From you experienced Alaska guys, what would guess is the overall grizzly success rate when someone is hunting griz as a primary target?

This is not for brown bear, but for griz in the interior....

My clients are about 70 percent shot opportunity.

So what's your hunter success ratio understanding you can't control how well your hunters shoot?

I guess I don’t understand how what you asking is different than shot opportunity? Are asking what percentage kill/hit a bear opposed to how many miss the opportunity?
Like this year for example a client had bears we could have killed but elected not to due to hide quality, another guy drew blood and we lost it. There’s more to it than just missing. My job is to do what I can to get someone to the point where I leave it up to them.

I think that he's getting at is that one person's shot opportunity is another guys saw a bear heading over a hill in the next county.

To me, seeing a bear 350 yards out isn't a shot opportunity (yes it's a makeable shot, but) on a bear. Neither is seeing a bear at 25 yards for half a second as he runs through the woods. Some folks say that it is... it's all a matter of being on the same page. To me, if you put a bear in front of me and I decide it's too small despite being legal, or too rubbed, that is my call and the guide did his job.

On my bear hunt in 2013, I saw a total of 20 bears, my shootable bears meaning adult males saw was 9 different bears. of the 9 or so shoot able only one bear presented a shooting situation and he presented four opportunities over a 10 day hunt the first the guide was unsure that it was a male and the light was running out, the 2nd was interfered with by a large female with 2 cubs which charged him while we where setting up for the shot at about 125 yards, the female then bluff charged us, the 3rd time a distant aircraft engine noise scared him off the river at about 150 yards shorty before dusk, turns out it was the game warden returning to a rural runway a couple miles away. the next day we ran into the warden on a 4 wheeler and the guide asked him to go back the way he came since we where in the area that this bear hanged out, a couple hours latter I was able to take the bear . Sighting doesn't mean much other than your in the right area, shoot ability is what counts, the right bear under the right conditions. the area I hunted was shoot and wound your tag is cancelled. Plus SE Alaska rains almost constantly so shooting one unless he is hit hard doesn't mean you will find him, so being within your physical ability is as important as you ability to make the proper shot.
I hunted coastal Browns in the fall so there was a high concentration of Bears feeding on the salmon runs, the guide told me inland grizzly are more difficult since they are spread out over a large area and if you spook one you may never see another one.

On my hunt with John Pete out of Dillingham I probably saw 40 different bears. Only two were shootable (over 8'). The first one I blew the stalk on, luckily the next day I got one that was closer (but under 9').

I think the question is what percentage of bear hunters are successful in filling their tag. I don’t think he’s concerned with why the ones that don’t, don’t.

I have hunted Grizzly 3 times
Seen 3 Have 3 mounted.
Seen A 4th But my buddy harvested it.
So I guess you could say, seeing to harvesting
I am 100% all nice bears.

Dogcat, it's been a very long time since I've hunted Interior Grizzlies, but it's a hunt I highly recommend. If you're in a good area, the amount of game you'll see (moose, caribou and sheep, in addition to bears) makes for a great trip. September, during the moose rut, would be prime time to hunt grizzlies.

I hunted them along the Yanert River, east of Denali Park. We saw a good numbers of grizzlies and I took a beautiful Toklat bear. While eating lunch on the day I shot my bear, we could see 7 Dall rams, a group of moose bedded below us with a giant bull of about 70", over a hundred caribou and 3 grizzlies, all while sitting on a knoll eating lunch. It was a true wildlife paradise! I hunted September 10-25 and shot a Dall ram on the 11th and grizzly on the 25th.

Success rates on interior grizzlies with reputable outfitters run better than 50% , with some over 75%.

In the best brown bear areas success rates are usually higher, sometimes a lot higher.

Last I checked Kodiak Island as a whole was running 70% success for non residents. Grizzly typical has less density per square mile than brown bears exapecially when it comes to fall hunting.

i will say one of the good way to know what s going on a outfit place.

find how many tags were sold and how many bears were recorded. that is the best way to get a success rate ...

