Falling wedges. What's good, what's not, and why?

[RandyMac]

Bears are a minor hazard, panthers on the other hand are not.

 

[slowp]

City? I don't live out in the city. All I know is I wouldn't be going about without a powerful handgun in the woods that have bears. Better to have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it... I honestly think it's lack of planning for the unexpected for someone to travel out in the woods where bears are present...

Also, I am not scared of bears, I respect them. They are powerful animals, and that being said, I don't think it's very wise for anyone to travel in their habitat without the means to defend themselves from one of nature's great beasts. Not worried about elk either? Well, they have attacked humans too... so either way, a good old revolver or Desert Eagle, at least .357 Mag or larger, is a wise idea... just in case something goes awry when you least expect it to.

Then ya better not come here. You'd be overloaded with all that extra weight. You'd be scared to death.

I've hiked through the snow following a P-line to see how far a road was along in the construction phase. On the way back, found cougar tracks in my tracks. I continued to work in the woods, gunless, for many years.

What is your experience level in the woods? How many years have you worked in the woods?

 

[Gologit]

City? I don't live out in the city. All I know is I wouldn't be going about without a powerful handgun in the woods that have bears. Better to have it and not need it, rather than need it and not have it... I honestly think it's lack of planning for the unexpected for someone to travel out in the woods where bears are present...

Also, I am not scared of bears, I respect them. They are powerful animals, and that being said, I don't think it's very wise for anyone to travel in their habitat without the means to defend themselves from one of nature's great beasts. Not worried about elk either? Well, they have attacked humans too... so either way, a good old revolver or Desert Eagle, at least .357 Mag or larger, is a wise idea... just in case something goes awry when you least expect it to.

Promac...

Well hell, why mess around with small arms? Maybe you better put the Air Force on standby for some strafing runs. Get the Army Helicopter boys in on it too..a little napalm can't hurt.

I've got it...how about a hand held low yield nuclear device? That should make you feel safe out there 'mongst the wild creatures. Maybe you'll get to nuke a ferocious squirrel or woodchuck.

I see bears all the time. Our logging tears up the ground and sends their prey scurrying about looking for shelter. If we don't bother them they don't bother us. If you make one feel threatened or if you're dumb enough to come between a mama and her cub they'll protect themselves. Most of them just run away.

 

[hammerlogging]

I have plenty of bears here and I had them in WV. Just the other week I was laying out some skid trails and my dog ran around a piont and started barking all tough. I saw about 50 feet up a big old ash 2 cubs prancing around, I got me and the Ruby out fo there, course Ijust walked about 400' away and then stopped for lunch. Not but a few days later I was falling in a holler and a boy bear walked by just above me while I was filling up with fuel and bar oil and making a chain switch. Not more than 30 feet above me, it was steep so he was... right above me. Well, after a few minutes, with the call of timber anxiously awaiting, hell, I couldn't just stand there. Walked off and got back to it. He stayed in the area for 30 minutes or so, then never saw him again.

That was actually one of the only times recently that I felt sort of bad for wiping out a little block of timber, nice little bear had a good home with some killer super big timber (right there where that poplar pic came from). But heck, carry on, he'll be all right.

I don't carry a gun when I'm doing forestry work. I usually take Ruby. definately don't think about it when I'm falling thoguh hiking in early some mornings I wonder what i might surprise. II do know that when I used to walk to my cabin in black of night fog and rain from the main house after a night of dinner and revelry at the farm in NorCal I sure as hell felt like mtn lion bait

 

[Rounder]

Only time I've been worried about a bear was on a job up in the Swan Valley. Momma Griz and cubs were always hanging out within a few hundred yards of the boundary. Etiquette says go across that line for the morning sermon. Kind of interesting when you were walking past piles of her previous morning's sermon. Seems like that would be a terrible way to go, pants around your ankles and all. Never bumped into her though.

 

[paccity]

i think some people that go into the woods let there imagnations get the best of them. no worries.

 

[Mastermind]

This thread has taken some twists and turns.

I enjoy being in the woods as much as anything I can think of. I have been an avid hunter, hunting with every legal weapon. The only time I found myself afraid was while I was hunting with a bow. It was about an hour before daylight and I had spent over an hour getting into the area. Just as everything was beginning to settle down from my trek in a group of coyotes started yipping and being a general nuisance. That was something I was used to, I never gave it much thought. What scared me was a sound I had never heard before. It was loud, really loud. Sounded like an insane man screaming at the top of his lungs. The coyotes shut up, and that scared me even more. Everything was quiet, way too quiet. After a little bit the coyotes started their yipping around again, but this time they were right on top of me, on both sides, it was a little unnerving. It was then that the screaming started again, my hair was standing up all over my body, the coyotes shut up and never made another sound. I was damn glad to see the sun coming up that morning! I still have no idea what made that noise, I've never heard anything like it since. Anyone heard anything like that before?

