Flashback Friday

We were just at the OIHA camp in Pefferlaw Ontario. It was not very far from where I shot my bear on September 7, 2000 around 8:00 p.m. If you would head north from Cedarvale Camp on highway 48 around the east side of Lake Simcoe, in about an hour and a half, you would arrive at a town called Minden. Just east of Minden about 30 minutes in the Haliburton Highlands I met up with this 500 lb black bear. It was the largest bear the guide had ever produced for a hunter. I was very blessed and very pleased. I had watched the bear that Thursday morning after passing up two smaller bears on Tuesday and Wednesday evening. He made a sad mistake by coming back through that night. I heard him coming in about 10 minutes before he arrived. The rest is great tasting history.

Interesting story about the shot. Not only do I have an odd collection of cartridges cases from every deer taken since 1985, but I could not resist keeping the mushroomed bullet from this bear. The only problem with receiving my bullet from the meat cutter in a nice plastic envelope was the question of how this bullet got in the bear.
Before you start thinking smart comments let me explain. I was ready for the bear. It appeared about 15 yards from me and with one squeeze of the trigger the Remington 180 grain Core-Lokt bullet made its pass through the bear just behind the front shoulder. The bear dropped to the ground and started spinning while letting out the bear death wail. If you never have heard it, feel yourself to be blessed. It is hair raising and sad in a way. As the bear took off after its last revolution it took out on a run. I dropped my camera and snapped the 06' back in to place and squeezed off another shot. This shot had presumably missed. When we removed the entrails I found only two holes one in on the left side and one out on the right. They were both right behind the shoulders. The second shot I presumed had missed.

After receiving the mushroomed bullet from the meat cutter, I quickly called Daryl Muir taxidermist extraordinaire. He had the hide soaking in a tanning solution and he examined the cape. Yes - there were two holes in on the right and out on the left. An experienced hunter or taxidermist easily understand that a bullet enters and makes a small hole and as it expands it makes a larger one on exit. The problem was that I had shot it on the opposite side. I called the meat cutter and asked exactly where the mushroomed bullet had been found. Buried deep into the right front shoulder. I called back to Daryl who examined once again the holes and found that the hole on the left side was shaped irregular. Only then did close examination reveal that both shots had passed through the exact same spot making an odd shaped opening.

And now you know the rest of the story.