Finally got my first North GA Black Bear!

dwhee87

dwhee87

GON Political Forum Scientific Studies Poster
Appreciate the story,and congrats on a fine bruin!
 
Jason C

Jason C

Senior Member
awesome, i to have been tring to gert one for at least a decade.. I hit oone with my bow bt cold not find him. Great story my friend congrats
 
ripplerider

ripplerider

Senior Member
There's nothing like seeing a bear in the deep woods for the first time. I've seen a bunch and I can still recall details from every encounter I've had with one, in the woods at least.
 
Dsherrer711

Dsherrer711

Member
ripplerider said:
Great bear! How'd he eat? I wish I had him in my freezer!
Click to expand...
Well unfortunately I did not get to keep the meat from this bear and it’s a dang shame because I have been waiting for years to try bear meat.. and never intend on killing any animal and not making use of the meat.

This is something I was unaware of at the time and maybe could help others in the future that I probably should have already mentioned in my original post.

The DNR check stations that check bears ARE NOT OPEN ON THE WEEKENDS!

I had to let my bear lay overnight because of the marginal shot I made shooting lefty.. but it was 45 degrees that night and he died in the creek. I had him found and in the truck by 9 AM the next morning and had full intentions of keeping every bit of the meat at that time. Knowing I wanted to get a rug made as well though, and not being confident on how to cape him properly for a rug, I decided to wait until I could pay the taxidermist to gut and cape him for me so I could learn. I immediately started calling around to the nearest check stations and it went to voicemail on every place I tried. I then tried other 1-800 numbers and then the Ranger hotline and finally got a woman that had no clue how to help me, and told me what I already knew (that the check stations didn’t open til Monday). So I asked her if she could get me a game warden or someone else that could possibly meet me somewhere to do it. We’ll long story long, I finally got a call back from a woman hours later after waiting around at 1-2PM and she informed of the taxidermist we cooperators that could tag him for me. I am now aware this is available online, but I looked at the exact webpage this link is listed on several times that day and did not notice it. The woman on the 1800 DNR number that I first called did not mention this option at all.

By the time I got him 45 minutes away to Bill Collins in Talking Rock, the temps were back into the 70s and the flies and Yellowjacket’s were all over him. The gut shot part didn’t help either, so after getting Mr Collins opinion we decided the meat was unsafe at that point to risk eating. Flies were all inside it’s mouth and all over the gunshot wounds and it had been bout 14-15 hours since he was shot at that point.

Hindsight is 20/20 but yes I definitely should have just studied a few YouTube videos and at least gutted the bear myself and next time I absolutely will.. but I never thought it would be that hard to get the bear tagged and figured the DNR check stations were definitely open on weekends when everyone is actually hunting. My fault at the end of the day and I’m not blaming anyone else but hopefully this will help others in the future.

Here is the link to the taxidermist cooperators that can check bears in when the DNR check stations are not available:

 
splatek

splatek

UAEC
Dsherrer711 said:
Well unfortunately I did not get to keep the meat from this bear and it’s a dang shame because I have been waiting for years to try bear meat.. and never intend on killing any animal and not making use of the meat.

This is something I was unaware of at the time and maybe could help others in the future that I probably should have already mentioned in my original post.

The DNR check stations that check bears ARE NOT OPEN ON THE WEEKENDS!

I had to let my bear lay overnight because of the marginal shot I made shooting lefty.. but it was 45 degrees that night and he died in the creek. I had him found and in the truck by 9 AM the next morning and had full intentions of keeping every bit of the meat at that time. Knowing I wanted to get a rug made as well though, and not being confident on how to cape him properly for a rug, I decided to wait until I could pay the taxidermist to gut and cape him for me so I could learn. I immediately started calling around to the nearest check stations and it went to voicemail on every place I tried. I then tried other 1-800 numbers and then the Ranger hotline and finally got a woman that had no clue how to help me, and told me what I already knew (that the check stations didn’t open til Monday). So I asked her if she could get me a game warden or someone else that could possibly meet me somewhere to do it. We’ll long story long, I finally got a call back from a woman hours later after waiting around at 1-2PM and she informed of the taxidermist we cooperators that could tag him for me. I am now aware this is available online, but I looked at the exact webpage this link is listed on several times that day and did not notice it. The woman on the 1800 DNR number that I first called did not mention this option at all.

