Cold Bay bear hunting

Bear Hunting Around Cold Bay

Bear Hunting Around Cold Bay

Back in the late summer of 1979 my friend and local taxidermist Brent Jones asked me if I wanted to go brown bear hunting that fall with him and another friend of his, Dwight Felmlee. I jumped at the offer. I had hunted sheep with Brent in ’74 and had been hanging around his taxidermy shop in my spare time. Brent was a super hunter with an Assistant Guide License so I felt like it would be a great hunt. We were going to hunt in the Cold Bay area and I had never been that far down the Alaska Peninsula.

Gift Bear

Gift Bear

The following article was written by my hunter Dr. Dave Gandee of Buckhannon, WV.  He took his beautiful brown bear in the spring of 1994 and his story was printed in The Alaska Professional Hunter Magazine in the spring of 1997.  It was one of the many 10’ plus bears that AAA harvested in our Cold Bay area.  This bear was taken within one-half mile of where three other 10’ plus bears had been shot.  That included our first bear, a 10’10” taken by George Caswell in 1984 and the 11’3” that Dan had guided Randy Cain to in ’92.  George was guided by Brent.  Randy’s brown bear was the largest bear killed in 26 years and was tied for the SCI World Record with a skull size of 30 5/16”.

For those of you familiar with the saga of the road from King Cove to Cold Bay through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge they have already constructed part of it.  The area where the photos in the story were taken where Dave shot his bear and where Dave and Dan were spotting from is now a parking area for the heavy equipment used in the road construction.  The road goes right over our camp site.  King Cove is no different than any other small village in Alaska without an all-weather airport.  They are doing this in the name of medical emergencies, spending millions of dollars.  It’s been a political hot potato for at least the last twenty years.  We tried to stay out of it because we were paying the King Cove Native Corporation to hunt on their land.  I personally think it is a waste of tax payers’ money.   

I hope you enjoy Dave’s memories of his brown bear hunt.

Cold Bay Trophy Bear

Cold Bay Trophy Bear

I’m posting a story written by one of my clients, John Bermen.  The story was published in the Alaska Professional Hunters Magazine in March, 1989.  This bear was and still is the largest bear that I have ever guided on.  It was also the largest bear taken by a guided hunter in 1988 and received the first place award from Safari Club International, scoring 29 5/16 SCI points.  I received a .270 Remington Model 700 mountain rifle from the FNAWS Association for guiding the hunter on “The Outstanding Animal of the Year” for 1988.  That’s the rifle where I had the stock cut down for my wife.

What I find so aggravating about hunting for a 10’ bear is I hunted brown bear for myself eight different times and never killed a 10’ bear.  Then Brent and I formed AAA Alaska Outfitters and I guided on a 10’+ brown bear the first three springs and the fall of ’89. Four 10 foot brown bears our first five years in business and I wasn’t hunting any differently than I did my last four personal hunts.  I even hunted in AAA’s areas on two of my hunts.  To this day I still don’t understand that.  That being said, I hope you enjoy John’s story about a great bear.