LouieM

Thanks, Benton! I'm willing to hand anyone a copy who flies into SFO!

LouieM

Glad to answer, Gusto. I used a .375 H&H Magnum Remington model 700 firing a 270-grain semi-jacketed hollow point Winchester Silvertip. I hated firing that rifle when target shooting, but never noticed the recoil when I actually needed it. Normally I carried a short-barrel Remington 870 12-gauge with slugs during my geological fieldwork, but that day I'm glad I had the "cannon" along!

Lou

427Hotrod

Congratulations!!!


JIM

Westlotorn

Way to go Lou. Good to know there are talents other than wrenching on this forum! Good luck in the contest.
Mark

LouieM

Thanks Glenn, Bluestripe67, firstgear, elwood13, wmf62, ah53, JIM and colo63sw for your good wishes!

Lou

Bluestripe67

I'm am not well versed in gun parlence or gauges, but something told me .375 etc, etc was a big *****. Good for you Louie. Dennis

SW Vette

Way to go, Louie - all that and a C2 owner too - a life well lived!

LouieM

Thanks, Dennis. I didn't know squat about firearms when I started doing geology in Alaska. Then one geologist had both arms torn off by a bear. Then I became a devotee of firearms useful in fieldwork --- .375 Magnum rifle, 12-gauge shotgun loaded with slugs, .44 Magnum revolver. I became an excellent marksman when I needed it, but now I've forgotten it all and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn even if I owned a gun. I had to look in my book to find out what round I fired into the grizzly!

Lou

LouieM

Yup, I've had C2s all along. Here's a shot of me in a tent camp in the 1970s, and on the wall is a partial pic of my Sting Ray of the time, a customized SWC Fuelie.

dahogan

Oh wow! Well done and congrats. Good luck

GUSTO14

Many years ago while a young Marine stationed in Yuma, Arizona, I met an older (about my age now ) gentleman on a local pistol range. He happened to be shooting a very nice looking 'hand cannon' that I could not identify, and certainly not afford... to buy or shoot on my salary.

During a break in the shooting I approached him to ask what exactly he had. He replied, "a Smith & Wesson, .44 Magnum." These were pre-Dirty Harry days so I hadn't heard of, much less seen a .44 Magnum at that time. I asked, what in the world would you need a handgun like that for, to which he quickly replied, "fishing!"

Dumbfound I asked, "what kind of fishing do you do with a .44 Magnum?" He proceeded to tell me about his passion for salmon fishing along the Columbia River in Washington state where he was from.

Still confused, he quickly cleared things up by telling me that along the Columbia River where he liked to fish, the local bears love salmon as well. Further, if you get between a mother bear and her cubs, about the only thing that could reliably save you, was a .44 Magnum.

Fortunately for him and the bears, he had not yet had to use it for that purpose.

GUSTO

ptjsk

Nice job Louie! Hope you get the recognition for your efforts!

Pat

LouieM

Thanks, Steve! I never anticipated how hard it was to write a memoir that would be read by the public. I'd published 100+ scientific articles and books, but revealing myself in a memoir was anathema for a scientist such as myself. I had promised my wife to write it a few months before she passed away, so I wasn't going to give it up, but the process was brutal.

Lou

LouieM

Okay, Glenn, grizzly-wise, here are the basics:
Full-grown grizzly charges from 100 yards, closing at 20+ mph.
Grab rifle from field assistant, get in shooter’s stance, open bolt and glance at firing chamber. No bullets. ****!!!
Upend idiot assistant’s pack, rip apart box of ammo, glance up, see bear is too close to load more than one round before the huge animal’s on top of us.
Stance, aim, fire my one bullet. The teeth and claws hit the ground less than two Sting Ray lengths from me. Heart kept racing until bedtime.

Gets my heart racing again just thinking about this after all these years!

Surprisingly, I had another experience in Alaska that surpassed this for pure terror, but not suitable to describe here.

Lou

tuxnharley

Wow, ah, and do tell - perhaps by PM?

Impressive cool and "recovery" under duress! I misunderstood the quip on the book cover that you had only one bullet - thought that meant only one with you,not just only time to load one!

I have never had a close up encounter with a bear, but do go pig/boar hunting with a buddy who is certifiably crazy - he hunts them with a bow/arrow even in the bush..... Not being the marksman he is I often wind up being the close in protection using a 12 gauge 18 1/4" barrel pump action loaded with mil spec rifled slugs. One of those will stop damn near anything!

My scariest experience was having a big boar(8" tusks) charge at us out of brush starting from about 50 feet or so away while we were tracking. I didn't have time to do anything except react - rack one in the chamber, and fire at about half the distance, repeat twice more. First one was a head shot, literally exploded the skull, second one in the back, blew out the spine, third one into the body as it was sliding towards us about 10 feet away. My buddy just looked at me and said - "damn, Glenn, I wanted shredded pork after it was cleaned and smoked!

Would love to hear about your other experience!

raylag64

Nice job Louie. Good Luck with the results

LouieM

I carried a .44 Magnum in a shoulder holster later in my career, if I was with someone else who had a shotgun/rifle, only as a "backup." I know guys who have killed a grizzly or polar bear with a. 44 Mag, but a long gun gives you a lot more confidence. Early in my career I often worked alone, dropped off by a chopper 50 or 60 miles from the next human being in the Alaskan wilderness, so couldn't risk carrying only a handgun. A .44 Mag will certainly kill a black bear, but an adult grizzly is several times larger and meaner. In 3+ decades of working in grizzly country I never even saw a black bear, since grizzlies hunt them for food.

LouieM

Nope, no photo like that. But, I do include a detailed comparison between a SWC Fuelie and a Hughes 500 helicopter.

Chuck Gongloff

Congratulations on the nomination. Hope you win an award.

LouieM

Thanks, Chuck. I'm waiting with 'bated breath myself!

Lou