Life Below Zero

I was eating caribou stew while watching tonight's episode and got a surprise.

A pilot - Bob - made an unexpected mail delivery to Sue.

The caribou in my stew - as well as me - flew with Bob in that plane.

Small world.

Im trying to learn a bit about shotgun loads. Im not sure if this was a rerun, or new, but today in the episode I saw, a man and woman (and their child I believe) were in a boat hunting seal. I presume they were using a shotgun to do so.

What type of ammo were they most likely using? (I mean - Buckshot, slugs, #6 shot, yada yada, I dont know my shotgun ammo terminology, but which was most likely..?)

That was Agnes and 2 of her children. Maybe Chip will chime in here but I would probably use a #4 buck or something similar. Birdshot would be a bit light I would assume.

thx. It appeared it was hitting the water right before impact. Seems like that would kill the velocity. Maybe thats the lower half of the "spread" of bb hitting the water. Or maybe the bb doesnt have far to travel in the water before hitting the seal.

If it hits the water it loses velocity really fast. I think we are seeing the lower half of the spread. Actually the seal she harvested was with a 10/22. She did hit one with the SG but lost it. If they don't harpoon it right away they can sink. An unfortunate reality with hunting.

Eric targets a Wolf at 1000 yds with an AR10 but in next shot has a bolt action long gun. At that range you're basically lobbing rocks with an AR of anykind, and his is not anything special. PRODUCERS TAKE NOTE, pay attention to the gun when you're piecing together a scene.

Was surprised to see Sue profiled in the last addition of the Alaska Mag. Says she actually has a working knowledge of something like 7 languages and studies a different quantum physics problem each winter. Sounds like there is more to Sue than the producers want us to see. This is a little more insight into how she spends her time during the long dark season.

I just don't enjoy watching him shoot wolves. they look too much like dogs. My dog won't watch it anymore. I get killing for food, but not the money. And I hate Trapping animals, kind of liked watching the kid get his hand caught in the trap. it's one thing to kill them instantly, and another to break a leg and die in pain over days.
The way the kid holds that AR, he's not making 1000 yard shots. Sue is just a weird duck, that Bear incident messed her up and affects everything she does. I am sure she has a working knowledge of many things,probablly has a genius IQ, she would have to, to survive out there.
I personally don't understand the thrill of it all, it just appears like way to much work to just get by. There has to be a psychological profile on people who can't be around others for any but a limited time, I don't get the entire thing. There is nothing about it I find attractive other than watching it on my TV with a bowl of popcorn.
You need to be born into it, I can't see how anyone from a normal family would live like that. You don't see any normal good looking woman up there, or down there, that alone is a deal breaker.

LOL Gym, Interesting post. It does look like some hard work.

Says she actually has a working knowledge of something like 7 languages and studies a different quantum physics problem each winter.

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I just have a lot of trouble believing that. (not that it really matters)

Much like Swamp People, if you watch closely you can see obviously pieced-together segments from more than one setting or outing.

Last episode watched I saw a shotgun, a .22 semi & a Mosin all being supposedly used on the same seal on the same boating hunt.
The way the scenes were spliced, it kept switching around.

On Swamp people, it was fun to watch several episodes where Troy Landry's boat had glass in its window in one scene, gone the next, back the next, gone again the next.

Producers there dress main cast members in the same clothes from week to week so scenes can be spliced from many different locations & gators.
You watch that one, you see a character lining up with one .22 rifle during hot & heavy action, next scene will show same character actually shoot supposedly the same gator with a different rifle.
More than once they've even reversed the footage to show a "different" angle, with the rifle suddenly becoming a left-handed version.

I think there's less shenanigans of this type on the Alaskan show, but producers & editors obviously fiddle with footage to some degree.
Denis

