PA bear hunting

[birddog 68]

his big bear is a full mount , I think it weighed in the 500's , it's big in his house .

I would need to move to a bigger house!
And I would be moving if my wife seen the taxidermist bill for that. lol

 

[yobuck]

I'm not a bear hunter , my buddy is . he hunts with a gang that drive all season . they do kill bear every season . my buddy hunted something like 20 years and never got one . he got one two years in a row . the one year him and his son both got one . his son got the triple trophy that year . my Buddy uses a 35 Whelen , his son a 30.06 . he has a rug made out of one , and his big bear is a full mount , I think it weighed in the 500's , it's big in his house .


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Jim lives in a very good area for bears, so it stands to reason he would have friends who have gotten them.

We had a camp in Clearfield county at one time.
At least we thought we did.
But about 10 years ago i was driving down that road past the location our old camp had been, and i saw a new post in the ground next to the road.
On one side it said Cameron county, and the opposite said Clearfield county.
So as it turns out our camp was in Cameron county, not Clearfield.
An even bigger surprise came on a later trip.
There was a DCNR vehicle parked there, and i stopped to ask about the sign. He said oh yes, they recently did a new GPS survey of this whole area.
I then said well when i was a young guy, we had a camp right over there about 400 yards.
And we were told by the local forestry guy that we were in Clearfield county when we leased the land for the camp.
He just stared at me for a minit and said i never knew there were any camps in this area.
I then told him that there were more than 300 camps and homes involved in the scandal that ultimately became Quehanna.
But mind you, this guy was a DCNR employee, who knew nothing about it.

 

[yobuck]

I would need to move to a bigger house!
And I would be moving if my wife seen the taxidermist bill for that. lol

When i got my bear my son took it home with him, as i was staying on at our camp thru the deer season.
He took it to a very good butcher shop, where they skinned and butchered it.
He then took the hide to a taxidermist he had used on a deer head mount.
The guy was no doubt very good, and nobody knew that more than he did.
He sent the hide out to be tanned, and i paid him for that.
But he wanted $2000 more for the full mount, and i wasent ready to pay that.
So the hide sat for several years, just tanned.
My other son ran into a different taxidermist at a show of some type.
And he mentioned my having the bear, and that i would like to have it mounted.
The guy told him that he would like to do the job.
A few weeks later a vehicle pulled into our camp, it was this young guy who was the taxidermist.
He wanted to see where i wanted to locate the bear mount.
I told him we were thinking about a large thick live edge wood shelf in a corner above a chair, so the chair could remain under it and be used.
We have a high vaulted ceiling in the room, so there was no height issues for the bear mount on the shelf.
We used a small tree fastened to a ceiling beam to support the outer corner of the shelf.
He suggested a dead mossy stump be placed on the shelf with one of the bears front legs on top of it.
He has his head turned as if he has been alerted by something.
He did a remarkable job, we couldnt be more pleased with it.
His reason for the 100 mile trip each way, was to see the location the mount would be, and offer his opinions.
His fee for the job was $1000.
So the total cost including the tanning was about $1500.
And i no doubt paid a bit more for the tanning.
At that time 1200 to 1500 was pretty much the going rate for that work including tanning.

 

[birddog 68]

When i got my bear my son took it home with him, as i was staying on at our camp thru the deer season.
He took it to a very good butcher shop, where they skinned and butchered it.
He then took the hide to a taxidermist he had used on a deer head mount.
The guy was no doubt very good, and nobody knew that more than he did.
He sent the hide out to be tanned, and i paid him for that.
But he wanted $2000 more for the full mount, and i wasent ready to pay that.
So the hide sat for several years, just tanned.
My other son ran into a different taxidermist at a show of some type.
And he mentioned my having the bear, and that i would like to have it mounted.
The guy told him that he would like to do the job.
A few weeks later a vehicle pulled into our camp, it was this young guy who was the taxidermist.
He wanted to see where i wanted to locate the bear mount.
I told him we were thinking about a large thick live edge wood shelf in a corner above a chair, so the chair could remain under it and be used.
We have a high vaulted ceiling in the room, so there was no height issues for the bear mount on the shelf.
We used a small tree fastened to a ceiling beam to support the outer corner of the shelf.
He suggested a dead mossy stump be placed on the shelf with one of the bears front legs on top of it.
He has his head turned as if he has been alerted by something.
He did a remarkable job, we couldnt be more pleased with it.
His reason for the 100 mile trip each way, was to see the location the mount would be, and offer his opinions.
His fee for the job was $1000.
So the total cost including the tanning was about $1500.
And i no doubt paid a bit more for the tanning.
At that time 1200 to 1500 was pretty much the going rate for that work including tanning.

