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Carrying A Rifle?


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The Marlin .45/70 is a great tool: it's a lever action so it is very safe to carry and the .45/70 is a big cartridge with plenty of stopping power. An Alaskan company, Wild West Guns, makes a takedown version that packs very small, and as a bonus they'll rechamber it for a bigger casing (their own wildcat, with more muzzle energy) with the added bonus of being able to chamber .410 shotshells. That makes a spendy but very handy survival tool.

 

http://www.wildwestguns.com/copilot.html

 

Another good option is a 12ga pump made by an Italian company called Valtro: their PM-5 is a service (police/military) shotgun that feeds from an 8-shell box magazine. The advantage of that configuration is that it's easy to make safe when climbing into the machine, or entering camp, by simply pulling the magazine and cycling the action to prove the chamber - no repeated pumping to cycle each shell outta the tube mag under the barrel. Another benefit of the big mag is that the first shot can be a rubber bullet, so you can happily put that first shot into the bear and not dither over whether he's just bluffing, and let him know you're not. I carry one with a 14" barrel and I can attest to the persuasive power of that first shot - the bear left and I didn't need to convince a CO that I was really, really at risk.

 

http://www.valtrousa.com/shotguns.html

 

The biggest downside to the carry of any tool such as these is that you need to devote one hand to the firearm; if you're wrenching (I do) then it gets set on a drum "nearby" and I've had a couple scares both in the Artic as well as in the provinces, and I do like to keep a shotty nearby when I'm working alone. Another downside is the extra paperwork and (Air Canada, at least) $50 fee charged to pack a firearm in your checked baggage. All told, a pistol would be handier and safer, but try and convince Wendy Cukier of that.

Edited by Doc B
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The Marlin .45/70 is a great tool: it's a lever action so it is very safe to carry and the .45/70 is a big cartridge with plenty of stopping power. An Alaskan company, Wild West Guns, makes a takedown version that packs very small, and as a bonus they'll rechamber it for a bigger casing (their own wildcat, with more muzzle energy) with the added bonus of being able to chamber .410 shotshells. That makes a spendy but very handy survival tool.

 

http://www.wildwestguns.com/copilot.html

 

Another good option is a 12ga pump made by an Italian company called Valtro: their PM-5 is a service (police/military) shotgun that feeds from an 8-shell box magazine. The advantage of that configuration is that it's easy to make safe when climbing into the machine, or entering camp, by simply pulling the magazine and cycling the action to prove the chamber - no repeated pumping to cycle each shell outta the tube mag under the barrel. Another benefit of the big mag is that the first shot can be a rubber bullet, so you can happily put that first shot into the bear and not dither over whether he's just bluffing, and let him know you're not. I carry one with a 14" barrel and I can attest to the persuasive power of that first shot - the bear left and I didn't need to convince a CO that I was really, really at risk.

 

http://www.valtrousa.com/shotguns.html

 

The biggest downside to the carry of any tool such as these is that you need to devote one hand to the firearm; if you're wrenching (I do) then it gets set on a drum "nearby" and I've had a couple scares both in the Artic as well as in the provinces, and I do like to keep a shotty nearby when I'm working alone. Another downside is the extra paperwork and (Air Canada, at least) $50 fee charged to pack a firearm in your checked baggage. All told, a pistol would be handier and safer, but try and convince Wendy Cukier of that.

 

is the Valtro limited to 5 in the magazine? or does that only apply to semi-auto's?

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The five-shot limit is only for self-loaders; doesn't apply to a manually operated action. Same sort of thing as the barrel length restriction: as long as it was manufactured with a shorter barrel, the firearm is legal at less than 18" as long as it can't be firedd in a configuration with an overall length under 23". SO, no folding stock on my Valtro.

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