I recently read a report out by the Anchorage News media. I was telling of a hunting accident in Alaska while a Mr. Kern was hunting big brown bear.

Now the guides let this man shoot a bear at around 200 yards and the bear was wounded. The assistant guide somehow was behind a crouched down Mr. Kern 10 yards.
The ***. guide then went to shoot this wounded bear, that was not charging evidently......report never stated so.

Just as the guide gets ready to pull the trigger supposedly, Mr. Kern then stands up in the line of fire and gets struck in the back of the head with a bullet from a .338 mag rifle the guide was holding.

I would like to hear some of the forums thoughts on this traggic hunting accident, so sound off please. :)

I would guess this is why you must pay for the hunt in advance.

Suppose they rolled the body for the billfold before calling for help?

Never, ever want anyone at my back with a loaded firearm! :eek:

Well the assistant guide is probably out of a job. Not very professional behavior from a guide. One thing though you got to keep in mind though, If you've ever been close to one of these big bears it can unnerve anyone. To bad for Mr. Kern, my prayers are with his family.

It's hard to believe how big one of these critters is up close. I killed one at about three feet once, and not by choice, and it's as close as I ever came to soiling myself.

I've never been on a guided hunt. The "assistant guide?" must have pudding for brains. I'm sure he is crushed by this accident but I wonder what license he held to be a guide.

I'm sure this won't appear in the refference section of their addvertising.

In all seriousness, this is a tragedy. From what I understand you have to be an assistant guide for a few years in Alaska before you can become a liscensed guide, and that there are tests and whatnot involved, and some become a master guide after so many years...there may be some sort of requirements in addition to just so many years to qualify. I'm pretty certain that one of the requirements is that you don't lose a client. After being there and reading a bit I see that it may not be that far fetched to lose a client in Alaska. The rivers alone are a near sure death waiting at every turn should you end up in one for much time. The description of what happened is pretty thin on details but I have a hard time giving the benefit of the doubt to the assistant guide. First off, as the guide, you shouldn't be shooting unless you or the client is in danger or the wounded animal is escaping..not to be recovered. Secondly, as the guide, you should be aware of where your client is pretty much at all times and especially in this circumstance when potential danger is about. I can't imagine firing, out in the bush, at a distant animal, not knowing where the hunter is. If there isn't a lot more to it this guy should probably be facing manslaughter charges. From what I've read on hunting griz, 200 yards is at or beyond the maximum distance most guides will let a client shoot from.

Could be the guide was a newbie and was pooping pavestones (clean enough? :)) after hearing all the "wounded grizzly" stories, but it's no excuse for what happened in my view...that view not coming from a guide or one who knows all the details...or has ever hunted griz. I was in Alaska last September, my first time, and I'll tell you that those dinner plate sized tracks on the river bank, behind your back, do make you think a bit when you are fishing...especially when there are smaller ones right next to them. Makes a .480 Ruger loaded to the tilt with 420gr Beartooth Bullets seem like a slim hope should one of these things decide to become annoyed by your encroachment on their territory...provided you even know it is coming and have time to do something about it.

Always stand behind armed people you don't realy know and most of the ones you do know ! Not Joking ! JAGG

Also seems that they didn't have much of a game plan in case they did encounter a bear. I wonder if the guide tried to tell his client to stay down and the client either didn't hear or didn't comply, maybe through anxiety?
Who really knows? But its a tragedy in any case, and underlines the need for strict safety at all times around guns, even when with a professional.

I was watching an episode of Tred Barta on OLN the other day, he was grizzly hunting with a longbow and wooden arrows in B.C. . ( Ok, I was alittle bored, I've been cooped up in the house for two weeks now recovering from surgery!),anyway, when the crazy fool was lucky enough to get a shot, the grizz was about 10 yds. out, and Barta drilled him through the ribs. I don't think the bear actually saw him, but at the shot, Barta's guide pushed him to the ground and raised his rifle to shoot the bear. Barta yelled "don't shoot Him !" knowing that if the guide did, that the bear wouldn't make the Pope and Young book. Luckily the bear just ran off and died, and didn't charge, but the guide sure did have his priorities straight ! Barta had a horseshoe up his butt that day !

While my thoughts and Prayers are certainly with Mr. Kern's family, there's some fairly suspicious stuff gathered around this particular story.

