Hunting for Brown / Grizzly bears is said to be long hours of glassing and minutes of sheer adrenaline and excitement. If you have ever wanted to hunt these great bears now is the time as the population is rapidly growing and the chance of taking one is good. You now can take two Brown / Grizzly Bears every year in our guide areas. Black bear hunting is done much in the same way and in most of the same areas with liberal bag limits of up to five Black Bears per season.
Alaska Brown / Grizzly Bear
The Brown / Grizzly Bear's senses are keen. He has an outstanding sense of smell and will often leave an area that has human scent. It has been said the when a tree falls in the forest a Deer hears it an Eagle sees it and a Bear smells it. Their hearing and eyesight is better than that of humans. The term “Brown Bear” is commonly used to refer to the members of this species found in coastal areas where salmon is the primary food source. Brown bears found inland and in the northern part of Alaska are know as Grizzlies. In spring the Brown / Grizzly Bear generally come out of hibernation during April and May. Alaska contains over 98 percent of the United States population of brown bears, and more than 70 percent of the North American population.
It is not uncommon to see numerous bears in a single day during August and September. The population of Brown / Grizzly Bears is large enough in our guide use area that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has changed the regulations to allow two of these bears every regulatory year instead of the normal one bear every four regulatory years.
Farther inland the interior Grizzly Bear is somewhat smaller than the coastal Brown Bear. Probably this has to do with the richer food source available to the coastal Bears that feed on the abundant salmon runs. The bears in our guide areas can weigh between 500 and 1000 pounds. These bears are outstanding trophies in any one’s book. They feed on the King, Silver and Sockeye Salmon runs in the rivers and streams during late July and August. During mid August and early September they start to supplement their diet with wild Blue Berries and highly nutritious Ground Squirrels that are found in abundance in the upper alpine mountainsides and meadows. The color of the bears can vary considerably with the Brown / Grizzly Bear. They can range in color from dark chocolate to a very blond. As a rule, the darker the bear the larger they are.
Brown / Grizzlies Bears are crafty, cunning, and elusive and will feed day and night. However, all bears are gluttons and when the Salmon spawn and the Blue Berries ripen Grizzlies let down their guard some and venture out onto the Salmon streams and the Blue Berry patches in good numbers during the day. Hunting can be productive at any time during the day as they feed to store up fat reserves for the winter. The Brown / Grizzly Bear has a prominent shoulder hump, less prominent ears and long claws. Both the prominent hump and the long claws of the bear are adaptations that are related to feeding behavior. The long claws are useful in digging for roots or excavating burrows of small mammals. The musculature and bone structure of the hump are adaptations for digging and for attaining bursts of speed necessary for the capture of Moose or Caribou for food.
In Spring, during April and May, Brown / Grizzly Bears have finished their winter hibernation and come out to feed and can be hunted for a few days as they lounge about the entrance to the den. After lounging around their dens for a few days they begin forages looking for food. They will wander the countryside in search of food and are often harvested off a Moose or Caribou carcass that was taken by the Bear or a winterkill find. It is at this time of the year when the boars begin to look for sows for the annual breeding season. Deep spring snow can make Moose and Caribou vulnerable to Bear predation. Brown / Grizzlies seem to be able to travel through the snow much easier than Moose and Caribou.
Hunting in the Spring is done by accessing our hunting areas with a Super Cub airplane on skis and then by snow machine or by walking cross-country with snowshoes. Glassing the bears carefully is very important to make sure they do not have rubbed spots that can ruin an otherwise trophy bear. It is important for the hunter to be in good physical shape to endure the rigors of hunting with snow machine and snowshoes in deep snow. This time of the year is when the bears fur coats are at their greatest length.
