Hmmm..... A family vacation is not hunting. Is that not rather obvious?

"I don't hunt in order to kill; I kill in order to have hunted." Not sure of the source, but hunting is important to me and my sanity.

What I hunt is almost irrelevant, but hunting itself is deeply important, and hunting in real wilderness, on my own, in magnificent country is absolutely the best kind of hunting. Those who trivialize hunting by making it an exercise in just killing things for the sake of killing things are missing something in their hunting, and within themselves too - something that is essential in order to appreciate and understand the world they inhabit.

And pictures just don't cut it. That's like thinking pornography is a substitute for a sex life.

I carried 250g bullets in my .338. They ruin deer meat if you happen to put that bullet thru any of it, and the bullet is far more frangible than I care for. And I wasn't hunting around blackies, I was hunting in a thick population of coastal brown bears. The kind that sit on you and eat your guts while you're screaming. That image is what determines my ballictic preference for hunting there. 'Cause I met the guy who died that way.

2. I would use a .45 ACP with 230g FP bullets for a black bear stopper. It has the ability to penetrate deeply and make good cns shots, as long as the gun functions. That flat point will far out-penetrate the hard ball ammo. My current sidearm setup is a .44 redhawk with 405g bullets departing the station at 947 fps. I've tested its penetration and am fully confident that it will make a cns shot on any animal in NA. I know there are a lot of people who don't get this, but it's a fact.

c. There is a huge difference between what most of y'all are talking about, "sport hunting", and what I'm talking about, "meat hunting". Our family consumed more that twenty deer every year for around a quarter century. It was our subsistance combined with the seafood we took. There was no sport in that hunting, it was the business of feeding hungry people. It wasn't romantic, it was work, like putting up enough fire wood to avoid freezing to death. It wasn't optional, like a vacation from a gravy job that was paying davis-bacon wages while I was in the woods "hunting". It was the necessary business of providing for my family. It was not unusual to have 4 or 6 animals down at one time. Same as interior meat hunters preparing for a Brooks Range winter. You shoot as many as you can process that day. It's not something that most "sport hunters" are gonna understand, but it's how fit is.

Regards to all,

Grizz

I understand yet don't practice subsistence hunting. If you can afford it and would like to then PWS is a nice place to hunt. My family goes down there and goes out with some friends and they all fill theyre tags out every year (6 deer) in about a one week period.

PWS is nice. Very pretty country. Bring your rubber knee boots though as it's wet.

Skyler, where are they going out of? We put in in Whittier and have run from there to Montague or Knight Island group or up into Granite Bay. Lots of water and ground to cover out there.

BarkBuster, very true. Why go to AK to hunt at all when all the animals you can hunt here are somewhere in the lower 48?

Granted, you dont have the big coastal brown bears there like we do here, just the smaller interior browns.

The big ones give me the willies...

It's in THERE.

In the alders.

WAITING.

Who wants to be bear scat like TIm Treadwell?

__________________
Be popular? Heck, I have enough friends.
and...
"That way lies madness".

They live in Valdez but run out of Cordova with some friends in the first week or two of December. I'm fairly certain this year will be Naked and Knight Island. I unfortuneately have my college finals that week so I can't go this year. I think they're taking a 90ft crabber out this time.

As for Alders with Brownies? Stay on the road and/or path when possible... They're big and fast and like to eat stupid humans who think they can be friends to us Pretty cool to watch them hunt ground squirrels though.

__________________
A smart man knows how much force to use, a wise man knows when to use it.

Currently selling a pre-ban Colt AR-15, check the Trade Post for it if you would like details.

45acp is not a bearstopper...PERIOD. And the 223 as deer round is marginal in my opinion.

couldnt agree more.
If your using that setup in brown bear country, well...goodluck.

A .45 ACP and 5.56mm is my setup for there. I don't think you understand the size of the bears in PWS... They're tiny black bears not brownies or even grizzlies. You mainly hunt on an island and can generally shoot the deer from the boat if your so inclined to do so. The black bears are maybe 3 1/2 tall at the shoulder. That's smaller than my dogs.

__________________
A smart man knows how much force to use, a wise man knows when to use it.

Currently selling a pre-ban Colt AR-15, check the Trade Post for it if you would like details.

I've lived and hunted in Alaska since 1974. First 12 years in Sitka. Carried nothing more than a 243, 280 Remington or an older lever gun in 357 Magnum while on many deer hunts. One year I even carried an old JC Higgins bolt shotgun chambered in 410 and took several deer with it. Carried nothing more than a Marlin 22 Magnum while running traplines down there. Bear are more afraid of you than you of them. Also always be aware of your surroundings.

__________________
Allen Glore
Lodge Grass, Montana


How would you rather die? 10,000 foot pounds of energy in the BUTT or a sharp knife in the HEART

Thats the same protocol anywhere Allen, and rings true for more than just bears.

__________________
Buy American, it may be your own job you are saving.
UTU, TY&E Service, BNSF

I lived in Alaska and hunted for Brown Bear for 15 years. Griz is the only one making sense. I used a 338WM for a couple of years. When you are in the woods, close to big bears, your mental status is important. I just didn't feel confident with the 338Wm and moved up to the 375H&H. When a bear is coming for you the worse possible shot is a head shot. The shape of the head and the thickness of the bone make it a bad choice. A shot to the chest is also a bad choice. A big bear does not need a heart or lungs to kill you. If a bear is charging the best bet is the shoulder. If you break one you will roll the bear and that gives you time for another shot. A bear won't change you with two broke front shoulders. In the seventies the Win. Silver tip was a very popular bullet but then we discovered that it broke up too much. The best choice is a tough, heavy bullet that will penetrate through both shoulders. Most 338WM bullets are not tough enough. I would much rather have a 300gr 375H&H than a 250gr 338WM.

Most hunters who put faith in their pistol are lucky that there are not very many bear encounters. Not that there are not some sidearms with good power. It is just most hunters don't have the ability to shoot a charging bear with a sidearm. It is hard enough with a rifle.

Frank

Hi Frank,
I get what you're saying.
The OP is from 2009 and blacktail deer hunting. That means Southeast or PWS. Sure there are brownies there in SE, but I haven't seen a brownie in PWS yet, nor sign of one.

The Sitka Blacktail is tiny, and that's why people feel comfortable using .223. Not my choice, but they do it and it works.

__________________
Be popular? Heck, I have enough friends.
and...
"That way lies madness".

Hi MMichaelAK,

I fished a lot in the PWS during the 70's and 80's. I don't remember seeing a Brown Bear either. Lots of Brown Bear in the SE.

I hunter deer on Kodiak several times. We used our Brown Bear rifles with tough bullets that just poked a hole through the deer.

I remember one trip we were approaching a beach on Kodiak that had a big bluff and the top covered in grass. There were 5 or 6 dear on top and my friend shot 3 or 4 times with his 222 and nothing fell. I told him I was going to take a shot as the herd had started to move. One shot and the biggest buck fell, slid down the slope and over the bluff. We motored right up to the beach and walked about 20 feet to the deer laying on the beach. A pretty good shot from a moving Zodiac.

Frank

Lots of deer but most are caribou.

LOL

It'd take three deer up here to make on caribou. Our deer are tiny. A decent 'bou bull will run 300 pounds.

__________________
Be popular? Heck, I have enough friends.
and...
"That way lies madness".