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KAMCHATKA BROWN BEARS;
10 foot Brown Bears do not grow on trees, no matter where you hunt; unlike so many specie we match wits with, bears take 10-25 years to achieve true trophy status; just imagine how un-killable a whitetail would be if it lived to that age; old age alone does not insure monster bears either, as with everything else, it takes genetics & good nutrition for any specie to achieve trophy status; Until recently I had only hunted these great bears in Alaska, taking a 91/2 brownie on the peninsula in 1997, & a solid 9 ft grizzly in 2003; now Alaska law says I had to wait another 4 years to hunt Brown Bear in that state so I felt it was NESSESARY to look into other options;
While on my Marco Polo hunt in 2001 in Kirgizia with my Russian partner, (Safari & Expeditions) Nikoli shared with me his favorite destination in the world; (Kamchatka Russia); a peninsula on the far east coast of Russia, just across the ocean from Alaska, this extremely remote region had very similar topography, animal & plant life to Alaska, only without the commercialization & population of people; very few roads, no super-cubs or float planes, this region is only accessible by helicopters;
The local people are primarily simple folks living off the land fishing, trapping with very little industry except for maybe in the capital of Petro; Besides a low population of people, Kamchatka also has the highest density of volcanoes in the world, along with hot springs & beautiful scenery;
In Sept of 2003, I ventured to Kamchata for my maiden research for a Snow Sheep hunt, upon collecting a huge ram we dropped down to the valley floor for non-stop daily salmon fishing, everyday, we saw 10-20 brown bears, also interested in the rich resource of salmon for their diet, as well as feeding on the hillsides on various berries; my client took a dandy bear on that hunt along with his top 10 ram, but I knew I would be back in the spring for a even larger bear with a perfect spring coat of hair;
Once I had made the choice to go to Kamchatka for a spring Brown Bear hunt, I had no problem coming up with 7 other clients that wanted to join me, besides being close to half price of an Alaska brown bear hunt, just the word Kamchatka seemed to get everyone’s blood boiling;
Part of my responsibilities is to handle all the paperwork, cities permits, visa’s, airfare ect; with a 4 hour flight non-stop from Anchorage in a commercial jet, we arrived in Petro on May 1st; perfect timing, the bears had just emerged from their dens and would still have plush coats without rub marks, Nikoli was at the airport to assist in clearance of customs & we transferred to the helicopter base within a couple of hours;
These helicopters are the most impressive tools of transportation I have ever seen, large enough to load a full size Suburban, and 12 people along with all their gear; the scenes we observed on that 2 hour flight to our remote hunting area was un-believable, we had to cross many major snow capped mtn ranges in route to our various camps; each camp was broke into 2 clients, an English speaking interpreter, cook, 1x1 guiding & camp helper; hard shell cabins, wood stoves, generators, showers & or sauna’s, just a tad nicer camp than the average Brown Bear hunt;
Various hunting methods in the spring, primarily snowmobiles with a comfortable sled in tow, allowed us to cover 20-60 miles per day; we also cross country skied a few times & even used float boats down some of the rivers; fresh bear tracks were everywhere, and the guides only focused on the 9-10 ft bear tracks as main interest;
In fact 4 of the 8 clients tagged out the first day on 9 ft plus bears; this is the only place in the world when you can take a second Brown Bear on a trophy fee basis, we only encourage clients to do so if the second bear is larger than his first;
The client in camp with me passed on a 9 ft class bear the first hour of his hunt, unfortunately he injured his eye the next day & was not able to focus thru his rifle scope, he is the only client to ever return from Kamchatka without a bear in 12 years;
