bouldersmith
(.375 member)
05/05/17 09:11 AM
Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Stayed at a lodge on POW and boated over to take this prime coated boar with a .375 H&H I built a few years ago. Beautiful country and a really good time.



Sarg
(.400 member)
05/05/17 10:14 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Awesome, some huge Blackies up there back in the day, like 7.5-8 footers !!

What did yours do & did you self guide ?

Nice rifle to !


bouldersmith
(.375 member)
05/05/17 10:30 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Not sure what he will square. They lodge and a taxidermist staying there estimated him at a 18+3/4" skull. No guide on this one, we did it ourselves. Bears were slow to rise this year and Only 2 bears out of 8 tags were filled. Sure is pretty up there.



NitroXAdministrator
(.700 member)
05/05/17 03:23 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

One day I still of hunting bear in Alaska. Lovely big blackie. Nice looking rifle you built for yourself. What projectile do you use for bear?

DarylS
(.700 member)
05/05/17 04:07 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

To coin a phrase, "spring comes late up this high"

Good work, bouldersmith - nice bear - good width between his ears.


gryphon
(.450 member)
05/05/17 05:11 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Big boof headed bastard eh..great bear,great country..more pics please.

Claydog
(.375 member)
05/05/17 05:39 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Quote:

Big boof headed bastard eh..great bear,great country..more pics please.



Agreed, more pics would be fantastic.


bouldersmith
(.375 member)
05/05/17 10:53 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Photobucket was not working well earlier. When I can get more photos uploaded I will post them.

I used 300 grain Nosler partitions over 70 grains of RL 15 which give me 2560 fps out of my rifle. The bonded core bullets performed as expected. None recovered, complete pass through on a front shoulder shot with a a large wound channel.


bouldersmith
(.375 member)
06/05/17 12:22 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear











bouldersmith
(.375 member)
06/05/17 12:24 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear





DarylS
(.700 member)
06/05/17 03:15 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Quite the bush and SOOO wet to walk through.
Nice!


gryphon
(.450 member)
06/05/17 08:52 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Love the sea otters,great to see them back from the brink.
That game trail `tween the trees is ripe for a camera too.


DarylS
(.700 member)
06/05/17 09:20 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Odd, I don't see any Devil's Club, but it is a small area.

Sarg
(.400 member)
06/05/17 09:30 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Quote:

Odd, I don't see any Devil's Club, but it is a small area.




I really hate that stuff, I was still getting it out of my scalp months or even years after I got a whack in the head by it when pushing up to the tops !


cordite
(.333 member)
06/05/17 10:54 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Seems early for bears up there. When I lived in Alaska, May 12 was considered the magic day for bears to be out in SE Alaska. That's been a few years back, maybe it's changed with the warmer weather. Great pictures.

Claydog
(.375 member)
06/05/17 10:32 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Great pictures. Cheers for posting them.

DarylS
(.700 member)
07/05/17 01:04 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Might be warmer there, but not here. Must be a record last spring here or bloody close to it. The trees are finally budding, though.

bouldersmith
(.375 member)
07/05/17 01:20 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

The locals were saying this was the worst winter in 40 years. This was the first time the lodge had opened this early for Bear hunters. Last year was very mild and everyone said the Bears were up and around a full two weeks earlier last year. I wanted a one with no rubs and got it but the success rate was pretty low over all. Two groups in camp, we had three hunters and the other group five. I was the only one in our group to fire a round. The other group missed several bears and managed to fill one tag. We averaged seeing two Bear per day which is much less than people report seeing later in the year.

Rule303
(.416 member)
07/05/17 05:39 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Well done on your success and a very nice blackie.

What make is the action on your rifle?

Very good photos of great looking country.


Iowa_303s
(.400 member)
07/05/17 01:29 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Great looking country up there!
Thanks for posting those pics.
Daryl, what is this "devils club" of which you speak?


DarylS
(.700 member)
07/05/17 03:17 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Devil's Club is a plant with long pointing outwards & curved upwards 'stems' reaching up to 4' height, radiating from a central, sort of "pod". A large one can cover an area of about 6 to 8 feet, with 6 to 8 stems.

The very large leaves can hide the plant so your step on it or into it as you walk through the bush.

The largest I've seen in BC (South Coast and Queen Charlotte Islands) have stems about 1 3/4" in diameter with a enlarged sort of knob on the end about 4" X 8" long. The stems and knobs have spines 1/4" long up to almost an inch.

With the larger Devil's Club plants, there can be up to a few feet in between the stems, so it's easy to step between the stems, but if you step on the central pod, the arms will come up from behind, sides and front and smack you, embedding the spines- sort of like stepping on a rake, with a whole bunch of extra handles going to smack you when you step on the end. Jeans are the worse for holding small spines and they bury into the flesh and can infect - they are also hard to see with good eye sight.

They aren't poisonous, but can be dirty and are a huge irritant. The little ones might be the worse as the can be unseen in the foliage until one smacks you on the back of the leg which can leave a lot of little spines embedded through your jeans, into your leg.

They usually come up to the surface after they fester a bit.


DarylS
(.700 member)
07/05/17 03:21 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Leaf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_club#/media/File:Devil%27s_club_leaf.jpg

Large Stem with leaf branches off it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_club#/media/File:Oplopanax_horridus_15099.JPG

Smaller plants in the open.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil%27s_club#/media/File:Oplopanax_horridus_form.jpg

Descriptions and area of prevalence.

http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/iss...10655eff5a73772


Rule303
(.416 member)
07/05/17 07:14 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Looks like it is a right royal pain in the backside. though the medical side of it may give it some redemption.

Iowa_303s
(.400 member)
08/05/17 12:46 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Thanks for the botanical education Daryl! (Kind of went "Retired Forester" on us).

gryphon
(.450 member)
08/05/17 11:35 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

the Latin horridus spells it out in the link...what a poxed up plant that is!

Ripp
(.577 member)
09/05/17 12:10 AM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Quote:

Thanks for the botanical education Daryl! (Kind of went "Retired Forester" on us).






Ripp


AkMike
(.416 member)
01/06/17 01:29 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Daryl forgot to mention that the roots used to be boiled down for the shamen to take their 'magical trips' on. It's a mild hallucinogen,(compared to modern ones)

DarylS
(.700 member)
01/06/17 02:02 PM
Re: Kuiu Island AK spring Black Bear

Didn't know that, Mike, but - did know of it's wide-spread use for medicinal reasons.

Got an aching joint - whack it a few times with a Devil's Club stem and forget about the painful joint for a while - other "things" will fill your mind. Those aren't hallucinogenic at least nor for me.



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