Different methods are used to hunt Brown / Grizzly Bear in the Fall. When the bear season opens on August 10th, the bears can be found both fishing on the rivers and in the mountains feeding. This is a good time to use our jet boats to find fishing holes they are frequenting and to watch at the entrances of streams that hold large numbers of spawning Salmon. In mid August more Bears begin to migrate off of the Salmon streams climbing up to the mountainsides in search of Blue Berries and Ground Squirrels. The spot and stalk method is used here. We will spend hours glassing the mountains looking for your trophy bear. Walking around the area only unless it is necessary. Moving as needed to find glassing vantage points, to keep human scent to an absolute minimum. It is a good practice to use scent-masking tools when hunting bears if possible. Once a harvestable Bear is found it then becomes time to stalk the bear for a shot. It is at this time that your conditioning will be very important. Brown / Grizzly Bears wait on no one and it will often be important to close the distance needed for a shot quickly and quietly. Numerous bears have got away because of the lack of stamina needed to close the deal. More than likely the stalk will require that we try to intercept a bear as it travels around the mountain feeding on berries and ground squirrels or on the rivers/streams while the salmon are still running in large numbers. Brown / Grizzly Bears can be found out feeding in blue bird weather to the worst of the wind and rain. Good binoculars are a necessity since much of the day is spent glassing the surrounding hillsides from a favorite look out. A word to the wise is to invest in a quality pair of 10 power plus pair of binoculars. When a good trophy is spotted the chase begins and all of our efforts are used to get into position to make the harvest. If a hunter has harvested a Moose or Caribou and all of the edible meat salvaged, we will keep an eye on the carcass in case a bear claims the remains. If the carcass is in thick cover we can cut shooting lanes around it in hopes of getting a clear shot. In Fall the colors are spectacular, animals begin to move about more and it's truly a great time to be in the wild bush wilderness in Alaska. our Guides have many seasoned years of experience in hunting, glassing, scouting along with extensive knowledge of Brown / Grizzly Bear habits, so we can give you an edge on getting your Alaskan Brown or Grizzly Bear. You can also enjoy excellent Sport Fishing during this hunt for Rainbow Trout, Arctic Greyling, (Char) Dolly Varden, Burbot, Northern Pike, Sockeye and Silver Salmon on the fresh water rivers we hunt.
Our River Base camps offer our most comfortable accommodations and offer one a great chance for harvesting Brown / Grizzly, Moose Caribou and Black Bear without having to do the more strenuous type of spike camp hunting. You still need to be in good shape to have a more successful and enjoyable trip. At these camps we have large wall tents for dinning and common use with wood stoves for heat and propane burners for cooking. There are generators for power, hot showers, outhouse toilets and sleeping quarters with cots. In these camps we have satellite phones for communications with each other and emergency use. The Guides also carry video cameras to capture your hunt and daily activities for you to have forever to remember your Alaskan hunt.
By using the Jon boats with outboard jet motors on them we can travel up or down rivers for miles to hunt and get into many of the smaller streams that feed the main rivers. From here we can use spike camps when hunting, or we may return to the base camp every night. This is can be very productive, as other hunters cannot fly along the river and land where we are hunting with our jet boats. fashion. This allows access to remote areas where mature animals inhabit that cannot be reached any other way. We are the only Guide/Outfitter in this area that operates on these rivers and streams in this fashion. Give us 6 inches of water and a chain saw to cut through old logjams and we can get to places never hunted before. Besides using Jet boats we may access the uplands by Piper Cub planes, Argos or ATV’s. This way we can glass and hunt the higher mountain valleys, alpine meadows and open country for Moose, Caribou, Brown/Grizzly and Black Bears. Beside myself as an Alaskan Master Guide/Outfitter, our guiding crew consists of my son Ryan Krank and Roy Austin both with Registered Guide licenses along with our seasoned assistant guides who have been part our team since the late 80’s and early 90’s.
Please take time to look over the photo gallery to see our past clients many different trophies.
If you have found this information has peaked your interest, please take time to call us with your questions so we can tell you more about our Guide/Outfitter services.
Thanks, Les and Ryan Krank
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