Hunting an Alaska Grizzly Bear

An Alaskan grizzly bear hunt, the ultimate hunt. So if you go, gird your loins as they say, and be prepared to put in the effort and learn to appreciate the environment in which you are. This is kind of a special thing about the North Country. It is not like anywhere else. You are out in real wilderness. You don't see roads, you don't hear traffic. In your life you're going to look back and say, I was on this wilderness hunt one time, and this is what happened. An Alaskan grizzly bear hunt, it's a big deal for a lot of hunters. It's kind of the dream date, the ultimate hunt. I've never quite felt that way, but I do enjoy hunting in the far north, in the wilderness. And a grizzly bear hunt is a great way to do it in a little bit different season. Instead of being there in the fall with winter coming on, you're in the spring with summer coming on. This adds a different flavor. You sometimes have some wildflowers coming up. There's lots of bird life. It's just a lively time to be up on the tundra. So when I got invited to go hunt with Bushwack Adventures, north of Lake Elyam, huge, huge lake at the base of the Alaska Range as it runs south. Now my guide was Gary Stewart, and he was an impressive young man too. He'd been up there guiding for 14 years or so. And he was really calm and calculating and entirely competent. I just loved the way he went about his business of getting things done. And he was always busy getting things done, even if that thing was just glassing for bears. So persistent, it was really impressive. He would stay focused on the task at hand and had everything in good order. And we had a young man along who was a packer and videographer photographer, Jonah Klingler. And he added a lot to the hunt too, because when he wasn't filming us, he was also glassing for bears. So it really worked out. We had three folks glassing and three folks helping with camp and the whole process. It's great country. I've hunted caribou up there before. I've seen the interior grizzlies. And as the bushwhack boys told me, there is a special conservation season on bears up there because there are some really old, defective, predatory boars that are killing an ungodly number of moose calves, as well as the adults. Even there are some bears that just learn the absolute best techniques for killing moose, especially in the spring. The bear comes out of hibernation. There's still plenty of snow on the ground that has to melt. And the bear's got a bigger foot pad so he can stay a little better on top of the snow while that moose breaks through. So it's kind of a tough time for moose. And they're also coming out of winter in which they did not have much to eat. So they're fairly weak. So the bears have an easy time killing them. So what has happened in a certain part of Alaska, where we're going to be hunting, is that the big bears have taken so many calves and so many adult moose out that the population is just absolutely in the cellar. So Fishing Game has extended a season for these big old boars to try to reduce their numbers. And that's where I got invited to participate in. So it was an unusually late hunt and we got bluebird weather, which is usually not the best for effective hunting. But boy, it's a lot more pleasant living out in a tent on the tundra. So that's what I was up against on this hunt. Now let me back it up and take you there. Of course, you've got to fly up to Alaska. So we flew over to Iliamna Lake on the north side where the New Halen River pours in. There's a small town and landed there. And then we were picked up by our outfitters. And so we would be going north of Lake Iliamna and east of the which was Lake Clark Preserve, kind of a famous wilderness, mountainous area there. So that's where we would be going. But the guys were actually looking at their flight maps and the topple maps and looking at lakes and suitable places to land and trying to assess travel routes where they figured some of these bears would be going. They eventually picked one out and I can remember two or three of them hobnobbing together around that map and arguing about the better places. So they picked out several. Once we got the location, we were in the general area, but we didn't know specifically where we would land until we scouted it from the air. So we loaded all our gear, flew up there, buzzed over a couple of suspect locations, and the lakes weren't quite deep enough for a good landing of a plane or the habitat around it didn't look quite right to my guide. We buzzed around and finally selected a lake, actually two lakes joined by kind of a muskeg swamp in between the two with short grass on it and landed there. Found out that that lake was extremely shallow and ended up having to park probably 100 yards from shore and wade in with the return trips carrying all of our gear. And I'm glad I wore hip waders because it was deep and mucky with good chance you were going to fall face first in this stuff. So we really had to take our time getting everything packed to shore. And once we did that, we had to turn the plane around, pushing the floats, getting it out of the muck itself