OCing in the last frontier.

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I am an alaska state res. and LOVE IT. the weather is perfict for me and I hardly wear a coat. I own two of my own businesses one is snow removal I plow and remove snow from commercial lots as well as a few residential lots. the other is sightseeing, of which I own and sometimes operate a vessel that takes up to 12 ppl on 1-9day trips where we see glaciers and wildlife all threw out prince william sound.
In the summer between late june and mid sept. I run a commercial fishing vessel out of S.E alaska.

When In anchorage where I live in the winter, I OC everyware( I fing CCing is a PITA) and have never gotten a negative response to my choice by people other then those that think ccing is all there is and that ocing is redicules and recless. to which I respond " Its legall to do so why hid it like a criminal, by ccing you are saying that you are shamed[shy] about your dicisson to arm yourself) they usually get all mad and stuff after that but I usually walk away, tho I have made a friend from that remark and we carry and go shooting all the time, he has even started to oc now and then.

the folks in alaska are mostly accustomed to Ocing and rarely will you run into problems. Just remember If you are nice they will be nice. atleast that has been my experiance.

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murphyslaw wrote:

In the summer between late june and mid sept. I run a commercial fishing vessel out of S.E alaska.

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I love the show on the discovery channel about the crab fishermen in Alaska. My wife refuses to watch it though. Does not want to know where the crab legs she loves actually come from.

Deadliest Catch I think it is. I highly recommend watching it. These guys are near to insane if you ask me. Serious brass ones.

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Yeah I know most those guys, the sig's grew up next door to my uncle. I did some crabbing it was fun and all but Im not much for getting wet. So I switched to running my own boat for salmon. I love bad weather as long as I dont have to get wet, I always say "if the boat can take it bring it on". this fall while coming back acrost the gulf from ketchican I ran in 11' seas with 75mph gust for three days, I was the only one that didnt get sick and my crew has been with me for the last 4yrs(this season will make 5yrs) BTW I am running a 58' delta its powered by a cummins 343(first million mile motor cummins made) when at full cruse I burn 6.7gph. it has a 14' draft(amount of boat under water). Its like a weeble you know weebles wabble but they dont fall down tho there have been a few times I was kinda scared myself. Last summer I cought 1.2million pounds of salmon, after expenses the boat had 87k in profit.(after fuel groceries wages and such). its good money for 7weeks of work. and I dont have to get wet(im captain).

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Murphy, thanks for the comments on open carrying in Anchorage. I am moving there in less than a month and I have been wondering how it was percieved in town. Are there many posted places these days? I have heard that most of the malls and several stores are posted.



Can't wait to get there, lived there for sixteen years and miss it badly.

I hope to hear many more of your experiences on this forum and I'll be sure to post mine as well.



Cheers

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the malls are posted, not to many stores, to be honest I dont go to the mall so I dont care and If I see a sign i either ignore it or take my funds elseware.

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I just moved to Fairbanks a little over a month ago (month and a half?), and love it there (it's "there" because I'm in Georgia right now for another 5 days or so).

murphyslaw, what do you carry?

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Fairbanks!! You are a hearty soul. ....

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I have a buncha family in fairbanks my uncle lives right on the river acrosst from this place that has a big water cannon that shoots water halfway acrossed the chena. I couldnt live there its to hot in the summer. I like the cold.

and I carry springfield xd45 acp service.

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VAopencarry wrote:

Fairbanks!! You are a hearty soul. ....

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So far I'm loving it.

We'll see what I say after the first winter, but I love the outdoors and Alaska is full of that!

Oh, and the laws etc actually make sense.

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yeah all the laws in alaska are for the most part upfront and easy to figure out, its mostly common since stuff.

winters are ok usually average like 30 below. but the summers are 80's all the time thats to hot for me anything above 70 and im sweating my as$ off. good luck in fairbanks. you up there in the service? must be if your coming from georgia.

do you offroad or anything like that?

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murphyslaw wrote:

yeah all the laws in alaska are for the most part upfront and easy to figure out, its mostly common since stuff.

winters are ok usually average like 30 below. but the summers are 80's all the time thats to hot for me anything above 70 and im sweating my as$ off. good luck in fairbanks. you up there in the service? must be if your coming from georgia.

do you offroad or anything like that?

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Right now in Georgia it gets to near 100 degrees with probobly 90% or higher humidity. Miserable. 80 or 90 degree summers with low humidity will be paradise for me. It's been above 95 each time I looked at the thermometer for the past week.

I'm a pilot just starting out with an airline up there. I like open spaces and the outdoors, I've wanted to move there for a very long time. So coming from Georgia by choice. Fairbanks, even downtown is so much more open feeling to me than the semi rural area in Georgia I'm from it's amazing.

Do the occasional offroad, but there isn't much around here in Georgia. I'm big into hiking, backpacking etc and would like to do more offroading. I have a '78 International Scout that I'll be getting up there using a '71 International crewcab. Sold a 1980 diesel Scout about a month ago since I was moving (have to limit how much I can bring, miss the 25 mpg though). The crewcab towing the scout will also be able to bring whatever I have down here and want to keep (I'm thinking that's how I'm going to get my guns down here up there). Going to need to wait until I have a place to keep them (the trucks)though (no room at apartment in Fairbanks), so that trek will wait until another time.

