? for people from Alaska

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WayBeau

WayBeau

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A much removed family member is moving to Fairbanks in the very near future. Her new husband is in the Army and will be stationed there. This past weekend she made the comment, and was dead serious about it, that it's not safe to leave your house without some sort of firearm because of the likelihood of a bear encounter. :what:

So anyone from Alaska, do you and your entire family leave the house 'packing heat';) because of the bears up there? I did laugh out loud when I heard it, but I thought I'd ask around. I've never been to Fairbanks, or even Alaska, but this seems a little far fetched to me. OK, a lot far fetched.
 
A bit far-fetched. I've had several family members who've lived in both the Anchorage area (Airforce base) and Fairbanks (Ft. Greely) area.

You don't leave garbage lying around, you don't leave garbage dumpsters uncovered, and you don't go wandering out through the countryside w/o giving some consideration to the bears. However, after the freeze up in ~November, till thaw in late April-early May, the bears are a non-factor. Kinda like the mosquitos........Mostly just a very annoying pest.... seasonally.
 
After having lived 25 years in Alaska, i can say, you will get stomped by a moose by your house, quicker than you will get attacked by any bear...

"Packing heat" in Fairbanks means, you better dress warm in the winter!! ha ha ha

DM
 
After having lived 25 years in Alaska, i can say, you will get stomped by a moose by your house, quicker than you will get attacked by any bear...

"Packing heat" in Fairbanks means, you better dress warm in the winter!! ha ha ha

DM
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That's kind of what I was thinking.
 
I lived in Fairbanks for a while. I never ever saw a bear in town. I did run into a few drunken lunatics down on Cushman St though.
 
I've only visited Fairbanks, but I have a few friends in that general area, and they are anti-guns (I know, I know, how are we still friends...). They've never had a bear encounter. I think your friend might just be a little paranoid.
 
Haven't made it to Alaska yet, but most of my camping gear has. I've known several who have made fishing trips there, and one borrowed much of my gear for the trip. They tell me that open carry of large bore revolvers is much more common, even in larger towns, than you normally see in other places.
 
They tell me that open carry of large bore revolvers is much more common, even in larger towns, than you normally see in other places.
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I don't ever remember seeing anybody open carrying a large bore revolver in towns the size of Fairbanks or Anchorage. Not saying it isn't done just that not everybody or even that many folks are doing it.

Spend some actual time up there THEN come on back and post your first hand information. Big towns like Fairbanks aren't as wild and wooly as some lower 48 folks try to make them out as.
 
I live hundreds of miles from a City, and we have Bears all around.

Bears do not like people or noise, you will never find them near a city.

moose are adifferent sort. Pushy, bossy territorial, even in a downtown anchorage or FBX front yard. They fear no human, and love useing the roads as easy walk ways too, knowing cars and such will keep Bears off their babys. When I mined Gold inthe 80's we had several mom/calfs go to our pits and hang out, as Bears woulnt come around the eqipment.


In big citys hitting a Moose on the road with yer car is most likely, but do carry conceled, anyone can ("vermont CC laws" here) 'Cause of Human 'Bears" that will get ya........
 
Bears do not like people or noise, you will never find them near a city.
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Stranger, I live in Anchorage and we have Brownies come down along the creeks in the summer and I know a woman who lives off O'Malley Rd. who watched a bear take down a moose calf on her lawn.

That said, I've lived here 34 years and have not had a 'chance' encounter with a Brownie. I've surprised Blackies on garbage, but no Browns.

I'd say you'd be more likely attacked by a people than a bear stepping outside your door.
 
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"I live in Anchorage and we have Brownies come down along the creeks in the summer and I know a woman who lives off O'Mally Rd. who watched a bear take down a moose calf on her lawn."

Thats the first Brown Ive heard of doing such, and I have no doubt at all its true, especcially on the fringe of Anch, but its definitly the exception to the rule. Probly a few more that are not even reported, as they pass along.

My Mom amd Bro in Sitka a couple years back had Black Bears showing up on the fring of town ,it was a bad berry/salmon summer, attracted by the trash, but not in the city its self.

Ive never heard of a Brown entering a Village or town up this way, but a Black Bear at the dump isnt unusal.

Both places, and FBX has 'wilderness' as a close backyard.
 
We lived at the top of O'Malley Road in the mid 1960's. As a kid, I didn't realize how much we were in the boonies, just seemed like home to me. We had a lot of moose walking up and down the road and seeing them as we were waiting for the school bus was pretty common.

Never saw a bear in town even in those days and we lived in Alaska for 10 years altogether.

The only bear encounter I was personally involved with was outside of Fairbanks where a black bear entered our camp and took the days catch of rabbits. My dad put his in water, the other man hunting, did not. My dad kept his, the other did not, but the bear came up and brushed up against our umbrella tent. My dad shouted and I still remember waking up and seeing the profile of a bear standing up against the tent in the midnight sun. I was only 3 at the time, but I have always had the image my whole life. Perhaps that is where I get my own bear paranoia, but oh well, how many people have been 2 feet away from a bear in the wild with only a thin sheet of canvas between.

One of my friends that lived at the very top of the hill on O'Malley Road was mauled at the age of 14 by a grizzly. He fought off this bear with a walking stick and saved his friends life who got the worse end of the attack. Larry Kaniut wrote up this in one of his books in a chapter called slingshot bear. The first thing Mike did was shoot it with a slingshot. He happened by chance to get the walking stick and hit it on the head as hard as he could. That saved his life and his friends. Once again, he was only 14 at the time. Sadly, he died several years later off of Soldotna in a fishing accident when he was about 30. One of his younger brothers later was an Iditarod rookie of the year.

http://books.google.com/books?id=HH...ALch7WRDQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
Ive never heard of a Brown entering a Village or town up this way, but a Black Bear at the dump isnt unusal
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That's cause bears are smart and they know what'll happen if they enter a village. BANG! BANG! BANG!

