Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Minimum 'caliber' for Kodiak Brown Bear?

Thanks guys! You are too kind. I assume most people do the same with their sons. To clarify, I took my son on a separate backpacking trip from the AK hunt. But I did take him black bear and deer hunting today on the one youth-only (early) hunting day here in Virginia on public land. FWIW, he can shoot under 3" groups at 200 yds with his .243 (from a bench):
http://vid75.photobucket.com/albums/i305/MarineHawk/2014/IMG_0752.mp4 (notice how at a recent range session he goes for the safety automatically after the shot).

We saw a lot of bear scat today but no live bear, and the deer aren�t rutting yet, there were a lot of hunters, and the people nearby who succeeded on a bear had hounds (which we don�t have). BUT, we stayed up on a mountain until sundown (his insistence), had a great time, and made each other laugh a lot with stories during the down times. He is really patient and a great little hunting partner. I can�t wait to get him a better opportunity.





I am tentatively planning to take him caribou hunting in northern Alaska in a couple of years when he is 12.

His little brother will be jealous, but his time will come:



He proudly built the cairn after climbing that mountain with us.

FWIW, they're better kids than I am a father, so they make it easy (probably got it from mom).