Bear fat is by far the worst. That said, I've used a havalon exclusively on dozens of bears and never had a problem switching blades in the field. (If boning out and saving the cape, I usually use 2 blades per bear)
Around mid 50's to 60 (35ish nights).That's packed in the mountains scouting or hunting big game. (I don't count turkeys or fowl). Usually I have much more but I had a few first day kills as well as having a kid/building my house really killed my spring and summer scouting.
I have a couple questions that if you could answer, would help steer you in a better direction:
Spring or fall?
Trophy expectations (how big of bear do you want?)
Your physical conditioning as well as mountain/backpack hunting experience?
Are you willing to backpack hunt or do you want to...
Is the deer dead? Yes! Obvouisly pyro felt he was in control of the situation and could send a well placed round down range if things went bad (he Proved that by the way).It's really easy to sit back and armchair. Hunting is what you make of it, if you want to be 10 yards or a 1000 yard it...
If you want it rugged or mounted, I'd just leave them (both head and paw) in...it's not a bunch of weight and some things aren't worth risking unless you know what your doing. If you want specific help pm me your info and I'll talk you through it. As far as temps are concerned, your good to go...
Ryan, if that's chili on the stove, is suggest not giving it to Aron. You know what will happen if you disrupt his digestive system. It's your call,you've got to sleep with him in a tipi.
I agree with all of you for the most part, my only real hesitation is matching the kicker closely enough to do it justice (it's really hard to find an exact match tine with a 90' turn in it.
I'll get pics up soon..... They are on my camera and I've been in the woods a bunch and haven't been...
I was fortunate enough to wack a really solid buck last weekend (story and pics coming soon...it's a bit long winded). Unfortunately, after the shot he rolled down a rokslide and broke a very cool cheater off his left antler. I couldn't find the broken tine and was rushing to beat the heat. I...