Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Brooks Range Grizzly Hunt

Spring of 2017, I drove from my home in central Washington, up through British Columbia and the Yukon, to Fairbanks. Camped most nights. Highly recommend the drive if you have the time for it!




Helio Courier north for quite a ways.


Four of us, two guides, two hunters, in a pretty nice little camp by a stream. First bear came pretty quickly. Then our camp dwindled to just two of us, and eventually on day 7 I tagged a nice grizzly with my 30-06 Rem 700. Ya, I know, a puny 30-06 in a wood stocked Rem 700. Sigh.






Hunted with Lyle Becker and Joey Klutsch. Those two guys worked hard and smart and provided a terrific hunt! I'd fished and backpacked in Alaska before, but had never hunted there before. Also had never taken the time to drive up and back. What a wonderful journey and a terrific hunt!

I could have brought a 375, and was tempted to do so, but before the hunt Lyle asked me a couple of questions that helped me make my rifle decision:

1. This is open country, you may need to take a 300 yard shot. Which rifle do you shoot better? Well, the 30-06 I'll admit.
2. This is tough country for hiking. Which rifle is lighter? Well, the 30-06 is.

So, I ended up taking the 30-06, which is very familiar to me from other hunts. Used my old 2-7 Redfield 'cause it's a decent scope. Handloaded 200 gr Nosler Partitions, with a very accurate, nice shooting load.

I will freely admit that after a long stalk, I completely blew my first shot at the grizzly, which appeared rather suddenly at less than 50 yards. I may have been a little excited... Probably put it 4 or 5 feet over the bear! Settled down after that thankfully.

I've hunted black bears and enjoyed, and will continue to do so. I think though, that my need for a big bear has been satisfied. He's an inch short of the record book, I didn't care. Hide squares a bit over 8' and is just incredible. The wolf hide & skull, and the grizzly hide and skull are great reminders of this trip. Likely the hunt of a lifetime for me.

Regards, Guy

Oh, and a special thanks to Phil Shoemaker!

A 30 min conversation with him helped me figure out what kind of Alaskan bear hunt I wanted, and what I could afford.







Guy

I remember this from an earlier post. That's a great grizzly !! I really like the wolf. GuyM, I think was your old handle. You gave me the recipe for the 30/06-- 200 grain partitions.


I took my AK grizzly with a 375 Ruger----I planned on going back in 2020 with the 30/06. That was before Jake Jefferson lost his wife & closed his outfitting business. Now he's a single dad raising 6 kids-----the youngest is just 6 months old.

Ya, I couldn't get "GuyM" to work anymore. Never could resolve the issue. Whatever it was. Some glitch.

Heart goes out to Jake.

Guy

If I remember right you have taken a bunch of nice black bear with your son in WA.



Glad you're still alive----using a push feed 30/06. LOL !!

Memories...

Mine looked just like yours, both size, color, and claws! However, mine was a fall bear, 1983, Western Brooks Range, 7mm Rem. Mag, and Super Cub to camp!!! I still enjoy looking at the rug every day.

I too was "satiated" with the big bears after that. Now I enjoy reliving other's hunts and watching live bears when up there.

Thanks for the great story and pictures!

Todd

Have not driven on the AK Hwy or Cassiar since 1989... need to add that back to the "bucket list!"

Nice doggie too!!! Wish I had gotten one of those as well.

That's a very nice Brooks Range grizzly....very nice!

U mean u didnt go out and buy the lastest bigazz caliber gun and have it tuned by the finest smith in all the land ? Aint no way ! Lol...fun huh !

Why not call it 10' like everyone else on the innerweb?



Nice bear and wolf!

Beautiful bear

VERY NICE!

And no handgun for backup.....oh my!

Pretty bear! Good re-post.

I need to get back up to the Brooks.

Honestly, I forgot that I posted this after the hunt.

But, what the heck.

Guy

Great Bear, sounds like a great trip. Enjoyed your story, thank you.

Drive to Alaska, kill a griz and a wolf, you are getting this whole adventure thing down pretty well. Congrats, thanks for the posts.


mike r

Was happy to read about this hunt again. Great pics and great looking grizzly.

Wow.
Great bear.
Thanks.

Very jealous here! Incredible. Congratulations!