By the time I got him 45 minutes away to Bill Collins in Talking Rock, the temps were back into the 70s and the flies and Yellowjacket’s were all over him. The gut shot part didn’t help either, so after getting Mr Collins opinion we decided the meat was unsafe at that point to risk eating. Flies were all inside it’s mouth and all over the gunshot wounds and it had been bout 14-15 hours since he was shot at that point.

Hindsight is 20/20 but yes I definitely should have just studied a few YouTube videos and at least gutted the bear myself and next time I absolutely will.. but I never thought it would be that hard to get the bear tagged and figured the DNR check stations were definitely open on weekends when everyone is actually hunting. My fault at the end of the day and I’m not blaming anyone else but hopefully this will help others in the future.

Here is the link to the taxidermist cooperators that can check bears in when the DNR check stations are not available:

Click to expand...

Did you drag it out?
 
S

Swampdogg

Senior Member
Dsherrer711 said:
Well unfortunately I did not get to keep the meat from this bear and it’s a dang shame because I have been waiting for years to try bear meat.. and never intend on killing any animal and not making use of the meat.

This is something I was unaware of at the time and maybe could help others in the future that I probably should have already mentioned in my original post.

The DNR check stations that check bears ARE NOT OPEN ON THE WEEKENDS!

I had to let my bear lay overnight because of the marginal shot I made shooting lefty.. but it was 45 degrees that night and he died in the creek. I had him found and in the truck by 9 AM the next morning and had full intentions of keeping every bit of the meat at that time. Knowing I wanted to get a rug made as well though, and not being confident on how to cape him properly for a rug, I decided to wait until I could pay the taxidermist to gut and cape him for me so I could learn. I immediately started calling around to the nearest check stations and it went to voicemail on every place I tried. I then tried other 1-800 numbers and then the Ranger hotline and finally got a woman that had no clue how to help me, and told me what I already knew (that the check stations didn’t open til Monday). So I asked her if she could get me a game warden or someone else that could possibly meet me somewhere to do it. We’ll long story long, I finally got a call back from a woman hours later after waiting around at 1-2PM and she informed of the taxidermist we cooperators that could tag him for me. I am now aware this is available online, but I looked at the exact webpage this link is listed on several times that day and did not notice it. The woman on the 1800 DNR number that I first called did not mention this option at all.

By the time I got him 45 minutes away to Bill Collins in Talking Rock, the temps were back into the 70s and the flies and Yellowjacket’s were all over him. The gut shot part didn’t help either, so after getting Mr Collins opinion we decided the meat was unsafe at that point to risk eating. Flies were all inside it’s mouth and all over the gunshot wounds and it had been bout 14-15 hours since he was shot at that point.

Hindsight is 20/20 but yes I definitely should have just studied a few YouTube videos and at least gutted the bear myself and next time I absolutely will.. but I never thought it would be that hard to get the bear tagged and figured the DNR check stations were definitely open on weekends when everyone is actually hunting. My fault at the end of the day and I’m not blaming anyone else but hopefully this will help others in the future.

Here is the link to the taxidermist cooperators that can check bears in when the DNR check stations are not available:

Click to expand...
Sorry to hear that on you 1st bear experience. I wouldn’t expect great results on the rug being that it sat for so long where slippage could occur. If not satisfied on how it turns out I can always turn a claw into a pendant for you.
 
Dsherrer711

Dsherrer711

Member
splatek said:
If you quartered and packed it then the meat would’ve been on ice and hide would’ve been better preserved
Also, dragging a bear sounds like a real “good time”
Click to expand...
Correct. Just wasn’t confident in caping out my first and potentially only bear, knowing I would be getting a rug made. Next time I will, as I paid the taxidermist to cape this one and teach me along the way.

