What Caliber For A Wolf Pack?

[ZeSpectre]

Well, not Alaska but rural upstate NY
Not wolves, but a pack of feral dogs (one of which was rabid).

Remington 7600 (magazine fed, pump action, .243) worked well enough (Thank God!)

Sure wouldn't have minded a 15-20 round mag though, fumbling in the 2'nd 4 rounder mag under those conditions was like trying to thread a needle while wearing welding gloves and riding a horse!

 

[Cougfan2]

Maybe an oversized bicycle basket on the front for hauling around the moose.

A moose once bit my sister! Maybe duct tape some steel plates to your back to shield your vital organs and oh yes, the special ninja boots to walk up trees and escape.

 

[BlindJustice]

The wolf was re-introduced into Idaho
and after several years of lousy Elk hunting
for hunters, as well as wolf problems with
ranchers they will be taken off the endangered
list in Idaho - Idaho Fish & Game will now manage
them which I take to mean hunting season on
wolves in the Gem State.

Only thing in my foot locker at present is a
Marlin 1894 in .45 Colt w/10 rd capacitiy tubular
magazine. And a 1911 because it's the one
I shoot best, 5" Bbl. Len. .45 ACP or .400 CorBon.

 

[Richmond]

wolf pack

If I was thinking long gun, it would probably be my Mossy 500 with the ATI stock, etc. Short, light, extended mag, etc.

We rarely see a wolf where I am - the nearest established pack is over 50 miles and across the Mississippi, so the river has to freeze before the young, roaming males cross this way. That said, about 10 years ago, while on stand deer hunting in the State park about 12 miles from my home, in very deep snow, I had a young male wolf come within about 25 feet of me - truly a beautiful sighting. As soon as he became aware of me, however, he was gone fast.

My thoughts are based on the risk I do prepare for - coyotes. I hike/snowshoe daily, and both areas I go in, one right out my door, the other a wilderness park about 5 miles away, have well established packs. Winter means dark, and I am usually out in the deep woods late at night on snowshoes with two labradors. The yotes in this area can be robust - either because they eat so well or because of rumored domestic dog interbreeding, so there are some 50-60 pound critters. The labs stick together, and two large males is not the typical prey for yotes. Still, occasionally the yotes have followed us, and one will come in to try to lure a dog in. My guys are wise to that - they come together and return to me on alert.

I went with my Glock 17 with 147g Hydroshock. I use a rail mounted M6 laser/light combo. I carry with the 17 round clip and carry a spare standard mag as well as the 31 round extended mag in the fast access weapons compartment of my camelback Demon concealed carry pack. my thoughts - fast, easy to carry, total of 65 rounds easily accessible of a reasonable round at close range for a 50-60 lb. canine.

How do you plan to carry the SKS on the mountain bike - on your person or attached to the bike?

 

[Joshua C]

I think that a properly timed frag grenade would work

 

[Cosmoline]

no reliable evidence of cannibals eating missionaries.

Which brings up another question on my mind. What sauce for missionary?

 

[MakAttak]

Sauce? don't put sauce on him, he's a Friar...

 

[RLsnow]

G3!!! cus its HK

 

[Joe Gunns]

Roswell 1847 beat me to it. One can only claim lack of documented wolf attacks by disregarding pioneer and colonial accounts as tall tales. My personal favorite was double Medal of Honor winner Frank D. Baldwin's encounter. One late winter evening he was chased from one outpost to another along the Smoky Hill River by prairie wolves. Said that at first when he shot one, the others would fall on it and he could gain some distance, but they would soon catch up and be harassing his horse again. He managed to keep them from hamstringing his mount and made it to safety without any ammo left. This is recounted in Gen'l Nelson Miles PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. The encounter took place around the time when the last of the buffalo herds had been hunted out. Perhaps the collapse of the buffalo population over a period of four years for the Southern herd and three years for the Northern herd led to starvation among the big prairie packs making them bolder.

