Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Brown Bear Hunt, not as planned...

Edited for privacy of hunter and guide, seems to gone off the rails from OP. Thanks for feedback.

Hunts are about creating experiences and memories....not gross tonnage.

Sounds like it was very successful.

Very well said.

Not many people on the planet can truthfully claim they shot a brown bear at 10 yards, regardless of the bear's size.

It makes for a good story and great experience, I think.

He is not unhappy but it was a tremendous expense, $25k+ all in, travel and two weeks away from home and work, that's a lot of money to shoot a young bear.

It sounds like it was an adventure! It’s good to know your friend and the outfitter are ok.

Work friend on his trip hunting was driving his jeep. He hit a spike elk. Not sure of the details, but he was allowed to keep the animal.

His son mounted the antlers on some old car license plates and presented it to him as a trophy on his birthday. Great memories regardless.

He now boasts "I've killed more elk with my car than you have with a rifle."

If your "friend" didn't want the bear then he should not have shot it and let the guide shoot it. If he wasn't an Alaskan resident he had to have the guide with him and a problem/aggressive animal is the guide's responsibility unless it is actually attacking/mauling someone. Same thing applies in Africa, let the PH sort out the problem animals because if the client shoots without being told to then they are on the hook for the trophy fee.

If your friend didn't want to shoot it, then why did he?

Dont know what percentage of brown bear hunters go home empty-handed after spending that kind of time and money, but sounds to me like his outcome was much better than that....

Yep.

He coulda been Treadwell'd...so he's got that going for him...which is nice.

Each individual has a responsibility when hunting on a guided trip. The client does not have to shoot the bear if he does not want to. It is the guide's responsibility to protect the client. It sounds like the hunter was talked into shooting the bear and is now experiencing regret.

The guide may have a wildly different story.

SSS.

LOL

This

it depends on the area... but also, when clients are fussy about the size of their bears the success rate falls pretty fast.

Not really regret, he was happy with the guide and would hunt with him again. It was clear in the short discussion that the guide did not want to shoot the bear and deal with DLP paperwork and my friend had not real option at that point.

Poor baby...... Is this a case of buyer's remorse? He experienced something that the large majority of hunters only dream about simply because they can't afford what your buddy could afford to do.

You and he both need to put your big girl panties on and quit defining a successful hunt based on animal size. Is he expecting part of his money back based on what he wanted to shoot versus what he did shoot?

Sheesh....!!