SE Alaska Bear with Archery Equipment

[Robinhood21]

I've heard a lot of people having success hunting SE Alaska black bear but mostly rifle hunting.

I'm not talking POW with an abundance of road systems, I'm talking about Kupreanof Island, Mitkof Island etc using a skiff or raft like Randy usually does.

Who has experience with archery equipment? How did it go, what were your tactics?

 

[glass eye]

I'm no expert on bear hunting SE Alaska, but when I hunted POW there were plenty of bears sighted but getting on them even with a rifle wasn't easy. In the spring they appear on the beach grass but they don't seem to linger around for long and quickly disappear back into the rain forest. A local told me that when you hunt them in the fall they are fixated on the fish and you can sneak up on them easier. If I were to go archery I would hunt the fall.

 

[brownbear932008]

I have only spring hunted up there and I'm with glass eye. They don't seem to hang on the beach long in and out a lot.
I have a friend who has fall hunted a lot. He has never shot a fall bear and always ends up fishing and not shooting a bear. But he said the bears are all over the streams catching fish and an archery or pistol hunt would be easy. He has never seen big bears in the fall always smaller sows and boars.

 

[npaden]

The guy that skinned my bear strictly archery hunts, but he hunts over bait.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I hunted POW this year. I shot a bear at like 80 yards, wind was good and I definitely could have stalked into bow range, I saw another bear at like 35 yards while walking up a stream. Our transporter picked up another hunter on our flight back who shot a 20 in bear with his bow (we got our bears measured at the same time).

I'm by no means a bear hunting expert, I've killed 4 spring bears, but hunting bears on the beaches seems like far and away your best bet at getting within bow range on a bear spot and stalk.

I think if you used a bow you would need to worry less about getting a big bear and more about finding a bear in a good location. Likely you would want to put a stalk on every bear you glassed up...

 

[Robinhood21]

Thanks guys!

I always thought that If one could find a spot on the beach that had a couple good bear sightings I could set up a make shift ground blind and cook up a good recipe of "Bear Crack". If the wind was right and blowing back into the vegetation I would think that could be a good strategy if you don't mind sitting over bait.

 

[Gary]

Check the regs on baiting. You'll probably need to do an online course to legally bait.