Bear hunt

Socalboarder · Aug 14, 2019

I plan on doing some archery bear hunting this year and was wondering what the procedure is after a successful hunt. I see that the pelt needs to be tagged within 5 days. Evidence of sex must be attached. My question is the skull portion. Do I need to skin the hide off the skull or can I bring in the hide with the skull still "intact"? I ask because I have never skinned an animal past the neck. I have always had the taxidermist do that so I don't screw up the face.

My plan was to skin the hide down to the wrists and head and let the taxidermist do the rest. Just want to know if that's still viable or if I'm going to need to learn to skin the skull.

Bowdeadly · Aug 14, 2019

Yes leave the skull, the game and fish needs to pull a tooth so you need to take it with you. Then take it to taxidermist asap or freeze.

Kooper1021 · Aug 15, 2019

You do not have to cape the head out. You will need to put a stick in its mouth to keep it open as G&F will need to pull a tooth for aging.

smarba · Aug 15, 2019

All good info thus far.

The reference to stick in the mouth is that the jaw muscles rigor, which makes it hard to pry open for NMGDF to take a tooth sample. It's just a way of helping them out by having the jaws open for easier access to a small rear molar.

I killed my first one last year and meat is delicious. Be sure to fully cook to avoid trichinosis worm though.

I did exactly as you describe, skin to each wrist, leave paws in the hide, skin up to the base of skull leave skull in the hide, keep it cool, get it checked by NMDGF, have taxidermist do the detail work.

Be sure you read the requirements for leaving proof of sex attached to the hide. It's not just the hide itself (which seems odd to me as that should be plenty of proof) but the internal genitalia also as described in the rule book.

Good luck!

Carl