As to the best firearm for dealing with wolf packs, I remember an old Remington ad from the twenties for the Model 8 autoloader showing a snowshoe clad sourdough backed up against a tree and wielding his Remington against the wolves coming into the firelight. I'm partial to the .35 in the Model 8. Although if I were potentially betting my life on an autoloader I would want a modern military design.

 

[James T Thomas]

wolf tactics

Cosmo:

I have not encountered wolves as you have, but itsn't there a "OODA" loop behavior to their predation? What I'm implying is this.

If you shoot the first one that appears; reconnaisance for the pack.
Will not the pack slink away from a creature that can decimate their numbers on to a more docile creature? That is shooting the first few targets of opportunity. I would not delay in killing the first seen, nor wait for the pack to organize and close in.

If I'm correct on this presumption , then even a good bolt action sporter would suffice. That 6.5 x 55 round may be a good universal round for where you live. Both wolves and the large members of the deer family.

 

[TallPine]

It's not so much "what caliber" as it is what gun will you carry every time you go outside, and can you use it effectively?

Some of these stories are pretty close to home for me, as 30 years ago I lived in the Chugiak area. I wonder about joggers and xc skiers in the woods behind the high school ???

 

[macFarlaine]

An M4 Leica camera would be my choice.

 

[Tokugawa]

cosmo, you somewhere ya gotta worry about where the stray rounds fall? Maybe a shotgun would be best. Me, I would pick an auto 12, cylinder bore with #4 buck. IIRC, that should make a nice dense pattern about 15- 20 inches at forty yards. Put a slug in the pipe first up, just in case you get a stationary shot. I would rather gamble a wolf will not want to stick around after a few #4 holes in it, rather than my ability to hit a fast moving target with a rifle. 15 inches means you can miss by 7" and still get half a pattern in the target.

 

[Rob62]

I lived in Alaska for a couple of years in the late 80's.

When I was there I had one experience with Wolves. That was when hunting off of the Taylor Highway near Chicken, AK. We saw a lone wolf while hunting Caribou, Wolves being in season at that time we shot at and missed it.

Having said that I am going to go out on a limb and recommend something along the lines of a good semi automatic pistol in a .40 S&W. With the gun worn on a belt, or IMO a much better choice chest holster. The main advantage to this type of a defensive weapon is that it will be with you at all times. Quite frankly me carrying a long gun when not hunting is a PITA. Will you have it with you at all times - even those times when you have to get up in the middle of the night and use the bathroom?

Carrying a pistol in a chest or shoulder holster keeps your hands free and insures that you don't inadvertently put the gun down when you might really need it - something to think about.

If you gotta go with a long gun and you already own an SKS you can’t do much better than that.

Regards,
Rob

 

[Radagast]

21 inch Mark 48 ADCAP.

 

[Funderb]

if you want to be totally BA you should bring a mosin with some stripper clips.
If the wolf hides behind a tree, shoot through it.
Wolves are smart, so if there is a pack of five, and you shoot 2-3, the rest will leave you alone. Take them out from farther away with a mosin.
Or you can just go with an sks, but I tend to find in these situations, a slow magazine with 5 hits is better than a fast mag of 10 with no hits. You probably will end up OK though. I doubt they will seek you out.
Just keep a sharp eye and a steady hand.

 

[SaxonPig]

Wolf attacks are very, very, very rare. Almost unheard of, in fact.

And canines do not hunt humans. The only land animals that hunt and eat humans are big bears and big cats. Any attack by a wolf would most likely be a sick animal or one that felt threatened for some reason, like you got between a mother and her pups. The notion of a pack hunting a human is probably fantasy.

 

[Colt46]

sounds like perfect validation for my 1892 lever Puma

ten rounds of .45 colt ought to be way more than enough to kill off or drive off a pack of wolves.

What's the political climate about wolves in AK?
A guy named Sundles got embroiled in a controversy a few years ago over shooting a wolf or two coming after him and his string of pack animals in the lower 48
It seems he failed to notify the proper authorities within 24 hrs of the shooting like the law required. The fact that he was a week's deep into the wilderness didn't seem to change their positiion much.
Not sure it has even been resolved yet.

