Spring Bear in Alaska
by Jason Lesmeister - The Alaskan Guide
When 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
.
