The rug will probly be hung on the living room wall, or on the floor. The skull is mounted on a nice oak plaque so I can hang that on a wall as well. The t.v. shoot I had to cancel because I just did not have the funds or time to practice the way I needed to practice. It's already done and over with. Only 3 people hit the t.v. this time. I was actually going after a 4 point buck when I shot this bear. I was walking along a ridge and heard something on the other side of the canyon. I knew it was an elk or bear by how much noise it was making. The other side was very brushy. I started kickin rocks down the mountain to get whatever it was runnin. As it was running up the mountain, all I could see was the little trees and bushes moving from where the animal was. I kept my sights on the moving bushes and trees untill it came to just a clearing that I could make out that it was a bear indeed and to get 1 shot off. The range was 250 yards. The bear was running though. I was sitting resting on my knees. Not exactly the perfect shot, but I made it count. The shot entered behind the shoulder putting the big bear down almost instantly. I shot him with my then new .300 RUM and the 200g SMK. The bullet did not fully exit, but made it 3/4 and destroying the vitals. Biggest part of bullet recovered weighed 40g's. Not so good weight retention, but the bears dead and I think the bullet did its job ok. Only problem was this now. It was about 20 minutes before dark was near. I will admit to not like walking in on places where I know there is a bear. This was no exception. I was by myself which made it even worse. I made my way across and trekked around in that jungle untill about the last minute of daylight. I finally stumbled upon the bear, but when I found him, I was walking to the front of the bear. With so much adrenaline and beind ready, as soon as I saw that big bear and that I was approaching him from the front, I put another bullet in him for good measure. I could not believe how big he was. I had shot another black bear with my 25-06 a couple years back and it literally looked half the size. I knew right away I had a big bear on my hands. I could not even roll him over by myself. That bear could not have ended up in a worse spot then it did. Little did I know I had the real work cut out for me ahead. With just my dad and I and the bear, we were playing hell trying to cape it out for the rug and this and that in the dark, on a steep hillside, huge bear, it was just not working out. We were so tired from trying to manuever that bear on the steep hillside that we were starting to feel sick and weak. We finally had to climb out and drive home, call 3 of my friends at 2 in the morning to have them help us get it out. We finally got the bear out around 6 or 7 the next morning. We worked continuously all through the night on that bear. It was a lot of hard work at the time, but to think back it was all worth it becasue I knew I had a record bear.
