Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska A Kodiak Bear Hunt

Riley drew a tag for Uganik Island, Terror Bay for this spring but had to wait to the very end of the season to go due to college finals. The season runs April 1 to May 15 and you may choose any 15 day segment to hunt.

Usually the bears are getting rubbed by the end of the season, but the biggest bears are usually killed late as they chase sows in heat. This spring was so cold and delayed it worked out better for those that waited to the end.

We had a great weather forecast by the time we had loaded the boat with groceries, fuel, and water; and a new-to-us Achilles raft and outboard was tied on the swim step... the raft, not the motor.

We left Kodiak at noon to catch the tide right at Whale Pass. Traveling was perfect with the ocean a mirror, no wind and no clouds. Having gotten it exactly backward again we got to Whale Pass in time to fight huge rips and breakers, eddies and currents right on our bow.

When we finally cleared Outlet Cape and entered the Shelikof Strait we could see Uganik Island immediately south of us. Because we had hit it right at low tide we headed to Cape Uganik and turned in to follow the shore.

After many years of hunting the unit I have lots of favorite spots, mostly around Uganik Passage West. The unit is huge with many miles of shoreline and ADF&G says there are up to 125 bears in the unit.

Many here have been with me and seen a lot of bears in that stretch. One October DennisinAZ and I saw a huge gathering of bears digging spawning surf smelt in the gravel.

Anyway, Riley and I turned in to follow the shoreline and immediately caught movement on the beach a mile or so in front of us. As we got closer it was obvious it was a legal bear, but just a mature sow.

Riley was concerned about all the talk we had been hearing about how no one was finding bears and he had plans to get home ASAP. As we got closer it was obvious we could see the beach and there was only a single bear on it. A little closer and we could see the hide was in great shape with no hint of rub.

Riley decided he wanted to go after the bear but there was no place for anchoring the big boat without scaring the bear off the beach. For the sake of speed we turned back and dropped the raft off the swim step and Riley got in with the drag line wrapped once around a cleat.

Making another pass with Riley in tow allowed him to shake the line off the cleat and start paddling in as soon as the bear was behind some castle rock on the beach.

I turned out from the beach to so the bear could see me and headed very slowly away. Riley paddled to the beach and then passed through a small reef coming off the castle rock.

He expected to surprise the bear when he cleared the rock only to find the bear watching him at 60 yards or so.

The bear turned and started up the steep bank/mountainside behind the beach. The first shot hit high in the near-side shoulder and angled down through the chest and hit just above the elbow on the far side. The bear tumbled back onto the beach and he shot a couple more times for insurance.

He was amazed as he could see hair and blood mist spraying from the backside with every shot.

I anchored the big boat and we assembled cameras, snacks, knives, and sharpeners before paddling to shore to look at the bear.

We took a bunch of pictures.




You can see how steep the mountainside is...


Because the bear was high on the beach we were able to roll it onto a rock below and prop it up neatly for the photos. It was about all we could do to get it up onto the rock. The hide is perfect; long fluffy hair with light frost on the tips across the hump.

We skinned for a rug and left the paws and skull in for the sake of speed.

Being May the days were so long we had plenty of time, but I wanted to run well up into Terror Bay for the night.

We fired up the generator once we had the anchor set in front of a setnet site across from Naugolka Point and panfried a couple beef ribeyes in sweet hot mustard. It was very good.

The next morning we ran in toward Terror Bay to see what was happening there and to show Riley some of the area we were going to hunt. There were a couple bears on the beach at Hellgeson's camp and a couple foxes a bit farther inside.

Just before the passage there were four guys glassing from a grassy knob so we turned around at that point and left the area to them. Halfway through the passage east we stowed the raft on the swim step and headed to town.

Timing was perfect through Whale Pass and drove back to Kodiak without ever having confronted a wave the whole trip.

Riley skinned the skull and found a bullet from a much earlier event lodged in the muscles toward the back of the skull. The bullet had broken a chip from the nuchal crest at the rear of the skull, flattened out and bent a great deal before stopping within a couple inches of the bone fragment.

The chip from the nuchal crest can be seen just right of center at the extreme aft end of the skull.


Fragment and bullet

Congratulations, Riley!

Sounds like a nice little overnight trip!

Way to go, Riley! Pretty bear and nice pictures. What cartridge? I love it down that way and hope to get that permit again.

Cheers on a successful hunt. You sure do look like your mom.

Sarah and Dennis are at the house now,Dennis cooking one his special meals.

Yes don't forget about those rifle/caliber details. Congrats on a beautiful bear.

He shot my 700 in 375AI, 270gr XFB bullets and a Vortex Viper PST 1-4x24 scope with the TMCQ reticle. He had never shot a critter with it and was surprised to see everything after each shot because of the cast-on in the stock. It turns the shooter slightly rather than lifting the rifle into and blocking the view.

He said he saw each bullet hit and then hair and spray come off the back side. It is a gentle shooting rifle.

Yeah he is lucky that way!

Good deal on getting to spend time with the kids. We might be down that way in a few days. If we get close we may swing in briefly.

Looks good Art. Can't wait to hunt those bears again. Congrats to Riley.

Nice all around, fine write-up as well.

That kinda looks like a handgun bullet, did you guys measure it? Great story and write up too!

No, I have not measured it in any way... Think I will go do that right now... I am guessing it was about 30 caliber and pretty short...

The retained weight is 151.7 grains. You may be right about the handgun bullet... Notice the lands are nicely engraved forward to a very hard line... like the typical step on a wadcutter. Probably what you noticed?

It is flattened to about .25" and widened to about .40" with the flat side very flat and the domed side quite low. In other words the whole bullet has been greatly reshaped and the domed side is not part of an arc, but much flatter.

I would still think 30 caliber, but it might be 32... I doubt seriously that it could have been 357. The smear marks on the back side actually look pretty cool and I should take a photo of them.

Well done all around, and handsome looking hide for sure. Congrats to the hunter and taxi driver.

What caliber is the bonus souvenir? Just curi-ass.

Greatest width, which is at the nose end is .728 and greatest length is about .712".

Great job, loved the story, Riley should be proud. Sounds like a great trip over all.

Congrats to Riley and to the old man/guide...great looking animal, feel free to put up more pictures as I never tire of seeing, AK. Thanks for the post, Art.

As far out on Uganik as we were there is a good chance it would have been visible from where you shot your bear.

Marlin, Randy,
Thanks! He is pretty happy it went so easily. First time he has been granted an "assisted suicide" shooting...
art

Well done! Thanks for sharing.

Took a couple more photos of the bullet to show the texture of the lead surface where it ran across the bone and the tail end to show why previous caliber of the lead is just a question...