If you where looking at brown bear hunt what questions would you ask the outfitter?

Mark,

There aren't any dumb questions, the true professionals have heard it all before, and truly want you to come prepared and have a good time hunting. They also want you to get a good size mature male.

I spent several years researching a Brown Bear hunt, I made up a big list of questions and got most of them answered in speaking to the outfitters before I even got to ask them just by asking them to tell me of a typical days hunt.

You will have to answer some of them yourself to determine the type of hunt you want. Boat, tent, spring, fall.

Looking back, I think the most helpful thing I learned was who I was going to be in the field with. That meaning the actual guide, not the outfitter. Speak with enough references and you will likly find a pattern. If a outfitter has the same guides for a number of years it says something to me. Like any job it is the sucessful people that get the job done. And sucessful folks dont stay where they can't produce.

I hunted spring, on the Alaskan Peninsula out of a Bomb Shelter tent and loved all of it.

HBH

P.S. At least every other Bear taken is a 10'+ once they get back in Anchorage or points beyond. Dont buy all that.

Mark

HBH gave you some very sound advise. A guy that can keep his guides for a few years is a find. Also I think an owner that actually guides himself is worth more than a guy with several assistant guides doing the hunting and he's just flying the plane.

I'd also ask for the recent references and success rates as in what percentage of hunters are successful and what percentage could have shot bears but didn't for various reasons. A guide might have 6 hunters in a season and only kill 4 bears but 2 of the clients might have been physically incapable of reaching a bear that was a good shooter. This makes his success rate low but does not mean he puts on a poor hunt. Sometimes people just flat miss. The guy I work with in SE AK had a guy on a honest 10 footer actaully a freakishly big bear for the area. The client missed the bear broadside at 70 yards from a rest.

Find out what the camp and food are like. A crappy wet camp with cheap food makes even the best of hunting hard to take. In Alaska this is real important because your life could depend on it.

Mark

Call the ADFG Bear Biologist for the areas you are considering they are a good source of data.

Thanks! I have called the biologist in Ketchikan, Mr Porter. He didn't want to recommend anyone but other than that he was a nice guy to talk to.

Assuming the guide and outfitter are not the same person, you might insist on actually talking to the guide via telephone or email. Absent the outfitter, guides may tell you things that are not necessarily contrary to what the outfitter is saying but offer a more "realistic" image of success and opportunity.

JMHO,

John

if at all possible find someone to talk to that has been with the guy before. Make sure that you are talking directly and on the same level. The level thing is important. i.e. you may be talking about a deer thinking of 30" muley bucks, while the other guy is just talking of a 4 legged woodland creature. There are alot of bums in the area up the coast and alaska. What mark said about camps is important. If the guy cares enough to make sure the camp is clean and comfortable, he usually cares about the other things too. Make sure when they quote a success ratio to find out just what they're talking about. I can remember a caribou hunt once that they allowed 2 guys to shoot cows with calves out of a canoe just to keep their ratio up