|
Thanks For Visiting |
Carry Big Iron In The OutbackIn years past I've seen mountain lions, bobcat, all game animals and several bear. The bear always moved right out when you got close to them, even a couple of big sows with cubs. Utah bears have always been timid, avoiding contact with humans if at all possible. They were always sociable but very private. The last few years we've had some real ornery bears in the high-country for some reason. Somehow our historical bear demeanor has changed. We highly suspect the ornery ones have been airlifted into our outback from Jellystone instead of being taken care of in some other appropriate way. In fact, back in the 90's we know of at least one we could prove and several others we suspected. Seems the touristos in Jellystone Park got to feeding the bruins, then the bruisers started thinking; "people ... food!". Rangers would move the bad boys higher into the park but they'd cruise right back down to the feeding grounds faster than a perp bails out and hits the street again before the cop gets his report done. Anyway, that's when the bad bears became a problem for hikers, campers and some of the other twenty-million tourists. The 'gooders bellered so loud about harvesting the aggressive bears, and put up such a political noise that the bureaucrats found it easier to just airlift the bad boys down into our remote peaks. At least one of those exiled Jellystone bruins attacked a little girl right through the hardside of the pickup topper, drug her out in her sleeping bag and headed for the high ground, both her and little brother screaming their heads off. Her sleepy grandpa grabbed up a club and started beating the brains out of the bear with such a fury that the bruin became surprised and loped off through the campground. Took a hunting party a week to locate the bear and dispatch him. So much for the 'gooders and their braindead theories. They're happy, they "saved" a bear that went bad. And we commoners can take care of ourselves in the wilds while the 'gooders celebrate in Hollywood somewhere about how they're saving the planet. Just like they saved the forest in Jellystone from grooming and pruning and clearing of deadfall. Until one spark burned the whole park down. If you haven't seen that standing deadzone recently you've missed a sight. Enough on the overpaid do-nothing bureaucrats and brain-dead 'gooders, back to the subject. Anyway, at the higher elevations and rough country I don't like to overload my old bones carrying any more gear than necessary. If you don't already know it I'll let you in on a little secret: It's now vital to your survival to provide your own protection in the wild. Not so much from the occasional aggressive four-legged animal you might encounter, there are a lot of killers out there that walk on two legs. If you don't believe me, just ask any sheriff or state trooper that has any experience at all. The old saying; "a gun in the hand is much better than a cop on the phone" holds true. Believe it, or don't call me when you run into some druggie's garden at the 8,000 foot level, or some meth-lab cooking off where you end up at out on the desert, and they decide to eliminate you. There are a lot of sidearms and short weapons that folks use both everyday and in the wild for self-protection. Most anything is better than nothing, but some things are better than others. For most folks who only use their firearms on rare occasions the old design reliable cylinder "wheel-gun" is probably easier to bring into service reliably and quickly. If you are one of those who shoots regularly and stays qualified, whatever you normally use is probably best. In any event, I would not recommend going into the wilderness with a piece that is not tried and tested and that you are familiar with, be it a wheel-gun or an autoloader. Always choose top-quality brands no matter what your choice of calibres or actions, because second best is not worth carrying. One of my friends has a much-touted Desert-Eagle in .44-Magnum calibre. He never knows when that big autoloader is going to misfire because it fails to re-chamber the next round after a fired round. In the time it takes for him to figure out the thing didn't load, and then clears the jam and forces a reload for a "next-shot", the moon could have gone around the earth a couple times. At least, that's what it will seem like to him if he ever gets into the serious grease and has to depend on that particular piece for his life. I have the choice of both autoloading actions and wheelguns in various calibres so I use and stay familiar with all of them. Each one has it's own particular purpose and place. If you and your steady traveling partner both carry, it is a good idea to have the same calibre. If you are carrying autoloaders, it might be a good idea to have the same brand and model so you can exchange clips in an emergency. Why do you think the cops and military personnel generally all use the same weapon as thier buddies do? With, of course, certain exceptions for specialized purposes. For my "outback" piece, for those locations where there is no chance of help, and phones don't work, and even if they did there would not be a chance in the universe of getting assistance quicker than tomorrow, I decided to load a bit heavier on the .44-Mag sidearm and make it my only iron while out kicking around the hills. This particular double-action