This was truly the hunt of a lifetime for me, grizzly in the arctic. Several people here on the forum helped me with planning. Thank you very much. It was quite an experience!







A special thanks to John Barsness, who reassured me that my .30-06 Rem 700 with 200 grain Nosler Partitions was "enough gun."

I will probably never do this hunt again, but wow... I enjoyed every minute of it. Every mosquito bitten, wind blown, sleet driven, wonderful minute of it! Alaska... YES! I'd been there several times before, but always to fish or backpack, never to hunt. Finally made it happen.

Regards, Guy

Nice lookin bruin ! Congrats. Turning dreams into memories. Works for me

I am envious and in awe. Congratulations!

A nice old bear......especially for an Arctic bear!

That is a dandy bear!!!

Them claws is purty! You should make yourself a necklace!

Congratulations! Very nice bear.

Wonderful bear Guy, that's a big grizzly anywhere but even better in the Arctic Bonus points for using a push feed 30-06 with the classic 200 gr Partition's............

That's a beauty. Congratulations!

Outstanding!

A tiny eared toklat. Congrats!

Way to go, Guy!!! Gorgeous bear!

Very nice

Yes, congratulations sir. Great looking bear.

Very nice bear. We have a few come by every year here at the project on the north slope. About a dozen a year or so. Congratulations.

Beautiful Bear! And, the kind of story that fuels hope in the rest of us.

The joke at the end really had me going there for a minute. The part about Barsness recommending the '06 and Partitions is what sold it. Really, what did you shoot it with?

Guy. that is a gorgeous, perfect bear!

Awesome 👍

Yes a very nice grizzled veteran of the arctic. So rug or full body?

Really nice grizzly. What a pumpkin head. That is what I miss. Generally where is that?

The bear ain't bad either.

Thanks all. It really was everything I hoped for, and more.

I'm pleased as all get out with the bear. The hunt was great. Just spending time in the Brooks Range was a real treat. Managed to shoot a wolf too while I was up there.

Re the trophy, the ol' hacienda is running out of room for big trophies, so the skull will likely end up on a bookshelf in my gun/loading/fly-tying room, and at this point I'm just having the hide tanned. Perhaps a rug someday, but... Where to put such a rug becomes the question...

Nice bear. A hunt in the arctic is next on my list

great pix! thanks so much for sharing your hunt with us and thanks for coming to Alaska, granted I'm a bit biased, but our place is pretty grand eh? Miles and miles of no people. hardly a prettier sight to ask for. Love the Brooks Range, many a happy memory made for me there.
. Just a wonderous and marvelous place. So glad you had a good time.

Congratulations Guy!
That is an absolutely gorgeous bear.

Congratulations on the nice bear.

Great job on a beautiful bear and nice bonus with the woof. 😉

The Brooks is at the top of my list but I'm waiting until I'm a resident so I can fully enjoy it.

Man you got lucky using a Remington in the lowly '06. You dodged a bullet there. 😁

Outstanding! Well done sir! To shoot such a great bear AND a wolf on one trip is truly a gift.

I'm sure the memories will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Ed

Looks like a fine bear and a great adventure! Did you have a guide for this or were you able to go without a guide?

Nonresident hunters are required to use a guide in Alaska when hunting brown bears, sheep, and mountain goats. A family member may act as a guide for family.

Yeah that is what I figured, so wondering if this was guided or with family?

Hoo baby that's a nice one!

Good thing the bear and wolf didn't dodge.

great bear and all of this with the anemic 30-06... double congrats ...

Wow, awesome bear and adventure. I've always heard the 30.06 handles anything in N.A. Guess it's no lie.

In the interest of honesty, there was a fair bit of shooting going on. I made a fatal shot on the bear, breaking his right shoulder, and getting the bullet into his chest. This dropped and rolled him instantly. But he was quickly on his feet and headed for the willows.

Both rifles spoke, and soon he was done. A .30-06 and a .338 Win mag were involved in the kill. I'm fine with that.

Regards, Guy

Guy,

I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but that is an exceptional interior grizz!

Regarding the wolf, I have seen some very nice pedestal head/shoulder mounts that could sit on a table or shelf (mounted onto a pice of wood). Very appealing. And you could still have the skull mounted - just food for thought!

Congratulations again on an amazing adventure!

Old saying:

The best bear is the one with the most holes!

Wish I could see those pics. Sounds like you had a blast. Gotta give those bears a lot of credit. While they can, and have - tipped straight over with a single bullet impact, it's kind of crazy how much "never quit" they can have in them sometimes.

Congrats on what looks like an amazing trip. Well done!

Great bear, guy. Great hunt..

Did you carry a pistol or just the 30-06? By the way awesome bear, congratulations.

