Brown Bear Hunting in Alaska-Alaska Brown Bear Hunting- The Alaska Peninsula- Unit #9
The Alaska Peninsula is arguably some of the best brown bear habitat in the world. Record books will confirm that bears from this environment have the genetics, feed and over all habitat to produce Bruins of extremely large proportions.
Hunting Brown Bear in Alaska or Alaska Brown bear Hunting can be very challenging but at the same time very rewarding and an Alaskan Brown Bear Hunt to be fondly remembered for a lifetime for any accomplished hunter.
There are a number of factors to consider when Hunting Brown Bear in Alaska & pursuing these trophy bears.Not the least of which is terrain, weather, the hunters physical conditioning and mental preperation.Understanding the habits of these animals and there seasonal use and location are the difference related to success in each season. There are both spring and fall bear hunts on the Alaska Peninsula. Spring hunts being in even numbered years and fall hunts in odd numbered years. Bears have very different habits between the two hunting seasons and consequently hunting techniques must conform to be successful. Your experienced guide will know and use differing techniques to your advantage.
Let us consider a spring hunt for a few moments. Alaskan Brown Bears are coming out of their dens and have not yet traveled any distance either to low lying streams or, as in the case of the largest males, traveling some distance for mating.Spring Weather is generally better than in the fall and the days are much longer. Many bears have been taken at 9 or 10 pm when it is still very much daylight. Hunting bears in the early spring constitutes many hours of “glassing” looking over various bears until a trophy is spotted and judged by your guide to be of good size and with no rubbed spots on the hide. Also hopefully it is a male, although sows are legal without cubs, it is good conservation practice to try and shoot only trophy males. Once a trophy bear is found, a stalk will be made. Generally this means climbing hills and bucking some alder brush as these spring bears will in all probability still be higher up towards the denning areas and prefer cover whenever possible. This stalk must take in to consideration a number of factors, the wind direction, distance and steepness of terrain and whether it can be made without spending a night away from camp.Boar's will continually occupy alder cover whenever possible.They are spotted in this cover or spotted moving from one place of cover to another There eyesight is relative to our's, there hearing is more than adequate and there sense of smell is legendary.The largest boar's have mastered there habitat and survival skill's and are very intelligent and this is substantiated by there current age and size.Normally the Bigger the bear,the older bear, the wiser the bear respectively.
Fall hunting for the most part is similar to spring hunting in that a lot of time is spent in “glassing” for potentail trophy bears. However now your guide is looking for your bear in different types of terrain than where he would look for spring bears. These bears, spring or fall, are very sensitive to scent and a smart and thoroughly experienced guide will do as little walking around the area as possible before the actual stalk utilizing the proven vantage point's in these seasonal area's minimizing scent impact on these area's. This is sometimes viewed as a lazy guide but that is the farthest from the truth. Bears have been seen to come upon where you walked two days before and immediately spook and head in a different direction.The largest Bruins are weary of human's and have been hunted for generation's. Hunter's may get lucky from time to time however these bear's are remarkable and must not be under estimated at any time. They share basic bear fundamental's and characteristic's however, there personalities differ as greatly as our own.Fall hunting will push the largest bruins to become Nocturnal. This means Hunting 2 hours before Dawn and continue hunting late into Dusk.
Bad weather also affects these Alaskan Browns bears in any season. Rain does not seem to affect them as bad as heavy wind but on days of heavy wind and rain, most bears will stay in places that shelter them somewhat and that makes them very difficult to spot when glassing.When the weather breaks the bear movement will increase dramatically normally.
Fall Brown bear hunting is concentrated on both late pink salmon run streams and the surrounding area's .Unit # 9 pink salmon run's occur in the late fall month's of August & september prior to The october hunting season. There are normally Salmon remaining in the surrounding creek's/rivers. We focus on these salmon supporting water-way's and there surrounding area's where the bruin's are frequenting.Your personal equipment for the actual day to day hunting for brown bear here is extremely important. We ask that client's follow our reccomended gear list which consist of quality rain gear, warm clothing, sturdy and well broke in boots, binoculars and a rifle that you have shot consistently and are comfortable with shooting. Any rifle of .30 caliber or more with the right bullet choice that you shoot well is better than a larger caliber rifle that you do not shoot well because of recoil. Shots will not be at long range normally further than 150 yards and the accuracy and placement of the first shot is much more important than anything else you might have come to understand.
