Kodiak Brown Bear Recommendations

[JM151]

I’m looking at Kodiak for a brown bear hunt and finally narrowed it down to Mileur or Munsey. Mileur would be in the fall and Munsey would be in the Spring. Size is important to me and wouldn’t want to shoot anything less than 9ft. Looks like Mileur is 15 days and Munsey is 12 days. Mileur will definitely be your guide, not sure with Munsey’s operation if he would bring guides in. Not sure if that’s an issue for people.

Does anybody have any experience firsthand with either one of these guys?

 

[Scottf270]

I killed a 28 1/8" bear with Mileur in 2014. He had just gotten Karluk Lake for 10 years and still had Red Lake. He only has Red Lake now. My buddy took a smaller bear with one of Scott's guides in 2014 and returned in 2018 and killed a 28 1/2" bear.

The Munsey operation has been at it a long time. I seem to remember my research showing they took more females than Mileur. Sometimes this is driven by the client who just wants a bear.

If you go to ADFG website and look at bear draw harvest reports, it will show total hunters and bears taken, male or female. It doesn't list skull sizes. It doesn't take into account for bow hunters, out of shape hunters, weather, or misses. So if it shows in fall of 2023 that Munsey was 2 for 3 on bears with one being female, you can ask him that. Same with Mileur. You have to search by hunt number. Fall Red Lake is 111, spring Red Lake is 141 as an example.

I'm partial to Mileur because I hunted with him. I'm also partial to a spring hunt vs fall. More "big" bears are taken in spring than in fall I believe. Just talk to them and others who have hunted with them and do what your heart tells you.

 

[JM151]

@Scottf270 good point, I’ll check out AFG. That’ll give me total number of tags as well so you can see what type of hunting pressure you might experience.

 

[Scottf270]

Don't forget there are resident and non resident (outfitter) tags. They will have different numbers. If Mileurs outfitter tags for spring at Red Lake are hunt # 141, resident spring Red Lake will be hunt # 241, etc. (working off memory so please check numbers). Tags are limited and some never even get hunted. Pressure can happen but Scott should know how to deal with it.

 

[BRWNBR]

Spring is a better hunt on Kodiak hands down. If you want a 9’ or better bear be prepared to go home empty handed. 9’ is well above the average for bears taken on Kodiak. As they say, can’t get a 9’ if you shoot a 8’.
Mentally be ready for 12-16 hours behind the glass and days of seeing nothing and doing everything in the rain. People hunt Kodiaks and sometimes never see a bear. Others see 30. Be mentally ready for the worst so you can enjoy all of it.
Spring is my vote and I don’t care who the outfitter is. Be in shape.

 

[PORK]

I’ve hunted in both of their concessions and if I had to pick between the two it would be Scott’s area hands down. I’d wait until he had a spring opening tho.