1dirthawker
AH elite
So, another fall bear hunting season. I ended up on a flight to Sand Point Alaska with several of my bear guiding buddies. One of the big attractions for me on this hunting trip is spending time with good friends AND being able to hunt North Americas largest predator.
After meeting the clients in Sand point, we took them to a shooting range and checked the sights on the rifles. Only one hunter needed to tweak his scope and then it was off to the boat. We 4 guides, 4 clients and the 3 boat crew members boarded the MV SPIRIT a 65’ vessel, owned and operated by Capt Ross Hodek, of Peninsula Saltwater Guide Service. Pretty cozy operation with 3 state rooms for the hunters, the guide crew slept down by the engine room.
A couple hour boat ride put us in the heart of our hunting area. The weather was pretty typical for the fall, windy and wet. The truth of the matter is, we had some pretty terrible winds, even for the peninsula. There was some terrible wind, rain and storm surge north of us. In fact several Alaska villages were evacuated due to flooding. Many of those people are still in Anchorage trying to put their lives back together.
The first day, my hunter, Dave and I got off the boat we perched on a small bench overlooking a salmon stream. We saw about a dozen bears that day, with one bear being pretty interesting. However, that bear stepped into the creek and fished his way away from us and out of our lives. We had bears within 60 yards, but nothing my hunter was interested in.
My hunter was shooting a Mauser 375 H&H, and I was carrying my Inter arms MarkX .458 win mag. I refer to my rifle as Jane; as in “plain Jane”. i had 404 gr Stone hammer bullets skipping along at 2410 fps as my pet load for this excursion. Rifle Crank had told me good things about the hammer bullets on game and figured I would find out for myself how good they actually were.
Due to the wind direction, we had a difficult time fully utilizing our hunting area. That evening after we returned to the boat, we heard all the individual stories from each pair of hunters and guides. One of the the hunters, Randy, had an opportunity for a shot at a 8 1/2 ft bear. He was adamant about the guide NOT shooting his bear. Unfortunately, he got what he asked for. The bear was 150 yards away and he did not hit it well, then as it ran off, he short stroked his rifle ( a 375 Ruger) The bear was nearly to cover before the guide, my longtime hunting buddy Joel, was able to get a shot off. Joel was pretty sure he did not hit the bear and the bear made cover which was going to lead to a super fun follow up the next day.
Sure enough, the following day, three of the guides went into the alders, and lucky me, I was one of them! We found blood about 100 yards in from the edge of the brush, found 5 beds where the bear laid up and ended up tracking it in the brush for a couple hours. After abut 500 yards it headed uphill AND quit bleeding. Hmmm, the one that got away. Back on the boat, the hunter said to everyone on the boat at dinnertime, “I wanted to shoot to shoot the bear myself, now I wish the guide had stepped in and shot my bear.” He was done for the duration of the hunt.
One interesting happening was that we had a bear climb up on the bench with us, it got to about 15 feet when its head popped over the edge! I grabbed Jane and swung on the bear, which quickly decided it had better places to be and headed back down the hill to get there. My hunter was understandably excited; he was having a great time with hunting bears!
My boss, Mike and Joel guided another hunter, Mark, (a very nice guy) to a 8’4” bear. They skinned it and tied it’s carcass off to the beach so it would not float away. That bear carcass turned out to be a boon for Dave and I. 2 days later, we were sitting over our salmon stream and I spotted a bear approaching the carcass nearly a mile away. It was day 8 and getting dark so we had to hustle to get there.
We dropped our packs for the last 300 yards of our stalk, keeping only our shooting sticks. As we approached the carcass, we ended up on a short bluff that was directly above the kill site. As we peeked over the bluff, we found the bear was no longer on the kill but had covered it with grass and gravel. We crept along, and found him digging a hole in beach gravel about 70 yards away. Dave got on his sticks, asked if I was ready and then touched one off. The bear appeared hard hit, but took off for the cover 15 yards away. I tracked the boar for a moment and then stroked Janes trigger. The bear was absolutely flattened! My hunter shot once more to pay the insurance and we were done.
We got down to the bear, got some photos and tied it off to some alders on the beach. The following day, we took his hide and did a quick autopsy. The 404 gr Hammer struck him quartering away, complete pass thru with a 2.5” hole as an exit wound. Very impressive, and although the bullet was a pass thru, i did find a petal off it. ( I recovered a similar petal from a deer weighted 60 grains).
A typhoon pretty much wrecked the rest of our hunt, and we ended up holed up in the harbor in Sand Point for a full day waiting for one storm to pass. Then we chased that storm toward Kodiak with another one chasing us all the way to Kodiak island.
