This is the largest brown bear that I guided on. The bear was taken by John Bermen in the spring of ‘88. It squared 10’5” and scored 29 6/16 SCI and 28 11/16 B&C.
I have never written a story specifically about how to hunt the different species but have written about how I personally have hunted them. Years ago, I gave talks about how to hunt Dall sheep during “Sheep Days” at the Alaska Chapter of The Foundation for North American Wild Sheep (FNAWS), now known as the Wild Sheep Foundation (WSF). Those talks were well received so I hope this story will be as well.
Because of COVID-19 the 2020 spring brown bear season is closed to nonresidents but is still open for residents. I thought this would be a good time to write about how to hunt brown bears, using what I have learned over the past 50 years or so. For some of you this will be old hat but hopefully for others it will save you from making some of my earlier mistakes.
Obviously, the first thing you need to decide is which area you are going to hunt. There are brown bears scattered all over Alaska but you need to hunt where the population is the highest, such as Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula or along the coast of southeast Alaska. Start your research by using data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game i.e. surveys, harvest reports, brown bear studies or any other information that they have on brown bears. Read bear hunting stories, get reports from successful friends and even talk to some of the local Alaskan taxidermists, as they hear and have all kinds of successful hunting information.
No matter what areas of the State you are hunting some are better in the fall while other areas are better in the spring. That was true in our guide areas. We used some camps both spring and fall while other camps were only used for one or the other. The main reason for this is typically the food source.
Food sources are by far the best way to choose a hunting area whether it’s in the spring or fall. Let’s face it, all a bear does is sleep, eat and mate. In the spring bears usually eat new green grass shoots, different roots and any leftover winter kills. If you are hunting close to the coast you will find new grass shoots around the tide flats plus any sea creatures that the tides have left behind.
In the fall, especially early fall, the salmon are the main food source. As it gets later, they move to Alaska’s many different kinds of berries. The prime ones in most areas are blueberries, crowberries and cranberries. Silver salmon will run as late as November in some areas so during that time the bears will go back and forth between fish and berries. The berry supply was one of the reasons that I chose the second week of September to do our family hunt at Otter Lake this past fall. I knew that if there was a good blueberry crop, we would have bears on every hillside including the big bears. I think by that time of the year they are tired of eating so much salmon. The berries are good and ripe so they spend about two weeks gorging themselves on berries, 24/7. When that was my area back in the day the season didn’t open until September 20th. By then the berries were dropping and all the boars or big bears had headed back to the streams looking for left over salmon. I tried to get the season opened ten days earlier so we could harvest some of those big boars in the fall but the Game Board would never approve that. After I retired there were so many bears in that unit that they opened it up on August 20th thru May 31st, with a two bear limit. I tried to tell Fish and Game over and over that we had a great population but they were hard to convince.
My granddaughter Rachel with her 8’8” bear taken this past fall. This bear was taken in what AAA called our Western Alaska area which is about a 100 miles north of Dillingham. It was the largest fall bear taken out of that camp during all the years that I hunted that area. In the spring we harvested a few in the 9 1/2 foot class. We watched this bear eating berries for over four hours.
When to hunt, spring or fall? I personally prefer the spring season. Mainly because it is easier to target big boars. Statistics show that the spring harvest for nonresidents is about 75% boars and 25% sows while in the fall it’s closer to 50/50. With more daylight hours, you have a better chance to catch the boars traveling looking for hot ladies. If you are just looking for any brown bear then early fall may work better because of the salmon. You will see more bears just not many big ones. Fall is also the best time to hunt them with a bow. Again, it’s all about the food source. When the salmon are running, the bears are more concentrated making it is easier to get closer to them. You can make more stalks therefore your odds or chances of success go up. The main negative in the fall is less day-light hours and that is the main reason you don’t see as many big bears because they wait until it gets dark to move.
