Comments, Thoughts and randomness that doesn't deserve its own thread

Had a good day with Harold. Haven't been shooting in over 3 years and I've had my pistol almost a year (I think) and just shot it for the first time today. He brought the big boy also so shot that as well. Only second time shooting that too. Targets were 10 yards for the 380 and 50 yards for the AR. Not too bad I don't think. Definitely need a rubber grip on mine though.

 

I mentioned a while back the neighbor gave me some Bear and deer parts..

I ended up trying to clean up the claws and Canines and holy cr@p did it do a number on my knives…

In the end I broke I think 2 scalpel blades and now my JG blade and my CR2.5 are dull dull dull….

I can’t explain exactly why it happened but the hide plus joints plus foot webbing as you can image was heavy duty stuff…

Now I just need to find a day to sit around and sharpen all my knives All day

 

I have a name day and got some awesome gifts from my wife and parents

 

I think we have about 8" of snow so far.
Charleston, WV

 

What dulled them up so bad, bone or teeth contact? Just wondering. Is there something I can learn from your experience?

 

@anomad

If I would have to guess it would be due to the extra thick skin on the paws.

I basically ended up doing the following
1st i split the webbing between the toes as far back as I could.
2nd I cut the hide around a finger to expose the 2nd joint from the claw.
3rd The joints were to tough to cut through so I had to use a pair of side cutters to separate the 2nd joint.
4th I rolled the remaining skin to the very back of the claw and carefully cut around the claw removing the skin.
5th to not damage the claw I had to carefully cut the claw away from the very front joint of the finger.

I ended up running out of time to carefully remove the last of the tissue so I bagged them and frozen them for another day. The one claw that I cleaned really well I had to do a lot of scrapping to get the rest off the tissue off.

I am trying to make them really nice looking for gifts to scouts and my neighbors so it’s going to take some time but I think the next claws I might have to scrape even gentler and then I’m going to buff really well and seal.

As far as the teeth the neighbor shot the bear straight through the head/ jaw ( dropped and died almost instantly) so I was working with a busted up skull and jaw to begin with. It is mandatory to submit a certain tooth which of course I couldn’t pull. So I ended up sawing the front of the upper and lower jaw off to submit to fish and game. The only teeth left I could salvage where the upper canines. I tried prying them out with no luck. Tried to cut them out with my knife with no luck. So I ended up sawing the top jaw and taking the teeth surrounded by the skull bone. I also froze them and will probably have to Dremel the skull bone away from the tooth when I get time.

All in all it was a lot of work and was as nasty as it sounds.. But I wasn’t going to waist anything if I didn’t have to.

 

Man the teeth will be hard to pull out for sure. Considering how hard it is for the dentist to pull out a human tooth, I imagine what a bears would be. Perhaps boiling can help, at least for the claws? To soften/ remove the remaining tissue that's holding them.
That's how one of my friends does his boar skulls, for easier tusk removal.

 

@Bozho
@anomad

I was going to create a tutorial about the tooth removal process but it got very graphic with the broken jaw so I stopped..

If you look directly below the scalpel blade, that tiny tooth is the one they expect you to pull and mail to them..

The scalpel if you can see Barely makes a dent even in the gums…

I think I might get away with boiling the teeth out of the skull pieces but I have read Multiple times not to boil the claws.

 

Another thing some guys here do is bury the skull in an ant pit (don't know if this is the word) and in a bit of time it's free from any meat/ tissue. Perhaps this could work with the paw, if it's done in warmer weather.

 

I see several videos on the 'tube about how to do it from various state wildlife agencies. Bear post mortum dentistry is probably going to get ugly... LOL I can imagine what you tried @RocketmanDane

 

Wife and I got Covid last weekend. Been a long two weeks sitting at home. I'm still coughing my head off and SO tired of it.

Today all I did was play minecraft with the girls from 9am till 8pm.

We had a great time in Gatlinburg for New Years though. It was a great time, axe throwing, escape rooms, mini golf and all the fun stuff. It was a lot of fun.

We're talking about building an axe target and getting some of the Cold Steel throwing axes for here at the house. Could be a good way to burn off some energy or a bad day.

 

We got a few inches of snow and winter weather here in Western North Carolina. I broke out some old White's pac boots and a warm coat I never let go of after living up in Alaska for my evening walk. Even though it was about as cold, snowy, and windy as it gets here I had everything unzipped and my hat off walking back up the hill. Ms. Nomad and I were joking that we should break out our snowshoes.

I think I need to find a new home for my cold weather gear.

Oh it was Ruby's first snow too. She did all the ridonkulous dog things seeing fresh snow for the first time.

 

@anomad

This system has been a PITA….

Started snowing about 6 hrs later then elsewhere… But still got 2 good inches.

By mid afternoon more then half had melted.. At dark it all started to freeze . By midnight it had refrozen and started snowing again.

This morning we had 2 fresh inches of snow BUT it was on top of the 2 inches from yesterday that mostly turned into ice..

It has been slowly snowing all day without much new accumulation.

The forecast for the week is pretty much melt, Refreeze and repeat… The. Possibly more snow starting Thursday.

 

someone has a pig problem

 

We never lost power and only go to town once a week or so anyway. So it's all good. We'll see what this next system has in store.

 

Love it when I can find some history on things. I'm trying to find the family but without an obituary it's going to be a chore. I got a WWII era mess tin from stayinsharp on here and it has the name White, Garland E inscribed with some numbers (that I'm trying to figure out) and after some research I found this guy. There is another with the same name in that era, but I haven't found any service records for him.

 

I had a big event at work today, it was the close of our open grant application period at 3pm. I'm coming down off the rush of an extended effort for the last month. This week has been especially fun. My ass may be permanently shaped like a chair and I see my headset microphone boom even when I'm not wearing it. LOL!