Trip to the Taxidermist

Last year, with a lot of help, I was able to harvest a bear. It took a village for sure with my disability but it was on the bucket list and got filled. I was gone over the winter living closer to my kids and so the taxidermist had the skin over the winter. He had bleached the skull and I had that with me and he worked on the rug off and on while I was gone.

The taxidermist I use is Keith Daniels of rural Monte Vista and he is excellent on all of his work. THE DETAILS are superb and he is a great guy to work with. While not cheap, his prices are well within the norm and I would recommend him to anyone with a trophy.  

I will get some pics of the rug tomorrow and post them on here. The one I did post is the skull that he bleached. That is a trophy in and of itself to a hunter. We ate the entire bear and honestly don't believe I have ever had that mild tasting wild game meat ever. Its better than elk, deer, pronghorn and moose for sure.  

The key here was that about 20 guys showed up after the kill and hauled it out for me and had it skinned out within 2 hours. Fast cool down of the meat is probably the key. That and this bear had no body fat on it. It was a dry female bear without cubs and the game warden said it was past cub bearing age. More on this tomorrow as I will look up her age from the tag and genetics testing they did.  

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Skull from 2012