Equipment Guidelines

Here are some tips to make your trip more enjoyable:
We don’t receive remuneration from any of the equipment suppliers mentioned below. These suggestions are based simply on what has worked best for us and our clients in the field. They are meant as a guideline when compiling gear for the hunt. The one constant is, whenever possible, buy only top-line equipment -- it won’t disappoint you in the field. Buy it in stages and in a few short years you will have gear that will last you a lifetime.
  1. Clothing and equipment needs will vary depending on the time of year and type of hunt.
  2. For those items listed as optional, please contact us before you bring any of it. It’s not the personal clothing that adds extra weight to your packs, it’s all the items like snack food, extra batteries and gadgets. Our guides have everything required in the way of optics, etc. More often than not, clients’ optional equipment never leaves base camp.
  3. Coast Black Bear are very tough animals. Bring the biggest flat shooting rifle that you can comfortably handle. This should be in the 300 win mag. to 338 calibre range. If possible, use a rifle with a 3 x 9 compact scope and a synthetic stock.
  4. There is a trend to large diameter objective lenses of 50mm. These scopes aren’t the best for hunting
    • they are too bulky to carry
    • they are prone to being knocked off zero.
  5. General equipment suppliers cabelas.com
  6. Optics
    • 1 pair of superior quality 10 x 42 binoculars, such as Leica, Swaroski or Zeiss
  7. Sleeping bag should be:
    • light weight down
    • minimum rating of 0°F
  8. Hunting Clothes
    • always think in terms of layering
    • should be made of quiet material
    • pants should be loose fitting
    • pants are best held up with suspenders
    • Early April and Oct. hunts use wool outer clothing
    • Check out woolcamo.com – Sleeping Indian Designs
  9. Suits of Underwear
    • use polypropylene type of material
  10. Socks
    • light inner socks against skin
    • good quality wool socks on top
  11. Vest
    • fleece
    • wool
  12. Ball Cap
    • waterproof type
  13. Boots
    • pair of superior quality hunting/ hiking boots, with Vibram soles, well broken in and waterproofed.
    • 1 pair of rubber boots 16” to 18” high.
    • Rubber boots are essential ; you will use these more than anything else on a bear hunt.
    • check out schnees.com – boots for fall hunts
  14. Camp Shoes
    • light tennis shoes
    • rubber bottomed slip-ons
  15. Rain Gear
    • set of top quality rain gear, such as Helly Hansen, in natural colors:
      • jacket with a hood
      • pants with bib and suspenders

    NOTE: please don't bring either slickers or ponchos

  16. Head Lamp
    • such as Cabela's "Petzl"
    • Browning 10mm Ballistic lite
  17. Day Pack
    • top of the line only
    • a day pack should be strong enough to pack out a hind quarter of bear meat plus all your gear.

Try to stick to the above equipment list. Here is a short list of some of the more common items unnecessarily brought into camp. Be assured we have everything you could possibly think of and more.

We provide the following:

  • quality gun scabbard
  • first aid kits
  • therm-a-rest mattresses
  • snack foods (candy bars, dried fruit, trail mixes)
  • some drinks (Tang, Gatorade, coffee, tea )
  • toilet paper

 

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