Bear Bums - Bear Hunting

This week a friend of mine brought out his new rifle and we sighted it in together. He just purchased a .375 H&H magnum in a Browning stainless model. What a gun! He explained to me it was my fault he had purchased this caliber.

Well, I like bear hunting and as I thought of a caliber that would leave no one doubting I felt comfortable with his purchase.

Shooting a big bear is a feat! You have to find the beast, get close enough and place that shot. Then with bears you have to find them after the shot.

Several years ago my daughter shot a big black bear at approx. 150yds with a .280 Remington. This big boar received another 280 slug and 2 shots from my .300 Ultra mag before the bear was stopped as it closed the distance to us. More of a worry to me than the ones that attack or come closer are the ones that may get away wounded or lost. Read the rest of this entry »

One month and two weeks from now will find the four of us in Ketchikan, Alaska on our way to our one week black bear, deer hunt and fishing trip. The intense anxiety I’ve had in securing the material and ensuring we have the knowledge to pull this off is now much reduced and I’m finding myself excited for this next hunt.

I can picture one of us on the bank of the Karta River surrounded by the noise of the river. It will be thick with vegetation with fir trees, willow, grass and alders. A huge black bear, perhaps over 7 feet, will suddenly and quietly appear. That would be enough for the hunt to be successful, but for us there will be much more. Getting wet, drying off, cooking, eating, skinning, fishing, story telling, snoring. It’s going to be a good hunt.

Here are a few new specifics I may not have mentioned and may be helpful to your future hunting plans.

1. The airlines in general are allowing only one checked on luggage bag. This cuts your weight in half and makes a gun case extra luggage.
2. A single float plane cannot get four of us in without us giving more than we feel we can allow. We’ll take 2 float planes and will have 2,100 lbs (that includes us, motor, food, pots and pans, guns, salt, fuel—the works) Alaska Sea Plane Tours—Ketchikan Alaska.
3. A bear tag in Alaska will work for a deer harvest but not for both.
4. It was easy to borrow fishing stuff except the lures which must get lost easily.
5. We rented, instead of purchased, a box of cooking items, lantern, stove, small boat motor and life jackets.
6. The price for doing this bear hunting trip has almost doubled from two years ago and is still way less than ½ the price of a guided hunt.
7. We can get bulk salt from the local taxidermist and leave our trophies with him if we’re impressed with his work.

We’ll work hard, freeze, sweat and get wet, and it’s going to be a riot.

I just read this review of the Bear Skinner Suregrip Cleaver by Knives of Alaska. I repeat myself in saying, I love knives! When I pack for a hunting trip I have a dilemma as to which knife, knives I pack. It does matter to me what I’m hunting.

Bear Skinner Suregrip Cleaver by Knives of Alaska

For example, on a moose hunt I know I’ll need a lot of blade and I don’t have to worry about cutting up the hide very much as the hide is so thick. Different for an antelope hunt…frail, fragile skin, hide, with hair that slips easily. This requires a tiny blade and no putting off the skinning or rushing through the job. Bear hides, which I also love, are probably in between moose and antelope somewhere.

If I’m flying or backpacking each day, or go on a hunt from a remote tent camp or hotel room, I choose my one knife to take. With few exceptions, I now, after trial and error, make the knife decision when I pack at home. My advice, take one knife with you on a hunt, and it will never be the Skinner Cleaver knife.

I own a Knives of Alaska knife, the Cub Bear. I love it and it ends up on most of my hunts. It is small, handy Read the rest of this entry »

The four of us that are headed to Prince of Wales Island to hunt black bear and to fish in September just received a packet of information from Alaska Fish and Wild Life. I’m impressed by the help they sent. Alaska has a large variety of game and fish species so sorting through the paperwork can be a pain. The department put together a leaflet just for bear hunters.

Picture from Alaska’s Fish & Game site

The leaflet has a general information section then a good description of the units in Southeast Alaska. We’ll be in unit 2 at the Salmon Lake Cabin on the Karta River System.

I like the info they have about judging bears. There are about ten pointers in judging but the new one that make sense is a triangle method. On a big bear they point out the ear to ear distance is the same as the ear to nose distance. (an equilateral triangle) This of course is not true for a young bear who’s features show a greater ear to nose distance than its ear to ear distance.

Also described are shot placement, care of skull, hide and meat.

Included in the packet but separate from the booklet are large diagrams showing skinning techniques and vitals on large black bears. They even have a how to clean a skull handout.

With the added info I think a first time hunter could be greatly helped. The four of us have killed perhaps dozens of bears combines and we still find the booklets helpful and comforting.

In flying to a hunting site like Ketchikan, Alaska for our September black bear, deer and fishing hunt here are a few things to remember. The flying experience is usually completely out of our control. If I fail to give enough time to go through customs and transfer luggage from one airline to another I greatly increase the odds of a problem happening. If I pack inappropriately according to the airline rule, again, I’m asking for trouble.

The four of us are leaving Salt Lake City airport on September 5th and returning the 13th. I always think of leaving on a hunt like traveling to a foreign country and give myself at least two hours to get to the boarding gates. Now with extra security lines it may be longer.

