Kodiak Red Lake Bear Hunt Advice Thread

[backyardsniper]

I have been presented with a very unique opportunity, one of my longtime best friends has drawn the ever elusive Red Lake bear tag in Kodiak. He is a resident, therefore he will not require a guide, so I have the chance to go as his assistant. He has lived on Kodiak for several years and has done some float trips in other parts of Alaska. I had the good fortune to get to go visit him once before when he had a Road system tag. We did a little hunting on that trip and even had one in the cross hairs but he decided to pass on it. We are both moderately experienced hunters, him having hunted in Alaska and various other places, I have hunted Wyoming with the LRH group hunt twice as well as several other trips to different places and a lovely 27 months in Iraq. However, you can always learn something new no matter how much hunting you have done, not to mention this hunt will certainly be on a different level than either of of have probably hunted on before.
So, I would be interested to hear your input, in particular any of you all who have actually done some of these style trips. That being, getting flown in and dropped for 15 days in bear country. Topics of interest would be, any unique pieces of gear that we may have over looked that are particular to this hunt, a proper protection gun for me, on the last hunt we did I carried a marlin 45/70 for defense but on this trip I'm leaning towards a shotgun with Brennke slugs, a benelli M4 most likely and some bear spray. Also tent reccommendations, my buddy has a Trango 4 man but we need to purchase a smaller lighter tent to carry in our pack for spike camp/emergency use. Any clothing that you recommend that works especially good in this area, rain gear and such.
Gear that we already have includes, Packs, spotting scopes, Binos, boots, stoves, shooting sticks.
Feel free to contribute any and all useful information that you have or that you are interested in sharing on this area and any gear that we may need to help us make this a successful.

Thanks guys

 

[grinnergetter]

Last year I used a Hillberg soulo and my buddies used the KUIU. Both were excellent with the amount of space available going toward the KUIU. We had pummeling rain for a solid 36 hours.

Walking sticks are a must have and if you can spare the weight
i'd recommend a bear fence. Would have made sleeping a lot less "exciting". We had bear in camp twice....once close enough to hear him breathing.

We wore Ruger Casull's with a Diamond chest rig. No-one even noticed the weight.

Don't forget a small camp shovel. I never did find a smooth enough spot to sleep. KUIU rain gear worked excellent and a ENO rain tarp was well worth the weight. Great for glassing. Head net...I've hunted all across Canada to Alaska and never ran into bugs like on Kodiak.

 

[backyardsniper]

Thanks a bunch man .That's the kind of Intel I'm looking for.