Warbird

These prices are pretty close. Dall Sheep, the cheapest to hunt, is actually going to run at least $12k. More likely $15k. Stone sheep by the way can be had for the bargain price of $35-50k. That is w/o travel expenses, which will be quite high into any areas that have sheep or goat. There are a couple of areas to hunt black bear, but it is not recommended unless you are a very experienced woodsman, without a guide. Bou can be hunted in some areas during the summer. However they are also not easily reached. Best chance is probably north of Nome. I am sure you can easily find out, but I have no idea of the cost of hunting bou in the summer. I have only hunted them in the fall. It would be cheaper, but I would guess the total cost would still be a couple thousand dollars. I can tell you this, if I had only a couple of weeks to spend in Alaska and I wanted to see some of its most beautiful scenery, I would definitely not head to the area north of Nome. That's just my opinion. The worst thing about Alaska in the interior during the summer, are the skeeters which are numerous only in the hundreds of millions and are large enough to nearly be big game themselves. Alaska is a stunning place, especially if you head away from the touristy areas and see the real country. It is a place any lover of the outdoors must see at least once. I have been lucky and have seen every area of the state from the southern most to the northern most point and quite a few spots in between. Alaska and southeast Africa may be my two favorite places on earth. If you have the time and some money, I can promise you, you won't ever forget the time spent in Alaska. But, I would not count on hunting there, unless you have some dough to spend or are a very experienced outdoorsman. It is not a forgiving place and many of those who perish there, do so because they think they are better in the bush than they are, or were rather.

I have never seen any practical difference difference between the two for hunting purposes from a accuracy standpoint. When it comes to which is more accurate in benchrest shooting, it is an argument I am not interested in getting into. Either one will reflect light. From a rust proof standpoint there is a definite difference. I often go on long hunts where I am stuck in the wild for days at a time. When on these hunts I always carry my stainless rifles. Most of my hunting partners use blued barrels. At the end of a long day or couple of days exposed to rain, snow and constant moisture they almost always have surface rust developing on their guns and have to wipe them down. Though stainless will rust from prolonged exposure, mine never have developed any of the surface rust my partners blued guns. It isn't really a big deal as long as you have the wipes to rub the gun down with. That is my experience for what it is worth. If you never really spend expended time gone, it probably won't make a lot of difference.

Typically bear, especially ones with cubs find enough meat from recently dead moose or caribou. They rarely chase down and fight caribou unless they are very young or maimed. So most full grown caribou have had few fight experiences with bear. Unless of course food has been scarce and the bear are itching for a fight. Caribou can run pretty fast, especially on the tundra ground. But, if a bear catches a caribou a bit by surprise I would not bet against the bear. Caribou usually worry more about wolves. And not even the bears like wolves. Wolves are extremely impressive creatures in person. One of the most impressive moments I ever had on a hunt was sitting at the top of of a hill in the upper regions of the Northwest Territories. It was a chilly and very foggy morning. We could not see very far in front of us and could not see any life at all, but when clear there we could easily see 30 miles or more. My hunting partner was an Inuit Indian from the northern islands of Canada. He made much of his living hunting wolves and knew them well. I asked him if he thought there were wolves around. He said, oh yeah they're here. He said, watch this and he started howling like a wolf. All of a sudden the entire valley started resonating with the howls of wolves. The howls went on for a long time, probably 10 minutes. Not seeing anything, it was quite unsettling. Now to get back on track. That caribou never had a chance once he decided to stand and fight. The only possible worry a bear has is a pack of wolves or a mad moose. They are pretty mch the top of the food chain.

Who knows what we didn't see and why he didn't think he could run. Bou aren't exactly smart anyhow. You match a bear, very tough, against a caribou, not very tough, and you usually get the same result.

Yes Texas has some big mean hogs. Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana also have some massive, mean hogs. Many of those have been bred with a particularly large and aggressive Russian hogs. Some guy in Louisiana decided to bring these hogs over here several years ago to have a place to hunt them. Unfortunately they got out of his property and have now spread far and wide. This thread has now drifted, sorry. But if you are hunting or hiking in this part of the country protection from bear or hogs depending on the area, is a good idea. Out west it is bear or cougars that you might need protection from.

