What activities do you and your wife enjoy!

[Dave13]

Hi Guys, Anna and myself enjoy a varied list of activities, like backpacking, some shots!

[Daveman]

Now that has to be the most interesting backpack I ever did see. Easy access flap, tote all yer crap with ya! Just don't trip during the hike! 

[Dave13]

Daveman, Thats the civilized campsite, with a track of a very LARGE Bear on the trail! More shots!

[Gator]

Daveman, Thats the civilized campsite, with a track of a very LARGE Bear on the trail! More shots!

Thank God!  I thought that you had moved the privy and phtographed what was underneath it.

What's that you're packing?  Type of ammo?

[Dave13]

Very funny Gator!   The gun is a Redhawk Ruger 44 with hot loads 314 grains! Hiking in Alaska can be interesting!

[ECOCKS]

My wife is eager to try camping and canoeing this season.

We are ideally placed in the Rockies for this and were buying some equipment even today. There was a guy attacked by a female bear last week but she is more worried about rattlesnakes since I had an encounter about 3 weeks ago with a diamondback. We always keep a gun in the truck (9 or .40) and another on a belt. Bear spray for the outback is also part of the kit bag we put together.

After visiting Shoshone Falls and driving up the Payette River which offers Class 1 to Class 6 water, she really wants to go to try American style camping and cooking out.

She also loves shooting and approaches it with a commendably matter-of-fact attitude. We spent an hour at the range on Saturday morning and would have stayed another hour except for the ammo shortage which leaves me concerned about supply.

She also is into reading action and mystery novels, loves the Jack Reacher and Monk series. I'm sure more will develop over time.

[SANDRO43]

Dave13, I hope it was an involuntary oversight that in your title:

What ... activities do you and your wife enjoy!

you omitted the crucial qualification: OTHER .

[Simoni]

She also is into reading action and mystery novels, loves the Jack Reacher and Monk series. I'm sure more will develop over time.

We just finished the latest Lee Child's Reacher novels (Gone Tomorrow), and it's one of his best.  

For those that like that genre, you might try The Forgotten Spy.

[Ooooops]

The gun is a Redhawk Ruger 44 with hot loads 314 grains! Hiking in Alaska can be interesting!

I'd be very scared if I ran into a guy carrying a gun like that on a hiking trail...   

[ECOCKS]

I'd be very scared if I ran into a guy carrying a gun like that on a hiking trail...   

Probably not quite as scared as you would be if you came around a curve in a trail and were face-to-face with an enraged bear or mountain lion.

[Ooooops]

Probably not quite as scared as you would be if you came around a curve in a trail and were face-to-face with an enraged bear or mountain lion.

And what this little gun gonna do to a "enraged bear or mountain lion"?    Unless Dave13 can shoot squirrel in an eye...   

[Faux Pas]

And what this little gun gonna do to a "enraged bear or mountain lion"?    Unless Dave13 can shoot squirrel in an eye...   

A 44 isn't so much a "little gun". It's more like a hand cannon and will certainly slow down a big bear and take it out if hit in the right place. It's firepower 

[boaterguy]

LOL, My wife told me very early in our writing phase that under no uncertain terms would she ever go camping. H*ll, I can't even get her to overnight on our boat! But she does enjoy boating! She will also do the hiking thing...just if she is going to sleep,she is going to sleep with all the comforts and SECURITY of home. We enjoy beechcoming together tremendously. Unfortunately we are long overdue for a jaunt down to Florida. We bowl in a league together, actually sent our league records as evidence for removing her conditional status. We are also card playing nuts. Nothing more fun than an evening of cards with friends and a few beers!

[GoodOlBoy]

A 44 isn't so much a "little gun". It's more like a hand cannon and will certainly slow down a big bear and take it out if hit in the right place. It's firepower 

This might work also!  :evil:

http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-a-potato-gun-out-of-a-pvc-pipe-212791/


GOB

[groovlstk]

My wife has little interest in video games, but she's hooked on Wii Tennis. We've been engaged in a long-running tournament (over a year, now), which seems to be reset whenever she's losing 

[Ooooops]

A 44 isn't so much a "little gun". It's more like a hand cannon and will certainly slow down a big bear and take it out if hit in the right place. It's firepower 

