Grizzly Bear or Brown Bear. What's your choice?

[Grizzlykiller]

After reading AlaskaCubs post about drawing for Kodiak bear permits I got to wondering about the preference between the two bears.
If you had the choice between the two to hunt this fall, or next spring, what'd it be?
If Kodiak was open to hunt every year, without the permit system to stand in your way, would you choose it over the grizzly hunt?
I personally am into the grizzlies. I guess the main reason is they are in the backyard so to speak, but if I lived in Olga Bay it seems to me I may go after a bruiser boar with gusto, but then what the hell do you do with the rug?
A nine to ten foot bear will have a length across the paws of 10-11 feet. Not many have walls to hold a bear like that, and a lifesize takes up a bunch of room also.
On the flip side of my question, a bruiser grizzly, meaning eight to nine feet can be squeezed onto a wall with a bit of overlap easier than the brown bear.
Either way a large boar of both species is gonna take up some wall or floor space. Lets assume you have all the room you need, for both. What is your choice, the Arctic or Tundra Grizzly, or the Kodiak or Peninsula or Panhandle Brown Bear?
Just curious what the percentage is of you guys who are doing both hunts, or are lining up a hunt, who have a significant desire for a brown bear or grizzly bear in a particular order.

 

[AlaskaCub]

GrizzlyKiller

GrizzlyKiller

Theres something about them overgrown Browns that makes my blood boil. I have hunted grizzlies a lot by myself and with friends. Have seen several taken and passed on a few, they just arent that big in the interior and teh North Slope at least not the ones that I have seen. I passed on an easy bow Griz in the brooks last spring(05) it was like 6 1/2 footer,just wasn't what I was looking for and ended up missing a good griz (7 1/2-8ft) at 20 yards a couple days later. That one wakes me up in my sleep sometimes to this day. Those smaller griz dont seem to make my adrenaline flow as much as the big guys do. As for the hides being huge , yeah they are and I dont know how many a guy would kill but I wont shoot one unless its grown! We could have shot a couple subadult bears on the Pen last month, just wasn't what any of us went there for. We have some huge griz right here in my local area(have seen some huge tracks) but they live in the thickest stuff and theres just no way to hunt them. I have had them walk right into my black bear baits and it drives you crazy that you cant take them. But other than the remote bear baits on the river the grown bears know what it takes to get grown if you know what I mean. I wish I could show you the destruction on of our local baits that I witnessed last week. This griz's hind foot was 13" and his front pad was an easy 7 1/2" he absolutely destroyed my buddies bear bait. Dragged a 55 gallon steel drum that was staked into a 12 foot long White spruce lay down 35 yards through the most choked stuff you have ever seen with the Spruce tree attached to the barrell, it was crazy looked like a D-8 went through there. Its just those big old boars dont come out in the open very often, dont think for one second I wouldn't be tickled pink to take one of those monsters though.Just seems to me that I'd like to kill a Griz/Brown thats significantly bigger than the black bears I have killed.As to the bear that I am looking for it was the one that Ward17 (he posted his pics) shot in the bay right next to us last month. Big Dark Choclate Boar!

 

[Grizzly1]

Last time I checked you don't need to draw a permit to hunt bears on Kodiak, not on the road system anyway. Fairly large area to hunt and there are some whoppers that have been killed there too! If I wanted to hunt the bears on Kodiak real bad I would do that hunt in a heartbeat.

Most of my bear hunting tends to be for the coastal grizz, not cause I like them more than the interior grizz, just how it works out I guess.

 

[Akres]

No discussion needed for me.
Grizzly every time. Way more challenging hunt. Done it a bunch, with both. Finding, stalking and shooting Brown Bears is comparable to hunting wild hogs in the south. Pretty easily done. Grizzlies are a whole different deal. They provided the most challenging hunts that I have been on. The large boars are a real trophy in my book. Sub-adults, young boars and sows are a dime a dozen.

 

[martentrapper]

I'd agree with akres, large griz boars are a challenge. Alot of them know they are a target and get pretty smart. Never been around the coastal browns so can't speak to their intelligence. Just in size alone they are impressive.
Hey guys...........those 5 and 6 footers fit real well on a wall or over tha back of a couch. Don't forget that even the smaller ones are taking, or learning to take, moose and bou.

 

[AKBman]

Interior Grizz everytime, mine has such great coloration that alot people comment on. It was only 6 1/2', but putting a stalk on him in and out of the alders was some of the best hunting I have ever done. He is a true toklat grizzly, and if things work out, I'll have the opportunity to hunt them again, only it won't be courteousy of the USAF, it will be because I have come home for good.

 

[Brian M]

For hide color and beauty alone, I'd have to go with interior grizzlies. I've seen a few pretty bears come off of Kodiak, but most of the ones I've seen are just sort of boring. Big, but just plain brown - somehow that doesn't do it for me when I've seen the blonde/red streaked bears of the interior. I know, there are exceptions on the coast, but most of the interior bears are prettier to me. Additionally, I like the terrain of the Alaska Range better than coastal alder jungles. Kodiak is awesome, but I like seeing caribou, moose, sheep, and bear all within a small area.

-Brian

 

[Blink]

I gotta agree Interior griz is my choice. Since I hunt out of the Tok/chicken area 95% of the time (I live in anchorage), a good griz is high in my books.

 

[BRWNBR]

both

both

for me spring on kodiak and fall on teh peninsuala for the brown bear, having guided in both areas, i would pass on kodiak in the fall. check fish and games success rates, lkodiaks dropps in the fall ALOT compared with their spring hunting.

But grizzly for me are where its at, color variations, the country, the distance you can see and ground you can cover. just as tough as brownies and i've take three grizz that were over nine foot, seen tracks of a ten footer as well. so the potental is always there, size don't matter till you take him home, the hunt and the harvest are everything to me, could care less what someone else things of the game i shoot, its mine not theirs, can't live my life striving for someone elses standards.
Hunt what you like, shoot what you like and then you'll love it.

 

[Chisana]

Mountain grizzly

Mountain grizzly

I sure have enjoyed my two Kodiak brown bear hunts, but really would like to take a nice, old mountain grizzly boar.

 

[Shoot2Kill]

BRWNBR...right on the money..

BRWNBR...right on the money..

"size don't matter till you take him home, the hunt and the harvest are everything to me, could care less what someone else things of the game i shoot, its mine not theirs, can't live my life striving for someone elses standards.
Hunt what you like, shoot what you like and then you'll love it."

Nicely put BRWNBR!

 

[BRWNBR]

thanks

thanks

you see so many clients go home buggin' out about the numbers and score and size of everything, simply because of what it'll do to their reputation, gotta stink living like that. granted big animals are awesome but as your wife will tell you, size ain't everything...i mean cause theres no room to put the mounts....if beauty can be in the eye of the beholder, then a trophy can to.