Bear grease

[56 kodiak shooter]

Is there a right way to render bear fat down or what is the wrong way thank

[smylee grouch]

A lot of people use a double boiler, some a crock pot, enamel roaster, or cast iron dutch oven to name a few. Use low heat

[bob in the woods]

Use low heat. Don't burn it.  Once I get the first cooking done, I put off the oil/grease , and then recook it with water. Then let it cool.  The impurities will sink and collect in the water and the good pure oil will float to the top.  The very best will be right on top and the grease under it. Depending on the batch I might do this twice. 

[Osprey]

I don't know if it was right or wrong, but my last bear I used a Fry Daddy.  Scooped off the cracklings as it cooked, poured off the oil as the pot filled.  All cooled into a nice white grease/lard.  Started with a five gallon bucket of fat and got 12 qts of grease.  Gave another 5 gallon bucket to a buddy and we didn't really scrape every bit of fat off the bear we could.  354lb fall sow, she was full as a tick from feasting on corn and acorns.

Was great for baking and frying, but I had mixed results as patch lube.  Some rifles loved it, but the main rifle I shoot in matches hated it, threw shots all over.  Almost seemed like it was too slippery, like the patches wouldn't grip the rifling.  Same gun shot great with everything else.   

I will say it was great fun to slap a handful on your friends range rod during a match!   

[Curtis]

I will say it was great fun to slap a handful on your friends range rod during a match!   

   Now that is just FUNNY!!! Thanks for the laugh Osprey!! 

Curtis

[MTGUNNER]

I like your signature block, Curtis 

[Daryl]

Here's a lot of bear grease.
Ontario Bear shot from a tree stand.
Noted as being an 800pound bear.
Then, I saw this:
"After field dressing, the bear weighed 803.9 pounds. Some of the meat and fat were donated to locals, and the rest of the meat is at the processor. The hide and skull are at a taxidermist near Toronto, where a full-body mount of the bear will be made. The 60-day drying period must pass before an official score of the bear’s skull can be determined, which is how trophy black bears are scored and ranked."

[utseabee]

Here's a lot of bear grease.
Ontario Bear shot from a tree stand.
Noted as being an 800pound bear.
Then, I saw this:
"After field dressing, the bear weighed 803.9 pounds. Some of the meat and fat were donated to locals, and the rest of the meat is at the processor. The hide and skull are at a taxidermist near Toronto, where a full-body mount of the bear will be made. The 60-day drying period must pass before an official score of the bear’s skull can be determined, which is how trophy black bears are scored and ranked."

Lots of bear grase there!

[Scota4570]

I recently rendered venison fat into tallow.  I buzzed the fat up in the food processor.  I then put in a pot with water.  After cooking it awhile, I skimmed off the liquid fat.  It worked great and made very clean white tallow. 

IF I had a lot to do I'd get a gravy separator to decant the water from the tallow.  Bear oil would need to be chilled to make it set up.  Using water makes it impossible to burn the fat.  Water would pull out salt.  It was pointed out that letting the tallow set up in an inverted mason jar makes removing the last bits of water and residue easy. 

[Curtis]

I like your signature block, Curtis 

Tks MTGUNNER!  Just call me a quiet rebel, lol!

Curtis

[577SXS]

That bear ate a lot of Honey Buns for sure. Hard to believe that was dressed weight. Here in NC we had the world record Black bear at 885 lbs whole so I guess it's no longer the record. At the price of bear grease you could get rich shooting a big fat bear.

[Daryl]

I am guessing that bear was weighed with only the guts removed.
Certainly is a porker.
Seems to me, for Boone and Crocket, the black bear skull needs to exceed 20" wide, zygotic arch to zygotic arch (width).
Buddy Keith's wife has one in the book.

[Daryl]

That bear ate a lot of Honey Buns for sure. Hard to believe that was dressed weight. Here in NC we had the world record Black bear at 885 lbs whole so I guess it's no longer the record. At the price of bear grease you could get rich shooting a big fat bear.

There was a black bear shot (saw pictures) on Graham Island on the then Queen Charlotte Islands of BC, now Haida Gwaii, that ran 875 or 885lbs. on a logging camp's beam scale, up in the Jescatla logging area.
I saw one black bear rug that was almost 9 feet, at a fellow's house in Masset, on Graham Island. That would have been mid 70's & a huge bear, never measured. As far as black bears go, book records are skull measurements.
I've heard of the extra large bears of Pennsylvania, weighing in over 800pounds, every fall. No reason why North Carolina down through Florida wouldn't have them too.
The black bears of the islands are out-sized, compared to the inland bears.
There, they eat salmon, shell fish and runty deer all year long, as well as  the lush vegetation.

[okawbow]

Too bad this is not the real thing. My wife bought this at a thrift store. Was full and unused.

[Daryl]

One of the loggers in the Smithers area, back in the later 1970's, told me he use (hoary) marmot oil for waterproofing his boots.
He simply bagged the  fat and froze it. When needed, he's pull out a bag of it and run the fat into his boots.
I rendered some down for patch lube, used fairly low heat and it worked very well indeed.  To get the oil off my hands and fingers,
took a minimum of 2 washings with dish soap to cut through the oil. I found WD40 worked even better to cut through it on the hands
then washed with dish soap.
I suspect late season ground hog fat might be similar.