Here is a little story about my bear last September. Hope you enjoy the story.
As a child, my grandma always told me that bear lard makes the best pie crust. I didn't really think too much about it at the time, but as im growing older I decided I want to give it a try. Ive shot several bears in the past and never tried using the lard for cooking. So this year I decided to go after another bear in a spot I first hunted 29 years ago near the Idaho/Canadian boarder of Washington. My goal was to do a solo backpack hunt with my 11# Shiloh Sharps 45-110 saddle rifle. I also wanted to test out my brand new Eberlistock J34 pack to see how well it can pack in camp and pack out bear+camp. Finally, I just had to try bear lard huckleberry pie!
I drove 5 hours from my home to where I would park and start hiking. When I got there in the early afternoon under warm, wind free, sunny skys I was a little annoyed at all the vehicles I drove past. It was archery deer hunters I was guessing mostly and perhaps some huckleberry pickers. The huckleberry crop seemed to be the best that I could remember, not being a regular to this place. I packed a gallon of water with me knowing I would find little or none. I hiked up a mountain and along a ridgeline mostly at timberline and the berries were everywhere. I set up camp about 3 1/2 miles in. Then I hiked the last bit with my gun to an overlook where I shot my first bear 22 years ago. It was a beautiful setting! And I saw no one at all on my way in, so I had the place all to myself!
I think the near full moon played a part in why I did not see any deer or bear that evening. I wasn't too disappointed though since the idea of packing a bear out of a hole in the dark didn't excite me that much.
The following morning I awoke about 45 minutes before sunrise and scrambled out of my tent. I quickly ate some granola bars and hiked a short distance to my overlook and immediately spotted 3 bears in my binoculars. The closest one was over a half mile around the basin on the opposite side and the two others were even further. None were below me in the bowl where I took a stand. I quickly memorized the big dead tree to the left of the bear and started hiking around the basin staying as high as possible and out of sight. When I got around the sun had just illuminated the area where the bear was and I could not locate it. I went beyond that bear to the other two I saw and they were also gone. It seems that they head for cover as soon as the sun comes out. I decided to hike over the next ridge after that and get to where I could find some more slopes that the sun hadn't got to yet. I was about 1 1/2 miles beyond my camp when I spotted 3 more bears. One of the bears (closest one) was slowly working its way down into the timber maybe 10 minutes ahead of the sunshine. I quickly started getting closer and I could only get glimpses of it through the trees in my rangefinder. I kept fiddling with my sight settings as I got closer and finally just set it for 100 yards since I eventually lost sight of it. Then I just still hunted down the timber where I last saw it and then heard a scratching sound so I froze. A few seconds later I saw the bear walking towards me at an angle so I quickly aimed through an opening in the dead branches and shot it. The bear (est 175 -200lbs) went about 50 yards and I shot it behind the front shoulder facing me and it came out in front of the back opposite rear leg.
Three grueling hours later I packed that bear (boned out meat) out of a hole 500 feet down the 1 1/2 - 2 miles back to my tent. I was now out of water! I dreaded the idea of attempting to hike all the way back to the truck with the bear and camp and realized I need to put the meat in the shade and hike down 500 feet or so and get another gallon of water. So thats what I did, but it was closer to 1000 ft. That night it rained and was really windy, but morning was quiet and beautiful.
I packed up camp.
Put everything in my pack (it worked pretty well!).
And huffed the last 3 1/2 miles back to the truck. So no bears that day. I brought provisions to make a pie back at the truck but I was hungry and too tired to stay any longer so I picked some huckleberries and took them home with me.
I rendered some of the fat in a little pan.
Made a fresh huckleberry pie (small one)
Put it in a dutch oven.
Cooked it for 1 hour with 7 briquets on the bottom and nine on top
And it came out perfect! The crust was fantastic! Rich and buttery without any animal taste. Better than a crisco crust pie.
Hope it was worth reading. The load was a 0.325" meplat 540 grain (20:1 lead:tin) bullet of my own design with 93 gr swiss 1 1/2 fg +.060 wad, homemade lube, br2 primer, Starline stretched 45-110 brass.
Mike
