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Outdoor Life has republished “Seven-Year Itch,” a first-person account originally published in July 1961 about a Kodiak Island hunt in May 1957. The hunter said he saved for years to afford the trip and considered it worthwhile, but the supplied excerpt does not include the hunt’s full outcome or the article’s complete details.
Outdoor Life published its online presentation of “Seven-Year Itch” on October 12, 2026, revisiting a first-person account of a May 1957 brown bear hunt on Kodiak Island. The hunter wrote that he saved for years before setting out for Alaska. The story first appeared in the magazine’s July 1961 issue.
The writer said an advertisement for a Kodiak bear hunt first caught his attention in fall 1950, but he could not afford the trip then. He described waiting six more years and gradually saving before contacting three outfitters in fall 1956. He booked with guide Hal Waugh by December, choosing him after comparing the outfitters’ replies and considering their records and promises of personal guidance.
The account says the writer flew from his home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on May 6, 1957, traveling via Seattle to Kodiak Island. A local pilot then flew him to Deadman Bay, where Waugh and the camp crew were based. The hunting party included three hunters, three guides, a cook, a camp worker and Dr. Bob Rausch, whom the story identifies as Alaska’s chief zoonotic-disease control officer, studying brown bears and their health.
In the excerpt, a rainy outing on the bay ends with the writer losing his .348 Winchester rifle overboard after a wave rocked the dory. He wrote that it sank in about 60 feet of water. He also said the loss did not matter much because he had already accomplished what he came to Alaska to do. The supplied text cuts off during the description of the flight to camp, so it does not provide the full account of the hunt or its final result.
A Hunt Planned Over Seven Years
The account gives readers a first-person record of how a costly, remote hunting trip was planned in the late 1950s: saving over time, writing to outfitters, comparing their answers and booking months before travel. Its value is historical as well as personal, showing the writer’s expectations and the practical arrangements described in the original report.
It also draws a distinction between what a guide could promise and what remained uncertain. The writer said the outfitters expected to put him within range of a respectable brown bear but did not guarantee a record-sized animal; he understood that outcome would depend on luck. That detail helps explain why the trip’s worth, as framed by the title and the writer’s own account, need not rest solely on taking a record trophy.
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From 1950 Idea to 1957 Trip
The story traces the plan from an advertisement read in 1950 to a booking in 1956 and the journey the following May. The writer, then 35, said he had hunted for 25 years and had previously hunted pheasants, ducks, geese, deer, antelope and elk. Alaska, he wrote, had long been a personal ambition.
After contacting three outfitters, he chose Waugh partly because he regarded his letter as direct and had heard about the size of bears taken by hunters he had guided. The story says each outfitter offered to guide personally and work to find a suitable bear, while none guaranteed a record animal. The original article appeared in Outdoor Life in July 1961, four years after the hunt.
““My dream would have to wait.””
— The hunter, in the 1961 account
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The Excerpt Leaves the Hunt’s Outcome Open
The source text provided for this article ends while the writer is describing the flight toward camp. It therefore does not confirm whether he took a bear, the animal’s size, or how the hunt concluded. Although the online headline says the trip was worth every penny and the excerpt says the writer had accomplished what he came for, the full basis for that assessment is not present in the supplied material.
The excerpt also does not state the hunt’s cost, the full itinerary, or whether the lost rifle was recovered. Those details should not be inferred from the headline or from the account’s opening passages.
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The Full Account Holds More Detail
The next step for readers seeking the complete story is to consult the full Outdoor Life republication, which may include the remainder of the hunt narrative beyond the excerpt supplied here. No future event or new development is identified in the source material; the available news is the online presentation of the historical article, dated October 12, 2026.
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Key Questions
When did the Kodiak Island hunt take place?
The writer said he left home on May 6, 1957, and flew to Kodiak Island. The excerpt describes the hunt as taking place in May.
When was the story first published?
“Seven-Year Itch” appeared in the July 1961 issue of Outdoor Life. The online report is dated October 12, 2026.
How long did the writer save for the trip?
He said he first considered the hunt in fall 1950 and waited six more years before contacting outfitters in fall 1956. The title describes the plan as a seven-year saving effort.
Did the excerpt confirm that he killed a bear?
No. The supplied excerpt ends before the hunt’s outcome is told, so it does not confirm whether he took a bear or describe a trophy.
What happened to the writer’s rifle?
He wrote that a wave rocked the dory while he was trying to shoot at seals, causing him to lose his footing and drop his .348 Winchester into Deadman Bay. He estimated the water beneath it at about 60 feet.
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