Heading to the Alaska peninsula to chase slow and dumb brown bears (hopefully the are slow due to immense size and dumb due to eating salmon everyday all day). Going with Tracy Vrem arranged by Neal and Brownlee.

Taking my bear attracting wife too.....

Report will follow! (Assuming I get his skin and he does not get mine)

Good luck--Bob

Good luck! I enjoyed my fall brown bear hunt many years ago. Alaskan bear hunting is quite different than anything else I've hunted.

Good luck, they aren't slow and they aren't dumb. They are surprisingly quiet though. They move through alder thickets almost silently while I at least sound like a herd of elephants going through the same brush ...

Once again, good luck. I love bear hunting!

Good luck and most of all have fun!

Good luck, Tracy runs a good show and his areas ajoin mine so you should see plenty of good bears

Ross, enjoy the show
I did it once and it was as a hoot

Good luck Ross! Your various Hunt Reports about chasing Blue Bull Eland inspired me to do just that this year in Namibia and now I'm hooked. Hope to see another one of your detailed and entertaining Hunt Reports about this bear hunt.

Fall peninsula is a fun hunt! Have fun and stay positive! It can happen at any second!

Will be looking for pics! Good luck!

Good Luck !! Shoot a big one, multiple times..lol...lots of clear set up pics !!

Compare the cost of bullets to the cost of the hunt. Keep shooting til guide says he is positively history.
To many bears run away with A $1 bullet in it when it should have been 2 or 3.
The biggest mistake is shoot take your eyes off and ask the guide did I hit it. Bye Bye Bear.
Good luck bears make a great mount.

Good Luck! I hope you get a monster.

Tell us a hunting story !

Ross, where's our report? Did the bear eat you???

No story. Lot of issues. May share more later.

That sounds ominous, dogcat. Hope you can get back up there again, and with better results.

No story and lots of issues sounds like a story to me!!

quote:

No story. Lot of issues. May share more later

said the poor hunter returning from Alaska.........

Now I wish you had taken my bear hunt. They all got bears.

Even if there is no Bear and issues there is still a tale to tell. Besides some of us may learn something from it. Help the rest of us out please.
Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
Now I wish you had taken my bear hunt. They all got bears.

Larry, I saw your offer and thought about it, but my understanding of the game laws in AK are that the Pen is a one bear area, meaning once you punch a bear tag in the same calendar year, you can only shoot another in a two bear area. So taking your offer would have negated the Pen hunt, which is why I didn't contact you and perhaps why Ross didn't. Besides, knowing his position in the food chain, I don't think getting away at the last minute is always possible.

In any event, saying anything negative on AR is likely to draw you into a long drawn out debate, so I understand why Dogcat might be keeping mum.

I spoke with a few hunters during my trip last month; people I met at either ANC waiting to fly or two guys sitting next to me. In the latter case, I got their contact details as one worked for a residential construction near some land we own. I contacted that guy a few weeks ago to discuss construction options and he wanted to first discuss bear hunting. Turns out he and his father booked a 2 on 1 hunt for around 14K (don't quote me; I didn't write down the number) each. They never saw a bear. They did see another guide (from the same outfit) and his hunters two miles away, and ended up pushing a small bear to him, which that group shot. (Apparently the guide spotted a bear in the alders and wanted to go after it.)

I am certainly not an expert, but there does appear to be a tremendous variation in hunts offered on the Pen - throw in the great unknown of Pen Air not delivering your bags until one or two days after you arrive (and not being warned by your outfitter that is a reasonable expectation), and I can see how Pen hunting can be a big disappointment. On the other hand, if you book with someone in an exclusive area and arrive early, I think it perhaps the best hunt on earth, second only to lion hunting.

AZWriter has good advice well worth heeding.

Here is the report -
Day 1 - fly to area, glass for bears.
Day 2 to Day 8 - repeat, then fly out.

Saw a few sows with cubs. Made one long distance intercept stalk on a single bear. Did not encounter.

If you want details, send me a PM with your phone and I will call you. I am not putting into print any other details.

I have been on AR long enough to see how these issues tend to unravel. I am satisfied with how my agent has handled it.

I would add this comment - hunting on the Alaskan peninsula is like hunting everywhere else - you go prepared with expectations thought out and discussed. You hunt hard and be prepared for whatever happens. It is no harder than bongo hunting or sheep hunting or duck hunting on the coast. Weather is a challenge but you deal with it.

Thank you. That is all that needs to be said. You went hunting and didn't get a bear. You are satisfied with the resolution. Period. I appreciate your honesty.

Ski+3

Very interesting, especially since we were hunting only a few miles away.

