Re: [Paddlewise] Guns? When and Where?

An alternate idea, plus some anecdotes and practical advice:

Claymore mines encircling your campsite  at a distance of 10 metres spaced every 2.5 metres, alternately set with tripwires and livewires, are preferable to guns.  In this way you afford protection from simultaneous assualt from all quarters -- after all, what if a moose attacks from one side while a bear approaches from the other? 

I have encountered bears 3 times in the wilderness, twice while armed.  Here are the results:
1.  While I was deer hunting, large brown mama bear runs across the trail diagonally in front of me and into a clump of trees about 50 metres away.  The noise from the critter stopped at that point so I suspect she stopped to check me out.  Being the brave hunter I attempted to move the safety on my .308 Win to free and found that my hands were so frozen I couldn't manage to move it.  I just kept walking.
2.  While entering a clearing while hiking in the forest an upright "cinnamon" bear (grizzly in red/orange fur) entered from the other side.  Both departed the way we came. 
3.  While tent camping on a bicycle trip in Montana, a grizzly came into my campsite at night.  Looking out of my tiny tent it looked approximately 100 feet tall against the full moon.  No estimate on the real height.  The bear became interested in me.  Having no pots or pans to bang on, and my whistle being in my bike pack on the opposite side of the critter, I clutched onto a .22 LR pistol my brother loaned me for the trip, ostensibly for bad dogs.  Sorry, dog lovers.  A .22 affording no protection whatsoever from a grizzly, my plan was to begin shouting and making noise with the popgun if the thing decided to eat me.  It sniffed all around my tent and suddenly my biggest fear was that it would pi$$ on my tent.  After enjoying a good laugh at me, I'm sure, the bear decided to move on.

Moral of the stories ... bear with me folks, bearing a gun can be unbearable when you're barely able to bring it to bear, or you're bare in a tent afraid of the bear.

jerry.


At 08:17 AM 04/18/2000 +0000, Sailboat Restorations, Inc. wrote:
>I hope this isn't like opening a can of worms.  If it is, just everyone
>please ignore it and I'll get the idea.  Please, no flames.  I've heard all
>the arguments, and I agree with all of them already <g>.
>
>I was wondering how many people like to carry a gun on trips in wilderness
>areas.  I'm thinking of doing some solo paddling in Northern Maine this year
>(lakes and rivers).  I've read several accounts by people who were glad they
>had a shotgun with them (moose, bears, etc).  The last thing on earth I want
>is to ever have to kill a wild animal (my Mother tells me I cried as a child
>when the neighborhood brats killed a squirrel).  But I do know how to use
>firearms.
>
>Also, if you do carry a gun, what do you carry?  And where?  There isn't a
>whole lot of room in the cockpit of my boat (CD Caribou).  I was thinking of
>having a bag made to carry it on the foredeck, but that could send the wrong
>"message" to humans I might encounter. . . .
>
>Thoughts, opinions, anecdotes. . . ?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mark L
>
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