Well I also must admit that all of these things listed above is what makes me love to hunt potentially dangerous game as well. I have found here in the southeast, the best hunting for a nasty animal that is actually likely to come for you is hogs. I really like hunting wild hogs.

I can tell you this as well, you will have a hard time shooting a handgun with any sort of accuracy when a bear decides to head our way quickly. They will tell you it is best to hold your ground and it is the hardest thing in the world to have that sort of self control. In hunting bear you always position yourself to have the upper hand and have the bear not notice you. If they see you on open ground, you aren't hunting for them and they are within a hundred yards they have the upper hand. My most recent experience with a brown bear, I was looking through a scope with a 7mm Rem Mag. I felt under gunned. I was with a man who had hunted in this region his entire life. He had had many encounters with these animals as well as polar bear and very up close encounters with wolves. After the encounter was over I looked over at him. He was sweating and lit up a cigarette. It is about 20 degrees. He said you just never get used to it. He said it is always very difficult to guess the actions of a bear when she has cubs. He felt like he was fairly sure he knew what she would do, but could never be certain. And I have hunted quite a bit, including some very dangerous game. I never lost my cool, but I did feel the adrenaline dump after it was over. For the non hunter or the uninitiated it is even worse. They are far more likely to allow the adrenaline to overcome their control. One other thing I learned on that trip. A wolverine is a very nasty, vicious, mean mean animal. And they are very tough to put down.

All good and well to have a big handgun like that. However, we are not really talking about hunting bear here with pistols. We are talking about last ditched protection. If it came down to it, you might have one or two very fast shots. Quite possibly you would have to shoot a bear one handed. I challenge you to shoot a handgun like that quickly and probably from a very awkward angle. At the close range you would be shooting likely, you must have something you are very capable with one handed. All bear are fast, brown bear are exceptionally fast. They can cover 40 yards in a couple of seconds.

Yet? So you often have encounters with the mighty bear and have lived to tell the story?

Tapco or KVAR stocks are well made. The AK rear sight is for crap. You can do some reading up online of some mods you can possibly do yourself that gives it a better sight picture. The Ultimak rail works well especially for co-witness. I would shoot the rifle a bit and get used to the iron sights, then improve as you see fit. AK's are cheap enough to have one that that is stock and one that is fancied out a bit. I usually buy MAK's because they have excellent receivers. The best deals on those are non-compliant. So, being that I hate the bunghole stocks, I can change them less expensively with light plastic stocks or go with more expensive wood stocks. It is a toss up. I don't know how much I would mod a stock on a euro gun that has the wood on it already, but the plastic/nylon etc are lighter and pretty nice especially with an m4 style collapsible stock. Hey that stock is nothing like the original M16 stock either. Oh and they didn't have these nice new rails either. Designers usually agree that in time their work can be improved upon with new and better materials. If you like traditional, stick traditional. If you like them modded, go for it. It's your gun. Both will work well. I personally like both and think most original designers of their firearms would have taken advantage of potential improvement or mods for even more usages if it had been available. Who cares as long as it doesn't mess with the working integrity of the weapon. Like I said, I like both and have always thought the old style AK to be one of the neatest looking military weapons ever made. I also like some of the lighter materials and the opportunity to run the AK with improved sight pictures. The nice thing about the Ultimak is that you can always change it back. It isn't a permanent mod to a receiver which I would personally ever do. The AK comes is a wide variety of styles and many different types of stocks.

One should always weigh the realistic needs and purposes against the budget and the best available. There is no question the most well made AR's are a better product for several reasons than the mid-range and lower end products. There is a definite and very real difference in quality. On an AR the difference between crap and best is just a few hundred dollars, but then again that is a few hundred dollars. Less expensive for those with some mechanical aptitude. The highest end guns are certainly preferred by OPERATORS and SERIOUS GAMERS. This isn't 99.5% of the AR ownership group. Most AR owners shoot their gun at the range and maybe the occasional group shoot of some sort. They never really run their equipment hard and most never ever will use their equip in any combat situation. A very few train hard with their guns. So you end up with serious shooters, operators, and training enthusiasts and the very serious gamers commenting on their experiences with equipment. These experiences will follow patterns and certainly weed out the guns which tend to fail under intense punishment. This is read by others who never ever or nearly never run any gun they own hard and they mimic the serious shooters comments and thus is born that only some rifles are worthwhile and all the rest are crap. There are many good choices in mid-line AR's. They will suit the needs of the VAST majority of the AR ownership group. IF you do buy a mid-line AR which works well for you and then you get into serious shooting, buy a high quality BCG spare, make sure your proper points are staked and run the gun hard. The truth is that for nearly every mid-line AR, they are nearly all the same. Most use the same lower manufacturer. Most get their barrels from the same sources or use the same barrel equipment and steel.

