Cold Bay Alaska with a Parker

[Larry Stauch]

During the month of September my brother and I took a trip to Cold Bay Alaska to hunt ducks, geese and ptarmigan and catch a few fish. This was a seven day hunt starting on the 14th of September and ending the following Saturday on the 21st.
Just getting there is a small adventure by its self. Located roughly 687 miles southwest of Anchorage, it's at the tip of what is referred to as the peninsula, before the archipelago of the Aleutians start. After arriving mid-day Saturday we immediately went to the "pier" to fish for halibut and cod. Catching one halibut, a few black cod and multiple sole, we headed back to the lodge to prepare for the first day of hunting. As we experienced each day, the pintails and brant geese were very numerous along with lesser Canada geese and various other ducks and all of them decoyed very well. It was never a problem to harvest our daily limit of two brant each plus a few different types of ducks, including mallards, pintails, teal and a few harlequin ducks that weren't colored up yet. We ended up taking 5 banded brant and one that was double banded. Two of which I am having mounted. One day we took 48 pintail, 12 brant and a few Taverners lesser Canada geese. Out of the 48 pintail 37 were drakes. Almost every day we saw Emperor geese, which have been illegal to hunt since 1985 and they are beautiful. Also there are several brown bears, foxes and we did see one wolf. There is some incredible shooting up there and you're typically the only hunters around.

[charlie cleveland]

man what a hunt that was..really good pictures of every thing i loved the bear and the black wolf.. thanks for the trip... charlie

[Destry L. Hoffard]

That's a trip I've long wanted to make. What outfitter did you use?

Destry

[Larry Stauch]

Four Flyways Outfitters.

Jeff is a biologist and former federal employee who worked in the waterfowl tracking program. He has great dogs and very good assistant guides.

[Larry Stauch]

Charlie, the little black guy is a fox and he allowed us to get within a few feet while he rested. The grey wolf was also somewhat unafraid of us and did not run off. The bears fear nothing and the guides carried 12 gauge pumps with slugs as we fished.
The brant are there by the thousands.

[Mark Ouellette]

Larry,

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us! The photos are excellent and the narrative builds for us a basis for imagining the events of the hunt.

Please tell us about the Parker you used?

Thanks again,
Mark

[Tom Carter]

I flew both airplanes and helicopters out of Cold Bay in the mid 70's. They had a rule that you could never lock your door's in any house there (primarily government workers). The kids played in the streets in the housing area and bears frequently walked through the housing area. When a bear appeared the kids would go into the nearest house and close the door behind them. Barking dogs were their early warning system. Cheers, Tom

[Richard Flanders]

I have an Anchorage friend who hunts Cold Bay every October. A couple of years back I almost got on his trip when there was a potential opening. He has his own rig there and hunts the geese and ptarmigan. I would sure wax the bejeezus out of any Parker I took out there and hope to tag along on his hunt one of these years.

[Larry Stauch]

The Parker I used on this hunt was a 1902 3 frame 12 gauge DH with 32" barrels. The gun moves very smoothly. The first group of brant that came in on us landed outside of the decoys at about 60 yards. After a few minutes the guide said that someone was going to have to scare them off or all the birds coming in would go to them. As one of the other guys stood up and started yelling and waving his arms they got up; when they did I picked one out and killed him cleanly with the Bismuth rounds I was shooting. As long as it was not raining I would shoot the Parker, if the weather turned bad I would switch to the Beretta Extrema. And to your point, I was very careful about cleaning and oiling my Parker daily. I made several very long shots and in fact as a group of brant came over I reached out and took two with one shot. I can say that all of the sporting clays I've been shooting has really helped me understand where to put the gun, which is very pleasing when you go that far and spend the money it takes to do this. It was a trip to remember.
I've included a picture of the "lodge" that we stayed which was a converted administration building at a defunct fish hatchery, my brother holding the double bander that he shot with me behind him and some misc pictures of some brant and emperors. Neat, wild and remote place.

[Russ Lindsay]

Larry, the prices Four Flyways charges seems very reasonable. A trip to Stuttgart will run more than that per day at most outfitters. Heck a deluxe hunt in South Dakota can cost more than this entire trip with airfare. So including lodging, meals and guide services their prices seem good. The success rate your trip shows is a poster kind of hunt. For a hunt of a lifetime, for many, this seems to be priced inline with a Parker kind of gun. Of course I can get to Arkansas a lot cheaper than I can get to Alaska but you just have to roll the price of travel in with the fun. Thanks for introducing us to this hunt and great photos. Russ

[Jim Partlow]

Wow!! Great photos of your hunt! Someday I hope to take a fishing/ hunting trip to Alaska. Jim P

[charlie cleveland]

i think i saw a a 5 browning in them last pictures..that was one great tripand now i ve seen my first black fox...thanks again.... charlie

[John Havard]

I flew down there in 1981 as I recall in October. In spite of blue-bird days we each shot our limit of canada geese and (back then) emperor geese. As the tide comes into Izembek Lagoon the rafts of waterfowl lifting off would literally turn the sky dark. If I remember correctly Izembek Lagoon is about 1/10th the area of Chesapeake Bay with more birds than Chesapeake Bay had at its zenith.

Been down that way two other times on bear hunts but Parkers were not in use for that.