Just a few observations from a recent trip to the Kodiak archipelago with @
Clusterfrack. While neither of us could claim to be an old Alaska hand, both have had fairly extensive experience with wilderness travel in areas where bears are present. With the exception of a 10-day backpack through the Coal Creek area of Glacier, all of my experience has been with black bears in the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and Sawtooths. In my experience the PNW bears are wary; the Sierras are full of aggressive, human-habituated animals. We believed that species-specific behavior plus the remoteness of the location that we visited argued for a wary bear model to build our strategy around. That, like any safety regimen, is based on awareness and avoidance. To the extent that the terrain we travelled permitted, our routefinding avoided areas of dense cover or attractive forage. We maintained an awareness of the prevailing wind direction related to our direction of travel, and took ample advantage of the glorious silence of the place to listen for movement. When the environmental factors tilted agains us due to things like proximity to running water, wind noise or wind shifts we verbally acknowledged same and adjusted our alertness accordingly. The steepness of some of the terrain we travelled made the bill of my ball cap an impediment to forward vision, so I was at times forced to reverse my hat.
Guns were always going to be a part of the equation for us. We also discussed and researched the use of bear spray and concluded that it would not have a place in our kit, mainly due to the condition-specific requirements for its effective use. The outfitter for our transportation to and from the cabin was very spray-positive, but apparently missed the irony of self-immolation being part of an AAR they related about an attack being successfully interrupted by (full credit to the Forum member who coined this great phrase) blessing the deserving with the hot sauce. We remarked on several occasions in our time on the trail how unsuitable the conditions were for aerosol use.
So, guns. How big and how many? Handguns were going to be a given; based on anecdotes from folks with extensive experience we decided that long guns would add considerable value and would also be making the trip with us. We started to work toward a solution with the understanding that instantaneous incapacitation would almost certainly be required to reduce a critical encounter, either via CNS or skeletal damage. That meant that handgun ammo had to be capable of reliably penetrating a bruin's brain pan, which led me to Lehigh Defense's 10mm 190gr. monolithic copper penetrator. I was able to get them to run a bit better than 1100 fps. out of a G20 over Power Pistol in the time I had available to work up a load. Big thanks to @
Clusterfrack who had done extensive work sorting out various reliability issues with that platform under heavy loads. At his suggestion I swapped the stock recoil spring assembly on my Gen. 3 pistol for a tungsten guide rod and 24# spring, as well as adding enhanced springs and shims from .460 Rowland. The gun ran like a champ for the 500 or so rounds I got through it before we departed.
For a long gun, I seized upon an actual excuse to add something that I've always kind of wanted and picked up a complete upper receiver in .458 SOCOM. There's a dearth of really good load development information available out there for that platform, as well as some horribly misguided information posted by people for whom "was not fragged by exploding upper receiver" and "no pressure signs" are apparently synonymous. I ended up with Lehigh Defense 302gr. penetrators running about 1800fps. I got right about 200 rounds downrange in the course of load development and practice. Magazines were a bit fiddly at first, but good old USGI 20 rounders soon rose to the top of the heap and ran flawlessly for me.
For optics, red dots on both platforms. A closed-emitter optic was recommended for the pistol due to the high likelihood of rain, so I went with a Holosun 509 ACSS. It took a little while for the chevron reticle to grow on me. It seemed to draw my eye to it at first, but once I figured out that it was trying to claw back some of my hard-won gains in target focus I got that sorted out. I think that I still prefer a simple dot, but with more time behind it I could very well feel differently. I did encounter the well-documented issue of the battery that ships with the optic being absolute crap. The backup solar panel functioned as advertised, but its performance is entirely dependent on the quality of the ambient light available. I ran an Aimpoint PRO on the carbine for its simplicity and reliability.
Carrying both guns on the trail along with a pack was something that took a little work to figure out. I've got a small mobility issue that requires me to walk with poles over uneven terrain, and I've found that the Kifaru GunBearer to be a great solution. I found my way to it though my disenchantment with scabbard-style packs at hike & shoot events, and while it is designed for full length rifles it worked just fine with a carbine. @
Clusterfrack noticed that the position of the muzzle could lead to a serious facial injury in some fall scenarios, but that's about the only downside I'm aware of. The rifle was carried in a cruiser ready condition on the trail. I swapped the Kifaru muzzle retaining strap for an Atlas/Voile style elastic band for ease of use and security of retention. With practice it's possible to get the gun mounted from carry quickly and efficiently. I regularly reminded myself of the condition the gun was being carried in, but would have done well to have including the charging motion in more of my deployment practice work.
I settled on a chest rig for the G20. It's a compromise insomuch as its design emphasizes retention above ease of presentation, but I was able to develop a reasonably effective draw stroke by grasping the large buckle at the top of the harness with my support hand. It's not ideal with regard to proximity to the muzzle, but definitely a movement that can be performed without sweeping that hand, and clearly safer IMO than attempting to draw from a holster that wants to move with the gun. Awareness of your partner's location is critically important to performing a safe draw from this device. It carried exceptionally well with the pack, and wasn't vulnerable to hanging up in brush.
Attachment 92271
Originally Posted by Clusterfrack
I forgot to mention my observations on red vs. green dot color. To my eyes, red had much better contrast in the often-backlit herbaceous lower canopy we hiked in.
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