Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Alaskan Heavy Rifle- My Way

Sweet rigs AKJD, and good luck on that Brownie, one of these days I'll actually draw one of them tags!

On a side note, I was out at the range the other day too, middle of the day, temps below zero and I was the only one there. Love that Cushman range in the dead of winter, but when it warms up and the soldiers are out there.........it sucks!

AKJD,

Forgot to add, hope you get a big brownie on Kodiak. What's the details on your hunt?

My current wallpaper:

Nice rig, and nice work Redneck!

Bearstalker
Northeast Arm and Village Islands... Nice picture! A couple guys from here... OlBlue and KKAlaska drew those tags for this coming spring...
art

Rick Bin caught yelloweyes off that rock pile to the lower left, IIRC. He might have a yelloweye fetish...

I drew Karluk Lake. I put in for the 3 hardest to draw tags hoping I wouldn't get one, and they went and drew my name. I'm flying in with Seahawk Air April 15 and will take a small inflatable and motor. This is my 3rd trip to Kodiak, once before for goats and once for bear. Still haven't shot anything on the Island. Didn't get a shot at a good bear last time and choose not to take a goat, although my partner took one. I love that place.

Nice rifle. I can attest to Redneck's workmanship...he's great. I am planning a future build that is very similar, with the exception of an Echol's Legend stock.

Brent

You should remember that place! You dropped me and Bob off for that hike up the hill after that bear. Remember all those sea gulls on that rock pile? That was crazy! I got some other pictures from up top as well. I got one with your boat in the picture and it looks really small....

Too cool. I hope you guys bag some nice bruins. The bay not pictured (my back is facing) will be my #1 choice for this spring drawing.

AKJD
Sorry for the hijack.

Did you get the cabin at the head of Karluk Lake? Or at the river? The biggest bears never sleep, so you may not be too early to kill a bear. And the biggest will be awake.

Matt
Another friend drew that other bay (Terror Bay) for this coming spring and that was where OlBlue shot his last bear... That I photographed as it was shot.
art

After thinking about this for a while, I have to disagree, Art.. With no front sight (or irons at all for that matter), what are you going to do? Try to find that bear in a scope? Shoot from the hip and hope you get lucky? If I'm after something that can bite back in heavy brush I'm most likely not going to be using a rifle.. I'll have a Ruger Alaskan in .454C in hand where I can get off 5 shots rather quickly compared to maybe one in a rifle over the same period of time. Plus, it's a lot more maneuverable and less prone to get stuck in brush. JMHO..

BTW, that pix above of that scene in AK is just awesome.. I wonder if I'll ever get to see something like that...

Redneck
Several points... When bear hunting keeping down extraneous junk is a huge factor. No way in the world am I carting around a sidearm on a bear hunt. I have followed a bunch of wounded bears in alder thickets and it gets hairy at times. At staplegun range there is no sight being used. Both eyes stay open and second nature shooting takes over. On extremely close bears I have used fixed Leupold 3x and 4x scopes and never had issues with finding center of mass.

I have seen some ridiculous claims like shooting them under the chin and such things, but it is pretty straight forward... the spine runs up the middle and makes any other consideration moot.

I guarantee I can get off more than one shot on a charging bear. One is all it should take though...

Rick Bin and I put the stalk on a bear a few years before Matt took that picture around the hill to the right, just out of sight. The video of us returning to a flooded beach was shot on that jaunt and it is pretty funny stuff.

We ended up shooting a bear hard left from the picture. The hillside was ridiculously steep and the bear did an amzing tumble...
art

I can like that rifle. I can also like Art's 20" barrel suggestion. It would be wearing a VXIII 1.5-5x20 also........

Nice looking rifle! Lee (Redneck) does know his way around a Winchester!

A pard busted a charging bear from only a few feet away and never did he use the scope, just instinctive shooting.

Yup...

While I'm not in any way going to argue with a man who's BTDT (Art), your post about getting a shot off at a charging bear from just a few feet away is the scenario I had in my mind when considering a large-bore handgun vs. a rifle in heavy thickets.. In your case, one shot from that rifle is all you're going to get. It better be good, or you're dead because you will not get a second chance. At least, with a big revolver it's possible to get a couple off at least, and even more if you're lucky, and a revolver can be used with one hand...

But I will be the very first to admit I've never been lucky enough to go on any bear hunt so I'll be glad to defer to others who have..

BTW The bear I referenced earlier was in a heavy alder thicket at 24 yards. I used a 3.5-10 Leupold on 6x and had to pick a small opening to shoot through. It was almost too easy... Anyone thinking there is some magic in irons up close has not used a scope...

I had thought the 6x thing was a stunt because I love my 3x Leupold scopes... It really was not even close to an issue.
art