A lot of shuck n jivin in this thread....

It's also called Hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by 458Win:
It's also called Hunting.

totally agree.

The world's best guide in an area crawling with bears will not have a great success rate guiding hunters who can't , or won't hunt hard, or who can't shoot.
And the best hunter in the world coupled with a lazy guide in a game poor area won't have the best chance either.

Doesn't the Alaska game department publish success statistics by area and/or species? Most places do and I at least find them a useful place to start.

Of course published success rates don't tell the whole story but at least you get a feel for what's happening.

If all of this is "understood" (and I believe it is), why dont some of the guides on here just answer the question and publish their success rate, i.e. I have had 20 hunters in this area in the last 5 years and we have killed 10 bears, sheesh....

In post number 2 I put my success rate for the last decade and change.
Over on alaska outdoors directory I have a thread each year that I update after each hunt, I post about EVERY hunt no matter how it went. Have done it for the past two seasons now. So if my season sucks, people know it and if my seasons awesome. People know it. Trying something, we call it up front honesty.
My clients shot 7 grizzlies 2 black bears and a wolf for 11 grizzly hunts in 2017. 2016 was 6 grizzlies shot for 7 hunts.

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:
If all of this is "understood" (and I believe it is), why dont some of the guides on here just answer the question and publish their success rate, i.e. I have had 20 hunters in this area in the last 5 years and we have killed 10 bears, sheesh....

I think sometimes the "pure" kill rate is a bit misleading because sometimes clients are not in good shape, can't shoot, don't really have the "drive", etc.

At the same time, seeing something go over a hill isn't exactly an "opportunity."

505 Gibbs,
For the past 30 years on the peninsula I have had better than 95% success rate and even last year, when a majority of high profile, and many are excellent, guides on the peninsula had less than 25%, we were 100%

Not sure exactly how that helps anybody.

How many clients a fall do you take phil?
I think it was a fall or two ago now I was down at butch’s place and they were not doing well on bears. Deltana I think went 1 for 9 on the first set of hunters and cancelled the second half their season. I was seeing 15-20 bears a day and most our other camps were seeing one bear every three days. I had the hot spot. Well until the first bear got shot then it became a cold spot. Lol but those camps are running upwards of 20 clients for the season. Production is what the boss called it. Gets a bit crazy with a camp every two miles sometimes less.

Although I have more FWS permits I typically take only 6 or 7 as I have never figured out how to mass produce hunting like Butch does

Ya man that’s way nicer for everyone! Hard to explain to a client that the people he’s looking at shoot at a bear a mile down the river are guys from the same outfitter he’s booked with. Awkward.

quote:

Originally posted by Joeblack2345:
I have hunted Grizzly 3 times
Seen 3 Have 3 mounted.
Seen A 4th But my buddy harvested it.
So I guess you could say, seeing to harvesting
I am 100% all nice bears.

Did you use combine or just tractor with attachments?

Scythe

Just another loaded question with a million varibles as to what contributes to success..Fair chase hunting is a crap shoot, sometimes the Red Gods smile on you, sometimes the dump on ya...I killed my largest elk where their were hardly any elk, and Ive hunted my favorite honey holes for a week and never saw and elk..A week before season there were bulls behind every tree it seemed..

That said is always a good idea to check out your outfitter, and try to pick out the best place you can..Sometimes I study the locals in Idaho, check the last years kills, do everything I can to figure out where to go, sometimes Im proud of myself, sometimes Im not...but the longer Ive lived and hunted here the better I know the country, and where to hunt. and my success rate has picked up considerably..

