With the rifle finished and spring bear season in full swing, it seemed sensible to bring the rifle into the field and see if I could connect on a bear with it. First I would need to spend some time with it on the range. I was curious to see...
Moose (Alces alces) are an important game animal in BC. They are found from the US border to the Yukon and absent only from the mainland coast and the coastal islands. In central BC the forested plateaus, studded with lakes and ponds, have held some of the highest moose densities...
It was finally time in this project to start assembling the rifle once again. All the work up to this point was basically dis-assembly. With the correct thread pitch of the receiver checked multiple times, and the blank checked for trueness, the barrel blank was chucked up in the...
BC Outdoors, with its history of change, is changing once again. This time back to its roots, back to what made this magazine the most read outdoor magazine in the west. With our new ownership, and the creation of Outdoor Group Media, we have put the fishing magazine and hunting magazine back together, back where it belongs, in one big magazine.
...I began to wonder what the reaction gap is for a typical rifle toting hunter attacked by a bear. Like a police officer confronted with an offender armed with an edged weapon, at what point is it necessary to shoot, because if suddenly charged, you're too far behind the reaction curve to launch a meaningful defence? Since I had no idea, I determined to find out.
With all the needed components on hand to get this rifle project started, it was just a matter of aligning a few schedules and getting it into the machine shop to get this build going...
What the devil happened, I wondered? Two good shoots, either one of which should have anchored the elk, yet it was gone! Let’s examine what a hunter should do to ensure similar situations end positively - regarding the art and science on tracking wounded big game animals. It’s only a matter of time before every hunter has to own up to this eventuality-it happens to even the best of marksmen.
British Columbia’s resident hunters are in the fight of their lives. December 2014 saw the BC government award guide-outfitters a share of wildlife that is unprecedented across North America, given resident hunter demand. While most jurisdictions give 5-10% of hunting opportunities to non-residents, BC now gives non-resident hunters, or more importantly guide-outfitters who have exclusive rights to guide non-residents,
This article appears in the current issue of BC Outdoors. Unfortunately the last two lines were cut off; here is the article in its entirety.