HUNTER: Bill Johnson
HUNT: Trophy Black Bear Hunt in Alberta
CONSULTANT: Julian Salutregui, Outdoors International

May 22, 2023

Trophy Black Bear Hunt Report by Bill Johnson

The outfitter picked me up at the airport, my flight and luggage were delayed but he waited for me and made a special trip to get my luggage when it arrived. He explained safety, the hunting guidelines, stated the time lines, schedule and in order to be respective of everyone’s time the protocol on getting to and from the stand. He and his guide, the camp person and the cook were all knowledgeable and helpful and the food was great, probably to good! the stands and bait stations were well established and in great location, the ATV’s were all in good shape and reliable. When we left camp we had one guide in front of us and one in back to make sure if anyone was having issues navigating the 4×4 trails we were on they could assist. When we came back to camp in the evening when it was cooler out there was a fire going in the wood stove and every night they cleaned out the tents.

Within five minutes of being dropped off I started to see bears, they had markers at the baits to help gauge the size of the bear and we were able to text back and forth to discuss them. There wasn’t a day when I didn’t see at least 10 different bears and on the last day I hunting I can say I likely saw 50 different bears of which five were shooters. I texted my guide a picture of the two I was trying to decide on and discussed which was the larger of them. After a brief discussion he told me if I wanted to I should kill them both and we’d decide which one was larger at camp, so I did.

They came and picked me up along with the bears and we went back to camp, left the bears to be taken care of in the morning. We got up, had breakfast, took pictures of my two trophy black bears and they skinned both of them as well as cleaned the skulls for me to take back. I still had two days left to hunt and they offered to take me to a spot where they’d seen wolves so I could try and take one but I chose to relax in camp.

My Alberta black bear hunt, interactions with the staff and the experience of it all was fantastic.

I’d have been perfectly content with the trip even if I hadn’t killed the bears, it was that good of experience for me.

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