Local fishing guide Kenny Bingaman has had two friends shoot massive brown bears at his bear baiting station in Clam Gulch this May, one of which may be a new record.
Bingaman says he prefers black bears because of the meat flavor but from what he’s seen the black bear population has declined while brown bear numbers are on the rise.
Bingaman: “I spend about 200 plus days in the wilderness on the Kenai Peninsula, trapping or hunting, or just hiking back in and I can tell you, there are tons of them. They’re not stupid.”
Bingaman said people do not see them because they recognize human activities and avoid them.
The possible new Kenai Peninsula brown bear record was shot at Bingaman’s bear station by his friend Duane Smith on May 29 after Smith had camped in the tree stand for a number of days.
Bingaman: “I went and sat in a tree stand in one spot, and he went and sat in a different tree stand than [he had been] and a big sow came in and I recognized her because she had two real beautiful blonde cubs that she kicked out, I guess she went into breeding mode again and she hooked up with this big boy and I had told [Smith] there was a big boy with her. And about six hours after he got in the tree stand it walked in. And that is going to be the new Kenai Peninsula record ever killed.”
The bear was over 10 feet tall and the unofficial measurement of the skull was 29 11/16 inches but it must be confirmed by Boone & Crockett after a 60 day waiting period.
Bingaman said bears like Smith’s and Blaine Anliker’s, a 29 inch brown killed May 20, are bigger than what hunters are seeing on Kodiak Island recently.
Bingaman: “I’ve talked with Ted Spraker, the chairman of the Board of Game, and he’s got a couple of big game buddies and they called him up and was telling him about the massive brown bears that they’ve killed on Kodiak this year and the biggest one was just barely over 28 inches, the skull measurement. And Ted goes ‘Wow we’ve got a couple over 29 inches here’ and they said ‘Oh my God, the Kenai Peninsula is the new Kodiak’.”