 

[Diggers]

Humm, seems I was wrong about wolves attacking people. Weird...first time for everything I guess.

Truly, I had never heard of a wolf preying on a human. Bears yep, Mountain Lions yep (that has happened only about 1 hour from my house here in San Diego) but not wolves.

Other than that one case, (http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/wolves/story/9514718p-9424671c.html) where there was some debate over if it was bear or wolf that did the actual killing, I could not find anything that is well documented about wolves killing people, which is interesting as well as kind of odd.

About wolves going after dogs when people are with them, that actually has been documented. A friend of mine lived in Wyoming for a while and a friend of hers lost a dog to a wolf while she was walking it. Which BTY, is reason enough to have a gun with you in my opinion.

There is other documentation of wolves taking dogs while people are near, in the link at the bottom.

The link is to a report for all of Canada and Alaska from the 60's to 2002 of human vs wolf incidences. Seems like pretty good info. As to be expected with most wildlife vs human situations, in the vast majority of cases the wolves had been fed by people or the wolves have learned that people have interesting things with them that wolves like to eat or play with. Very few if any of the documented incidences were that of a wolf actually treating a human as prey.


http://www.wildlife.alaska.gov/pubs/techpubs/research_pdfs/techb13_full.pdf

 

[stevereno1]

to hunt them i'd suggest a bolt action rifle. for unexpected encounters, i'd recommend what ever you carry, and some back up mags, speed loaders, etc...

 

[230RN]

Seems to me the sights on an SKS are too fine and kind of lousy for fast shooting.

They're fine for high noon on a black bull with the target northward.

I was thinking of changing mine out with a wider front post and a wider rear sight groove.

Thoughts?

 

[Zoogster]

A powerful sidearm will be more help than the proper long arm.
The long arm helps if you see them first, offering you many benefits over a sidearm.
However if you are attacked by surprise, or find yourself on the ground with wolves closing in then the long arm, harder to maneuver around close proximity animals will be less useful.

If they are as sneaky to you as you believe, then you would probably be defending yourself after being surprised.

Wolves have preyed on people numerous times in history, the larger spcies have just been limited in numbers or extinct most places since accurate records started being kept. They prefer easy animals like livestock that people keep. However anything that can take down a moose on a regular basis is going to take you down much easier if they put thier mind to it.
Wolves are intelligent and usualy avoid humans. However take the "records show wolves are not a threat" type rhetoric from those who want to see them reestablished and thriving in the wild with as a suggestion, not a fact.

Something being dangerous is not a reason for it to not exist, but to many people it is. So the argument tends to illogicly become "they are not dangerous" in thier defense.
All you need to do is look to countries where the weather is warm (so people and children are casualy outdoors more often) and wild wolf populations are healthy and abundant.
Natives have thier children taken from villages regularly enough.
Some animals have even been known to seek revenge on humans for wrongs against them or thier loved ones. Wolves, some whales, elephants and tigers have become active manhunters in documented instances after being the victim of a human attack against themselves or thier offspring. Going from never posing a threat, to being documented in several attacks after the incident.

 

[cassandrasdaddy]

folks vanish in the woods all the time hard to say whether they get hunted and eaten when you don't find em. worked with hybrids and we had one full wolf he was a force of nature. smarter than most of the fools that wanted pups. one genius snuck his pitbull female in after dark thought he would breed her. thor ate her guy was at least smart enough not to intervene. when my boss gave up on the buisness i declined a chance for any of the dog mixes. don't have resources to care for em right

 

[Cosmoline]

Seems to me the sights on an SKS are too fine and kind of lousy for fast shooting.

They are terrible. I swapped mine out for a rear aperture style, but it's not been sighted in yet.

Sidearms are fine backup, but I don't put much faith in them as a primary weapon. Outside the range I can't hit bo diddly with them most of the time.

 

[AntiqueCollector]

Flame thrower. Maybe hand grenades.

I bet an SKS or AK would work just fine though if you have good sights.