 

[paccity]

sasquatch.

 

[Jed1124]

I don't know if you have them out your way but Fischer cats make a pretty bad scream when they are threatened or fighting with something. I've had them wake me up in the middle of the night and the sound of there scream makes my hair stand up laying in bed!

 

[RandyMac]

Randy, have you listened to the recorded screams of Bigfoot?
My brother hunts them in the Klamath area.

http://www.bluenorth.com/klamath_recording.htm

 

[wyk]

Wow - from wedges to firearms!

Well, my feelings about firearms are sort of summed up as follows:

It's not when things go smoothly that you ever need a firearm - it's for when things go completely out out of whack. The only way to plan to be armed for when things go out of whack is to carry a gun when things look peachy. Out in the woods, we don't have complete control over nature, but we have control over the kit we put together. We don't carry a gun for animals that are frightened of us and run off - it's for the ones that decided to chance it with us that day. Animals aren't the only things that may cause trouble in the woods, too. There's people out there that may want to do harm as well. In the end, regardless of the chances or stats of running in to trouble, you only have the one life and the one chance when it does present itself. A 4" 44 mag in a backpack could be the difference between you telling the story, or the news media telling it.

Still, I think a sword and a shield may be taking it a bit far vs packing some heat in yer satchel:

Whatever you guys do, make sure you practice and get competent with yer heater:

 

[Gologit]

Okay, confession time. I do carry a gun when I go to the woods. It's an ancient 30/30 that I keep wrapped in a greasy blanket and stashed behind the back seat with assorted tools, old contracts, and other spare parts.
All this talk about guns in the woods made me curious so I unwrapped it and looked at it last night. It looks just the same as it did when I put it there three years ago. Before that it was in another crummy and I probably haven't fired it in ten years or more. Hell, I probably haven't taken it out of the blanket in five.
I'll give it a good cleaning tonight...it's pretty grubby. And I'll replace the green ammo...if I can get it out. Never know when I might get attacked by a rabid chipmunk or something.

 

[promac850]

Scared? Paranoid? What the hell do I have to be scared of or all freaked out or paranoid of when I've got a gun?

I know that most bears shy away, but how about the possible rabid bear... or one that is injured... they act much more aggressively than your average yogi bear...

RandyMac is right about them panthers (mountain lions? I assume that's what you're talking about...) too many stories of people innocently biking through the woods and BAM!! pounced by a panther.

If I've got a .357 Magnum, I don't need no air support or overkill means to protect me ass from a crazy bear. It would stay put, and come out if, and only if, a potentially deadly situation arises between me, a bear, or God forbid, a two legged predator...

Seems like some of you are more scared of guns than bears. Crazy.

A loaded .44 Mag on the table, hammer down, is entirely incapable of harming anyone... it takes the mechanical action of someone pulling the trigger to activate the big boom feature. Or a real hot fire, then it's possible that flame engulfed cartridge(s) would heat up the powder enough that spontaneous combustion occurs. Even with the hammer back, it still would take either a person pulling the trigger, or a real hard drop, on the hammer, to get the gun to go boom.

Rabid chipmunk go "Ka-BOOM" after meeting soft point bullet from .30-30...

 

[promac850]

sasquatch.

[video=youtube_share;nyVsHNEBeBk]http://youtu.be/nyVsHNEBeBk[/video]

 

[paccity]

Okay, confession time. I do carry a gun when I go to the woods. It's an ancient 30/30 that I keep wrapped in a greasy blanket and stashed behind the back seat with assorted tools, old contracts, and other spare parts.
All this talk about guns in the woods made me curious so I unwrapped it and looked at it last night. It looks just the same as it did when I put it there three years ago. Before that it was in another crummy and I probably haven't fired it in ten years or more. Hell, I probably haven't taken it out of the blanket in five.
I'll give it a good cleaning tonight...it's pretty grubby. And I'll replace the green ammo...if I can get it out. Never know when I might get attacked by a rabid chipmunk or something.

bob. i call them sabre tooth mountain weasels around here. singley there not bad, but in groups of five or more watch out.

 

[slowp]

Seems like some of you are more scared of guns than bears. Crazy.

A loaded .44 Mag on the table, hammer down, is entirely incapable of harming anyone... it takes the mechanical action of someone pulling the trigger to activate the big boom feature. Or a real hot fire, then it's possible that flame engulfed cartridge(s) would heat up the powder enough that spontaneous combustion occurs. Even with the hammer back, it still would take either a person pulling the trigger, or a real hard drop, on the hammer, to get the gun to go boom.