6 of one, half a dozen of the other IMO. Go with whichever you can get the best deal on. They are both decent rifles as long as you don't pay too much. You might also look at Spike's. They are all decent mid-range AR's. Also added to the list of decent quality mid-range guns would be CMMG. The CMMG bargain bin guns are a very good quality gun for an affordable price.

This times 10. A lower end AR is in general fine for plinkers. If you plan to have a fighting gun or a gun you train with like a fighting gun, the lower end gun will almost always fail after being run hard for several occasions. There isn't a huge difference in price between near crap and very good gear, so save up and get the good gear.

Go with Mike's suggestion. On a fighting rifle like the AK, those things are crap. They break easily, are large and cumbersome and you will buy 2 or 3 before wearing out an inexpensive decent optic like the Primary Arms.

Handgun as in defensive shooting? Techniques etc.? Surgical Speed Shooting is a very good book for technique. Numerous good books on hunting and tons of good books with essentially just stories.

I liked the movies. I have always enjoyed watching them with the kids. I liked the books much more. As is usual, movies based on books, the books are usually better. I started reading them to my kids before they read. In the later books my daughter anyway was old enough to read them for herself. You can tell Rowling wrote them for an aging fan base as each book was a bit more complex and much darker than the previous. They have a great deal of real British history, folklore and mythology woven into them, especially the later books. And I agree they absolutely butchered a couple of the books in the movie that followed. Like with MAV it isn't my normal reading style. Growing up I always enjoyed CS Lewis, Chesterton, Tolkein, so I had to give these a chance. I will see this latest movie eventually, but won't be there on the first day like my wife and kids will be.

They made very nice revolvers. It probably would make sense to enter back into that market as revolvers sales have certainly made a come back.

I have just one thing on my list. And that begins tomorrow. I am sending my AK (actually it is a NHM91) off to Jim Fuller at Rifle Dynamics for a makeover. Cutting barrel down to 16", then making a true fight ready rifle out of it. I will get it back right around Christmas time with a new look and a few new parts. If I am lucky over Christmas week, I will run the heck out of it for a few days. I guess I do have one other gift on the way. A caribou mount I have been waiting for for over a year should be in my hands by around Christmas time. Outside of that my Christmas is giving gifts to the kids. I get more enjoyment from that than anything I get myself.

You will like it. Now go take a tactical course and learn how to really run that rifle.

Bear are extremely fast. You would never believe how fast they are for how big they are. If you do have a long gun and they charge you likely have one shot, IF your gun is already on them. in my case last year my rifle was on her the whole time. I watched her through my scope. I had one chance with the rifle if she had charged. If I missed or did not get a brain shot that stopped her immediately, then the rifle would have likely ended up as a bludgeon in one hand as the pistol came out in the other. Bear are worse on the attack that nearly any other north American animal. They have very slow heart beats. Because of this they are often walking dead. This occurs when they are dead on their feet, but it takes a minute or more at times before their body knows they are goners.

I carry a 357 mag revolver in country where there might be anything dangerous, whether it be bear or cougar or even hogs (maybe the meanest of the 3). For me I usually have that as a sidearm as most of my time in the back country is hunting not hiking. So usually I have a rifle as well. That said if I needed a pistol it would be because the animal was right on top of me. In the past I carried a 454 Casull. But in testing pulling the gun from awkward positions or on my back I found the gun difficult to control one handed and firing quickly. So I went back to the 357. That round will do its job, hopefully, from up close last chance range. I can tell you from experience as well, that no matter what you have in your hand or on your side, you will feel under-armed, especially with griz. I black bear hunted in May in Oregon and never had an issue with a bear getting the jump on me. I got the jump on him. However last year I did have an encounter with a very large griz and her two cubs. Mom stood up on me twice. She could have been on me in a couple of seconds. Fortunately for me she decided to run off in the other direction with her cubs, but it easily could have gone the other way. 2-3 minutes seemed like 20. I wasn't hunting bear on that trip, had no tag for one. So shooting her would have been only as a absolute last resort.