If you decide to hunt in the fall choose an area close to a salmon stream and find a glassing hill just high enough to see above the alder and watch the streams with the good fishing holes. If there are lots of bears around especially sows and cubs normally there will be no big bears close. The sows try to protect their cubs by keeping them away from the big guys. Big bears are old bears so they know where the best fishing holes are especially the ones that are hidden or secluded. They are reserved for them. When the fish are there they don’t move much. Just eat, sleep and eat more. That was the case with the 10’8” bear that Chuck Adams shot with his bow in the fall of ’89. Late July that year I was showing my wife the area by air when I spotted a big bear on a small creek not far from a mountain pass that we flew through often. That fall Brent was guiding Chuck in one of our areas that was full of fish and bears. They spotted over 40 different bears but nothing large enough gave them an opportunity for a good shot so Tony Lee and I moved them close to the pass. Chuck shot that big bear on the small creek where I had seen him in late July. Two years later on that same creek, Archie Nesbitt took a 10’3” with his bow probably less than three hundred yards from where Chuck shot his bear. In these areas, when a big bear is taken another big bear takes his place. I harvested my first bear, a 9’2”, in the fall on an alder choked stream fishing at last light.
Chuck Adams with his 10’8” bear. My partner Brent guided Chuck to this giant. It officially scored 27 1/16 to make the P&Y Record Book.
Archie Nesbitt with his 10’3” brown bear taken only a few hundred yards from where Chuck Adams took his bear. Brad Finch, one of AAA’s guides, was Archie’s guide. The bear officially scored 26 13/16th making the P&Y. Record Book. It placed him in the top ten.
My 9’2” taken on the Alaska Peninsula in my early years.
If there are no fish, start concentrating on the hillsides for bears eating berries and remember to hunt at first light and right up until dark. Not hunting until dark is a mistake many hunters make.
If you are hunting close to the coast and there are fish but no bears, there is probably something dead somewhere. In ’93 my client, Norm Baade, and I were hunting on the creek where Brent and Chuck Adams had spotted close to 40 bears a few years before. I hadn’t spotted a single bear on the creek but I had spotted a couple of bears out toward the coast which was about three miles from us. I told him if the wind was blowing on shore the next day that we would hike over that way. A key mistake that most novice bear hunters make is moving around in their area too much. Find a good place from where you can spot and stay put. That being said, the next day we made our way over close to the shore and spotted a bear moving around in the alder. He laid down and we moved in for the kill. We stalked to within 50 yards. I looked him over and judged him to be around 8 and a half foot. Norm was fine with the size and made a clean kill shot with the bear never raising his head. No sooner than he shot, the largest bear that I have ever seen stepped out of the alder less than 150 yards from us. I said, “Oh, no,” at the same time pounding my knee from frustration. He said, “How big is he!” I said, “You don’t want to know, 10’6” +.” That giant was so fat he could barely move. About every 50 yards or so he flopped down on his fat butt. Right around the same time that he came out another 14 or so bears came out of different alder patches around us. Most were running. There was at least one other 10’+ bear, two 9 and a half footers and two or three sows with cubs. It was unreal. After all the bears disappeared, we walked down to Norm’s bear. It was a nice 8 and a half footer. He seemed happy but I was in a downer daze. What had just happened! I looked around the bear and saw numerous piles of sand and gravel with little slivers of some type of slick skin. It was his scat just full of sand and gravel. He evidently had been eating something on the beach and wasn’t getting the best end of the deal. It had to be a dead whale and with all the big bears around they kept him from getting anything worthwhile at least during his previous feeding. After skinning I cut his stomach open and found more gravel and sand along with small pieces of flesh. The next day I loaded up the cub to take Norm and his bear back to base camp. We flew over the kill site heading toward the beach and less than 5oo yards spotted a dead whale on the beach. It was about half to two-thirds gone. On my trip back to get the rest of the camp I stopped by our other camp that was three miles down the river on the beach and told our guide Dee about the dead whale. The next morning, he hiked over with his client who took a bear that was on the whale with his bow.
So, what had been going on was all the bears around me had been eating the whale at night and during the day they came off the beach and crashed in the first alder patch they came to. Then when Norm shot, they all came out. Over the years, AAA found at least three different dead whales on the beach and took advantage of the food source. Check the beach daily.
If you choose to go in the spring go to an area that has a southern exposed hillside with high mountains and if it is close to the coast, all the better. Remember most bears hibernate on the north side of the mountain about two thirds of the way up. The big males usually come out first and hang around the den for a week or so. Then they start traveling looking for mating partners. You will see their tracks high on the mountains; in fact, all over some of the tallest mountains around. Those bears normally end up on the southern exposed hillsides.
