lets see your thick bush guns!

It won't fend off a charging grizzly and certainly not a polar bear, and I am unsure how it stacks up against a 450 Casul revolver or a pistol caliber lever, but it will b a joy to carry through the thick stuff in both southern and northern Ontario chasing deer and Timberwolves....... Ruger M77 compact in .243.....

image_zpsziff5ann.jpeg
 
Likely a bad time to join the fray, and it will stink of bravado but in reality it's pragmatism, I only carry a gun half the time in the densest (and biggest bears) grizzly population in Canada, North Coast BC just south of Alaska. This has only been going on for one season so we'll see how I fare down the road. Prior to that and alongside it is bush flying in northern BC for a good while now, the day job, again in grizzly country and again working solo without mishaps. One sow has charged me proper, and bluffed turning away at the last second. I'd like to pretend you're reading its ears and cool and calm the whole time but you notice your pulse soon as it's quiet around you again. I'm a rank amateur with grizzlies compared to the fishing guides I'm getting to know on the north coast BC rivers in my territory, they run into salmon bears all fall and get chased off spots, unarmed. Their confidence and experience is exemplary, they would laugh pretty hard at some of these discussions.

It's just that a gun is no guarantee of saving your arse. And at times, such as when packing in the season's supplies it's 5 1/2lbs you can dearly do without. I spend more than half my life in proper deep bush grizzly country, just ask my wife she's not fond of it, and I suppose when the season and my schedule in the bush is considered I'm "exposed" to grizzlies for full days about a hundred days a year. On likely 1/3rd of those days, I'll be in close proximity to grizzlies, so about a month a year potential for issues. Never have I had to do more than flick the safety off, I have fired warning shots, and many, but they aren't always effective, especially once the bear knows the trick. Black bears I've had a couple interesting moments with, including one who was apparently immune to bear spray, but haven't been forced to shoot one, though I have by choice for work preemptively a good deal with CO approval or a tag. I suppose my rambling point is folks need to chill out and dial it down a notch on bears. For one thing you'll have more fun in the bush.

It's fun to have a monster to be afraid of, that's why I chose to operate on the North Coast, there's a mystique and excitement to that any outdoorsman can embrace. That's the very definition of wild to me, I also support carrying a firearm and the privilege to. I get a little uncomfortable however reading about multiple bears having to be shot in the course of work, and who knows it could be a situation like my work with prior approval by the COs, or a tag given the over the counter nature and bag limit in BC. But it makes me picture off the cuff situational shooting that in my experience is likely on the order of 99.999% of the time wholly unnecessary. The COs also aren't going to buy that the second, or third time, and I can't blame them.
 
I can honestly say I have never left the house to go out in the bush and thought "which rifle should I bring if I stumble into a grizzly". I always take a rifle, but which one is usually more which one do I have loads for and haven't had the scope off since last time it was sighted in.........could be anything from a 243 to 280 to 350 RM (I like this one most and it does seem to go more than all others together in the last 10 years) to my 375 H&H, and if I'm going hunting it will be whatever rifle I deem best for the intended prey. I always have a rifle in the bush but seldom worry about bears, or if the rifle I have is adequate for a bear encounter........Lots of time it is my 243, and I'm still never worried because I know I can shoot.
 
c-fbmi said:
I can honestly say I have never left the house to go out in the bush and thought "which rifle should I bring if I stumble into a grizzly". I always take a rifle, but which one is usually more which one do I have loads for and haven't had the scope off since last time it was sighted in.........could be anything from a 243 to 280 to 350 RM (I like this one most and it does seem to go more than all others together in the last 10 years) to my 375 H&H, and if I'm going hunting it will be whatever rifle I deem best for the intended prey. I always have a rifle in the bush but seldom worry about bears, or if the rifle I have is adequate for a bear encounter........Lots of time it is my 243, and I'm still never worried because I know I can shoot.
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Agree... grizzlies are obviously not a concern here in NorOnt, but truthfully neither are black bears... unless I am hunting, I only carry a belt knife, and when hunting, the weapon is for the intended quarry with no thought to "bear protection," more often than not, that would be a bow, air rifle or shotgun with 7 1/2 bird loads. The only time I carry a rifle with a thought of bears is when I am hunting them with that rifle... that will change this fall for the first time.
 
I only carry for protection from bears once they start becoming a nuisance on the minnow line. I have had them destroy traps and eat the bait while I was launching the canoe. Then I'll start packing a shotgun.
 
Ardent said:
Likely a bad time to join the fray, and it will stink of bravado but in reality it's pragmatism, I only carry a gun half the time in the densest (and biggest bears) grizzly population in Canada, North Coast BC just south of Alaska. This has only been going on for one season so we'll see how I fare down the road. Prior to that and alongside it is bush flying in northern BC for a good while now, the day job, again in grizzly country and again working solo without mishaps. One sow has charged me proper, and bluffed turning away at the last second. I'd like to pretend you're reading its ears and cool and calm the whole time but you notice your pulse soon as it's quiet around you again. I'm a rank amateur with grizzlies compared to the fishing guides I'm getting to know on the north coast BC rivers in my territory, they run into salmon bears all fall and get chased off spots, unarmed. Their confidence and experience is exemplary, they would laugh pretty hard at some of these discussions.