Once I have my Alaska driver's license, I'm going to get a pistol up there that will go in my survival bag and that I will also carry at least for camping, hiking etc (also planning on a 12 guage). I'm a big fan of the Ruger Blackhawk and I'm down to wanting a stainlessnew modelwiththe 7.5" barrel in either .45 Colt (long colt) or .44 Mag.

I really like the idea of .45 Colt, mainly for thehistory of the round.I shot over 100 rounds through an old model .44 mag this past weekend (probobly more than that pistol had ever had shot through it :shock. I can shoot it one handed without a problem, but I've been wondering if I might be able to get more rounds off faster with accuracy with the .45 Colt due to the lower recoil. But I want to still have a chance of stopping a bear too.

What's your opinion on that? I know, really digressing from the actual topic...

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a 45 would work for a bear, but if you can handle it I would get a 454casule or a 500mag. I have seen bears walk threw 45's and I have seen bear taken down with 380's. NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER try to shoot a bear in the head, with anything less then a big rifle.

IH rules

who you flying for? I have my comercial license but never done anything that I would need it. I love flying hi-pro aircraft and twins. I got my private license on the day of my 16th b-day. unfortunitly my med expired and i forgot to put in for a renewel in time.

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murphyslaw wrote:

a 45 would work for a bear, but if you can handle it I would get a 454casule or a 500mag. I have seen bears walk threw 45's and I have seen bear taken down with 380's. NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER try to shoot a bear in the head, with anything less then a big rifle.

IH rules

who you flying for? I have my comercial license but never done anything that I would need it. I love flying hi-pro aircraft and twins. I got my private license on the day of my 16th b-day. unfortunitly my med expired and i forgot to put in for a renewel in time.

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I need to be able to shoot one handed. As a survival gun, it could come into play after an accident and I can't be stuck with something that requires two hands if I can't use one of them. Besides, while he's chewing on one hand, maybe I can still shoot with the other. Seriously though, I don't think those really big ones are good for 1 handed shooting. And with the difference in price between the blackhawk in .45 or .44 and redhawk in .454 casull, I can buy a 12 guage with ammo for the regular trips. I hear that if you let one get close enough shooting through the nose can work.

At least in the Fairbanks area there seems to be a fair amount of IH, know of 3 or 4 for sale right now offhand. I bought a ford diesel from Fairbanks Natural Gas, and it's my first non IH vehicle. At least it's got the IH powerplant though.

I'm with Frontier Flying, as far as your med goes, that's your medical, not your license that expires. Fixing that is as easy as going in for a new medical exam in whatever class you want to get. If it's been that long I imagine you probobly need a BFR as well, but that's just a flight with a CFI and some manuevers (and maybe some practice if you're rusty). Your certificate never expires, it can just be revoked. If you've lost your's you just need to send off for a new copy (which will be the current cool plastic credit card one). Not having a medical doesn't void your ticket, just means you can't use it until you get that stuff fixed.

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Is it generally consider sensible up there to pack a handgun for Kodiak defense? I heard about a guy a couple of years ago who dropped an attacking bear with a .44mag. However, before that I had also heard that everyone who had actually killed a bear in self defense with a pistol had also died themselves.

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im not sure of the validy of that. I know three people that have killed bears in defense and well i talked to them last week at the offroad club meeting. the 44mag is a fine round. I have shoot the 454 casule(damn it hurts) and the 500mag(refer to first caption)

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Well that information certainly invalidates the theory.

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Man, I should have never poked my head in here. It's rekindling my desire to move to Alaska.....

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no no no dont rethink moving to alaska. these events where bears kill people are not a common thing. I think the last time someone got killed by a bear was two years ago. depending on where you live you will come across diferent typs of bears. I have been in situations where i could have killed a bear for defense a few times but my level head and good planning worked out best for the bear and myself. 13 or the bear shootings/attacks are when people are hunting, when you smell like game and are in a place with animals that eat game your making trouble. usually the bear pops out of the bushes within 50ft or a person and they panic and start shooting. now dont get me wrong its DAMN scarry when a 1400 lbs 7'3 bear looks at you like dinner, but 70% of the time theres no reason to shoot. When were out camping there is atleast 2 large caliber(44mag or biger) and several rifles. much like personal defense agains humans shot placement counts #1. I have heard of people gettin mauled(sp?) after shooting bears with 500mags and I know a fella that took one down with 5shoots from a jennings 380.

the best thing to do is carry what you can, and use cast lead or fmj's any type of expanding round or softnose round will expand to fast.


now I'm not an expert on bears but I have been there a few times and know lots of people that have been there too.

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I think you misunderstood me Murphy. I said 'rekindling' not 'rethinking'.

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oh ok yeah i mis read. I do that from time to time.