My rugs are back from the 2003 fall season. Glen at Glen's Taxidermy in Cuba, Missouri did a really nice job on both bears, and gave me a great price. My favorite little Marine who is 4' 7" tall wants them both in her camoflaged bedroom, we are still negotiating. The black female was shot at 85 yards and weighed in at 340 lbs., the carmel colored male was shot at over 565 yards, and he weighed in around 300 lbs., quite a bit skinnier than the female.
I think a 200 PT boatail starting at 3,280 fps. caused "more strain than they could bare". Both animals dropped in their tracks. They were both shot quartering TOWARD me, the bullets easily bored through the near shoulder causing great fragmentation and devastating terminal results. The heart and lungs on both bears were goo, neither had an exit wound, they traveled a total distance of a leg length fall and a roll to the side.
