[Jeff Higgins]

Alaska requires that out of state hunters hire a licensed guide for grizzly, moose, and sheep. The dirty little secret about hunting up there with pointy sticks is that said licensed guides kill most of that sort of game with their rifles. If your buddy arrows a bear, it's quite likely his guide will shoot it if it shows the slightest inclination of running off into the pucker brush. You will not be allowed to be his "backup". The guide will assume that duty. He has way, way too much to lose if the bear gets to your buddy.

I'm sorry, I don't want to sound too harsh and judgemental, but bowhunting such game in this day and age amounts to no more than a stunt. Some get away with it, and can claim in all truthfulness that they actually killed the bear. Most can't. That's the hard reality of it. The client flings an arrow through it, the guide shoots it to keep things civil, and then tells the client "it was a killing shot anyway, that was just insurance" (and it very well may have been) to make the client feel better about the whole deal.