I appreciate firearms. I own several. I believe a .357 is too small a gun to use even on black bears. I think carrying a bigger "cannon" which would be effective is too heavy to really carry consistently. There are far too many old Western stories about people being attacked by wounded bears. A .357 is going to do a pretty good job of consistenly wounding a bear, and not more. Bears have huge heart and lung capacities. Placing a lethal shot might still result in a bear that still has 15-20 seconds of remaining strength, and I shudder to think of what a POed bear will do in 20 seconds. Bears also have thick skulls. I can go into a little more graphic detail off-channel. So..I stick to bear spray, and practice "bear smart" fieldcraft. Shawn Northwest Montana "Steve Brown" <steve_at_brown-web.net> - -I always carry my 357 mag on backpacking trips just in case of an unfortunate encounter with unruly humans or pugnacious large animals. I'll never be caught off guard like that again. I have yet to kayak camp in bear country, but when I do you can bet I'll bring the appropriate size firearm for whatever sized bears happen to reside in that area. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jun 24 2003 - 05:56:25 PDT
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