On May 7th, my guide & I had snowmobiled quite a few miles checking out some new territory that he claimed had not been hunted in many years, as the day warmed, the snowmobile was being over-worked so we decided to return to camp for lunch; on or way back on the same trail we both spotted what appeared to be a brown beach ball with ears!! Apparently this boar was taking a nap in the sun & we had just woke him?? Besides wanting a solid trophy I also wanted to be sure of his hair quality, at 20 yds it was apparent that this was the bear I was looking for, at the same instant he lifted his mighty skull to check us out, I placed a 300 grain nosler from my trusty 375 into his vitals, nothing dramatic here, he merely put his head back down & went into a permanent sleep; it all happened so fast I couldn’t believe it, laying there was a trophy of a lifetime, 10’ 4”, 28” skull, very old, all his canines were busted off, with lots of decay on all his teeth; The ultimate trophy bear with a mahogany chocolate hide, he will grace a premium spot in my trophy room, hust below my 39” Kamchatka Snow Sheep mount; we spent the next couple of hours doing the high five thing, taking photos & video, skinning the brute out and returning to skie camp with huge smiles on our faces;
Base camp was very comfortable, separate cabins for the clients, excellent cook & meals, not to mention vodka, beer & wine; on a few occasions Nikoli & i walked 300 yds to the near by river & caught rainbow trout for dinner; the salmon only run up these rivers in the fall;
These brown bear hunts can be done spring or fall, the biggest difference is you will see more bears in the fall due to the salmon streams, but we do average larger bears in the spring with longer hair on their awesome coats.
Brown bears are plentiful on 100% on the Kamchatka Peninsula, so they also combine well with Snow Sheep & Giant Moose hunts in the fall on a trophy fee basis; We have all heard the fears of over-harvest of bears in Kamchatka, my take on this subject is; any easy access areas probably have been over-harvested, we utilize helicopters, only hunting the most remote regions possible, trust me, there is zero hunting pressure where we choose to hunt;
As in anything, there is always a down side; with only one flight per week to Perto from Anchorage, I advise a 2 week itinerary, one week would only allow 4-5 hunting days tops, & that is assuming perfect weather; we do offer a refund if you do not take a bear, but that will only apply if you do the 2 week hunt; you can access Petro daily from Moscow, but of course the flight times & prices are much higher; what I advise is a 2 week itinerary, if you tag out early you can either hang in camp, go back to Petro or even try to catch the once a week flight out early;
Every sow with cubs we saw had 1 or more boars in tow, for the first few weeks out of the den, these boars will kill & eat both the sows & cubs; then around mid may the boar is more interested in his breeding urges, typical guy, not sure which urge was more important to him; Talked to one hunter who came upon a half eaten sow, the 3 cubs were still in the den, they rescued the cubs & had them flown to town;
Al in all, a very successful hunt for all, 7 out of 8 took 9-10 ft bears, with only one guy with an eye injury un-able to focus on his hunt; my guess he will take advantage of my offer to return, spring or fall; all of us could have taken a second bear, had we wanted to;
Prime time in the spring is April 25th-may 14th, fall hunting is best late Aug-thru mid Oct; a second bear can be taken spring or fall, along with the snow sheep & or moose hunts as well; very impressed with the sheep hunts, lots of mature rams, moose avg 63” and very massive, but each year 70-80” are taken;
Anyone that has hunted Africa, New Zealand ect understands that the American Ben Franklin green back is King around the world, Kamchatka is no exception, awesome value in hunting, not to mention the souvenirs, & night life in petro; in general, a very high % quality trophy hunt with better accommodations, meals, and abundance of game than typical North American hunting; I really enjoy traveling to new remote destinations, meeting the people, making friends, & learning some of their culture; never paid attention in school in geography class, better late than never;
For more info on this or any other quality hunting;
Al Kuntz (Professional Hunting Consultant) Al’s Worldwide Adventures
Box 38 Scandia MN. 55073 www.alsadventures.com (6500 pages)
al@alsadventures.com e-mail I prefer e-mail contact; Toll free- 888-331-5014 or local 651-433-5366
AL` 10"4" KAMCHATKA BROWN BEAR MAY 2004
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