A southern exposed slope during the prime time of brown bear spring season.
The opposite side of the valley with a northern exposure. You can see the heavier snow cover.
A recently used bear den.
Remember, you are still hunting food sources. The sows are going to the southern exposed hillsides where the first green grass shoots will show up. Southern avalanche chutes are great places for the first new grass. The sows are looking for food and the boars are looking for receptive sows.
During the spring season in Alaska, especially late May, you have 16+ hours of light which is double the time that you have to hunt in the fall. The first bear that I guided on for AAA was harvested at 11:05 PM. He was a 10’2” B&C Record Book bear, see my post “It Pays To Wait.”
Tim Orton with his 10’2”, 28 5/16 B&C bear taken at 11:05 PM. This photo was taken the following morning. It was too dark to take photos the evening of the kill. I used a lantern for light to skin him.
Find a good place to glass the hillsides. If the wind is hitting your face it’s probably a good place to glass. Good quality binoculars are a must. I use Leica 10x42. Stay there all day. You will have some long cold boring days, 14 to 16 hours’ worth. You will get so tired that on those sunny days you will find yourself checking your eyelids for holes. I know I have on numerous occasions. The best hunting is late morning and late evening but in the spring you might spot a big guy anytime. They’re always looking.
Checking my eyelids for holes. My client Tom Wells took this photo during the middle of the day. Those long 14 to 16 hour days of glassing sometimes puts you to sleep.
You should spend lots of time looking at bear tracks in the snow. Always remember where the old tracks were and check for new tracks coming into your valley the first thing in the morning. After traveling all night, when the boars come off the top of the mountain, they usually crash in the first alder patch they find. I have guided on at least three big bears by following their tracks into the alder and found the bears. Also, sometimes I have watched the bear come off the mountain and then lay down to rest. That’s how my partner Dan found the giant 11’3” that his client Randy Cain shot.
My son-in-law Sagen Juliussen with his 10’1” bear that he harvested in ‘06. We had followed some large tracks in the snow down to the alder. About 3PM we found a much larger bear that made the tracks but this bear came across the hillside and ran that bear out of the valley.
Dave Gandee with his 10’3” bear that we tracked into the alder. We videoed Dave shooting his bear.
Tom Wells with his 10 footer that we tracked coming off the mountain the night before. We came back the next morning and found him in the alder sleeping.
Randy Cain with his monster 11’3” taken in the spring of ‘92. At that time it was tied for the SCI world record with a skull of 30 5/16th. My partner Dan spotted him coming off the mountain and laying down in the alder. Over the years we harvested four different bears over 10’ within 500 yards of where this bear was taken. All coming off the mountain down the southern exposed slope.
If you have an airplane finding a den or a winter kill site and then coming back the following day can be an exciting hunt. It’s not legal to hunt the same day you fly. We hunted like that during our spring season in our Western Alaska area.
So, to wrap things up, finding a good glassing spot and staying put is number 1. Stay from daylight till dark. Glass, glass and glass some more. In the spring look for tracks in the snow. The wind is the most important part of your stalk especially for the big bears. Just one whiff and they’re gone. You might also want to read my post, “The 10 Footer - What Does It take” and a few of my other posts about my brown bear hunts.
Just a short paragraph about the proper rifle to use to harvest a brown bear. Any .30 caliber will work using at least a good quality 180 grain bullet. I use a .300 Winchester Magnum with a 180 grain Nolser Partition bullet. I believe a .338 Winchester Magnum is probably the best caliber overall. Most guides use a .375 H&H Magnum for backup on bear hunts. Bullet placement is by far more important than caliber. Use the rifle that you are most comfortable with.
Provided by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
I love this picture. Matt Caldwell with his 10’3” fat bear taken with AAA in the spring ‘18. This was the fattest bear that I had ever had the opportunity to help skin. See the post “The Big Bear”.
Hope you enjoyed the story. Remember not all brown bears will read this post so some will not follow the guidelines. Good luck and good hunting.