so it could take off. But we were pretty confident, or at least Gary was, that this was a hot area. It had a nice mix of some pretty good size forest with spruce trees and willow tree and quite dense so the bears could hide up in there as could the moose. And then in the water itself, of course, you had reeds and rushes along the shoreline and you had that muskeg sort of connecting these two ponds. And we had a lot of bird life on there. It was really entertaining. Springtime, so they were nesting. All kinds of birds out there, including quite a few raptors and eagles and things. After Jerry left, there we were on the shoreline looking for a place to set up camp. And the ground in Alaska looks beautiful from the air, but once you get on it, it is not level. There are just all sorts of humps and clumps and logs and moss-covered rocks and it's rough. So we spent quite a bit of time hiking around trying to find a place to put up camp. We wanted a little elevation so we could search. We didn't want to get stuck back in the trees. Found a nice camp back in the trees that looked like some moose hunters had been using, but we didn't want to be pinned in like that. So we hiked quite a ways down the shoreline and found a nice tundra bench well above the lake from which we could glass. We could see the entire lakes, both of them, and then far out onto the tundra and up some drainages. And then the mountainside with all the forest and just looked like a good mix of habitats in which to find moose and the bears that are hunting them. So that's where we set up our camp. And Gary had brought along an elaborate camp. I've done a lot of hunting up in the wilds of Alaska and it's usually fairly primitive because you're carrying it all on your back. But by landing on the lake right there, we didn't have to go more than a half mile to set up camp. So they brought a really big tent and then plenty of food. Just all the good supplies you'd expect from, say, what you'd expect in a horse packing camp was really almost uncomfortably warm. And it just didn't make one feel like you were going to find any bears moving around. If I were a bear with all that shaggy coat on, I think I'd have been staying undercover and cooling off in the daytime. So the first day we glassed and looked and glassed and we noticed that there were bear trails going around the lake on which we landed, which makes perfect sense. A bear coming from any direction hits a big body of water. He's got to go around it. So there were good bear trails and tracks going around these lakes. And we thought, wouldn't it be cool if we sat up on our little tundra bench glassing and found the bear walking along the lake? Yeah, dream on, partner. The first morning, we went out down from the camp to a bit of a knoll where we could see even further out because we knew we needed to watch the lake, but also a lot of other country. Because these bears are pretty peripatetic. They cover country looking for both the calves, the moose to eat, but also females because it's their breeding season. Spring is the breeding season. So the boars are covering a lot of miles using their nose and just covering country until they smell something, then going about their business to get it. So we knew we could probably pick up bears if we saw more open country. And that's what we set up. And we had, the guys even brought along little glassing chairs. I'd never seen these before, but it's sort of a small camp chair that's ingeniously designed so that it folds open. And when you sit in it, it's extremely comfortable. You're leaned back just in the right position for comfortable glassing. And you can sit there all day and glass pretty handily. So we had those chairs and we were all looking different directions and watch what was going on. We had to keep pretty alert, even though it was big open country, those bears can come in and out of cover so quickly that you could easily miss them. Who knows how many we missed, but we finally saw one late in the afternoon when Jonah, the videographer, picked it out about a mile and a half to two miles away. And it was kind of a classic boar on the march. It had come out of a valley between two mountains and was crossing a nice opening and just flat out going on a mission. This guy was not going to be deterred. And the instant I saw it, I knew there was no sense in even trying to run over there and catch up with it because it would never happen. We would never get there in time. This guy was not meandering around. He wasn't trying to feed on any vegetation. He was just going. He had a destination in mind or he just knew he needed to cover territory and use his nose to find the females or the meat. So he's in and out of our life probably in two minutes. But he was a big, big headed animal. As soon as I saw him, with the limited bear experience I have, I knew he was a big old boar. He just had that look to it and a massive head on him, dark brown legs and head and looked like quite a bit of blonde on his side. Looked like a good bear we would be interested in. So we studied him for a while. Then he was gone and it was just like, well, there's one out here. How