black bear hunting on price of wales island

[Mad Dog]

I am looking into a self guided hunt on POWI for next year.  Do to my job down here in the lower 48, the hunt will have to be in the fall[probably the first 2 wks. in Sept.].  Has anyone hunted there?  How successful was your hunt?  Did you see a lot of bears?  I am thinking that we would fly into Ketchikan, take the ferry across, and rent a vehicle on the island.  Since we are flying in, can you reccomend any places to stay?  I will most likely take my .45-70 guide gun, any reccomendations on a specific factory load[I don't handload]?  Should I expect as much rain in the fall, as spring?  Thanks in advance for any and all info.

Mad Dog

[Daveinthebush]

Rain?  Yes, probably every day in the fall depending on how late.

Loads?  Any good 300 grain bullet should do.  You can only deer, elk and black bear hunt.

http://www.state.ak.us/local/akpages/FISH.GAME/wildlife/geninfo/regs/gmu2.pdf

Maybe some of our readers have been there.  I don't even know of anyone yet that has been there. Supposed to be lots of logging roads though.  You will also need to check to see if there are native lands there and if you need to pay a fee.  The fee would be a lot less than the trouble you'ld get into if you didn't!

Good luck!  You might also try: http://www.outdoorsdirectory.com/ and ask in the forums there

[rlb444]

45-70 would be great in the fall as you will be hunting along streams. This is where the bears will be fishing. Hunting bear in the fall is easy. pretty much just pick your bear.  Smaller bears are havested in the in the fall than in the spring because you wont see the bigger one by the steam. To hunt in the spring you would hunt  the salt flats from a boat. Then you would need a bigger gun like .338 for two reasons 1 shots can be long 2 you want drop and kill them asap because they will only be a short ditance form cover( JUNGLE) and beleive me it is jungle. Best way to find out what jungle is, is to go hunt there. 10 feet is a long ways in the woods of POW.

[muskeg]

Dave is right about the rain. Sept is rain with a capitol R. Some time river and creek flooding makes for no hunting fishing Bear. Then you must concentrate in the upland berries. And Rib is right about

10 feet is a long ways in the woods of POW

If your gun won't take the Buffalo Boar 'hot' loads a 405 grn soft point is what I use. Most fall shots on fish creeks can be very close. Fishing Bears are stalkable.

Also Rib's remark on Bear size is right. All Bears look big in Fall. It can be hard to tell a Sow from a Boar and there are many more Sows in the mix in fall over spring.

Hunt late into the dark in a very remote Bear fishing area and you might just find a Jumbo coming out to fish.

There are many B&B type places to choose from. There are several good web-sites that list them all.

muskeg excursions

[Winter Hawk]

Mad Dog!

Prepare for rain.  If you come in the fall, climb up in the high country and bleat a deer call.  Nothing like having a BIG blackie saunter up to check out if you are lunch!  

I'm not a bear hunter, but year before last I met a big bear up on Baird Peak.  Look on a topo map and it is a couple of miles NW of Ratz Harbor, south of Coffman Cove.  First time I was napping in the alpine after lunch.  I woke up and saw the bear come up a draw 100 yards or so away.  I made one toot on my deer call and he came right at me.  Not running, just checking things out.  Bear season hadn't opened yet so I stood up, yelled at him and waved my arms.  I finally put a round from my NEF .30-06 between his feet at about 20 yards.  He stopped and sniffed around, then decided this was too scary and took off down the hill.

I ran into either him or his twin that Labor Day.  I had come out of the trees into a muskeg on top of the ridge line I was going to go up, when I saw a couple of does bedded down.  I sneaked up on them and was probably 20 yards away or so, squatting down to watch them.  They were looking down the slope, and there came mr. bear.  He walked by within 10 yards of them and they stood up but that was as confrontational as it got.  I thought about dropping him, but wanted to get some venison in the freezer so let him go.  I'm glad I did, 'cause I took two bucks a half hour later.

Hey, have a good 4th.  Send me your address and I'll see about getting you info on B&Bs, etc.

-Kees-