Brennen Bogardus
Class A Assistant Guide
He started packing for my dad right out of high school, and proved himself a fast learner, picking up on everything in a hurry, and showing an incredible work ethic. I took him on as my assistant on all of the hunts I personally guided after his first season, and began teaching him everything I know. He hunts like I do, due in no small part to the amount of time we have spent together in the field. His rise through the ranks has been nothing less than meteoric due to his incredible work ethic and ability to learn fast, and he has proven himself one of my top guides, at the young age of 26. Brennen is tremendous in the mountains, and is my lead sheep guide in the Brooks Range, and lead goat guide on Kodiak. He is also a lead brown bear and moose guide on the AK Peninsula. Brennen guides with me during each and every hunting season, every year, and is a key person in my business. Despite his young age, there is no more capable guide than him. He very much reminds me of myself at that age, young and hungry, and willing to push as hard as possible to get the job done. I call him my Chief of Staff for a reason, because he is my right hand man, and a immeasurably important individual in my overall operation.
Graham Morrison
Registered Guide
This guy is as good as they come. I have known him since we were in pre-school. We grew up together hunting, fishing and trapping, and have been best friends our entire lives. After joining the Marines and serving in Afghanistan, he moved back to Alaska and started working with me (2016) on the AK Peninsula guiding moose and brown bear, and then also guiding brown bear on Kodiak, first for my dad and now for me. In the summer he commercial fishes, and I fish with him. He has a talent like no one I have met for finding and getting big bears and moose. He is also the best skiff driver I have ever met, which is key on Kodiak. He knows how to make bold maneuvers that most people would not consider in order to get the job done and is not timid or afraid to try new things to that end. Graham now runs his own operation on the AK Peninsula for moose and brown bear, and is a lead brown bear guide on Kodiak in my operation. Graham is really a top tier hunter, and knows how to get the big ones. He is a hell of a people person. Graham has a natural leadership quality that is uncommon, which stems in part from his personality and his time in the Marines.
Wesley Christiansen
Class A Assistant Guide
Wesley grew up and lives in the village of Old Harbor, right in the center of our guide area on Kodiak. Needless to say, he knows it like the back of his hand; better than anyone. He is a third-generation brown bear guide. He is also the most humble of guides, despite the fact that he is one of the most consistent people I know for bringing in really big bears. He started working with my dad back in 2012 and has been with us ever since. Wesley is a lead bear and goat guide on Kodiak but also does bear on the AK Peninsula occasionally. Wesley is as smooth and steady as they come, and he knows how to find and get big bears. He may be a man of few words, and as humble as they come, but when he speaks its important, and it matters. He is a tremendous boat driver and just knows bears in a way that is just different. I can’t think of anyone who is a more capable bear guide.
Billy Kays
Registered Guide
Billy is another vet of Afghanistan and Iraq, having served in the Army for many years. He is as solid and steady as they come. He is a consistent producer and always comes back with big bears. I don’t know of any finer individual than Billy and I am proud to have such a man as a team member. Billy has been a lead brown bear guide for my dad and now with me on the AK Peninsula since 2018. He also runs his own operation doing baited black and grizzly hunts in south central AK. Billy is a great hunter, wherever he is, for any species. He is a leader in the truest sense of the word and is respected by all. He was a lead sheep guide in my operation for many years, before giving that spot up so he could focus on personal hunting in August. He remains a top-notch lead bear guide in my operation on the AK Peninsula, but is one of those guys who could go anywhere and hunt anything and come back with what he was going after.
Luke Hammond
Assistant Guide
Luke started working for me and my dad back in 2018. I spent several seasons personally teaching Luke the ropes of moose hunting and he quickly became a lead moose guide first for my dad, and then for me, on the AK Peninsula. When not guiding sheep and moose, Luke guides fishermen in Bristol Bay, and also is a ski coach. Luke has worked for me in the Brooks Range, helping on dall sheep hunts, and in addition to being one of my lead moose guides, is currently a lead sheep guide for a good friend of mine, Thor Stacy, who holds a sheep area near mine. Luke is a great people person and works extremely hard for all of his clients, and is particulary good at keeping clients in the hunt when it gets down to the wire, and getting it done even if it is the end of the hunt. He is extremely reliable and a heck of a good moose guide that produces consistent results.
Sam Shelton
Assistant Guide
Sam started with me in 2022, as an assistant on dall sheep hunts. I brough Sam under my wing to train him up and get him licensed, but there really was not much to teach him that he didn’t already know, being an extremely competent hunter, excellent people person and already an experienced guide in Montana. Sam is my assistant on all of the sheep hunts I guide, where there are always 2 guides per hunter. He is than capable of leading the sheep hunts himself. The great thing about having Sam helping me on the sheep hunts that I personally guide is that if I send him scouting, I can count on him to find and accurately judge sheep and report back to me, because he can cover the ground fast and he is himself a very experienced sheep hunter. In addition to being my team mate on the sheep hunts, he is a lead guide on the AK Peninsula for brown bears. Sam and I are a hell of a team on our sheep hunts, and we have shared many great hunts together. He is truly exceptional in all aspects of guiding.