True. Very true.

I don't consider it bashing to tell someone that a particular manufacturer has had QC issues with their guns. Many manufacturers have issues with particular guns. That isn't to say Kimber makes junk. It isn't to say that the majority of the guns they produce have issues. I would say they have in recent years had an abnormal number of problems. That may be a result of trying to produce too many guns to meet demand or as a result of too many models. It is to say they have had QC issues which required sending the gun back. Kimber does stand behind their products and usually does so in a timely manner. It has been my experience that a good Kimber will run very well with no more issues any well made but new 1911. Usually when they have issues, it is right out of the box. Some of the problems with their Pro models seem to be as a result of stubbornness as relates to their recoil springs not being the weight and length Wolff recommended. The change in springs to the Wolff seems to fix this issue with people who have that problem. I am neither a fan nor a basher of Kimber. I have shot a number of their products and owned Kimber. I have a great deal of respect for what they have done. They CHANGED the industry. They made 1911's with custom features available at reasonable prices to a large segment of the gun buying population. Others followed suit. I remember very well when the only 1911 available was a base 1911. You then had to send off the gun to some gunsmith and have them customized at prices similar to what a semi-custom or quasi-custom costs even today. By the way even Ed Brown's and Wilson's and other quasi custom manufacturers have their issues. Hey I even know people who have custom made guns which have had issues. Such is the life of a 1911 owner. IMO this is most especially due to people's expectations of 1911's made today. They seem to want bullseye accuracy and carry dependability. First thing I see a lot of guys looking at 1911's say how tight is that slide to frame fit. If it rattles a bit they think Ugh, that isn't good for accuracy. WRONG! Slide to frame fit has little to do with accuracy, that is barrel lockup and bushing fit. I personally want a 1911 that is somewhat loose for excellent dependability. Then again my purpose in a 1911 is for carry, not for ultimate accuracy.

DW is made in the USA, if you call NY part of the USA .

Dan Wesson went under quite some time ago due to under capitalization. They did not make 1911's, but revolvers. They could not sustain the company when revolver sales dumped. They are now owned by CZ. CZ had the capital to rebuild the company with a new business model. They build an extremely good product. Truth be told they build a better quality 1911 than the typical Kimber. Kimber is very hit and miss. When you get a good one, they are very good. But, they have had their own QC problems. They make more 1911's than anyone else in the world. Statistically they will have higher real problems than anyone else. In reality they also statistically have a higher percentage of problems than many as well. DW makes less guns, to a higher standard, than does the average lower end Kimber. Kimber for some odd reason send out barrels in white,which have a bad tendency to rust for those who actually carry their guns a great deal. I am nt a naysayer on MIM parts, but Kimber uses a lot of them for a gun that costs what many of them do in comparison to the cost of those that are priced comparatively and have far fewer MIM parts. Oh and for your information, Kimber was broke at one point and sold the company to a better capitalized company itself, saving it from bankruptcy. So your comparison to DW was not a good one for numerous reasons. I will also note to the OP that some of the guns recommended are not commander 1911's, but shorter barreled hybrids. The Kimber Pro series guns along with SA and several other manufacturers decided several years ago to make their own version of a commander styled gun. Instead of the traditional 4.25" guns, the went with 4". After much testing and numerous failures they all discovered that the decrease of that .25" meant more than they thought in the function of the gun. They simply would not work reliably. They redesigned the slide to include a 4" bull barrel without a bushing and changed the takedown of the gun procedures. This means the gun requires a pin to take down the gun for cleaning. It took some time, but they do seem to have fixed the reliability of this design. Several quasi custom makers, such as Wilson, have their own version of this design as well. Not that it would make a huge decision for the OP, but he should know the differences. The 4" 1911 is not truly a 'commander' i the old Colt commander design. I have played around a bit with that design, but personally prefer the true commander design. I like the bushing. I dislike the pin needed for takedown and dislike the fact that a bushing can be replaced. Fit problems or wear and tear on the other design could potentially mean a new barrel or a new slide.