My Son Got His 1st Michigan Bear

[Rhino Hunter]

My son is 22 and will be graduating from Michigan Technoligical University this fall w/ a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering. For those of you not familiar with MTU it's one of the best engineering schools in the Midwest located in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It's 550 miles from our home in SE Michigan.

So for an early college graduation present I decided to buy him a guided bear hunt. I also took this opportunity to add to my gun collection. I purchased a Ruger Gunsite Scout in .450 Bushmaster and topped it off with a Leupold VX-R 1.25-4 Red Dot scope. Accurately placing black crosshairs on a black animal in the dark woods can be difficult.

I was with him during the hunt as a paying spectator. LOL.

On the 4th day of a 5 day hunt we were able to get on a real nice bear. With one shot from the .450 BM it dropped in his tracks. It was a close shot (I know this is a LR Forum). I couldn't be prouder.

In Michigan the average adult male black bear weighs 150-200 pounds, and it takes multiple years to build enough points to draw a tag. His bear weighed 457 pounds live weight. It was a "Monster" for Michigan. There is a mandatory 24 hour check-in for the successful hunters here. The DNR officer said to him "Son, this is the bear of a lifetime. If you hunted every year for the rest of your life you'd probably never even see another bear this big." You should have seen my boy smile when he heard that!

After the hunt he told me "Dad, I think I'm hooked on big game hunting now." Perfect!

 

[HARPERC]

Big bears are where it's at. Tough to duplicate whatever technique one uses.

 

[Capt RB]

Great to see you get a nice mature animal! Did they age him for you? Thanks for sharing.

 

[Rhino Hunter]

Great to see you get a nice mature animal! Did they age him for you? Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

The MI DNR pulled a tooth, and will have the age available in April. Not sure why it takes (7) months though. Must be our tax dollars hard at work. LOL. The DNR Office guessed him to be around 15 years old.

 

[Capt RB]

He looked like a teens bear with the broken teeth. Did you green score him? Looks like he should make the book

 

[nmbarta]

Nice bear!!
I wonder how he'll eat?
Do you guys have to eat them over there?

 

[Rick Richard]

Nice bear. Congrats on a fine old trophy.

 

[Country Bumpkin]

How, tremendous bear, those gnarly teeth are really cool. Well done to both of you.

 

[Rhino Hunter]

He looked like a teens bear with the broken teeth. Did you green score him? Looks like he should make the book

We haven't yet, but we will.

Nice bear!!
I wonder how he'll eat?
Do you guys have to eat them over there?

I'm not sure if we "have to" or not, but I did get the meat processed. We'll probably keep the backstraps and tenderloins and make breakfast and summer sausage out of the rest.

 

[Barrelnut]

That's a BEAR! Old too, with broken down and worn down teeth like that. Would be interesting to know how old he is.
Congratulations.

 

[Wayne allen]

It's tough hunting black bears and it's really tough to get a big one. Congratulations!

 

[Rhino Hunter]

He looked like a teens bear with the broken teeth. Did you green score him? Looks like he should make the book

I just called my taxidermist and asked her to score him. She said he's 19-12/16", and she thinks he's around 18 years old. The MI state record book (CBM) minimum is 18".

 

[Capt RB]

That's awesome. Hope you son understands he has to top that next year lol

 

[Rhino Hunter]

That's awesome. Hope you son understands he has to top that next year lol

HA! I don't think he does. But his brother who's two years younger has already said he wants to go Grizzly hunting when he graduates college to shoot one bigger than his brother. LOL. I don't think my pocket book is big enough for that. "IF" anybody is going Grizzly hunting on my dime it's gonna be me! LOL.