Dead in the open is ALWAYS better than close cover trailing.

Thanks!

Just the rifle.

Guy

Congrats on a successful trip and a couple of great trophies! Nice pics............Thanks for sharing!

Made it to the Brooks a few times myself, it's a special place.

Congrats! The memories should make you smile for a long time. You accomplished something that lots of us dream about. Pretty awesome all the way around!

Nice Bear. I can believe in a .30-06, but a M700, blasphemy . . . you do know the state rifle is a M70?

How'd the Conquest's work out? 8x42, I presume?

Really nice bear. Well done!

Jeff

Looks like a great hunt. What a cool trip.

Thanks for the photos.

I love the 200 partition.

Did I miss who the guide was? I saw someone ask...

Is that a Bushnell scope

Lyle Becker with Alaska Skookum Guides

And Joey Klutsch with Aniakchak Guide Service

These guys were great! Food was good. Our backpacking type tents were small but weather-tite, and they both worked hard. Tremendous knowledge. Nothing but good things to say about either of them.


The scope is an old Redfield 2-7x that just seems to work real well for me.

Regards, Guy

That's a great bear !! I also just got back from AK. I took a 7'+ sow grizzly. She's a toklat. I'll get photos & post up in a day----need to catch up at work & home. Conglads on a dream hunt.

Congrats on yours! Looking forward to the photos. A toklat! Cool.

Guy

I keep coming back to this thread, what a great bear!
The hunt of a lifetime.
I could die happy knowing I'd done that.

Very cool.
Ahh, were I a younger man again.

Too true. What a bear and wolf!
Living the dream.

Very very cool hunt and bear! I'll probably never be able to afford that hunt but I'd love to do it. Thanks for posting.

What a beautiful bear! Great story and pics. Thanks for letting us in on it.

But I thought someone called yours a Toklat?!?!

Someone may have. I'm just happy I managed to put a grizzly hunt in my life.

Guy

I understand completely! Toklat is most commonly a way to say "young bear." Your bear does not look young and the dark coat is typical. It is an exceptional bear!

l'll be darned. I thought "toklat" was a blondish colored grizzly. Lighter colored than mine.

Shows ya what I know!

Guy

Few true Toklats are not young bears IME and from what I have always heard. Almost all darken significantly as they age. But Toklats are gorgeous bears.

Have not heard that before.

Never, ever, heard that. Toklat is a color faze. Light body dark legs.


http://www.scirecordbook.org/common-grizzly-bear/

Absolutely correct, the Toklat is a color phase, however, as bears age they almost always darken. Toklats of age are very unusual.

Now you have...

Me neither. I always thought a Toklat was a Toklat and a young bear was a cub. 😉

Was being a bit TIC with the statement, but it means about that to most that know bears.

That part is true.

I know you were TIC Sitka you have a wry sense of humor. 👍

Yup, like my corned moose on wry...

Outstanding Guy! Did you use a handload? To me it is always much more gratifying using ammo I made.

That's outstanding, congratulations!

Yes, of course!

200 gr Nosler Partition over H4350 for a bit over 2600 fps with rather amazing accuracy. Documented some of my testing over on Handoads over the past six months or so.

Regards, Guy

I'm gonna say a bear aging has little to do with their color. Anytime I hear "facts" about bears I can't believe them since we know almost nothing about what happens to their hair color over the years given that they change their hair every year. Seen blond ten foot Kodiak boars and seen dark chocolate tennfooters. Seen dark cubs and light Cubs, seen Cubs that were a mix. Toklat is just a name given to the color phase of blond grizzly with dark legs.
Unless it's a yeti, then they change color as they age.....and that's a fact!

Must suck for brown bears to be born light colored because almost all die young... only possible explanation since I see so many light cubs and almost no adults.

And I only get to base this on thousands of personal sightings... and the anecdotal evidence of many others...

Someday I hope my personal experience has some Internet forum value as well.....lol

I understand your pain.

Considering I have hunted brown bears with a pretty big bunch of guys here at the fire; including the site owner, and have met and fished or hunted with well over 100 folks from here at the fire; have posted photos of well over a dozen bears in the deconstruction phase; and quite a bit more, I do not need "internet forum value" on which to base my thoughts and experiences.

Photos and stories are easy to find and should still be available in their entirety. Feel free to read some and see if you really want to be flippant...

Oops I didn't realize my opinion was gonna need to be backed up by....well....my opinion. I guess now is where I lay my experience out there and we compare who should have more value to their own opinion based off their experience and somehow decide if one opinion is more right or wrong than another?
I just emailed a couple bear biologists to check instead. If they agree with you, I'll post it. No harm no foul.

