Thread: Alaska Trip 2012

Awesome write up, absolutely loved the colours on that first picture!!

Originally Posted by 8pt Sika

Awesome trip report, your photos are stunning.
I spent Christmas in Alaska a couple of years ago and it is still one of my favourite places out of everywhere I've been.
I would love to return one day when it is colourful (as opposed to frozen solid) and go for a hunt.

It would be cool in the winter. The guide we used runs a guided winter trapping week in January. I would really like to go and do that. The scenery would be completely different!

That is a amazing trip Very cool pics mate. Thanks for posting

Thanks for the xtra pic's mate

Would love to head up there myself one day

An old thread i know - but in 12 months time we will be heading back to Alaska.... for a winter trapping trip. Needless to say it is going to be cold!
Going to be an awesome trip! Only 12 months to go...

A few photos from our guide (Jake from Black River hunting Camps)

Gillie, just a question
Was Jake carrying a rifle, and if he was, what make and calibre.
cheers.

Wow that looks like a mansion in the wilderness.

Originally Posted by jakewire

Gillie, just a question
Was Jake carrying a rifle, and if he was, what make and calibre.
cheers.

Been a little while but if memory serves it was a NULA in 416Rem. Pretty sure he has a different rifle now - a ruger guide gun in 416Rem that comes in at under 6lbs

Wolverines are the gijo to our ferrets /weasles/soats

Originally Posted by Gillie

Been a little while but if memory serves it was a NULA in 416Rem. Pretty sure he has a different rifle now - a ruger guide gun in 416Rem that comes in at under 6lbs

Thanks Gillie, just making sure he was looking after you.

How do you think a 9.3 x64 using Hornady 286 sp rp would have performed in that situation.

A 9.3x64 is equivalent to a .375 H&H, a 9.3x62 is a bit behind but would have worked fine. Bill Atkinson is an Asian guide who has been around for donkeys years, he uses a 30/06 with 220gr bullets as a back up gun. Was an article in NZHunter a few years back with a guy using a a 30/06 with 220 gr bullets, only took one shot to put down his coastal grizzly/brown bear.

Originally Posted by jakewire

Thanks Gillie, just making sure he was looking after you.

Looking after us!?! Ha! After the first days glassing we went back to camp for the night. Jake had a salmon there that he filleted for us for tea that night. He just threw the salmon carcase down the bank and it landed about 10m from Dad and I's tent. We joked with him that it might encourage a bear around the camp and that might be dangerous - his reply was "if its on its own and your worried then just shoot it and at least we won't have to carry it far to the plane"!
Long before the hunt I asked Jake if he carried a pistol while in the hills for bear defence - he said no he never had. He said I was his bear defence and I had better not screw that job up! Yep, he looked after us fine - hence the reason we are going back with him!

Originally Posted by jakewire

How do you think a 9.3 x64 using Hornady 286 sp rp would have performed in that situation.

A 9.3x64 would have been fine - as stug says a 3006 with good projectile choice would have been fine. It comes down to the same variables as normal - hit them well with a suitable projectile.
With bears (keep in mind mine was only about 7ft - big bears will go more than 10ft) I would go with a premium solid or partition type projectile - the bonded core bullets will work as well but in my extremely limited experience Jake mentioned the 260gr accubonds broke up in the wound more than he would have been happy with. In 9.3 you could look at the 286gr Swift A-Frame, or one of the premium solid projectiles (Nosler, Norma, etc.).

Awesome mate, very jealous!

Awesome! I respect you for shooting that; I just watched the movie 'Revenant'!