I did a web search and found several links to articles from the local papers in Alaska concerning this incident. Apparently, the "guide" Mr. Kern hired, had just been convicted of what amounts to poaching the month before. Something like 10 counts of hunting from a plane, and possession of protected animals, etc. These charges mean he will lose his license and privildge to guide for a minimum of like 3 years, and possibly the remainder of his life. However, those privildges won't be revoked until he's actually sentenced on the charges he was found guilty of, which won't be until some time next month. Had this man been sentenced on the day he was found guilty, or had his license suspended upon being found guilty until such time as the sentencing could take place, no doubt Mr. Kern would still be among the living.

Just a little bit of what I found when researching the story. I'm going on vacation to Alaska in a couple of weeks, and will be near where that happened. While I won't be able to go hunting while I'm there, I intend to ask aorund and see what the real story on this might be, if I can get anyone to talk about it.....


Ken

While my thoughts and Prayers are certainly with Mr. Kern's family, there's some fairly suspicious stuff gathered around this particular story.

I did a web search and found several links to articles from the local papers in Alaska concerning this incident. Apparently, the "guide" Mr. Kern hired, had just been convicted of what amounts to poaching the month before. Something like 10 counts of hunting from a plane, and possession of protected animals, etc. These charges mean he will lose his license and privildge to guide for a minimum of like 3 years, and possibly the remainder of his life. However, those privildges won't be revoked until he's actually sentenced on the charges he was found guilty of, which won't be until some time next month. Had this man been sentenced on the day he was found guilty, or had his license suspended upon being found guilty until such time as the sentencing could take place, no doubt Mr. Kern would still be among the living.

Just a little bit of what I found when researching the story. I'm going on vacation to Alaska in a couple of weeks, and will be near where that happened. While I won't be able to go hunting while I'm there, I intend to ask aorund and see what the real story on this might be, if I can get anyone to talk about it.....


Ken
Ken is correct about the earlier investigations. Mr. Kern was one of the guides that were part of the aerial wolf control program. While it was legal for him to take wolves from the air, he did that outside the area where the program was in place.

The whole shooting episode was a sorry debacle from the time they set up to take the bear to begin with. A bear nearly 200 yards away is too far to have a client shoot, in my opinion, especially where they were hunting with the alder jungles that nearby. It would take a near perfect shot to drop an animal the size of a brown bear, especially an animal with the brown bear's ability to absorb punishment, at that range. Brown and Grizzly bear hunting is dangerous game hunting, nothing dangerous about shooting an animal at that distance.

Not establishing fields of fire and shooting from behind someone is just an absolute fundamental error, a very deadly error. Say what you will about adrenaline or excitment, but the bear was too far away for that.

Other than the hunter losing his life in a way that was so preventable, the second sorriest part of this was the guide, assistant guide, and troopers left the body on the river bank when flying out of the field because they didn't have room for it in the helicopter. Someone should have stayed with the body, whether it be the guide or a trooper (if they wanted to protect the investigation scene) until he could have been removed from the area.

As far as I'm concerned, it was a terrible tragedy, and my heart goes out to the victim's family and those that were responsible, but not one part of this whole sorry espisode was handled correctly.

This whole things reeks of more than an accident. ANY HUNTER not to mention a guide would be smart enough to not set up like that!!!! :mad: The problem is the only witnesses are those who are the ones who may have commited the crime. I quess 26 years of investigation of chit like this makes me very suspicious!!! :(

This whole things reeks of more than an accident. ANY HUNTER not to mention a guide would be smart enough to not set up like that!!!! :mad: The problem is the only witnesses are those who are the ones who may have commited the crime. I quess 26 years of investigation of chit like this makes me very suspicious!!! :(

Jim I am with you on the suspious aspect of this story!
Now I read in the other post, that Kern was also shooting wolfs from an airplane......I am somewhat confussed, as I thought he was indeed the client on this bear hunt and not involved in the crime of killing wolfs out of the area.

Now if Mr. Kern was indeed part of this illegal animal killing and did testify in court, do you think he was paid off in full perhaps? Or did the other poster get things misplaced?

Jim I am with you on the suspious aspect of this story!
Now I read in the other post, that Kern was also shooting wolfs from an airplane......I am somewhat confussed, as I thought he was indeed the client on this bear hunt and not involved in the crime of killing wolfs out of the area.

Now if Mr. Kern was indeed part of this illegal animal killing and did testify in court, do you think he was paid off in full perhaps? Or did the other poster get things misplaced?
I am afraid we will never know what realy happened!!! :(