Your opinion is just opinion with zero support offered. My comments are experience-based on a relatively huge sample size. Mentioning my company from here is only to support the fact I do get off the couch once in a while with witnesses reading this thread.

John Crye in Kodiak, ADF&G bear biologist, would be a good source for you.

You're either up late or up early Art!

As to color phase of bears, I've noticed a difference between coastal bears and interior bears

Hunting southwest in the wood tikchik my experience is similar to Sitka Deer, can't recall ever seeing a big bear with Toklat coloring light with dark legs

In the interior mostly around black rapids I've seen bears with the Toklat coloring that appeared to be mature bears, sample size much smaller as I've seen and observed bears more often and up close in sw than I have in the interior

Is it relevant? I dunno. I'm not a biologist nor play one on tv, just a guy that's spent a fair amount of time behind binocs and is always tickled to spot and observe game

I'd say in the end if the "owner" of the bear is happy I could care less...

I"ve taken does on Montague before instead of whacking young bucks, and was just fine with that. Although others on teh hunt were ribbing me that they got forks... whoopee...

Just thinking out loud, worth what you know its worth. LOL. Isn't there that eye of the beholder thing...

John is a great source of information, although his area of bear knowledge is rather isolated. Different areas of the state do seem to have different colorations that are more or less common than other areas. I'm not saying a old bear can't be a dark bear, I'm just saying that an old bear isn't always a dark bear and that I'm not convinced that bears change color over the years. I'm unsure what s "huge" sample size means and I guess you've never really said how old you think a bear has
To be before it turns dark. I've seen a couple bears dead and alive but I try to leave the aging of bears to guys that went to school for it. Im always up for being wrong and learning something new.

Guy sorry for the bunny trail on this toklat topic. Here is some information from a biologist about bear coloration.

Does a bears color have anything to do with its age?

Biologist from palmer.
"Not that I can say. Cubs as you probably know can be anywhere from dark chocolate to blond and I Have sealed many bears of all shades at all ages. I do commonly hear from hunters and guides statements like "I knew it was old because it was so dark" I think this is a common wives tale and I don't have any evidence to support it.

Bears in late spring (haven't shed the hair from the previous year) tend to be lighter due to bleaching of the hair from the sun. It is possible that older bears are more nocturnal and their does not experience the same bleaching that young bears do because young are more active during the day."

So maybe something to it, maybe not. Once again Hal Waugh's knowledge is well noted..."the more I learn about brown bears the more I realize I don't know about brown bears."(as close as I can remember his exact quote.)

No prob. I'm reading and learning. Sure enjoyed my most recent trip to your wonderful state!

On my drive up from Washington, I stopped to hike along still-frozen Lake Kluane and came fairly close to blundering right into this bear. We were on a collision course, before I reached my parked Jeep and noticed him.


Have been making trips to Alaska every now and again since 1979. Early on it was backpacking but for the past twenty or so it's been to fly fish the silver salmon run. From that very first trip so long ago, I've wanted to see more of Alaska than just the coast, and I've wanted to hunt there as well. This was a real treat for me! Enjoyed it so much, and glad I took the time to drive up and back for a change.

The Brooks Range/Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a very special place indeed!

Banter away about the coloration. Darned if I know!

Regards, Guy

Guy thanks for your kind words about the place we call home and thanks for spending some time with us.

As others have noted, your bear is beautiful.

We discuss bear coloration to give a rest on the .270 vs. -.06 debate (grin)

I wonder if the cops knew when they were arresting Art that he is a legend...in his own mind. I bet you he cited all kinds of sources why he could handle his booze and truck. Like the number browtines on a moose your DUI # doesnt change Art...or does it?

Very pathetic attempt, but I just realized why you keep bringing that up... hint... Art is not my first name. There are three Arts with my last name and I am not the one with a record... worst you are going to hang on me is my last speeding ticket in May of '94... I feel so dirty about that!

Now, go crawl back under your rock...

BTW, you just made my ignore list... have fun with the likes of JeffO... you earned the title of cum-guzzling-gutter-slut, wear it with all the pride you can muster.

Awesome post! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. It was an awesome hunt!

Sometimes I can't believe I really did it...

Guy

So.. planning your next trip up there yet?

Yes....

Awesome hunt. Especially with the '06. Congrats!
-Jake

Says it all!

I don't know schit about Taklot's but I know this is a great post.

Congrats on the wolf and bear.




Dave

Laughin' here, Thanks! Ya, I don't know about 'em either, but I had a great hunt!

I'd like to go back later in summer, do some fly fishin' for arctic grayling. Just camp, hike around. Try to avoid being eaten by a bear.

Guy

+2 ... Appreciate the pictures. Appreciate the discussion around color phases. And yes, I'm jealous... Congrats on a great hunt !