That's against the LAW in Anchorage. When I was a kid it was "Shoot, shovel and shut up" and the bears stayed away.
 
.338-06 said:
That's cause bears are smart and they know what'll happen if they enter a village. BANG! BANG! BANG!

That's against the LAW in Anchorage. When I was a kid it was "Shoot, shovel and shut up" and the bears stayed away.
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Generally EVERYTHING is shot off anywhere near a village. My buddy was born/raised in a village, and he and his dad would have to go at least 10 miles up river to find a moose to shoot.

The villages i've been in/around, everything was shot off as soon as it poked it's nose out of the brush! I've personally seen this myself.

One time i saw the villagers get on a BLM track vechile, and proceeded to shoot off it, into the herd of caribou with 30-30's and .223's (mostly mini 14's) wounding several and dropping 7 or 8. They got the ones that dropped and wasn't too concerned with those that ran off, even though a couple looked gut shot to me. I could tell you many stories like that one!

I've seen brown bears in Kenai, Soldotna, close to Homer and have friends who have video of them in Anchorage. I took a pict of a brown bear looking into the window of a house i was in, just outside Kenai.

DM
 
Bears

I live outside of Sterling, AK, on the edge of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

In the 21 years I have lived here, I have had 4 bear encounters. Three in the woods and one on my front porch.

The three in the woods I was expecting to see a bear. On my front porch......Not so much.

I opened the door to go to work and a 9 ft brown bear was licking the floor of my arctic entry. I slammed the door, locked it and ran for the shotgun. I looked out the window to see the bear hightailing it for the woods. I slowly opened the door with the gun ready to go. Evidently I wasn't the only one with the excrement scared out of them because there was a pile of it on the steps. I went back in the house and changed my shorts and went to work.

Turns out my son had spilled some of his bear bait scent on the porch and didn't due the greatest job of cleaning it up.

I carry every day. Bears are not the only thing to worry about.
 
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The "Edge" of town is where the Wild starts.

AK is twice the size of Texas, there are, incidently MANY Villages, DM~, where were you?

Alaska is the size of Europe, and the word "Native' is on par with 'European', as there are many distinct tribes/nations here, and like Europe, Germans are NOT French, who are not Polish, ect......

Here, Moose come into town, we dont have to go a mile before weve seen 10, easily, but the catch to that is that 99% of Inupiaq Eskimo (a distincely differing tribe than Y'upik to the south or ChukChi on the Siberian side), do not hunt Moose. Caribou is far too plentyfull, and usefull hides, antler, bones, meat. Moose are kinda 'reserved' for when th emigration doesnt come through this way.
I wish the gov would let us drive tracked vehicles, especcially theirs :D......and the Caribou not run off when a motor approches, they must have some dumb Caribou to be in 30-30, .223 range and the vehivcle running.........what happend when you turned them in? Im sure you diidnt cover for 'em......folks here would put a stop to wasting resources pretty quick.

Did it happen? Im sure it did, especcially with young guys who have no guidence.

Is it common, No.

Folks here wont let others waste what they rely on.

I live in a village, and I took this little vid about 200 yards from my house, at the edge of town just last evening, about 11Pm carrying back a pack full of Rabbits............also shows what happens when i try a fellas rifle for the first time ~~LOL!!~~
klik it, its a vid.

th_Rabbits7.jpg
 
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funny, i have that same image except with a bison while camping in yellowstone when i was 5. and the it was more like 6 am for us
 
I lived in the Goldstream valley up Fairbanks way for 17 years, I saw Gizzlies once or twice each season, but never in Fairbanks. A much bigger problem in both Fairbanks & Anchorage, happens to be Moose. I had no running water, I lived right on the river, and had a privy. I got caught once between a cow & her calf during a privy run, it's not as funny as it sounds, at least it wasn't at the time.

Another area of genuine concern in Fairbanks(not so much in Anchorage)when I lived in the Goldstream, were roving packs of basically, feral dogs! More then a few Fairbanksans have been the victim of these roving packs of dogs, I recall a half dozen deaths or so.
 
My Fatherinlaw called Ferral Dogs "The Ultimate disaster" and in days of old if a team got away from a man and went ferral, unlike Woves, they had no fear what so ever of Men, and new the trails to various camps and would raid and eat everything there, then move on.

Theres no Old Old eskimo Storys about Wolf attacks, none at all, but Children being torn apart and eaten or women out working or Folks traveling on foot and being overtaken on the trail for no better outcome, by a pack of ferral dogs is a common theme.....Rabid Fox, Wolf and Dogs were problems as well, and still are, even today.

In this Arctic Village we shoot any loose dog right in town, no questions asked and a 40$ check from the City Office apon showing the City Clerk.

I think both Anch and Fbx had alotta stray dogs, Ive seen quite a few whle in Town, come to think of it.
 
Ive been working in Juneau Seasonally for the past 4 years. Ive had a couple encounters with black bears. One i woke up at 4am to work, and padded to the kitchen and got some milk. i felt eyes on me and looked through my window to see a black bear pressed up against it staring at me!


I grabbed my girlfriends 357 and went to work. Wasnt sure if it was window shopping or not :p
 
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