wheelgun did duty in Alaska for it's first owner, a local fly-fishing doctor. Doc had a "fish on" when a hungry Griz talked him into cutting the line, but then instead of just taking the fish Griz proceeded to run Doc deeper into the bush. Doc covered several hundred feet while turning and firing sideways regularly at the oncoming bear which was closer each time. You see, most people don't realize that big bruins' hearts only beat about 9-beats per minute, give-or-take a couple depending on the size of the Griz. Unless you make a totally incapacitating hit in a critical spot, it takes awhile for that big boy to bleed out, either internally or externally, and get dizzy enough to fall down and stay there. Doc's Griz finally laid down for the last time on the sixth round. Doc had changed his trousers, threw away his waders, and was back from his fishing trip. He was in the sporting-goods store trading in his .44-Mag on a 454-Casull when I happened to drop in and enjoy his story. Fact is, he started shaking just a tad when he got to the part where the bear finally dropped and stayed down. Doc peeled off several paintings of President Grant from a wad of bills and walked out happy with his new .454 Casull. Not one to pass up a bargain in something I'd been wanting for a long time but couldn't justify the expense of, I got his "six-rounds-fired" .44-Mag for a bargain price. That made two of us that was happy that day. The difference is, Doc knows how to perform surgery on people's brains, but I know the tremendous ballistic difference between off-the-shelf 240-grain bullets, and my own hand-loaded 300-grain Sierras in the .44-Magnum pisol load. I have no fears that it would ever take all six "Bear Loads" to put down a large predator if I was physically able to connect at all with the first round. And for the two-legged predators that go to the outback to prey on humans? Use your imagination. Unless I get sniped there will only be one story told if that ever happens. For my wilderness loads on the .44-Magnum, I use the 300gr Sierra JSP in front of 21.8grains of H110. That combo gives the heavy slug just over 1500-fps out the barrel, with a corresponding amount of ft/lbs of energy reaching well over a half-ton. The holster is a large piece consisting of both a waist-belt and shoulder-strap. It covers the piece against scrapes and scratches in rough country, trash and dirt from brush and steep hillsides, and rain from the occasional shower. It also holds four speed-loaders on the shoulder strap. That gives me six in the cylinder, plus twenty-four in the speedloaders. If I ever need more than that, I must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in someone's war zone! I test fired this heavy 300-grain recipe against the commercial 240-grain round. The solid recoil was very satisfying and noticibly more robust than the commercial load, and the accuracy made me smile. This righteous Sierra/Hodgdon combination round gave me a much higher degree of confidence concerning outback self-defence. This round could change the mind of any large predator looking to make lunch out of us smaller carbon-based lifeforms. The 300gr Sierra also hits a tad higher than the commercial load at 110ft... Although that may have been just a bit of swirling breeze down-range or perhaps my unnoticed movement when cranking off the round from the Weaver Stance. At any rate, I'm happy with the solid feel and hot performance of the 300gr in my sidearm. From all the ballistic mumbo-jumbo I can find it may even have double the penetration with double the wound diameter, etc, etc. of a large .30-cal rifle. Naturally, I label these homemade rounds "Bear Loads", although I would much prefer the bears just leave me alone, and I would be exceptionally glad to return the favor. Just like in the old days, we all walked the same mountains and got along just fine. Just in case you're wondering; yes, I do hunt all kinds of wildlife. In fact, I use a Canon. A 35mm Canon, EOS Elan-7, with several lenses of my choice up to 900mm. At one time I did enjoy hunting wild animals for food every season. In fact, wild game in season was an important addition to my family's table. Now the kids are grown up and gone, and those hunting days are about gone also. There have not been any wild animals in my food sights for several years now. That said however, this fall will probably find me up in Montana at one of the Buffalo Ranches harvesting next year's low-fat animal protein with my new CVA black-powder sidelock. Or maybe even one of my old Browning bows. I've developed a taste for Bison lately, and figure harvesting my own is a tad more accountable than playing dumb while someone else does the hard work and I buy the Bison Burgers at the local restaraunt. Now, don't you vegetarians go getting all heated up over that, y'hear? Just go on hapily munchin' yer greens 'an beans, and figure you'll live a lot longer than I will. That'll make y'all happy all over again. And that'll make three of us happy; you, 'cause you figure you'll live longer than I will; me, 'cause I got Doc's new .44-Magnum reasonably cheap, and; Doc, 'cause he got away from the Grizzly with nothing worse than doo-doo in his trousers and so was able to come home and buy his new .454-Casull for his next fly-fishing trip in Alaska. And don't forget; carry big iron in the outback, as big as you can handle. Best Regards, and "be safe". |