I guided a fall season south of you phil a couple years back. Outfit had 8 or 9 camps out. I was seeing 14-20 bears a day. A camp two miles away saw one in a week. Other camps were averaging one bear every three days. Outfitter was starting to put some pressure on me to start killing stuff as he had clients backing up at the lodge. I knew one trip into that river and those good bears would
disappear. Shot one decent bear and the next guide took two outa there were both sub 8’.

Areas can vary a lot on the peninsula, especially unregulated state areas that don't support high levels of game anyway. But I am very familiar with all the guide areas surrounding my areas as I fish them all summer and over the past thirty some years have subsistence hunted them.
I have also known the outfitters for just as long and respect their abilities, which is why I expressed interest in the first place.
I suspect there are very good reasons the poster chooses not to post his experiences on a public forum and admire his restraint.

The posters restraint is impressive. Not something we see on the internet much these days.

I'm not trying to dig out any gory details but the way you posted it sounded like you flew every day. But you can't fly and hunt on the same day, right? I guess I misread it, and you flew out, camped for 8 days and then flew home.

Anyway, sorry to hear you didn't see some good bears.

To clarify, we flew in on day 1, camped 8 days , then flew out. We did not fly each day. All hunting was done 100% within the law, as you would expect to do.

Thanks for the reply. I dont claim to know the laws very well, that's why I asked.

I don't know what days dogcat hunted but a good portion of the entire season was rotten weather even by peninsula standards and hunting is hunting, the terrain he hunted in can certainly be difficult to travel in, the winds were pretty stiff and if you were in the wrong place and had to hunt downwind you would be sol .

Guys,

In my experience after living more than 20 years in Alaska is that the weather is a deciding factor in your hunt. Folks often just can't take it and bail before their hunt is done. Being tent bound is hard on you. It seems in Ross's case from what I can gather is that the wind was gale force day after day making a real hunt nearly impossible. If you have not experienced the Peninsula or coastal SW Alaska it is hard to imagine how shitty the weather can be for days on end.

Mark

Darn. You have had such good hunts and you give them all a good effort too.

I am disappointed in this outcome. Of course, Ive been disappointed myself before too.

The difficulty of the terrain and extremes in the weather are just two of the reasons Brown bears are one of the worlds greatest trophies!
The country can be tough if you is not physically and mentally prepared.
My main lodge and camps were within 20-25 miles of dogcats hunt and we experienced the same rains and winds between 70-80 mph on numerous days. Tents, planes and hunter's patience were all severely tested but sticking too it always pays dividends.
All our clients went home with nice bears and I am over on Kodiak now "suffering" through the same 70 mph winds and driven rain and sleet looking over blacktail bucks.
Atcheson brochure claims "if you can't accept disappointment, don't hunt North America" and I would add for Alaskan hunters "or deal with rotten weather"

Aaron Neilson said the same thing to me: some guys just can't take the weather and bail early. The only truly time I was disappointed in myself is when I bailed early on a hunt in my 20s. I said never again, and hunt hard until the last day. I agree with the Atcheson claim (I have also seen it in McCarthy's brochures), but I would also add another common saying: "Things can change in minute." In 2014 I was on an elk hunt and didn't see a single animal for the first five days of a seven day hunt. On day six, we called in a really nice 6 by. This year hunting deer in MN, I shot a fair 10 pointer on day 8 of a 9 day hunt- didn't even see a buck until day 5 and only saw two including the one I shot. Day 7 started off at -12 deg but I still headed out and stayed out all day.

Most hunters, unless they are highly experienced, have a difficult time with Alaskan weather but the example of a great guide will often teach them the value of hanging on.
But it's not for everyone and virtually all experienced Alaskan guide wince when their clients start bragging of all the African experience they have.

Alaskan weather can be tough. It can be especially tough on those of us from warmer areas.

I have been 3 times. In those 3 trips, I have experienced the following:

1- On the first trip, had to hunt around the main lodge a couple of days due to weather. When I finally got to sheep camp, I hunted 1 day, then was snowed in 11 days in a rickety old cabin with 2 other guys. We were out of food.

2- On the second trip, we got caught in a storm 4 hours from our tents with baseball sized hail. Later it snowed a day and a half.

3- on my third trip, we had a lot of rain. At one point, I spent 3.5 days in a one man tent. No, it was not fun. I was checking the weather with my wife. After I killed my sheep, I left as I knew it was going to be bad, real bad. One of the guides had blown out his knee. It took them 3 weeks to be able to get him out.

I just try and relax. It is what it is. AK does have some awful weather.

No one can change the weather nor guarantee what the game will do. But you should be able to count on game being in the area, decent and plentiful food with safe, adequate accommodations as they are well within the guides ability