Rabid chipmunk go "Ka-BOOM" after meeting soft point bullet from .30-30...

No, I just get tired of this crap being told to me by boys and men who go into the woods once or twice a year and must therefore know a heck of a lot more than some old woman. It is old. It is tiresome. I don't want to carry any extra weight. I'm comfortable in the woods, been wandering in the woods PROFESSIONALLY for 30+ years, the Forest Service will not employees carry a firearm, and I have my Used Dog. Amazingly, I've survived. I didn't know I worked in such a terrifying place.

Funny, I have come across bears in close range maybe twice. No problems.

Rabid chipmunks? Now you are sounding like a 13 year old video game junkie. You haven't told us how long you have worked in the woods.

Now, in a few years, I may have to start carrying something. Wolves have been dumped in our state and the bunny huggers are talking about dumping grizzlies. Maybe I should just take up video game playing and fantasize about shooting little cute chippymonks.

 

[slowp]

bob. i call them sabre tooth mountain weasels around here. singley there not bad, but in groups of five or more watch out.

The worst wildlife "attacks" I've ever encountered were in the Grand Canyon. They didn't have bear problems down in the canyon, they had everything else trying to get into your pack. I left my legendary ziplock bag of trailmix out on the table for an instant, and there was one of them rabid chipmonk squirrels chewing a hole in it. We scared it back a bit, and repaired the bag with duck tape.

There were two male turkeys that would go around looking for handouts. I gave them a good tap with my hiking poles, which become crutches shortly after you sit down after hiking to the bottom from the top--8 miles of stairs. The horrified looks I got from the neighboring campers! The turkeys never bothered our campsite again. The campsites all had varmint proof boxes or hangers. You used them or lost stuff to the vicious rabid animals.

The next day, limping on the way back up, my friend put her pack down and laid down for a nap. A little rabid ground squirrel immediately hopped on her pack and started to chew. I yelled, and she shooed it off.

On the top, there was a deer causing a traffic jam. The deer was standing in the middle of the road asking for more handouts. It even licked some windshields. It had no thumbs so couldn't use a squeegee.

Want to be around dangerous animals? Go to a National Park. Not a National Forest but a Park.

 

[Cedarkerf]

The biggest problem I have with bears is when they ransack the neighbor hood garbage cans. Neighbor shot a 375 poundr in his front yardlast year our garbage problem went away. In the fall I go up to mount Rainier and look for them in spray park with the camera. Had a 250 pounder run across the road night before last.

View attachment 191695

 

[promac850]

No, I just get tired of this crap being told to me by boys and men who go into the woods once or twice a year and must therefore know a heck of a lot more than some old woman. It is old. It is tiresome. I don't want to carry any extra weight. I'm comfortable in the woods, been wandering in the woods PROFESSIONALLY for 30+ years, the Forest Service will not employees carry a firearm, and I have my Used Dog. Amazingly, I've survived. I didn't know I worked in such a terrifying place.

Funny, I have come across bears in close range maybe twice. No problems.

Rabid chipmunks? Now you are sounding like a 13 year old video game junkie. You haven't told us how long you have worked in the woods.

Now, in a few years, I may have to start carrying something. Wolves have been dumped in our state and the bunny huggers are talking about dumping grizzlies. Maybe I should just take up video game playing and fantasize about shooting little cute chippymonks.

The rabid chipmunk idea was from Gologit...

Me, I haven't done work in the woods. Been in them for camping, hiking, etc. Where did I ever say I worked in the woods?

Lol, none of the video games I got have you shoot those adorable chipmunks... I'm usually shooting terrorists or aliens. :msp_smile: I don't have much time to piss away on the 360 anymore, but when I do get some time on it, it's more fun especially when you're shooting terrorist after terrorist coming down the stairs... they're so stupid, lol. Kill one of them, another walks in to see what happened, drop him, and another will show up... I love it.

I suggest you at least get a ######## 64 and take up Dr. Mario. My mom and pops used to spend hours playing that game... my brother and I used to watch and cheer them on... it was quite funny. This was about 12 years ago... been a long time since they have had time to fart around with a controller. It's kinda like Tetris, except you are manipulating those capsules that probably look a lot like some of your meds.

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

Predators

It aint the four leg predators I worry about it is the two legged kind. Had a person last year on the one timber preserve I manage try to run me over when I was clearing road, the guy got jail time for it. The mountain cat sounds like a woman being killed in some lame arse horror movie. We had a mountain cat kill a deer in the yard next to my cabin on the ranch last winter, scary part was how close it was to three different houses . Kinda eery when your fast a sleep and you hear strange noises out side your window.