Posted on 06/22/2022 4:36:50 AM PDT by marktwain
In the summer of 1984, I was a student at the U of Alaska-Fairbanks and studying Geology. My friend and I got picked up as summer hires by an oil company to do some field surveys in the Brooks Range. It was a fantastic adventure for a couple of 19 year-olds. Helicopter drop-off at a base camp site and get to wander around the mountains for two weeks. They gave us a map and directions, and a 12-gauge shotgun with plenty of ammo. We were skirting around a narrow trail and saw a grizzly coming the opposite way 100 yards on the same trail. A BIG grizz - 12 gauge would just make him mad. We had to shimmy up a really steep slope and behind some large rocks to stay out of his line of site. I’m sure he caught our scent, but didn’t seem interested.
I wonder if the bears see a helicopter landing and think to themselves “Uber eats!”
Yes USGS allows firearms. We always carried and still do. Personally I carry a Glock 20 in 10mm auto God’s caliber. 220gr hard cast lead @1300 fps loaded so hot the primer flatten out. Aftermarket lone wolf fully supported chamber and threaded for the comp on the end. It’s 15+1 of 44 mag level bear medicine. I am a semi retired geologist and have worked for the USGS at times including big sky country, and AK. Done stuff up in the Great White North as well they don’t allow hand guns for visa holders but you can carry a rifle in that case I took my 375 H&H open sites 22” barrel short stock in the European comb recoil is not for the faint of heart but it’s a quick handling rifle who’s original purpose was for up close and personal with fangs teeth horns and hooves in Africa.
I was a petroleum Geo for a long time I don’t go to Alaska without at least one 10mm auto I own three of them two G20 and the subcompact G29 for backup and concealed carry. Norway issues G20s for polar bear defence it’s their standard duty issue in the Arctic. Both of my full sized have aftermarket barrels on them and I hand load the 10mm to what it should be loaded to 65000psi not to the 40S&W weak loads. I can send a 220gr cast lead at just under 1400fps out the 5” barrel and the longer 6” get to 1400+ I back down the loads just a hair to allow for hot conditions if I know it will be winter or fall I go full load at the range people always come over and marvel at the fireball and blast coming off what looks like a normal pistol. I shot for sport a black bear in CO with my 6” G20 it is the one with the holographic on top the other has a ghost ring trijicon set up. One shot down my bear went pretty good eating. I also use those 10mm for side arms while hog hunting and have popped a number of pigs with them never recovered a bullet they all went through and through leaving silver dollar sized exit holes even on 300+ lb ferals.
A BIG grizz - 12 gauge would just make him mad.
Would have killed him dead.
If the user did their part.
Bears are not bullet proof.
Having killed them with rifles, shotguns and a couple different handgun calibers.
A well placed round makes short work of them.
I hand load the 10mm to what it should be loaded to 65000psi not to the 40S&W weak loads.
I think you better recheck your figures.
The 10mm was never designed for such pressures.
SAAMI max pressure for the 10mm Auto is set at 37,500 PSI or Pounds per Square Inch, and there is no direct correlation to CUP or Copper
If you are truly running 65000psi you are holding a bomb in your hand every time you shoot it.
I reload and have been doing so for over 5 decades and around 50 different calibers.
Video of the geologist using her prosthetic hooks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJL_v-nZcGQ
It’s nothing short of inspirational.
Amazing!
FWIW, I worked as a geologic field assistant for the USGS from 1979-1980, primarily in southwest Montana, but also Wyoming, Idaho, and Colorado. Although we frequently sighted bears, neither I nor the geologist I worked with were allowed to carry firearms in the field; I do not know at what level of management that decision was made. Such restrictions may have been local in nature, and may also have varied from season to season.
Finally, I will mention (although it amounts to 'hearsay') that I was told by a USGS coworker who claimed personal knowledge of the events, that Dusel-Bacon was allowed to carry a firearm, and strongly advised to carry a firearm, but had refused to do so. Once again, FWIW, YMMV, etc...
“Ellen was able to spray the bear twice,” Murphy said, “but the bear came back….We’re trying to understand this.”
What’s so hard to understand?
L
The project chief believed “guns added more danger to an encounter than they would prevent”. Her views became policy on the project.
Cynthia later said, in a taped interview for Larry Kanuit: “She had therefore strongly discouraged us from carrying any kind of a firearm.”
One of the advantages of using firearms as a defensive tool against bears is that problem bears are killed, and cease to be problems.
The same applies to other dangerous predators, including the two-legged variety.
I was always taught to play dead with a grizzly but fight a black bear.
There is truth in this, if you are unarmed.
When you are armed with a firearm, the bear is stopped or dies, 98 or 99 percent of the time, and the person is unharmed.
Who would have thought it?
Obviously, the policy described in your article appears consistent with my personal experience (firearms discouraged or prohibited), and the conflicting report was secondhand. I will leave it at that...
That photo is now
In My Head as Warning.
59 seconds is all I needed,
Thanks.
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