Our original plan to fly to Petersburg, Alaska and float plane from there was changed for several reasons. The main reason being we couldn’t get ourselves to Petersburg or back to Salt Lake City in one day. The cost of an extra two days on top of the hunt is a big consideration for us. Not to mention the flight to Ketchikan, Alaska was $400-500 cheaper than Petersburg.

The adjustment to hunting the Prince of Wales Island of the coast of southern Alaska allowed us to fly to Ketchikan. This flight can be done in one day. Flights change all the time and next year it may be different, but that extra night in Seattle or elsewhere is costly in dollars and time.

The basic rules for carrying a firearm on a commercial flight are: (Remember each airline and or country can be a little different)

1. Rifle must be in a hard lockable case (I do not know about a revolver—but it will be way more strict) Read the rest of this entry »

Our ongoing personal list for the 2008 Prince of Wales Island, Alaska black bear hunt. We’ll be in a small forest service cabin on a lake with well over 5 miles of salmon streams to hunt and fish on. (Salmon Lake Cabin—Karta River system)

1. Rifle/scope, scope covers, sling - (I don’t like scope covers, but in this case it is inevitable—they keep water out and in. I can shoot a scope that’s wet but not one that’s foggy)

2. 40 rounds of ammunition - (sight your gun in after the airplane ride) It has to be in it’s original containers for commercial flying! Pack it separate from your gun.

3. Binoculars - (don’t forget these)

4. Spotting scope - (We’ll have two. One for each group) They are expensive and heavy so make the younger guys carry them.

5. Sleeping bag, air mattress - (Not a huge one) The great big bed mattresses are not good-too heavy and would take up the whole cabin. I think our cabin is 16ft X 20ft. Therm-a-Rest, Slumberjack or the new Exped Downmat 7 Sleeping Pad that I Iove and blogged about.

6. Small Pillow - The small down squish-able ones the size of a loaf of bread or just use your sweater, if you’re a good sleeper. Do not take the one off your bed!

7. Small backpack - There are a lot of backpacks out there. We’ll be carrying lunch, waders, and emergent stuff, so we’ll need one that’s not tiny. I like ones with real back support and I want it to be as big as the air Read the rest of this entry »

On our first Petersburg, Alaska bear hunting experience we lived with our water purifier. It was an essential part of life.

We have some experience on the water purifiers and came up with what we like and recommend. It’s possible to have each person take a little personal purifier but we did well having a camp, bigger volume, unit and used the filtered water for everything.

Fuel up there is just too valuable to be boiling water. Plus, if it’s raining all the time it makes fires a nightmare at base camp. This Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter (large for a group) is great and kept us ahead on water.

This is a simple water filter that can be used at base camp.

It’s a one-gallon rubberized container with a filter at the bottom. You fill it with stream water and the water slowly (over 15 minutes) filters through the filter, down a plastic tube and into a cooking pot or your canteen. Read the rest of this entry »

I love being a gun owner. In fact, I think each hunter in the country should own another gun each year just to keep the juices flowing. With ownership comes some responsibility. Guns are something your great grandkids may receive from you. You may have your great grandfather’s guns. My dad brought a Japanese rifle back from the south pacific as WWII ended. I now own it. It’s clean oiled and works. I love it.

This may be one of the most valuable bear hunting tips that I provide.

Bear hunting can bring out the worst in a gun. The thicker the bear population, likely, the denser the forest and the more damp the environment. On a coastal Alaska bear hunt my son Jed was using my .300 Win. Mag with a blued barrel and wood stock. It is a nice Ruger bolt action rifle. No kidding, we had to clean off rust daily to keep up and when I got home I took it completely apart and found bad stuff that required a lot of work.

Here are some suggestions for keeping your gun in good shape. Remember, I’m no museum guy just a hunter with experience. As a general rule metal likes oil and wood hates it. Skin carries oil with enzymes in them that can eat metal. Water is the main killer.

This solvent should last you a while

To prepare for a hunt I use Hoppe’s Gun Solvent to clean the entire rifle. This takes off the excess oil, acids, and most stains. I try and separate the wood stock from the metal pieces as much as possible. The metal I then treat with light high quality oil, like Remington Oil. At this point I do not want excess oil. The stock is treated with a wood oil, wax or preservative to seal it little. Read the rest of this entry »

On our black bear hunt on Kupreanof Island in Petersburg, Alaska we carried multiple GPS units with us. They saved our bacon many times, boy are we glad we had them!

Here is a close up view of our GPS trail.

On the way back from the location marked KILL you’ll notice that the return path swerves back and forth multiple times. This happened because the weather at the time of return was quite violent and it was about 11:00 PM. We couldn’t see five feet in front of us, so, Frank held the GPS unit close to his face and would yell Read the rest of this entry »

For many years I’ve tried to find the best pair of hunting boot. I can remember as a 13 year old going on a two-week elk hunt in the wilderness of Idaho and wearing my canvas gym shoes. I couldn’t do that now. While I lived in Pocatello I purchased perhaps my first pair of real hunting boots. They were a leather work boot and I have many fond memories while in those boots. Now I’ve tried, Danners, Lowa, Schnees and the list goes on. Usually into about the third hunt with a pair of boots I start to like them.

I think my feet aren’t as tough as they used to be. The canvas gym shoes were nicer for the 13 year old me Read the rest of this entry »