Alaska to begin arial hunting of grizzlies

[dmunk]

Just saw on the news that Alaska plans to begin arial hunting of grizzly along the dalton hwy corridor. I don't know all the details, but seems like a huge waste of potential $$ for a job that paying hunters would have helped with gladly! Anyones thoughts on this?
I know they hunt Grizz in B.C with hounds. Since they are needing to thin this area so badly, do u think A.K would consider allowing Grizz hound hunting in the future?

[timothy]

I think aerial gunning is sweet. I did it in the army out of a blackhawk, all I got to shoot was fake infantry platoons and moving vehicle targets. Shooting grizzlys out of a helichopper would be sick. I say let them do it so that whoever the lucky sob is gets to live our dream. But ya they should sell some tags too.

[mountain top]

yeah I think it would be sick but not the same "sick" you think it is. And it maybe some peoples dream to hunt out of a chopper but not for most houndsmen or most hunters for that matter. And the lucky SOB that is going to be on the gun won't be some poor bastard like myself who's always wanted to harvest a griz its gonna be a hired gun working for the government. If they want to control the population they should let people DYI hunt or not charge $15,000 for a guided hunt, maybe something the working man can afford. I think the door gunning should be left for the terrorist. Just my 2 cents.

[super white hunter]

Why are they having a problem with them there, let the hunters at them

[MThound]

If the state has problems with grizzlies in certain areas, they should open it up for nonresident hunters. There are a lot of hunters that would love the opportunity to pursue a grizzly without the high cost of going through an outfitter for one. Instead of using our governments money to "hunt" the animals down to their population objective, the state could easily make money through the sales of nonresident tags.

[hounddude]

yeah I think it would be sick but not the same "sick" you think it is. And it maybe some peoples dream to hunt out of a chopper but not for most houndsmen or most hunters for that matter. And the lucky SOB that is going to be on the gun won't be some poor bastard like myself who's always wanted to harvest a griz its gonna be a hired gun working for the government. If they want to control the population they should let people DYI hunt or not charge $15,000 for a guided hunt, maybe something the working man can afford. I think the door gunning should be left for the terrorist. Just my 2 cents.

x2

[Northpolehunter]

As one that lives in ak I agree with the fact that predator shooting grizzly from a chopper is for the birds. Some info though the dalton highway corridor starts at the Yukon river and goes north to I believe deadhorse, but would have to look in the regs again to be sure. The corridor extends for 5 five miles on each side of the highway. Also you are only alowwed to hunt with a bow in this area for fear of people shooting the pipeline to make it more annoying no motorized vehicle is alowwed to be used togain access so it would be a walk. Unless going up a waterway then boats are allowed. Now as for opening up hunting grizz with dogs I don't know if it would help as not to many people hunt with dogs up here though its allowed foe black bearbear there are few that do it. Personally I think opening up a baiting season for them may help but that's hard to say. As far as the guided hunts guides charge what they want and it is outrageous in my opinion but its there right I guess.

[nevadalionhunter]

guys,
i also live in alaska. and as a hound man up here who has had the oppertunity to run some griz on occasion (by mistake of course) i can tell you that it has been my experiance that the average griz will run 3 time as long as the average black bear, and the country they are proposing the ariel hunting in. has no roads or motor vehicle access, plus they dont allow the use of firearms within 5 miles either side of the road. so killing a bayed up griz with a bow if you were lucky enough to catch one within walking distance is not a good situation. and you are talking about interior griz up there and they can be hunted for around $5000. only the big coastal bears are in the 15 to 20 thousand range. what it comes down to is the fact that even if they opened it up for non residents to hunt without a guide they are not going to kill enough bears to get the results that are needed. alaska has so much open unroaded land that hunters afoot or on quads just cant get the desired results that alaska needs for its preditor control program.

[Gperkins14mms]

Wow Talk about getting some beat up dogs!!