A friend and I are considering going on a Black Bear hunt next year and need your help. We've emailed 30 to 40 outfitters, looked at maybe a 100 web pages and registered with 3 or 4 online outfitter listing pages all with out much response or luck.

This is what what we're looking for.
1-An affordable hunt!
2-An area with color phase bears, I got a black from Newfoundland.
3-Preferably a 2 bear area, such as Alberta.
4-Affordable.

So anyone you'd recommend? Feel free to email me.

Mark,

Please take a look at what I have posted here and let me know if you are interested.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19146

I had a great experience with Vernon Mochid of www.beavercreekhunting.com

Vern is located in Alberta and is a great guy--- food in his camps is excellent. Please check him out. By the way, I posted a story about this hunt on www.longrangehunting.com The thread is titled "the Alberta Chronicles"

Good luck on your hunt

My son and I hunted with Chinchaga River Hunts in the spring of 1998. They hunt a no-bait area (because of the grizzly population) about 100 miles northwest of Peace River, near the B.C. line. This is a spot and stalk hunt, and after doing it this way, I definately prefer it to sitting in a tree for hours on end being eaten by mosquitos. We each killed a bear, so decided to cut our hunt short in order to try some outstanding fishing down on Lesser Slave, but could have likely each gotten another bear if we had wished. One of the five bears which had been killed before we left camp was a cinnamon, and they estimate about 30% of the population is colored.

Their main camp is remote, but VERY comfortable. It has individual permanent "mini-cabins", about 10' x 10' with a bunk and a heater. The cook house/dining room is comfortable. They have rigged very passable HOT showers. I would rate the camp among the best for a semi-wilderness hunt.

We saw more than a dozen bears in 4 or 5 days of hunting, and also saw caribou, mule deer, fox, a glimpse of a wolf, and one grizzly. Moose sign was everywhere, but we never came across one.

There were scads of bear hunters at the Edmonton airport as we departed for home. In comparing notes, I think we were more satisfied than the average, all of whom had hunted baited stands.

There have been some managment changes at Chinchaga since we were there, but the principal owner is still in charge. Prices have gone up in five years, also. The hunt isn't all that cheap, but as I looked around at their overhead in equipment (several Argos and 4-wheelers, boats, trucks, trailers, fuel facilities) and their operating costs for food and guides, I decided that I wouldn't offer to do it for one penny less.

If you asked me if I would go again, I would only hesitate because there are so many places and types of game I would like to hunt that I don't really want to spend my time and money doing the same things over again. But if you guaranteed me the same quality of hunt that Chinchaga gave me for caribou in Quebec or Elk in Montana, then I would definately say "yes".

Their web site is www.chinchaga.ab.ca.