LCH
Well-known member
I truly enjoy bear hunting, despite previous failures to punch a tag. I've done two spring hunts in Montana now and was in good ground with lots of sign both times, but only had one fleeting opportunity during that period which I was forced to pass on. I also added a CA bear tag to a Columbia Blacktail hunt a couple-three autumns back, but that wasn't my main focus.
Usually by May, it's been long enough since the fall big game seasons that I'm ready to get out with a rifle in hand. Small game, hogs, and turkeys do scratch the itch to some degree.
This time I was fortunate, as were several others on this forum, to draw a tag in SE Alaska. My tag was for POW Island, and in going solo I decided to rent a vehicle and hunt the logging roads and cuts off of the road system.
The travel was a headache, as it's two days coming and going from Indiana no matter how you try to plan it. The airline also lost my rifle for a day and a half, which saved a decent bear my first morning there. Other than that though, the hunting was extraordinarily simple; I simply drove logging roads until I found a good concentration of big bear turds, then alternated between slowly walking the grassy roads, and glassing the larger clear-cuts from the truck.
In all I saw 8 bears and had two more close encounters where the bear was just mere feet from me, but the brush was too thick to see through. I was fortunate to take a great bear on my 3rd full day on the island. The kill was nothing spectacular, as I spotted him in the edge of a cut from the truck, got out and walked to the edge of the cut, and shot him. He plunged down into a ravine and rolled about 30 feet, but was stone dead in a matter of seconds.
I spent the next 24 hours getting him all taken care of, then was able to bum around the island and be a tourist for my remaining 4 days there. It was a great time, exciting, sometimes stressful, and relaxing all at once. I'll be applying again this fall for Spring of 2021, fingers crossed.
Usually by May, it's been long enough since the fall big game seasons that I'm ready to get out with a rifle in hand. Small game, hogs, and turkeys do scratch the itch to some degree.
This time I was fortunate, as were several others on this forum, to draw a tag in SE Alaska. My tag was for POW Island, and in going solo I decided to rent a vehicle and hunt the logging roads and cuts off of the road system.
The travel was a headache, as it's two days coming and going from Indiana no matter how you try to plan it. The airline also lost my rifle for a day and a half, which saved a decent bear my first morning there. Other than that though, the hunting was extraordinarily simple; I simply drove logging roads until I found a good concentration of big bear turds, then alternated between slowly walking the grassy roads, and glassing the larger clear-cuts from the truck.
In all I saw 8 bears and had two more close encounters where the bear was just mere feet from me, but the brush was too thick to see through. I was fortunate to take a great bear on my 3rd full day on the island. The kill was nothing spectacular, as I spotted him in the edge of a cut from the truck, got out and walked to the edge of the cut, and shot him. He plunged down into a ravine and rolled about 30 feet, but was stone dead in a matter of seconds.
I spent the next 24 hours getting him all taken care of, then was able to bum around the island and be a tourist for my remaining 4 days there. It was a great time, exciting, sometimes stressful, and relaxing all at once. I'll be applying again this fall for Spring of 2021, fingers crossed.