It's just that a gun is no guarantee of saving your arse. And at times, such as when packing in the season's supplies it's 5 1/2lbs you can dearly do without. I spend more than half my life in proper deep bush grizzly country, just ask my wife she's not fond of it, and I suppose when the season and my schedule in the bush is considered I'm "exposed" to grizzlies for full days about a hundred days a year. On likely 1/3rd of those days, I'll be in close proximity to grizzlies, so about a month a year potential for issues. Never have I had to do more than flick the safety off, I have fired warning shots, and many, but they aren't always effective, especially once the bear knows the trick. Black bears I've had a couple interesting moments with, including one who was apparently immune to bear spray, but haven't been forced to shoot one, though I have by choice for work preemptively a good deal with CO approval or a tag. I suppose my rambling point is folks need to chill out and dial it down a notch on bears. For one thing you'll have more fun in the bush.

It's fun to have a monster to be afraid of, that's why I chose to operate on the North Coast, there's a mystique and excitement to that any outdoorsman can embrace. That's the very definition of wild to me, I also support carrying a firearm and the privilege to. I get a little uncomfortable however reading about multiple bears having to be shot in the course of work, and who knows it could be a situation like my work with prior approval by the COs, or a tag given the over the counter nature and bag limit in BC. But it makes me picture off the cuff situational shooting that in my experience is likely on the order of 99.999% of the time wholly unnecessary. The COs also aren't going to buy that the second, or third time, and I can't blame them.
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I mean I did leave the topic fairly open. Im not surprised it turned into a bear defense thread... Thick bush you can be going for rabbits, tree rats, deer, bear... You name it hahahaha but the potential for personal injury makes the topic more fun for sure...
 
I used to work in NW and NE BC (so north it makes FSJ look like Vancouver) not only do most companies not allow surveyors/ field scientists etc to carry guns most locals in these areas would probably laugh their ass off at the direction this and many other threads take.

Almost every encounter I've had at work with a bear has been at great distance watching it haul ass in the other direction or a surprise encounter that lasts seconds.

If you're shooting 3 bears a season in Northern BC, you are either hunting them, full of #### or on some kind of watchlist with the C.O's
 
conor_90 said:
I used to work in NW and NE BC (so north it makes FSJ look like Vancouver) not only do most companies not allow surveyors/ field scientists etc to carry guns most locals in these areas would probably laugh their ass off at the direction this and many other threads take.

Almost every encounter I've had at work with a bear has been at great distance watching it haul ass in the other direction or a surprise encounter that lasts seconds.

If you're shooting 3 bears a season in Northern BC, you are either hunting them, full of #### or on some kind of watchlist with the C.O's
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I knew of a farmer near Goodlow. Shot about that many (black bears) a year, on his grain farm. Local COs were an abject hinderance to his lifestyle.

S.S.S.
 
Brutus I met a rancher who had shot 3 cougars in as many months in NW Alberta. Seems the agrarian types get a free pass sometimes.

Shooting bears in your grain bin/hen house is a lot different than shooting bears on "their" turf in the field...
 
Canada tail said:
Nice little bolt gun, do you mind if I ask what is this ?
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Spanish FR8 in 7.62X51. Those were sold by as surplus twenty years ago, and established something of a following. The tube under the barrel is for storage, originally intended for the oiler. The peep sight, with a dial for various apertures, is permanently attached to the rear action bridge, and makes mounting an optic something of an issue, unless removed. The front sight was a tapered post, which turned on an eccentric making windage adjustments possible. All in all, the FR8 proved to be a handy, quick handling, bush gun.
 
Boomer said:
Spanish FR8 in 7.62X51. Those were sold by as surplus twenty years ago, and established something of a following. The tube under the barrel is for storage, originally intended for the oiler. The peep sight, with a dial for various apertures, is permanently attached to the rear action bridge, and makes mounting an optic something of an issue, unless removed. The front sight was a tapered post, which turned on an eccentric making windage adjustments possible. All in all, the FR8 proved to be a handy, quick handling, bush gun.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot
 
Boomer said:
Spanish FR8 in 7.62X51. Those were sold by as surplus twenty years ago, and established something of a following. The tube under the barrel is for storage, originally intended for the oiler. The peep sight, with a dial for various apertures, is permanently attached to the rear action bridge, and makes mounting an optic something of an issue, unless removed. The front sight was a tapered post, which turned on an eccentric making windage adjustments possible. All in all, the FR8 proved to be a handy, quick handling, bush gun.
Click to expand...

Knows my gun better then I do hahaha

They don't seem to be very common though.
 
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