Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Bear Hunt in AK next week

I know its a week or two early we are headed to Homer Ak for a transport bear hut next week any report on what they are seeing or any tips on how to hunt early would be great. really excited been looking forward to this for awhile. I have a rifle that I put together for this hunt a ultra light 338-06 Any advice would be great.

Bring good layered clothing, good hip and rubber boots that you can walk a few miles in and a predator call and a paper back book are a good idea. Spend lots of your time behind your binoculars.

I know you stated a transport, so are you hunting from the vessel each day or being dropped off and picked up in a few days? A vessel hunt is best, but costs lots more. Is this a black bear hunt?

I think more bears are out and moving from mid May on, with the boars looking for food and a love interest.

If one gets into trouble and needs help on Alaska's coast, how fast it shows up is often weather dependent. Watch the tides and have a tide book with you and a hand held VHF radio is a good idea.

Good luck, be safe and shoot a big one!

Vessel hunt. We have two Deloris inreach. Can we expect long shots or just a couple hundred yards. Was told to watch south slopes and low tide flats. This is a new type of bear hunt for me I used to hunting them in a pine thicket Thanks

STX - please post pics. I've been exploring a bear hunt like this for a while.

You will be doing los of glassing of the south slopes and tide flats as the bears will be there feeding on new growth grass on the slopes and the edge of the timber and any thing on the beach that appeals to them. For the most part those black bears feel safety near the forest and can disappear there in a hurry if they scent you. I personally would keep shots under 300 yards, but I realize you are travelling far and putting out some dollars and only have so much time.

If one of hose bears is wounded they can disappear very fast and tracking them in the thick brushy timber is hard to do unless a shot went through their boiler room and lets lots of blood out. A lung shot bear is a dead bear, but they can travel further then with a heart shot. A heart/lung shot that also hits some structure is best, but I would not pass on a bear waiting for it if I had a good lung shot. Those small collapsible shooting sticks that are made for kneeling or sitting shots could come in handy.

You absolutely have to play the wind and move when they are not looking your way. Be careful with the tides so you don't get caught in a bad place. Another thing is those black bears will climb in the rocks and cliffs in search of fresh grass, places that would be to dangerous for a person some times. I have watched them run up from the beach into the forest in places that were almost vertical. Those vessel based bear hunts are the way to go in my opinion. They offer a nice warm place to come back to, allow glassing of new areas and may even include some halibut and rock fish eating.

Bring a good small camera, the scenery is world class!

Other then the top of the paws in small areas caused by traveling in the chutes and rooting around, I have never noticed a rubbed hide being a problem at the time you are going. If you were in South East Alaska and areas like Prince of Wales Island or some other islands you would have to be careful with rubbed heads and hides and look them over good before pulling the trigger. Those South East Alaska island black bears tend to run bigger then the bears around Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound, but you would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful bear hide then they can produce.

Both of my daughters have beautiful black bear hides taken with a .308 Win. and a 30-06 and one shot each.

The youngest daughter used the .308 Win. and killed her bear at about 300 yards across a big avalanche area. Just as she shot the bear moved and we got lucky and she hit the bear in the neck and it collapsed. The slide area was stable and I had her stay put as I crossed it and drug the bear out of the small chute area and gave it a push. That bear went on a ass over tea kettle trip for several hundred yards and all the way down to the big rocks at the end of the avalanche chute. I sat on my butt and made a quick wet trip behind it. Mt wife and friends on my buddies big boat cracked up watching all of this. Me and the bear arrived in good shape and eventually my excited daughter made it back down the hill.

My other daughter used the 30-06 and she shot her bear from the prone at about 40 yards. I shot one the next day, life was good.

I had a couple of 26' boats that slept three for many years and did black bear hunts in Prince William Sound with family and friends and they are a hoot!

Please let us know how you do.

I've seen more than a few folks 'guess' size wrong when the range is extended. Of course I've seen a few fugg it up when the distance is close to.

If you've seen plenty of bears in your lifetime, you'll be able to figure out size.

And sleep in, evening hunting is where it's at.

Had a awesome hunt shot a nice bear and caught a 148 pound Halibut will try to give more info tomorrow flying home today

That’s crazy it’s already next week. Looking for pictures and story myself.

I've shot a few bears so I was looking something with unique marking. I asked the captain if they ever killed any color phase bears he said one in 28 years. By day 5 I've not seen a what I think is a 350 bear within shooting range about 1 pm is all changes all at once bears are out feeding I can see 8 bears on 3 different hill sides 3 are within shooting distance now comes the really hard decision do I go for a solid black 300 pounder at about 200 hundred yards or do go for the 200 cinnamon at 540 that has a really bad spot to retrieve. Well we don't have cinnamon color bears in NC luck was with me I was able to pull off a good shot at 541yards 3 hours later I put my hands on my first cinnamon bear

Nice

Very nice! Cinnamons are extremely rare around here!

Any pictures?

I struggle to post pictures here will be glad to send them to someone if they would post them for me. Thanks in advance

Have you read the tutorial written by Rick Bin? Here it is. If you can email photos to someone, you can probably manage it yourself from the tutorial.

Link: New Image Gallery - Simple Instructions for Secure Images

The Image Gallery is close to the bottom of the list of the main forums page. Below the classifieds.

Once you have an Image Gallery posted, all you have to do is click on the image, then right click over the image and "copy image location". When making a post in a thread paste that image location inside the image tags ->> [img] [/img]

Example: [img]imagelink.jpg[/img]

Here is an image link from an Image Gallery: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/gallery/80/full/72008.jpg

I paste that link inside these tags, [img][/img]

and

Sent you a PM

Here you go Tom, Nice bear & halibut!

VERY COOL! Cinnamons are indeed VERY rare in Alaska!

Not really . . . I see 'em often down here in unit 1C in the southern panhandle. Two blue phase (glacier) bears along the road system also (but that's over a 40 year period).

Mike Cronk probably be pissed for what I'm going to broadcast on a public forum. If you want a cinnamon phase blackie go to unit 12. For some unknown reason that area holds a lot of cinnamon phase black bears. As you might have noticed I didn't say what part of unit 12..