Jakes comments above about some outfits running 10 to 20 hunts in a season on the peninsula is exactly what scared me into going higher end with Mileur on Kodiak. I know outfitters are trying to make a living but booking a guy for his once in a lifetime hunt knowing his odds are 50-50 at best is misleading. Stacking guys on top of each other and herding hunters through an area borders on fraud caused by greed. Even having an exclusive area and or private land is worthless if the area is saturated with the outfitters own hunters. I applaud the guys who manage and restrict their numbers to insure "every" client has a great hunt and a fair chance. I know this doesn't add to the posters original question . Sorry.

quote:

Originally posted by scott f.:
Jakes comments above about some outfits running 10 to 20 hunts in a season on the peninsula is exactly what scared me into going higher end with Mileur on Kodiak. I know outfitters are trying to make a living but booking a guy for his once in a lifetime hunt knowing his odds are 50-50 at best is misleading. Stacking guys on top of each other and herding hunters through an area borders on fraud caused by greed. Even having an exclusive area and or private land is worthless if the area is saturated with the outfitters own hunters. I applaud the guys who manage and restrict their numbers to insure "every" client has a great hunt and a fair chance. I know this doesn't add to the posters original question . Sorry.

So book with Cabot or Phil. I can assure you Cabot doesn't stack up his hunters.

Except the OP specified grizzly and not brown bear.

quote:

Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
Except the OP specified grizzly and not brown bear.

Well then book with Jake! I bet he doesn't stack them up either.

Well I only do one hunt at a time so it’s hard to stack clients! Lol but my bears are grizzly by SCI and browns according to B & C. But, they are not browns like you imagine. They are like a grizzly.

quote:

Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
Well I only do one hunt at a time so it’s hard to stack clients! Lol but my bears are grizzly by SCI and browns according to B & C. But, they are not browns like you imagine. They are like a grizzly.

to sump up you have: small brown or otherwise big grizzlies ...

quote:

Originally posted by medved:

quote:

Originally posted by Fourtyonesix:
Well I only do one hunt at a time so it’s hard to stack clients! Lol but my bears are grizzly by SCI and browns according to B & C. But, they are not browns like you imagine. They are like a grizzly.

to sump up you have: small brown or otherwise big grizzlies ...

Sure. We take a few over 9’ every couple years. So we do get the bored brown bear that comes thru. Lol

Jake I looked back on some of your posts
Seen some pretty nice bears your client harvested.
I think one a year ago or so was right a 9' or a little less but very nice for inland bears.
Good luck with your posted hunts.

I was talking to the four BC outfitters at Jagd and Hund show in Dortmond about a month ago about sheep success in BC on stones.

They said at $45,000 you had to kill every ram, and if a guy didn't get one he could come back and shoot one at the end of the season.

He said I can't ask someone for $45,000 if I can't deliver a ram.

Bear hunts in Alaska aren't priced like that, but the most transparent success is the higher the odds of someone ponying up big money for a hunt.

The shooting opportunity % is the right #. Sometimes you run out of shooter long before you run out of gun.

quote:

Originally posted by raamw:
On my bear hunt in 2013, I saw a total of 20 bears, my shootable bears meaning adult males saw was 9 different bears. of the 9 or so shoot able only one bear presented a shooting situation and he presented four opportunities over a 10 day hunt - the first the guide was unsure that it was a male and the light was running out, * * *

Rookie mistake right there.

You should've fired that dumb-ass guide by the end of the first day if he's too inexperienced to recognize a male Grizz from sow.

C'mon, let's get serious.

quote:

Originally posted by A.J. Hydell:

quote:

Originally posted by raamw:
On my bear hunt in 2013, I saw a total of 20 bears, my shootable bears meaning adult males saw was 9 different bears. of the 9 or so shoot able only one bear presented a shooting situation and he presented four opportunities over a 10 day hunt - the first the guide was unsure that it was a male and the light was running out, * * *

Rookie mistake right there.

You should've fired that dumb-ass guide by the end of the first day if he's too inexperienced to recognize a male Grizz from sow.

C'mon, let's get serious.

Light was running out. Guide was unsure. Sounds like no mistake at all and a good decision. Don’t fire the guide who wants to make sure your happy with your bear. Fire the guide that makes a poor decision at low light on a bear he’s unsure of.

Or listen to the forum professionals.