How do the bears in Alaska compare in size to those in BC? Are my chances to taking a trophy bear better in some areas than others? If so, which areas should I be looking at?

Any recommended guides for black bear in AK?

Hi Rich/ perhaps you want to read my post "Great Bear Hunt" just a few posts below yours. I am told Alaska has the biggest black bear; best protein source with the fish to eat. I have hunted with Guide Eli Lucas for black bear 3 times and my first hunt partner took one 7'2" square. On that hunt mine was 6'7". This last hunt mine was 6'9", and my hunting partner's was just a little smaller. I have seen several over the past several years that looked as big as the back end of a bus. Bear density there is exceptional. Eli's phone is 1-907-772-3405. His email is alaskahunts@hotmail.com. He is just about the only guide in GMU3 that I could find that hunted black bear in mid-May, which I strongly feel is the best time. Black flies come out hungry in June and many hides are badly rubbed. The sedge grass gets tough, tall & begins to go to seed in June; things start to green up inside the tree line & there is less to draw a bear out onto the beach. Hopes this helps/Chaz

By trophy, do you mean by skull size, or 7' squared hides?

B&C skulls are more likely to come from the southern part of Southeast - Units 1A, 1B, 1C, 2 & 3. 7 footers can be found most places where they feed heavily on salmon.

quote:

Originally posted by MuskegMan:
By trophy, do you mean by skull size, or 7' squared hides?

B&C skulls are more likely to come from the southern part of Southeast - Units 1A, 1B, 1C, 2 & 3. 7 footers can be found most places where they feed heavily on salmon.

A B&C bear would be nice but a 7' hide would do it for me too.

Here along the Upper Yukon, (interior) the black bear are small, haven't killed one much over 400 lbs, most are 150-300 lbers. I guess they get bigger on the coast.

Rich-

As far as body size SE, AK will offer the bears with the largest squared hide measurement and lots of them. You will pay a premium to hunt with the best boat based operators but overall you'll have a great experience. You should expect a bear squaring 6.5' plus to 7.5' and that is big black bear. On my personal hunt with my preferred operator there were 3 shooters on the boat. We shot 6'10", 7' and 7'4" and we saw 12-20 bears per day. It would be hard to beat those stats.

Give me a call if you'd like to discuss a hunt.

Mark

Mark,

I might give you a call some time next week. I just have to decide if black bear is what I want to do next fall.

If you want BIG black bears go East, young man. Some Pennsylvania bears have been 700+ pounds. One PA bear had a 23 9/16" skull. Last fall a huge one was taken in Maine--699 pounds. I don't think there are any such monsters on the West Coast.

quote:

Originally posted by vicvanb:
If you want BIG black bears go East, young man. Some Pennsylvania bears have been 700+ pounds. One PA bear had a 23 9/16" skull. Last fall a huge one was taken in Maine--699 pounds. I don't think there are any such monsters on the West Coast.

I'm from the east coast so if this is where the black bears are maybe I'll just stay around here for the bear.

Any certains areas in PA or Maine?

Potter County, PA.

yes, agree Pa. has big bears, however the season is only days long. No baiting and they are darn hard to harvest. I hunted Pa. for bear 20 years from my teens on, when I got to a point I could spend some money to hunt--- I went west!

Now you guys have me excited, Potter county is only two hours from me.

Any idea how hard it is for a non-res to get a tag? Any recommend outfitters who may be able to put me on some bears there?

Shooting a big bear in PA is about the same odds as hitting the lottery. The heavy bears you hear about are usually "dump" bears. Most bears are killed by locals driving the laurels and are 150 to 250 pounds. I had a camp in the heart of prime bear country (McKean County) and saw lots of bears at the local land fill but few in the woods. Short season with lots of hunters. Go to western Canada or Alaska. My bucket list bear is a brown phase black bear in Manitoba.

quote:

Originally posted by LJS:
Most bears are killed by locals driving the laurels and are 150 to 250 pounds.

In any location, most bears are much smaller than the biggest bears. It's no different for any species--in Alaska most bull moose taken by hunters are less than 60 inches but there are occasional 70+ inch bulls out there.

One thing is certain--if the largest bears in the area are 400 pounds, you will never shoot a 500 pounder.

It's only a two hour drive from me so I think I will grab a OTC tag this fall and spend 3 days there and see if I can manage to come up with anything.

Check the PA Game Commision's web site. I believe they show bear kill by county. You can get an idea where to go. When you decide where you want to go get topo information and look for some swampy areas. That is what my bear hunting buddies do but again they do big drives. Baiting is not permitted!
My camp was near the landfill in Mount Jewett in Mc Kean County and bears used the landfill. I have not been there for a number of years but I'm sure the local hardware/sporting goods store could give some advice.
If you can talk to the game commision bear expert, you will be surprised how much info they will give you. It will be of a general nature but helpful.

Rich,

It's fairly easy to get a non-res hunting license and tag. You can purchase both at the same time.

I grew up in Crawford Co, pa, we had bears all around the house after tornado came through in 84. There are big bears there but it's just luck at getting a big one. The most bear I ever saw at one place on the first day of bear season was at this garbage dump near Warren, Pa. They were running in every direction away from the dump as hundreds of hunters were blasting away at them. I never saw so much orange appear from behind trees as the war started as when a cub come crashing down the creekbed, from the direction of the dump.

Thing is, you will see so many more big blk bear along the Pacific Ocean to take your pick from than anywheres in Pa. When we lived in Pa, we did once have a big blk bear near our place; everybody knew about him and even more people were after that ole boy. Chance of one person getting that bear would be like me shooting a moose with a 85 inch spread; not very likely; and we've shot a few moose over the last 20 years.

If you check your state wieght states, yes you have big bears but i would guess yo state average is under 125 lbs. Go to BC, or Alaska for good bears.
The Coastal areas the weights can be more but the hides are not as good as the interior bears. length wise there is no difference anywhere. A true 7 foot bear is a big bear, a lot of outfitters can turn a 6 foot into a 7 foot with out much trouble.

I think, size of the hide looks better then size of the skull.
Just looks more impressive.
Never actually shot black color black bear. Go figure. Seems I always get different colors.
SE Alaska sounds like fun. Maybe soon.