I always love it when someone goes above and beyond to make sure that you will be happy with their work and it sounds like that's exactly what you got! And I would guess that, that is a very good price seeing that the last shoulder mount deer I had done was about $1000

 

[yobuck]

I always love it when someone goes above and beyond to make sure that you will be happy with their work and it sounds like that's exactly what you got! And I would guess that, that is a very good price seeing that the last shoulder mount deer I had done was about $1000

I havent personally had any deer heads mounted in a very long time.
But others in our camp have had them done, the most recent was just over a year ago.
And im sure it was considerably less than that.
Look up the name Cliff Cessna, Taxidermist.
He would be located not far from Dubois PA.
He is about as good as it gets in my opinion.
He is not the guy who did my bear however.

 

[jimbires]

+1 on Cessna taxidermy . I've never heard anything bad about him , and his work .

 

[jimbires]

I have a few bear on camera , one is a good one . I've been thinking about buying a license just incase he happens by while I'm out hunting . I didn't get the date set on this camera . it would have been the week of June 21 - 28 . I talk myself out of buying the license by thinking , if I shot him I'd have to do something with him , I have no desire for a bear mount , and I live in a small house .

 

[CMP70306]

When i got my bear my son took it home with him, as i was staying on at our camp thru the deer season.
He took it to a very good butcher shop, where they skinned and butchered it.
He then took the hide to a taxidermist he had used on a deer head mount.
The guy was no doubt very good, and nobody knew that more than he did.
He sent the hide out to be tanned, and i paid him for that.
But he wanted $2000 more for the full mount, and i wasent ready to pay that.
So the hide sat for several years, just tanned.
My other son ran into a different taxidermist at a show of some type.
And he mentioned my having the bear, and that i would like to have it mounted.
The guy told him that he would like to do the job.
A few weeks later a vehicle pulled into our camp, it was this young guy who was the taxidermist.
He wanted to see where i wanted to locate the bear mount.
I told him we were thinking about a large thick live edge wood shelf in a corner above a chair, so the chair could remain under it and be used.
We have a high vaulted ceiling in the room, so there was no height issues for the bear mount on the shelf.
We used a small tree fastened to a ceiling beam to support the outer corner of the shelf.
He suggested a dead mossy stump be placed on the shelf with one of the bears front legs on top of it.
He has his head turned as if he has been alerted by something.
He did a remarkable job, we couldnt be more pleased with it.
His reason for the 100 mile trip each way, was to see the location the mount would be, and offer his opinions.
His fee for the job was $1000.
So the total cost including the tanning was about $1500.
And i no doubt paid a bit more for the tanning.
At that time 1200 to 1500 was pretty much the going rate for that work including tanning.

I always love it when someone goes above and beyond to make sure that you will be happy with their work and it sounds like that's exactly what you got! And I would guess that, that is a very good price seeing that the last shoulder mount deer I had done was about $1000

My rug was $1100 but I'm sure it's much more expensive now as I was talking with the taxidermist and he said his costs skyrocketed after COVID. He told me in 2021 he sent two tanned hides out to get stitched into rugs which costs him the usual $200 each plus $100 to cover shipping. The lady who he sent them to called back and told him he was $400 short so the rug portion alone costs him $450 alone now.

He did a buck for me last year that is my second biggest to date, cost me $760 and he had it done in April. We much prefer his mounts to ones we have done in the past.

 

[birddog 68]

My rug was $1100 but I'm sure it's much more expensive now as I was talking with the taxidermist and he said his costs skyrocketed after COVID. He told me in 2021 he sent two tanned hides out to get stitched into rugs which costs him the usual $200 each plus $100 to cover shipping. The lady who he sent them to called back and told him he was $400 short so the rug portion alone costs him $450 alone now.

He did a buck for me last year that is my second biggest to date, cost me $760 and he had it done in April. We much prefer his mounts to ones we have done in the past.

View attachment 478802

Very nice! Was this a Pa buck?

 

[yobuck]

Well there will always be those of us who are shall we say,
more proud of our work than others are.
But it is also good to look around you at times as well,
and allow reality to get involved. lol

 

[CMP70306]

Very nice! Was this a Pa buck?

Yup, I've only ever hunted whitetails in one small area of PA and don't plan to hunt them anywhere else.

 

[birddog 68]

Yup, I've only ever hunted whitetails in one small area of PA and don't plan to hunt them anywhere else.

Results don't lie!

 

[std7mag]

I've hunted bear in the Quehanna area for 4 years now.
Shot 2.
Able to claim none.
First one made it back to it's den.
Tracked it over 2 miles in a huge winding circle.
Second was shot at about 100 yards away.
It ran the 30 yards through the brush into the next field. Where 6 hunters were just coming in and see this bear. And proceed to unload on it!
Bear was hit 9 more times.
Walking up to it, one guy proceeded to shoot it coupe de gras from 15 yards with his 06'.

Both bears came in to fawn bleats.
A female elk call has brought them in also.

 

[birddog 68]

That's a good ratio for seeing bears.
We were looking at going hunting near Dubois which I believe is just west of the area you hunt. We decided to stay a little closer to home and hunt Venango county.
Very interesting about the fawn bleats. I will definitely put a call in my pack.