My Hunting Stories
Being the youngest in the family has its advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage when it comes to hunting in our family is the oldest usually gets the first opportunity to harvest each of the different species. Nathan knew his turn would come and took it in stride, always happy for his siblings. He was the last one to take a black bear, next to last for caribou but now it was his turn for moose.
It’s August 10th and again I’m not celebrating my birthday on the mountain chasing sheep. This is getting to be a bad habit and unlike last year I didn’t even get drawn for a late sheep permit. So, I guess the next best thing is to write about two special hunts in the majestic Wrangell Mountains hunting around glaciers. Both were very tough hunts and at my age now I don’t think I could make the trip out with a full sheep. Carrying a 100 pound pack in rough country for fifteen miles is a tough go, so I guess those days are over. With that let’s go sheep hunting!!
One of the main reasons I loved our Western Alaska area so much was hunting the Mulchatna caribou. I have always enjoyed caribou hunting and the scenery during the September season with all the beautiful fall colors. In my opinion the white maned bull caribou is one of the most regal antlered animals.
When we first started hunting around Otter Lake in 1987 we only had a few scattered bulls on the mountain tops. However after the herd started its rapid growth, we would have caribou somewhere in the area by the thousands for two or three weeks during September. The initial population of the Mulchatna herd in ’87 was somewhere between 15,000 to 20,000. By 1990 it was believed to have been around 80,000 and by ’94 it was approaching 200,000. It peaked around ’98 with 250,000 caribou. Some days flying in the area I would see 20,000 to 30,000 and at their peak many clients would see 5,000 plus in a day. That was quite a sight!
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.
We’ve all seen on the news the damage that floods can cause and maybe some of you have even had a personal experience. I have always felt sorry for those who have lost everything especially if it was a one-time occurrence. What I couldn’t grasp however was why people who lived in areas that flooded multiple times just didn’t move. But as an owner of AAA Alaskan Outfitters I experienced numerous floods and didn’t want to move or maybe business wise couldn’t move. At that point you just have to deal with it. So now I guess I understand why they just didn’t move. These are AAA’s flood stories.
Growing up in West Virginia our family hunts were for either squirrel or rabbit. My father came from a large family with fourteen brothers and sisters. He wasn’t into hunting like his brothers, however, when I turned six years old he always took me on the first hunt of the season, a squirrel hunt. My father, his brothers and their friends usually around twenty of them would drag out the big Army cook tent and away we would go. All of the men stayed up most of the night drinking beer and playing cards. We little guys just hung around the card table and listened and watched. That was quite an experience. Even though that wasn’t the way I wanted my children and grandchildren to learn about hunting it did get me into the woods and my uncles taught me many good hunting skills that I use today. I believe if my relatives had lived in Alaska we would have done family moose hunts. That is the way my son-in-law, Sagen, was raised. He loves moose hunting and is very skilled at hunting and calling them.
The challenge of taking a record book animal normally takes skill, perseverance and for many species lots of money and sometimes just a little luck. I personally have never taken a Boone & Crockett record book animal. I have come close on Dall sheep, caribou and Sitka Black Tailed deer. I have guided on two B&C record book brown bears and five B&C record book caribou but again none of my own. I guess I consider taking the number 3 Pope & Young record book Dall sheep with my recurve bow my highest accomplishment as a hunter. Now that I’m getting older my chances at a B&C are pretty slim but like most hunters I keep hoping. Follow along as I chase those elusive Dall sheep with my Kodiak Magnum bow.
Having horses in the mountains might sound like fun but after my experiences with them for ten years, I can tell you it is anything but fun. I know Brent, Dan and our wranglers have their own favorite horse stories but I don’t have room for all of them so here are a few of my favorites about my love/hate relationship with our horses.
At this time of the year when the days are getting longer and the sun is brightly shining melting the winter snow I’m continuously thinking of chasing black bears. In my early years in Alaska two or three of my Air Force buddies and I would head down the Seward Highway glassing the slopes for black bears. I want to thank all of the following guys for the many wonderful memories that I have hunting black bears on the beautiful Kenai Peninsula: Gary Wadkins, Chuck Berry, Dennis Bush, Doug Simmons, Bill Burgess, Walter Burkett, Russ Langston, Skip Phillips, Dan King, Earl Boucher, Marv Buckley, Dave Fannin, Mike Herbert, Lyle Thompson, Dave Brotherton, Bobby Butler, Eddie Lanoue, Marty Turnbow and Jared Juliussen. This is quite a gang and I have about the same number that hunted black bears with me in the Prince William Sound area. But this story is about the bears on the Kenai Peninsula. Follow along as we go black bear hunting.
Some of my most enjoyable flying hours were during our spring brown bear hunts in Western Alaska. Flying on skis during those beautiful cool bluebird days with smooth air and with the spring snow conditions made the entire area our runway. Of course we had storms but they moved in and out pretty fast not like those three or four day storms we have in the fall. We had to deal with overflow on some of the larger lakes but only once did we have to deal with overflow on Otter Lake itself and only for a few days. Dan and I did most of the flying in AAA’s two “super cubs.” We hunted this area in the spring of the odd numbered years mainly because there wasn’t a brown bear season on the Alaska Peninsula during those springs. Business wise this allowed us to offer hunts at a lower price for clients that may not have been able to afford the price for the larger Peninsula brown bears. I have always felt it was a great choice for a brown bear hunt because of price and the quality of the bears we harvested. Those bears were generally smaller. We harvested a good number of 9 ½ footers in the spring but never a 10 footer. I personally never thought it was worth the extra 5K we charged on the Peninsula for maybe an opportunity at a bear six inches larger. But if you were looking for a 10 footer the Peninsula was where you needed to go.