Our big plan (the guides, Joel, Jason and myself) was to catch a ride on the boat down to Kodiak and hunt Sitka black tail deer, catch king salmon, halibut and king crab with Capt Ross.. Ross was hosting us on the SPIRIT while he was waiting for his next batch of hunters. Capt Ross provides a home base for a self guided deer hunt. So we were hunting and fishing until the deer hunting party flew in on Dehavilland Beavers, about 5 days.
There is one thing for sure that you can count on while on the SPIRIT; great food! Ross is a fantastic cook, and we were doing our best to provide him with material to cook for us. The first day, the guides and 2 of the crew went deer hunting, we ended up with 3 bucks and 2 does. I shot my first deer with Plain Jane and the Hammer bullets. It was broadside, 150 yards or so. My first impression is that a 458 win mag is plenty of gun for a deer! Bang, flop, DRT. The exit wound was impressive, leaving a 2.5” hole in the rib cage. Meat damage was not extensive, but you do have to be careful with bullet placement.
The next day, we caught a king (chinook) salmon, about 12 pounds, and Ross cooked it for dinner that night; maybe the best piece of fish I have ever eaten! The next day Joel and Jason hunted ducks, trying to get a few harlequin ducks to mount. I on the other hand went fishing for king salmon! On the way to the fishing hole, we picked up the crab traps and got both King and Tanner crabs. No luck with the kings, but the boys shot a few ducks, so was a fun and productive day. That pm I ate so much crab I nearly got sick. (I ate 1/2 a king crab and nearly 2 Tanners)
The following day we went deer hunting with no luck, but Ross caught a nice king salmon, so we ate king salmon and a back strap from the doe I shot. WOW! The following day (last hunting day) I shot another fat doe, 175 yards and Jane once again did a fine job on it. Similar shot placement and wound channel. The 458 win mag, at least mine, with this bullet combination is a solid 300 yard gun for deer, etc. That is far, but very doable with a solid rest.
We boxed up our deer for the upcoming flight on a beaver and then a commercial airline flight back to Anchorage. The weather was sunny and chilly, and our travel back to Anchorage went without a hitch. I even got back in time to celebrate my 45th wedding anniversary with the wife. Overall, a pretty fantastic trip.
For anyone interested in fishing for halibut, deer hunting or a charter, here is the website for Peninsula Saltwater guide service: www.peninsula-saltwater.com/
After meeting the clients in Sand point, we took them to a shooting range and checked the sights on the rifles. Only one hunter needed to tweak his scope and then it was off to the boat. We 4 guides, 4 clients and the 3 boat crew members boarded the MV SPIRIT a 65’ vessel, owned and operated by Capt Ross Hodek, of Peninsula Saltwater Guide Service. Pretty cozy operation with 3 state rooms for the hunters, the guide crew slept down by the engine room.
A couple hour boat ride put us in the heart of our hunting area. The weather was pretty typical for the fall, windy and wet. The truth of the matter is, we had some pretty terrible winds, even for the peninsula. There was some terrible wind, rain and storm surge north of us. In fact several Alaska villages were evacuated due to flooding. Many of those people are still in Anchorage trying to put their lives back together.
The first day, my hunter, Dave and I got off the boat we perched on a small bench overlooking a salmon stream. We saw about a dozen bears that day, with one bear being pretty interesting. However, that bear stepped into the creek and fished his way away from us and out of our lives. We had bears within 60 yards, but nothing my hunter was interested in.
My hunter was shooting a Mauser 375 H&H, and I was carrying my Inter arms MarkX .458 win mag. I refer to my rifle as Jane; as in “plain Jane”. i had 404 gr Stone hammer bullets skipping along at 2410 fps as my pet load for this excursion. Rifle Crank had told me good things about the hammer bullets on game and figured I would find out for myself how good they actually were.
Due to the wind direction, we had a difficult time fully utilizing our hunting area. That evening after we returned to the boat, we heard all the individual stories from each pair of hunters and guides. One of the the hunters, Randy, had an opportunity for a shot at a 8 1/2 ft bear. He was adamant about the guide NOT shooting his bear. Unfortunately, he got what he asked for. The bear was 150 yards away and he did not hit it well, then as it ran off, he short stroked his rifle ( a 375 Ruger) The bear was nearly to cover before the guide, my longtime hunting buddy Joel, was able to get a shot off. Joel was pretty sure he did not hit the bear and the bear made cover which was going to lead to a super fun follow up the next day.
