Spring Bear in Alaska
By Jason LesmeisterWhen those big Alaskan grizzlies wake from their winter sleep they're hungry. Their problem is that not much is available in the way of forage just after hibernation so these lumbering bruins are forced to cover a lot of ground in their search to fill their bellies.
Now some hunters will incorporate snowmobiles to find bear. They cut a trail and follow it to a den or they spot a bear at which time they have to shut down their motorized transportation and track on foot. I prefer to forego the snowmobile and enjoy a spot and stalk hunt. It's much more up close and personal.
Looking back on a recent hunt still sends a shiver up my spine. The hunter and I had been watching a valley for a little over an hour when he spotted a splash of brown in the tangled alder brush. A few seconds later I had the grizzly under the glass of my 10-power binoculars.
We measure bear in Alaska by taking the distance from the tip of one front paw to the tip of the other front paw and adding it to the distance from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail. Divide the total by two and that's the size of your bear. An eight-foot grizzly is considered respectable. An eight-and-a-half footer is considered real nice and a nine-footer is a big grizzly. The bear we were looking at was a sure eight-and-a-half footer.
To get a good shot we left our glassing position and moved to a better ambush point. Opportunities for longer shots are common in the spring hunt, but I prefer to be no more than 100 yards from the bear when the trigger gets pulled.
The shot was clean and the bear hadn't run far when it dropped to the ground. We could see the huge bear on the ground so we went to it immediately. A good rule is to approach a downed bear from behind which we did. As I circled to the front of the bear I could see its eyes were open and glazed and there was no movement. Just to be on the safe side I always use the barrel of my gun to give the bear a little poke in the eye. When the cold tip of the barrel touched the bear's open eye the big grizzly raised its head and heaved a huge sigh as it gave up its last breath. Both the hunter and I put about 20 yards between ourselves and that bear in a split second. A few minutes later we were taking measurements and the bear just tagged the nine-foot mark.
The beauty of the spring bear hunt is that the bear are constantly on the move. They are not only searching hard for the minimal amount of available forage, this is their breeding season and male grizzlies are actively searching for mating opportunities. This means the patient hunter will get to see plenty of bears.
Patience is a virtue when on a spot-and-stalk spring bear hunt. A hunter?s first inclination when they see that first bear is to get up and go right after it. That could hurt them. Chances of getting close enough to the bear to get a shot might be marginal and if a hunter leaves a lot of unusual scent on the ground other bears moving into the area might react negatively and sweep wide or not come in at all. A patient hunter, knowing that bears are constantly moving back and forth through the valley would wait until the bear that was out of range came back through later and these hunters would make sure they're in position for a shot.
Of course there are those times when you can get a great shot from the location where you're doing your glassing and sometimes a bear gives you the opportunity to put yourself in a little better position for a shot without being seen.
In any case the biggest bears in the world make their home in Alaska, and the hunter?s goal is to get close enough to one to get off a clean shot and harvest that trophy.
Jason Lesmeister is a registered Alaskan Guide, Visit his web site at www.frontiersafari.com.
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