bear fat

[watopeka]

i finally got my hands on some bear fat, will i need to ad something to the oil, will it go rancid if not keep in the fridge.This will be used for my patches , i have read that this is very good for patch lubriquant

 

[David W.]

You don't need to add anything to it at all. All you need to do is strain it. Bear oil has a very long shelf life.

 

[watopeka]

thanks flintlock, and if i ever decide to do some bore butter for my conicals, could i mixe it with some beeswax??

 

[Bill Hall]

The whole trick is to strain it very clean. I just used up the last of some bear oil I rendered in 2001. I kept it in a container on a shelf at room temperature. To the end, it was clear and had no odor. I think I strained it through some cheesecloth.

I used all of it mixed with beeswax, to make different thicknesses of lube. Works great. Bill

 

[rabjr]

The trick is to render just good clean fat. Clean all meat and any blood from it before rendering. Then strain good when rendering. You should just get a heavy grease smell and it should not go rancid if done right.

You can mix ratios of beeswax with it to make a bear grease if you wish. 60/40 bear oil/beeswax worked for me until I replaced the beeswax with rendered deer fat.

 

[Pete Gaimari]

Bear oil is not easy to find. If you didn't get a bear tag this year, and need some bear oil. Here's a source.

It's not cheap.
http://www.naturallist.com/bearfat.htm

 

[watopeka]

thank guy's
i have a few friends that hunt these critters so they have my name when they get some they will keep some of the fat.This has been a slow year for bear around here and they are skinnier than usual. Maybe if i am lucky i will get one of the fall bear

 

[pa woods roamer]

Makes an excellent Leather treatment also. I have some mixed 80/20, Bear Grease and Beeswax ratio and use it on my Shoes and Possible Pouch.

 

[shortbow]

Great to see his topic come up. I was wondering why I've read so little on it lately given the threads on lubes and leather dressing and all.

Around here, we have lots of bears, but my problem is that I don't like bear meat, plus I'm not too fussy on killing other predators. I do however have my name in with a couple of acquaintances.

With the price for the stuff in that link, maybe I ought to get back into bear hunting though. $14 and ounce?!!!! :youcrazy:

 

[Rifleman1776]

I have a couple ounces in a small jar my wife gave me years ago. Of all the various lubes I have experimented with over the years, I have never tried bear grease/oil. I haven't tried this only because it is so expensive. If I like it I'll have to spend money for more. Don't like that idea at all. :nono:

 

[Pete Gaimari]

I can't see it working any better than mink oil, and it's cheap.

 

[BrownBear]

will it go rancid if not keep in the fridge.This will be used for my patches , i have read that this is very good for patch lubriquant

The fat itself will go sour in the frig if you don't render it. But once rendered it keeps unbelievably well. And yeah, you heard right about how good it is. I've never found anything better for patch lube, so why not use it if it's free?

I have found one thing it's even better for than using as patch lube, though. And old neighbor, now gone and missed much, used it for frying homemade donuts. Man, I agree with her husband who said it's foolish and wasteful to use it for anything else! :rotf:

 

[David W.]

thanks flintlock, and if i ever decide to do some bore butter for my conicals, could i mixe it with some beeswax??

Yes, you can add bear oil to beeswax. You do not want to add too much oil to the wax. You also want to heat the wax in a double boiler.

Personally, I wouldn't waste my precious bear oil on a conical lube, I would mix with something like neetsfoot oil, or try Stumpy's moose snot.

Save your bear oil and use it straight up for your patch lube.

By the way, did anyone welcome you to our forum?

 

[rabjr]

It's certainly wonderful stuff. I've been lucky enough to have a guide in New Brunswick save me the fat from spring harvests and from time to time friends and family will get one in the Adirondacks. So I usually have enough to give some away to friends and use myself. Been using it exclusively as a lube since 2004. This bottle is the last of the first batch I ever did back in 2004. I just gave away the remaining oil from then except this and I'll always keep this one. Still smells like a thick cooking grease. And BB is right, its supposed to make the very best donuts and pie crust. :thumbsup:

http://nimrodsplace.com/lewisandclark25.html

 

[tg]

i find it to keep well if rendered/strained well, lots of uses from lube to cooking as in the past I like about a 50/50 mix for shooting maybe a bit less bees wax depending on weather which does not have a tremendous range here, I had a taxidermist who would drop off a gallon can about 3/4 full every year, good stuff for lubing wads if using then as well, one of natures rare gifts trhat keeps on giving in many ways, it is also quite usefull in keeping your Bear from squeaking.If finding it is a problem ask your local taxidermists they may just be tossing it out, I would provide a container and offer somethimg for the trouble of "sorting" it from the rest of the meat if they do not charge for it this will help build a strong bridge for future dealings such as Deer toes, various tails and many things that those in our hobby prize but are generally found in the taxidermists trash can.

 

[Rafsob]

Sorry for the dumb question, but by render you mean melt down on the stove?

A friend shot one years ago and I could not believe how much fat was on the bear. He had to skin it twice. Once for the hyde and second for the fat around the meat. It was thick.

 

[rabjr]

Yes Lawrence, your heating it just enough to coax out the oil from the cells it is stored in. There is a few ways of doing it with a double boiler method probably the most common. I used an electric Wok on very low heat that worked quite nicely except for the fact you can only do a little at a time and isn't geared to rendering anything over a couple of pounds. Took a long time but the end result was well worth it, the jar in the above pic is from my Wok experiment. :haha: :thumbsup:

 

[BrownBear]

I'm here to tell you that Swampy's concoction is dandy. Never been in really hot or really cold conditions with it, but I have the faith. I've got a little bit of brown bear fat sitting in the freezer, but I'm not even going to bother rendering it till I run out of Swampy's good stuff.

 

[watopeka]

did not over cook the bear fat and it's pearly white extremely soft. For fun i placed in the sun and it turned to liquid quite fast so should i just leave it alone and it will seperate by itself in a few weeks.
maybe rushing things a bit.If a place it in a fridge it will turn white and extremely soft so am i in the right direction.

 

[rabjr]

You want it at room temp to separate. Find a shelf some where to put it on and forget about for a while.