Sure enough, the following day, three of the guides went into the alders, and lucky me, I was one of them! We found blood about 100 yards in from the edge of the brush, found 5 beds where the bear laid up and ended up tracking it in the brush for a couple hours. After abut 500 yards it headed uphill AND quit bleeding. Hmmm, the one that got away. Back on the boat, the hunter said to everyone on the boat at dinnertime, “I wanted to shoot to shoot the bear myself, now I wish the guide had stepped in and shot my bear.” He was done for the duration of the hunt.
One interesting happening was that we had a bear climb up on the bench with us, it got to about 15 feet when its head popped over the edge! I grabbed Jane and swung on the bear, which quickly decided it had better places to be and headed back down the hill to get there. My hunter was understandably excited; he was having a great time with hunting bears!
My boss, Mike and Joel guided another hunter, Mark, (a very nice guy) to a 8’4” bear. They skinned it and tied it’s carcass off to the beach so it would not float away. That bear carcass turned out to be a boon for Dave and I. 2 days later, we were sitting over our salmon stream and I spotted a bear approaching the carcass nearly a mile away. It was day 8 and getting dark so we had to hustle to get there.
We dropped our packs for the last 300 yards of our stalk, keeping only our shooting sticks. As we approached the carcass, we ended up on a short bluff that was directly above the kill site. As we peeked over the bluff, we found the bear was no longer on the kill but had covered it with grass and gravel. We crept along, and found him digging a hole in beach gravel about 70 yards away. Dave got on his sticks, asked if I was ready and then touched one off. The bear appeared hard hit, but took off for the cover 15 yards away. I tracked the boar for a moment and then stroked Janes trigger. The bear was absolutely flattened! My hunter shot once more to pay the insurance and we were done.
We got down to the bear, got some photos and tied it off to some alders on the beach. The following day, we took his hide and did a quick autopsy. The 404 gr Hammer struck him quartering away, complete pass thru with a 2.5” hole as an exit wound. Very impressive, and although the bullet was a pass thru, i did find a petal off it. ( I recovered a similar petal from a deer weighted 60 grains).
A typhoon pretty much wrecked the rest of our hunt, and we ended up holed up in the harbor in Sand Point for a full day waiting for one storm to pass. Then we chased that storm toward Kodiak with another one chasing us all the way to Kodiak island.
Our big plan (the guides, Joel, Jason and myself) was to catch a ride on the boat down to Kodiak and hunt Sitka black tail deer, catch king salmon, halibut and king crab with Capt Ross.. Ross was hosting us on the SPIRIT while he was waiting for his next batch of hunters. Capt Ross provides a home base for a self guided deer hunt. So we were hunting and fishing until the deer hunting party flew in on Dehavilland Beavers, about 5 days.
There is one thing for sure that you can count on while on the SPIRIT; great food! Ross is a fantastic cook, and we were doing our best to provide him with material to cook for us. The first day, the guides and 2 of the crew went deer hunting, we ended up with 3 bucks and 2 does. I shot my first deer with Plain Jane and the Hammer bullets. It was broadside, 150 yards or so. My first impression is that a 458 win mag is plenty of gun for a deer! Bang, flop, DRT. The exit wound was impressive, leaving a 2.5” hole in the rib cage. Meat damage was not extensive, but you do have to be careful with bullet placement.
The next day, we caught a king (chinook) salmon, about 12 pounds, and Ross cooked it for dinner that night; maybe the best piece of fish I have ever eaten! The next day Joel and Jason hunted ducks, trying to get a few harlequin ducks to mount. I on the other hand went fishing for king salmon! On the way to the fishing hole, we picked up the crab traps and got both King and Tanner crabs. No luck with the kings, but the boys shot a few ducks, so was a fun and productive day. That pm I ate so much crab I nearly got sick. (I ate 1/2 a king crab and nearly 2 Tanners)
The following day we went deer hunting with no luck, but Ross caught a nice king salmon, so we ate king salmon and a back strap from the doe I shot. WOW! The following day (last hunting day) I shot another fat doe, 175 yards and Jane once again did a fine job on it. Similar shot placement and wound channel. The 458 win mag, at least mine, with this bullet combination is a solid 300 yard gun for deer, etc. That is far, but very doable with a solid rest.
We boxed up our deer for the upcoming flight on a beaver and then a commercial airline flight back to Anchorage. The weather was sunny and chilly, and our travel back to Anchorage went without a hitch. I even got back in time to celebrate my 45th wedding anniversary with the wife. Overall, a pretty fantastic trip.
For anyone interested in fishing for halibut, deer hunting or a charter, here is the website for Peninsula Saltwater guide service: www.peninsula-saltwater.com/
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