Bear Bums - Bear Hunting

With two days left we hunted Karta River and Karta Lake hard.  All of us ended up hiking to Karta Falls and past the closest cabin to ours, Karta Lake cabin.  Not a bad hike and the Karta River Falls should be in all Alaskan tour books.  They are great.  Over the distance of several hundred yards the river falls half that distance over a rocky broad river bottom.  Thick in the pools beneath each falls is a mass of 10-15 lb salmon of different types.  We watched hundred to thousands of salmon attempt the various falls with only a few making it.  I suspect eventually most make it past the falls but it must be brutal on them.

Salmon jumping up Karta Falls.

The salmon below and in the falls are in much better shape that the ones up stream where we’ve been bear hunting.  At the falls the trail to the ocean is only a few miles, so I’d guess many tourists hike up from the ocean at Karta Bay to the Karta River Falls.  We saw no one however.  It felt like we had Prince of Wales Island to ourselves the whole trip.

Karta Falls.

Bear hunting the trail was not the ticket ’cause of the jungle and lack of open areas.  As we returned to the upper end or Karta Lake at the arm pit we spotted another bear on the lake edge.  Jed spotted as Roger and I blew the stalk an scared him off.  The wind was constantly swirling.

On the trail to Karta Falls.

This PM we saw another bear on the Salmon Lake edge on the way home.  We ended up seeing about the same number of bears on the lakes as on the river.  Maybe more. We wore chest wader and felt soles boots the entire time.  The area is covered with streams, swamps, rivers and the lake.  Even hiking through the jungle we needed the water protection.  I do wish we’d taken face nets for bug protection and 100% DEET is a must. On our last bear hunting day started we were pleased with the number of bears we’d seen.  We also saw quite a few blacktail deer but no bucks. Frank and I fished and hunted Anderson creek and Roger and Jed spent the entire day on Karta River and Lake.  Jed had a marathon sneak on a bear but couldn’t get closer than 500 yards (he proved that it is near impossible to catch up with a bear that is walking in the opposite direction).  Roger showed up at the boat with a respectable bear all skinned out!

Pictures of the Island, feet from where Roger shot the bear.

Roger had been on the Karta River Island when the bear showed up for a fish meal.  He was pounded with Roger’s 1st shot.  Jed and Roger skinned him out leaving the head and paws in the hide.  They did a great job but got eaten bad by the no-see-ums.

One of the bears we saw at the island.

Back at the cabin after a great supper we spread a tarp out and finished skinning out the skull and feet of the blacky.  Roger was redeemed from his earlier shots and ended up with a great trophy.

Roger and the bear.

We got picked up the next am by the 2 float planes and headed back to Ketchikan.

Flying out, picture of Karta River.

I love Ketchikan!  Roger got the bear sealed by the fish and game guys, we returned all our rental stuff and we had a great fresh fish restaurant meal.  The flight home was slick. Now, did we have fun?…yep!  We also learned how to fish, except for Frank, ’cause he already knew how to fish.  We lucked out with weather and spent a week in one beautiful spot.  I, after a trip to the north, wonder why I live in the desert. Check out a few of our photos and the video.  I think we were in the right spot.

Frank trying to rescue a salmon.

Skinning out the bear.

Getting ready for bed.

Today we sighted in the rifles for our black bear hunt in four weeks. Our gun selection was determined by availability, caliber, cost, environment and mostly by the species we’re hunting. Our selection for the four of us includes two .338 win mags, a .300 WSM and a .300 Ultra mag.

I think we’re pretty well gunned but the sighting in part is always important. We got permission from a farmer, neighbor who has a perfect pond bank as a back stop and 500 yards or more of a straight shot leading up to it.

We made a straight up and down target holder and invented a solid bench for shooting.
With my acceptance of mortality I’ve accepted the use of a lead sled for sighting in. The lead sled was anchored on our bench and at the selected distances, 50 yds, 100 yds, and 300 yds, we lined up on the targets.

These target are the best I’ve used. Sticky back and they highlight the spot you just shot so you can see well from quite a distance. The little sticky circles in the corners were also helpful because I could use them to cover up spots that I’d ruined with a shot without have to use an entire new target.

We remembered, this time, to take some binoculars and a range finder and this saved us a lot of walking and time. Our target selection was the self-adhesive Shoot-N-C® Targets. They show up well, highlight the Read the rest of this entry »