 7 of a 9 day hunt.

The ptarmigan - still partly white in the gray/brown days of early spring.

The mosquitoes - anytime the weather warmed a bit and the wind calmed.

The caribou - staring at us, not afraid, at 30 yards when we crested a small hill.

The wolves - always one at a time. Almost always on the move. Dark or light colored, and constantly seeking prey.

The stream, shallow and mild during the hours of reduced sunlight, and running briskly after a few hours of what passed for warm sunlight at mid day.

The hours and hours of glassing. Deciding when to stop glassing, from exhaustion, hunger and cold, because there was no darkness.

Wind. Rain. Sleet. Cold.

Hours and hours of being sedentary, behind the glass. Watching.

Intense focus and purposeful movement when game was sighted!

Work, real work, removing the grizzly skin and skull and brining them back to camp.

Ya, it was a hunt. Likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. If you can do it... And you yearn to experience the north, I urge you to do so!

Guy
 
No doubt it is a beautiful hide. The memories will be priceless for years to come. Congratulations on getting it home. Do you have the wolf hide as well?
 
Thanks all.

The wolf hide wasn't turned over to the tannery until today. It wasn't avail when the bear hide was given to the tannery, because of a mess-up with the tag etc... And then I decided to wait a bit and see how well the fairly new business did with the bear, before giving them the wolf as well.

Turns out they did a terrific job with the bear, so now they've got the wolf. Oddly, Mama Miner valued the wolf hide more than the bear. What can I say?

Guy
 
Joey was still wishing you had changed your mind on the body mount when I last talked to him in early September. By all accounts a truly remarkable bear. Seems to me you've made the right choice.
Alaska is vast, almost impossible to really know it all. Be warned, she is an evil mistress, you may never leave, or like me, once you do you'll return every year.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
salmonchaser":1lw0mudv said:
Joey was still wishing you had changed your mind on the body mount when I last talked to him in early September. By all accounts a truly remarkable bear. Seems to me you've made the right choice.
Alaska is vast, almost impossible to really know it all. Be warned, she is an evil mistress, you may never leave, or like me, once you do you'll return every year.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ya, Joey really wanted me to have a full body mount done with that bear. I had two problems with that: house is too small, wallet is too small. :grin:

Re Alaska... Hoping to be back up there in September for the silver run. Such a great fly fishing opportunity!

Guy
 
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