Nothing is more dangerous as an injured animal.    So, in my opinion, you better keep those "cannons" to your shooting ranges with Budwisers buddies during pumpkin shoot rather then taking it out to the wild.    Because there are other people who are hiking there as well and they shouldn't be victims to that gun cannon show.    :evil:

[Faux Pas]

Nothing is more dangerous as an injured animal.    So, in my opinion, you better keep those "cannons" to your shooting ranges with Budwisers buddies during pumpkin shoot rather then taking it out to the wild.    Because there are other people who are hiking there as well and they shouldn't be victims to that gun cannon show.    :evil:

When one is getting attacked by an angry bear or hungry mountain lion, other people hiking will likely be the last thing on one's mind 

[ECOCKS]

The .44 with a hot load is better than harsh words or a tree limb. Perhaps not as effective as true bear spray which you can get to if attacked. Using a 9mm on a bear may get it off of someone else and onto you but it is still effective against lions, snakes and the varmints you encounter.

If you're hiking in bear country, more than likely the other hikers are armed as well, at least with sprays. As for wounding other hikers, it hasn't happened so people need to quit inventing problems before they occur. Scaremongering at its worst.

[Dave13]

Ooooops, You have a good point about an injured animal being dangerous, but I've been shooting all my life and I do practice at those shooting ranges. The gun I carry on hiking trips has hot ammo loads, this results in a higher velocity in the bullets which also increases the impact on your target. Of course gun safety is very important, with other people nearby, but Alaska is a very different state, we have true wilderness areas to hike in, this results in few people on the trails. Unless you've encountered a bear in the wild, you will never truly understand,that unarmed your part of the food chain.

Dave

[myrddin]

Unless you've encountered a bear in the wild, you will never truly understand,that unarmed your part of the food chain.

You're always part of the food chain, but you can alter your position in it. 

[kryten41]

This turn in the topic begs the following joke:
Two men are walking in the forest.  The first man says "oh, bear tracks!'  The second man immediately takes off his boots and starts putting on runnning shoes.  The first man says "what are you doing, you can't outrun a bear".  The second man replies "I don't have to outrun the bear, I only have to outrun you!"

[Dave13]

We also love to travel, 16 days last year Ambergris Caye, Belize, the diving is great!

[Ooooops]

If you're hiking in bear country, more than likely the other hikers are armed as well, at least with sprays.

Yep, we had a big spray canister, suppose to shoot a mile away.       Have a funny story about it in my blog, so just gonna copy-paste it here.
 

Armed and dangerous
Coming back to Stewart, Canada from Hyder, Alaska we were asked if we had any firearms. "Nope" - said we. "None at all, no pistols, no rifles, a?" - disapprovingly asked girl in uniform. "Nope" - said we. "Ok, then. How about bear or pepper spray?" - didn't give up she. "Oh, that we have" - happily responded we and pulled out couple of canisters of bear spray - huge one that could take down an elephant from 50 feet away and tiny puny one that was really good for nothing except may be startling a cowardly mosquito. "Aha!" - says the girl - "you can't take this one into Canada" and... points to the little pathetic one. "But why???" "Because it's small and can be used as a concealed weapon. And it doesn't have any signs on it that it's for protection from animals. If it'd have picture of a dog on it, then it'd be OK". So we had to go inside of the border crossing office and sign some papers that we voluntarily turned in dangerous weapon without any fight or anything. Actually, this officer girl was very nice and after that paper signing she offered to stamp our passports with "prettiest stamps she had". And she did. Now I have a stamp with bear holding salmon in his mouth from Stewart, British Columbia, Canada in my passport and a permanent record of being armed and dangerous.

[Ooooops]

ooops...  double post...

[Ooooops]

The gun I carry on hiking trips has hot ammo loads, this results in a higher velocity in the bullets which also increases the impact on your target.

Oh, I see.   Well, I wish you'll never have to use it - it's better for everybody.       

BTW, when we went to Alaska couple of years ago (2 month road trip from Seattle) we also went to Brooks Falls to watch grizzlies fish for salmon.   It was awesome!!!   But we had to go all by ourselves 2 miles through the forest full of those bears from campsite to the observation platform on the river.   Couple times had to jump off the trail to let bears run by...   Totally surreal experience...   Highly recommended, though!   

My Grandpa trained me since I was little to shoot guns (he had no male grandkids, so I took the load   ).    And I was very good with target shooting,  but I couldn't bring myself to shoot a living being...