Hunter Garman
Assistant Guide
Hunter is the newest member of the operation and also the youngest at 25 but is no newcomer to guiding. Like Sam, Hunter started with me more recently, but despite being young was already a veteran guide in New Mexico and Arizona, guiding elk, mule deer, cous deer and dessert big horns. Guiding is a profession to him, and it is all he does. He is extremely savvy as a hunter and extremely motivated. He has a natural instinct that is hard to match. I have spent a great deal of time with Hunter in the field on brown bear and moose hunts teaching him as much as I can. Hunter is Brennen’s assistant on the sheep hunts, where as I mentioned, there are always two guides per hunter. – the two sheep teams being myself and Sam Shelton, Brennen Bogardus and Hunter Garman. Hunter is also lead moose guide on the AK Peninsula and lead bear guide on the AK Peninsula. He is Brennens or my Assistant on Kodiak on goat hunts, and also assistant on Kodiak bear hunts, where we also generally run 2 guides per hunter. Like Brennen, he guides with me for every season of the year, something that only those two can say.
Mason King
Class A Assistant Guide/Bush Pilot
Mason is bush pilot extraordinaire on the AK Peninsula, where he pilots my Super Cub, flying us from main camp to and from spike camps. He is the single most important individual in that part of my operation, as he gets us where we need to go, safely, in extremely challenging weather and very tricky, short technical landing locations. His is a very demanding job, but he does it with a smile on his face: bush flying in the Meshik is what he loves most. Mason was born and raised and lives in the same community which Graham and I grew up and live in (King Salmon/Naknek) and we all went to school together. Mason has been flying most of his life, since before he could legally drive a car. When not flying for my guide operation on the AK Peninsula, he flies full time for his family business, where he flies Cherokee Six’s, DeHavilland Beavers, Cessna 180s and Piper Supercubs. He is a truly skilled and talented aviator, but also a very skilled moose guide, having hunted moose his whole life, and guided them for many years. Besides me, no one has more time in my area on the AK Peninsula than Mason, having spent much of his life flying and guiding there. We are lucky to have him, and he is just an awesome bush pilot, in a way most pilots can’t come close to.
Todd Marder
Assistant Guide
Todd started working for my dad back in 2006 but began guiding even before that. Todd first made his way to Alaska back in his younger days, after building a canoe himself and solo paddling it from New York to Nome over the course of several seasons, portaging where needed and wintering in Canada along the way. Todd is an old school bushman and just great to be around. He is one of the most knowledgeable individuals I know when it comes to the outdoors. He is a fantastic guide, and someone I have worked with in one way or another for much of my career. Todd is one of my lead bear guides on the AK Peninsula, but also does moose on occasion.
Lyn Hoffman
Brown Bear Guide
Lyn came to Alaska after graduating highschool and has been guiding in the state for over 2 decades. He guides with another outfitter for sheep, grizz and caribou in the Brooks Range to the west of where I operate, and guides for me on the AK Peninsula as a lead brown bear guide. Lyn has guided all over the state during his career. He runs his own outfitting business for mule deer and elk in the lower 48 when he isn’t guiding in Alaska. Lyn and his wife run a youth outdoor education camp together, which is so important to getting the kids into the outdoors.
Scott Collins
Assistant Guide
Scott began guiding for my dad way back in 2004, which was only the second year I had a guide license. He has been guiding on the AK Peninsula off and on ever since, and he has consistently produced big brown bears. Scott is a tremendous hunter and always has a fantastic attitude in the field, no matter what the weather or how difficult things seem. Scott has hunted all over Alaska, from the Brooks Range to the Wrangle Mountains, and everywhere in between, mainly on yearly personal hunts, but he always finds time to come back to the AK Peninsula to chase big brown bears with me.
Jim Doran
Assistant Guide
This man is a Professional Hunter in the truest sense of the word, having guided all over the world for his entire life over the last 4 decades, from Tajikistan to NWT, from Montana to Alaska, and nearly everywhere else you can think of. Jim started guiding for my dad in the early 1990s and still guides spring bear on the AK Peninsula with me. He is the only one in the operation who has more bear guiding experience than even I do, and I remember learning much from him as a young packer and later as an assistant guide, many years ago. Jim has more on his guiding resume than could fit in a multi-volume book, and is nearing the end of his guiding career, but he is still as deadly as ever finding and getting big bears. Its truly an honor to have such a veteran guide on the team.