Think the hide is going to be fine though. Taxidermist had no concern of hair slipping.

Dragging him out with 2 other men was certainly not the most efficient means of getting him out of the woods but dang sure a memory I’ll never forget
 
Dsherrer711

Dsherrer711

Member
Robust Redhorse said:
Just call 1-800-241-4113.

24/7, on-call, DNR bear taggers...
Click to expand...
This is the number I called immediately after loading my bear into the truck.

The hotline is 24/7 but the “DNR bear taggers” definitely are not

Operator told me the check stations were closed on weekends and I would have to wait until Monday morning, and she had zero knowledge of the approved cooperators unfortunately. I did not get word back from a Ranger with the info about the cooperators until a few hours later when the operator paged a Ranger to call me.
 
RovingCodeMonkey

RovingCodeMonkey

Member
Dsherrer711 said:
Well unfortunately I did not get to keep the meat from this bear and it’s a dang shame because I have been waiting for years to try bear meat.. and never intend on killing any animal and not making use of the meat.

This is something I was unaware of at the time and maybe could help others in the future that I probably should have already mentioned in my original post.

The DNR check stations that check bears ARE NOT OPEN ON THE WEEKENDS!

I had to let my bear lay overnight because of the marginal shot I made shooting lefty.. but it was 45 degrees that night and he died in the creek. I had him found and in the truck by 9 AM the next morning and had full intentions of keeping every bit of the meat at that time. Knowing I wanted to get a rug made as well though, and not being confident on how to cape him properly for a rug, I decided to wait until I could pay the taxidermist to gut and cape him for me so I could learn. I immediately started calling around to the nearest check stations and it went to voicemail on every place I tried. I then tried other 1-800 numbers and then the Ranger hotline and finally got a woman that had no clue how to help me, and told me what I already knew (that the check stations didn’t open til Monday). So I asked her if she could get me a game warden or someone else that could possibly meet me somewhere to do it. We’ll long story long, I finally got a call back from a woman hours later after waiting around at 1-2PM and she informed of the taxidermist we cooperators that could tag him for me. I am now aware this is available online, but I looked at the exact webpage this link is listed on several times that day and did not notice it. The woman on the 1800 DNR number that I first called did not mention this option at all.

By the time I got him 45 minutes away to Bill Collins in Talking Rock, the temps were back into the 70s and the flies and Yellowjacket’s were all over him. The gut shot part didn’t help either, so after getting Mr Collins opinion we decided the meat was unsafe at that point to risk eating. Flies were all inside it’s mouth and all over the gunshot wounds and it had been bout 14-15 hours since he was shot at that point.

Hindsight is 20/20 but yes I definitely should have just studied a few YouTube videos and at least gutted the bear myself and next time I absolutely will.. but I never thought it would be that hard to get the bear tagged and figured the DNR check stations were definitely open on weekends when everyone is actually hunting. My fault at the end of the day and I’m not blaming anyone else but hopefully this will help others in the future.

Here is the link to the taxidermist cooperators that can check bears in when the DNR check stations are not available:

Click to expand...
That's rough. I got my first black bear this year too, took the plunge and caped it out myself. It took me far longer than I'd like and probably wasn't perfect but after hearing your story I'm glad I did!

For next time i am definitely going to pay attention as to how you are supposed to do the legs/paws. getting the hide off and leaving the paws on was a HEADACHE.
 

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HardlyHangin

HardlyHangin

Senior Member
Charlie posted somewhere a list of professors that also can tag bears - steel buffalo in dawsonville being one that comes to mind. Usually they are open on weekends, and even if they are at capacity and not accepting kills they should be able to at least tag it for you.

Another option might be to take it too a wma check station with a hunt going on - obviously you didn't kill it at that hunt but the biologist there should be able to tag it for you all the same

Congrats on the bear, sorry for your meat loss.
 
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