are we going to catch up with him? Probably never going to catch up with him. He needs to come back. We now have a route we know he walks. Is this a daily route? Does it every three or four days? We had a 10-day hunt. Probably would make sense to get over there and be on that route. So we talked about heading over there the next morning and spending the day up on a nice knoll where we were within striking distance of that hiking path. So that was kind of our plan, but we stuck it out the rest of the day watching eagles and the birds on the lake, lots of ducks going on, zipping back and forth and just always something to keep your attention to really. The challenging part was to keep looking for bears instead of watching all the other animal life. We saw a moose come out. I saw a moose come out of the bottom where I'd been looking all day. It must have been lying up behind some willows and suddenly it was just there and it was a bull in velvet already. Of course, Gary and Jonah looked it over because they're also scouting for the fall season for moose and it's nice to know what's around the neighborhood. Here is one that the bear hasn't eaten yet. So good sign we got to watch that for a while. Rounded out the day pretty nicely. The sun was still shining. Now you got to think, wait a minute, if you're hunting, why aren't you hunting at first light and last light? Why would you go back to camp when the sun is still shining? Now because it pretty much shines all day that time of year. We're talking early May and there's not much actual darkness. The sun is up for a long, long time and you've got to stop and eat at some point. So we headed back to camp and heated up some food on the gas stove and we glassed while we cooked and ate and of course the mosquitoes, oh my gosh. Gary could pretty much put mosquitoes out of mind. While I was swiping and slapping, Gary would just concentrate on glassing. He's one tough dude, but we did wear face masks for much of it because they would absolutely suck you dry if you didn't. That was really the only downside to it. A little bit warm and too many mosquitoes, but hey, it's Alaska. It's the wilderness. This is part of the experience that makes it feel special. So we sat in camp and enjoyed our meals and our drinks and finally went to sleep about the time the sun actually did go down and then by the time it came up again was pretty quick. You don't have a lot of hours of darkness in which to sleep. So we were up at first light and Gary was busy getting water. They'd have to go down to the pond and pump water, filter it for you and then start cooking, start breakfast again, getting all the chores done and as we did so of course we glassed the lake edges and everywhere we could see, kept watching and discussing how we were going to make the hunt for the day. We decided we were going to go to the travel route for that big boar we'd seen the evening before. So we packed a good lunch, plenty of water and I was just shrugging into my pack and hooking the belt when Gary said, there's your bear and I thought he was pulling my leg of course. I looked up and he is pointing and across the lake on the bear trail that we'd already seen and had hoped the bear would be on, here comes the bear and all three of us instantly knew it was the same boar we'd seen the night before. It just had that massive head and the same color of pellage that it had to be the same one and even if it wasn't, it was a big bear. So there was really no question we didn't need to sit and glass it was just like we've got to cut this bear off. The wind was in our favor so he's going along the edge of the lake there's a little bit of some up and down stuff in there, a few scattered willows and some small spruce trees and such but we've got to cut him off and to try to intercept him before he gets into the big woods because once he's there he's gone. So we just took off, I already had my pack on, so did Gary, Jonah grabbed the camera, we took off running down the hill through caution of the wind. These bears are not all that sharp about seeing something and being spooked and this one certainly wasn't because it would glance at us every once in a while but continue walking along that very line. So we just kept going on the intercept until he was getting a little bit too close to the woods where a couple of bounds he might be out of sight. He still wasn't looking alarmed or anything so I thought we were close enough for a shot. Now how close is close enough for a shot? Generally these guys like to get inside of a hundred yards for these bear. Why? It gives you extra time to get more shots in, really maximizes the energy of your bullet after you shoot of course your bullet begins to lose energy down range so the closer you are the bigger the punch and I think those are really the main two reasons just gives you more time to interact and you got more power on that bear. So we are running across this wet grassy muskeg flat trying to cut that bear off and we get to where time is running short he is about to reach that forest we better do it now or never and I said to Gary what's the range? He hit his range finders of 