The shots Sue took looked real close to me, even when taken from above. It seems like a lot of editing goes on in these shows. I can't understand how anyone can live in a house the size of my bathroom, and have no social contact other than skinning a beaver in their living room. I don't care how much of an outdoorsman you are. No woman, is a non starter for me right there. No social life at all, just worrying about being eaten and chopping enough wood to not freeze, boy that's living, can't get enough of it, wouldn't live anywhere or any way other than that.
Ever think that most of these folks don't fit in with normal society? maybe they are a little off? A young man who never dates a girl, or drives a car, never has a jack daniels, No tv to pass what must be an eternity with little to do but survive, and worry about getting eaten. Especially when it gets dark for 6 months, no phone, or friends, no football. I can't wait to leave my beautiful beaches full of bikini laden ladies drinking margaritas, driving BMW's and go freeze my butt off in the middle of noware.I know someone is going to flame me but honestly prison looks more comfortable. It's interesting to watch on tv as I mentioned but I wonder how much is real and how much is put on. Does anyone ever show up at that hunting camp, 20 thousand gallons of Gasoline, that has to be in the 6 figure range just for the gas. How much do people pay to stay at the camp? The other supplies including operating costs, look like it's over a half million a year just to keep it open, how does that translate into business?
Maybe I just haven't been following the show enough, but it does seem like they are struggling just to stay alive to me, which is a heck of a way to live.
I get the outdoors thing, like a cabin in Montana, and the hunting, that would be great, but they all seem to be living in fear, or at least being portrayed to be. that is the way they represent it, and we know they are staging a good deal of it for the viewing public. And it's the same thing every episode, Sue and the bears, Eric and the pelts, Agnes and the Rifle. Sue and her Husband?, building some new Tom swift machine, now the new guy who in a few months has become Grizzley Adams, they have given them a specific role to play, we aren't really seeing the day to day lives, just the players in a play.
the kids look normal and dress normal, which leads me to believe that most of this is staged. Sooner or later the truth will come out as it always does, after all it's TV.
There is more than meets the eye here. Does anyone really want to live like that, if so I must have missed something, my Ac was up to 72 before and I was complaining.

It's probably good you don't have to live there, I don't think you'd be very happy. It seems to work for some people, they are obviously different sorts of folks, and enjoy the outdoors as few do.

gym-All you've established here is you know nothing about bush living and are way too horny and spend all your time looking for chicks.

I will just pick one of your city guy ignorant remarks-why shoot a wolf?
[A] They can decimate a caribou herd. I have seen estimates that in some areas as much as 70% of the caribou/moose calfs are taken by wolves. Don't believe me? Ask ADFG. Recently after years of it being illegal, they now allow same day airborne shooting of wolves in a effort to get moose/caribou populations up to huntable levels.

Last I looked wolf pelts where bringing $400 apiece. Enough for me to pull the trigger.

So good luck at the beach with the babes. Just don't bring your ideas to Alaska. They won't be welcome here.

Jim

You hit the nail on the head about the wolves. I am sure that any one actually living with the wolves would send GYM one for a pet. If these city people think a pit bull is bad, I wonder what they would think about a pack of hungry wolves wandering the streets.

Gym When did Sue get a husband? Shows that you have not watched the program to any extent.

As far as Eric goes he can drive to Fair banks when ever he wants to. He lives the life he choses just like you live your bikini chasing life. Why ridicule him as I am sure that he would not ridicule you for your choice of life style.

The population of animals he chooses to hunt or trap are not endangered by what he does. They actually need to be controlled to protect them for over population.

Gym - Wow! Must have been a fullfilling day on the beach. Can't imagine living like that? No traffic to fight, no water restrictions, no one telling you what mail box you can have, Can't own / buy that gun, taxes going up to fund a turtle crossing, how about those annual birthdays [seems to take a year to get another]?

Don't think the show is about trying to entice folks like you to join the "below zero" lifestyle. But it does seem to play to the imagination of many who live there lives in the asphalt jungle of America, those who's excitement in life has revolved around that 2 week vacation to the lake or the beach.

If you haven't given it some thought or at some point in your life haven't leaned back and wondered what might have been, then by all means discount the lives of the characters on this show and go back to the NBA finals or Desperate Housewives. Wait, sorry if that sounds judgemental. Hmm, that's how I read your post. So in the end, guess my point is if you don't like the show, the lifestyle it portrays, or the way other folks face the challenges in their lives; then by all means don't watch it. You've probably noticed by my posts, that I watch the show, like the show, and am critical of many of the things that the producers choose to edit into the episodes. I have also visited the Great state of Alaska and instantly fell in love with the place. There you don't drive out of a city like Anchorage and spend the day in a state park or at the beach, you drive 30 or 40 miles and you are in the bush. They have dozens of Grizzlies inside the city limits. Wife and I are currently planning our next adventure to the wilds of Alaska and our 2 or 3 weeks of dipping our toes into the lives that the people up there experience every day.

Ever think that most of these folks don't fit in with normal society?

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That's always been true of the frontier, unfortunately for the misfits after they settle the wilderness the rest of society thinks they need to be there also so the cycle repeats.

What I like about this show is they don't try to pass itself off as survivalism fantasy, these folks freely admit that even though they hunt for food they still need cash, they still need things from society. It's not feeding the immature fantasy about living in the woods with just a .22rifle and a knife.

I watch it because of Chip (Caribou) and Agnes. I admire their values. I don't like the others, especially Sue. Then again I pick my friends carefully.
Would I move there, NO.
I left a northern city 25 yrs ago when I retired for the snow less south. I can go to the beach, hunt the hills, fish the rivers, all years long. It suits me fine. My little piece of dirt is my ideal life just as the people in the show think theirs is ideal. God bless them. Everybody needs to find their shady tree and karmic center.

