Bear Bums - Bear Hunting

I recently read an article on a hunting site (Chifuti Safaris) by Craig Boddington about the choice in rifle caliber for a given animal. He mentioned the desire for owning another rifle as one of the motivating factors in rifle selection. For example, if you were hunting cape buffalo and wanted a BIG gun like say a .500 Jeffrey, Mr Boddington’s thought was to get it. You might ever only shoot one shot at an animal from the big .500 but it would work well on the buffalo and it would be your gun and souvenir of a wonderful hunt.

What about big coastal black bears like the ones we’ll be seeing in September on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. Which gun is best? Should you get a special gun for the job or just take the old ‘06?

I have my preferences and some experience. I don’t think bears are extremely hard to kill but they can be a nightmare to nail to the ground. Since bears can get lost in the thick undergrowth fast or turn hostil quickly I like big heavy bullets. Fast is pretty good but a 7mm or .280 remington, to me, is an elk gun. Elk never chew on you. I prefer the 30 caliber magnums or bigger.

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There are subtle differences between black bear tracks and grizzly bear tracks. Knowing how to distinguish between the two will definitely help if you are hunting in an area that may have both types of bears. After you’ve looked at a few examples you should have no problem identifying which is black and which is grizzly.

By far the easiest distinguisher for me are the length of the claws. I remember when I saw my first brown bear track on the coast of Alaska. It was in some wet clay on a river bed and my dad pointed out the length of the Read the rest of this entry »

Here are a couple of bear hunting tips regarding the ocean and tides. This will be helpful if you happen to be doing your black bear hunt with a boat and are subject to the Alaska tides.

A huge part of our Alaska bear hunts is the tide. Part of the reason that we chose the Salmon Lake Cabin on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska is because there is no tide on the lake….obviously. We had looked at other cabins in the Petersburg, Alaska area including, Big John Bay Cabin and the Tower’s Arm Cabin which would have been great for a fall Alaska bear hunting experience, but the low tides would not allow a float plane to land on the date we had to leave. It would actually be possible, but the pilots and biologists in the area strongly recommended against it. Read the rest of this entry »