189 yards not as close as he'd like to get but inside of 200 he said we could take a shot it was in the clear and all the rest and we had that so I set up with my sticks kneeling and I waited for that bear to stop it wasn't stopping so I said to Gary whistle to stop him or something shout at him something like that he did the bear stopped and just before I broke the trigger it started walking again that happened probably two maybe three times and finally Gary really whistled loudly or yelled hey bear or something I don't remember in all the excitement but the bear stopped long enough for me to get a good solid hold on his shoulder took that shot and the bear went down started spinning around like they do I bolted in another round for my next shot and that bear had spun so low into that muskeg that I ended up shooting over it and at that shot it sort of came to its senses and lined out going pretty much straight away into the forest oh boy big trouble I'm ready for my next shot but now he's behind this little spruce tree or something and I do not have a clear shot and I'm waiting for him to clear when Gary's gun goes off and rolled him up I literally saw his butt flip over his head and he laid still and then you could see him moving a little bit so we moved in cautiously to finish him off I gave him another shot and that finished it so bingo there was our bear and it was a massive wide head interior grizzly bear scarred up pretty good here but wow what an old battle scarred warrior he's been around a while it looked like this was the kind of bear that the conservation season was set up to take an old boar that was battling whether his scars came from fighting bull moose or other bears I don't know but he was a battler he'd been around for a while of course with the bear down it was time to get to work to skin it now the hide on the back was such bad shape I'm not gonna have a rug done I'm not gonna have a full bear amount done but the head is so massive and the fur up front is so nice that I will probably mount that I don't mount a lot of game these days but this thing is just too massive to to not and by the way it measured out at 25 inches and they say boot and crock it is 23 inches so this thing is well up in the books so with that in mind we of course pulled out the next tool that a bear hunter has to have never go on a bear fight without a knife I took along my owl knives of Alaska knife how appropriate is that and this is one with my logo on it it's a classic hunter full tang sheath knife with the g10 synthetic handle which is incredibly durable and good it was just a satisfying experience to use this knife to help skin and cut the meat off of that bear so all part of enjoying your tools as a hunter I think this day and age we just have too few opportunities to use our rifles and scopes and binoculars and knives and our other hunting paraphernalia so when you do get the chance dive right in there take advantage of it so here we were on geez this is just our second day so we land first afternoon and then the next day we look for bears and see one late and then the third day in the morning right away so really it was only 48 hours we've already got our big bear that doesn't happen very often well after we got this bear all skinned out and some of the meat packed up and we headed back to camp it was just a matter of calling the plane in seeing when we get there and then packing all of our gear back down to the lake shore and then slogging out with our waders to carry the pieces onto the plane and buzz on out of there and everything worked perfectly which is another wonderful thing about this is to have a hunt that was really that easy and that successful that quickly and still have beautiful weather with which to enjoy it and lots of bird life to watch and a good pilot with a good plane get in and out with no accidents no injuries just blessed absolutely blessed to have been on a trip like that and i really respect everyone at bushwack alaska adventures because of the way they set this stuff up they're prepared they've got the right gear they have the right people who know how to use that gear and they know how to hunt it was just one of those adventures of a lifetime except for i've been up there so many times that it's just another adventure of a lifetime in alaska they're all wonderful but this was one special spring trip for a grizzly hunt in alaska well thanks guys for letting me detail my hunt i hope you enjoyed some of the images here i didn't have time to really set this up as an extended videographic wonder film or anything like that i just want to get across the details to let you know what is involved in a hunt like this if you're interested in a regular bear season hunt or this special conservation season if they have it again contact bushwack alaska adventures and just ask them about hey what's all involved how do i pick up a tag what sort of dates are available and see if you can put together a wild springtime alaska adventure of your own i don't think you'll regret it hunt honest and shoot straight amber alert senior alert ron spomer is uh has been located wandering around the woods