They have dozens of Grizzlies inside the city limits.

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They sure do. Took this photo from my front yard last summer.






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^^That is NUTZ

I guess you cant just let your children run amok outside the house in Alaska, eh?

Might be Grizzly breakfast.

Can folks up there not leave the house without bear spray or a (big) firearm? I know I wouldnt.

potatohead - Went commando on our first visit to Ak [No firearm] That was in 08 and there were several Bear attacks while we were there or in the next couple of weeks. A couple in places we had visited. Followup visits included protection other than rolling up in a ball and playing dead. Never had to use it [thankfully] but yes it was on my belt whenever I left the motorhome. The CG host at a campground we visited near Cooper River sent us a photo of a Griz sitting on our picnic table the day after we moved on. Not fooling myself that I could or would even want to live the lives profiled on the show, but I can sure enjoy when they mention or include a location we have driven thru.

Interesting you would say that about the children potato. If I turned 45 degrees to my left when I took that brown bear photo I would be looking at the school playground just across the street. Full of kids at the time. Good thing none of them saw it [the bear] because from what I've seen kids treat bears like big fuzzy dogs-they want to run up and pet them.

Some one called in and first response is a city cop. Bears long gone. Of course I rush up to look at the rifle he's pulling out. A AR 15 variant. S&W model. It's plain he really wants nothing to do with going after a bear with that gun and keeps looking down the road hoping for F&G to show up.

So they do. 4 of them. All bust out ready to go guns in hand. Well After some small talk "bears gone but I think he may come back" I get to what I really care about-"so whats that gun you got?" Remember these people shoot lots of bears in urban settings so I was curious to see what they use.

Well all of them had Rem 870's rifled barrels open sights shooting Bernakke[sp] slugs.

Well they [F&G] hung around for a hour and the grizz never showed up [much to my disappointment]

Not one minute after they left though this guy did. All in all a very entertaining afternoon.

Any of you guys think sue ain't one tough lady read on her instead of just flapping your key board - She is way more than likely waaay tougher than the guys here.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/...ow-zero-20130529_1_pork-chop-chicago-palatine

http://www.kavikrivercamp.com/

It's funny to see how people react when you don't agree with them, I haven't been to the beach more that 5 times in ten years Bass, I am happily married with a "normal social life" in my 60's. I just think the show is staged for effect, otherwise no one would watch it.
But I spent my time building 6 businesses from nothing so I could enjoy whatever I chose to. I never said Sue was Married either, it's amazing to see how bitter people get when you don't see things their way.
Also I would have taken that wolf, if it were a pup, 20-30 yrs ago, I had one when we had a place I Fleishmans NY.
Just because someone doesn't like a thing doesn't mean they don't know anything about it. I just think that it's put on. A challenge is something you have to overcome, not something you manufacture in order to make a TV show out of. All of these folks chose this way of life, they weren't forced into it, so don't tell me that they are some kind of folk hero's when someone else hit it on the head, society's misfits'. They are not "normal" according to what todays society demands and allows, they have manufactured a state of extreme loneliness and despair, which is quite abnormal, for your viewing pleasure. And I am sure there are some very interesting backstories as to how each of them got there. Why anyone would want to be in the loneliest part of the world, is just irrational to most people, if you enjoy living like that then I urge you to follow your dream. I am sure that from a psychological point of reference there is a condition of some sort that produces this urge, it's mans nature to be with their peers, not alone 500 miles from civilization. There is another show about a guy Nick Dodge, a Wildman who left the city 5 years ago to live in the trees. Another series of a similar nature you may enjoy if you like this sort of thing.
Nick lives inside of trees, you may enjoy that one as well.

Gym.... I don't think anyone has an issue with you disagreeing. I think it's about the perceived tone of your disagreement. You don't like it, and we get it. I can even appreciate it. You obviously feel you've done more with your life then the people on the show, so good for you. Some people are OK with living on their own, in a difficult situation. Some people need the reassurance of others that they have succeeded. I'm assuming you're in the latter group.

SFreed if you look at the comments mad after my initial response, you will see the reason for the second, I didn't insult my fellow forum members. But I sure won't allow remarks initiated against myself to go unanswered. It's popular to run with the bulls here, but don't have a different opinion or you will be insulted. Like the guy who called me horney and a couple more, I must have hit a nerve. It's unfortunate that adults have to resort to name calling and actually think that it helps their point.
It's a TV show, scripted and take after take to make it entertaining, it's not a documentary, it's entertainment.

gym said:

SFreed ............... It's a TV show, scripted and take after take to make it entertaining, it's not a documentary, it's entertainment.

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And on that I agree 100%