Flight Crews & Guns

[cap]

Elvis -----allow me to assure you that when you see a grizzly bear UP THAT CLOSE, there'll be no doubt in your mind what kind of bear it is. Or put another way.....can you tell the difference between the build of a Safety in football and that of a big Defensive lineman?.......and personality to go with? Grizzlies also come in a multitude of different colours, but always have the dark face no matter what colour. So pay attention when you're sitting on that rock having a cup of java in some Alpine meadow during a good berry season. :shock:

[downwash]

Cap, apropos my earlier comment about the comparative sizes of the 'Kodiak' (or Alaska Brown) bear vs. the Polar bear, and yours that the latter are the "largest bear on earth," the current Boone & Crockett records list the largest as an Alaska Brown taken in Alaska and scoring 30 12/16, while the largest Polar is 29 15/16. As much as Ursus Polaris is my favorite, bar none, and reputed by most supposedly authoritative sources to be the biggie, I've never seen the species show a higher record than the Kodiak.

[Skidz]

Regardless which is bigger, you can be certain if I ever encounter one or the other, I will be very polite...

[cap]

Downwash------you might well be correct, but might I suggest also that that may be a record, but not really be the average size. Whatever is the case, anything or person that tall, wearing a fur coat, regardless of colour, will have a really hard time catching me. That reason will be that they'll be slipping and sliding in the trail of sh*t I leave behind as I'm running for my life.

[Rosco]

I BELEIVE THIS PUTS THINGS INTO PERSPECTIVE.

 

One BIG *** Big Grizzly. . . (****Read text first*****)

 

 

 

Read this and remember wild animals still exist....

 

 

 

The following (first two) pictures are of a guy who works for the US Forest

 

 

 

Service in Alaska and his trophy bear. He was out deer hunting last week

 

 

 

when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy

 

 

 

unloaded his 7 mm Mag Semi-automatic rifle into the bear and it dropped a

 

 

 

few feet from him. The big bear was still alive so he reloaded and shot it

 

 

 

several times in the head. The bear was just over one thousand six hundred

 

 

 

pounds. It stood 12' 6" high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head.

 

 

 

It's the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world.

 

 

 

Of course, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission did not let him keep

 

 

 

it as a trophy, but the bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on

 

 

 

display at the Anchorage airport (to remind tourist's of the risks involved

 

 

 

when in the wild). Based on the contents of the bear's stomach, the Fish and

 

 

 

Wildlife Commission established the bear had killed at least two humans in

 

 

 

the past 72 hours.

 

 

 

His last meal was the unlucky nature buff in the third picture.

 

 

 

The US Forest Service, backtracking from where the bear had originated,

 

 

 

found the hiker's 38-calibre pistol emptied. Not far from the pistol were

 

 

 

the remains of the hiker. The other body has not been found. Although the

 

 

 

hiker fired six shots and managed to hit the grizzly with four shots they

 

 

 

ultimately found four 38 calibre slugs along with twelve 7mm slugs inside

 

 

 

the bear's dead body. It only wounded the bear and probably angered it.

 

 

 

The bear killed the hiker an estimated two days prior to the bear's own

 

 

 

death by the gun of the Forest Service worker. Think about this, if you are

 

 

 

an average size man; You would be level with the bear's belly button when he

 

 

 

stood upright, the bear would look you in the eye when it walked on all

 

 

 

fours! To give additional perspective, consider that this particular bear,

 

 

 

standing on its hind legs, could walk up to an average single story house

 

 

 

and look over the roof, or walk up to a two story house and look in the

 

 

 

bedroom windows.

[cap]

Roscoe --------- wouldn't do much good to run and hide inside your Medium with a beast that size would it? I remember the polar bear I mentioned before real well. The site was Satillite Bay on the northern part of Prince Patrick Island in the Arctic and it took 3 shots from the Fish & Game guy in camp to take him down. Those shots were taken from about 30-40yds with 270g shells fired from a Winchester .300 Magnum. That sucker weighed about the same, measured 13' and I remember his claws real well to this day.....12" from root to tip and those claws are bent remember. The Inuit onsite valued his coat at $4000-$5000 on the open market.

 

That 7mm would be a light load for that animal......it's a very fast shell, but doesn't carry that much "punch" for large game like that. I wonder if the guy had to change his shorts afterwards?

[twitch]

Cap... 270g for a Win mag? That sounds like a lot. I thought they were usally around 170-200? I could be mistaken though.

[cap]

Twitch ------no they got a wide range of loads for that thing. I got a Sako .300 Winchester Magnum and that's one of the major reasons I bought it and kept it.......because it'll easily take down anything I'll ever go looking for....or comes looking for me. The large grain shells drop considerably over long range, but I don't need 250-270grs to take down a moose. You're firing that large of a shell, you better have your feet well planted and have it tight to your shoulder or you'll regret it. It stays at home and never goes with me........not at the price of replacing that sucker. Oddly enough, the very rifle I traded in on that was my all-time favourite and that was a Weatherby 7mm....one of the ones that were made in the US before they started making them in Japan. Beautiful firearm and the story got me to wondering what brand name the guy had. I'm not much of a "gun nut", having had my fill of them a long time ago, but I sure admire and appreciate super workmanship, attention to minute detail, gorgous sculptured/polished wood and just beautiful to look at.

[Charles W.]

Funny thing, just a couple of days ago my owner was house cleaning and put a stack of papers in front of me and asked me to see if there were any I wanted to keep...damned if my old permit to carry a 357 magnum wasen't in the pile and of course I'll keep it.

 

I always carried the 357 in a holster when flying in the Arctic, it became no different than putting on my parka or carrying condoms for protection.

 

But my very favourite weapon that I have had in an airplane was the two Browning 50 caliber machine guns that the British military lent us and we had mounted in the PBY when we did the flying for "Below "a movie we flew in for Merimax. I have a 50 cal. shell sitting right here by the computer that Merimax gave me for a keepsake.

 

For protection in Africa I carried a 12 guage flare pistol, that sucker would really cause havoc if you needed to defend yourself and it was legal because it was a survival aid...in more ways than one as far as I was concerned.

 

But then you people must bear in mind that I am basically a savage by birth. :up:

 

Rev. Chas W.

[N1]

Rules for Guns.

 

1. You can never have enough guns!

 

2. You need your guns with you at all times!

 

3. Guns are worthless without ammo!

 

4. Hide them and lie as you cross the border!