this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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I am at this point considered liberal, but I have to say that I do like guns. Range shooting is super fun. If I could I would take up competitive Three Gun as a hobby, but I don't have a course in my area.
Also, I hike with either my 45-70 ammunition rifle or my .45acp pistol with high grain ammo. Why? I live in Wyoming where we are definitely not on the top of the food chain. Even my pistol is liable to just piss off a bear if it really means business.
Yeah, I would definitely carry a .44 magnum in grizzly country.
Man, if you think target shooting is fun, wait until you go skeet or trap shooting! That's the most fun shooting there is IMO. Give it a try if you haven't already. I just bought a really nice Franchi over-under 20 gauge specifically for trap and skeet. It would make a great upland game bird gun too, but I don't really have any interest in that.
Bear spray is usually a better choice, on account of a whole lot of factors. At the very least you should bring both and issue a warning with bear spray.
Edit: how to use bear spray
Also, be aware that the weather is orders of magnitude more likely to kill you than a bear, and avoiding bear encounters is usually fairly easy to begin with. If you're carrying a gun but not a compass, your risk assessment is WAY off.
I carry bear spray in black bear country. Thankfully I don't live anywhere near grizzly bears (although they're talking about reintroducing them here). I thought I remembered reading somewhere that bear spray isn't very effective against grizzlies.
To be fair, neither is a single round fired center of mass unless it's like a 12.7×99 mm.
Are you familiar with the .45-70 round?
This is sound theoretical advice but I don't think most people consider the practical implications of it. Bear spray is only effective out to about 20 feet. A bear can run 30 mph. This means that in order to use that bear spray you need to be close enough for that bear to have its paws on you in less than two seconds. I'm not deluded enough to think I have the balls to stand my ground while a 1200 pound grizzly bear is charging me. I'm reaching for the gun before I reach for the spray which makes it largely useless in practice. I still carry it but it's not particularly reassuring when you put it in context.
The way bear spray works, you create a big cloud of spicy air in between you and the bear and the bear runs into that cloud. The bear very quickly decides to go do something else with it's life the second it gets a breath of that air. You don't wait until the bear is close enough to hit directly with with spray, you spray as soon as the bear starts charging or gets too close. It's manual or operations is very different from pepper spray for people.
Just like you should be well-trained when carrying your gun, you should have had the training on how to properly use bear spray. This concern you've voiced suggests you bought a can and assumed you knew how to use it.
Here's a fairly decent video to start with.
https://youtu.be/TZ5HJHZ8Mfw
I hate guns, but alas there’s just no practical alternative for fulfilling my daily quota of wanton destruction.
I do some wonton destruction at the Chinese buffet.
Bombs aren't that hard to make. Nor are molotov cocktails.
You're just lazy.
Get yourself a bat and a hollow core door.
I like the cut of your jib, good sir (or madam).
Lol yeah I'm a Southern progressive, and I love guns just to do range practice. But absolutely understand why they're hard to get/going away. People suck and it's why we can't have nice things.
Guns are hard to get and going away? Clearly there've been some changes in the South since I was last there.
I was pretty sure every breakfast in Texas came with a side of biscuits and gravy and a revolver.
Wow, you’re describing use cases we can all agree are legitimate and you didn’t say anything about being careless or reckless, or trigger happy, nor express an impulse to “mag dump” someone. Yeah, that’ll piss off fellow liberals
.357 lever actions are neat.
I love target shooting and do conceal carry, but it does get a bit ridiculous around here. After leaving the Army, it took a lot of training and rigid selfcontrol to call it a "clip" again, just to troll the gravy seals down at the range. I laugh as they correct me, and the owner, who knows me, just shakes his head and calls me an ass.
Guns are amazing when they're collector items made by Holland & Holland to your custom spec. When they're mass produced crap, they're not much different from air soft guns at the shooting range. At least air soft guns don't kill people.