The Hunter's Alaska

by Roy F. Chandler

  Here is a little scope mounting trick I have been using and recommending the last few decades. If you use a crosshair or a dot reticle, rotate the scope ninety degrees counter-clockwise in your rings. That makes the elevation a windage adjustment and changes the windage knob into elevation. Once zeroed, hunters do not adjust sights other than to re-zero, so there is no inconvenience. The change opens up your cartridge loading area by removing the windage knob from the middle of it. It might interest anyone considering turning his scope ninety degrees to know that British military Snipers had their scopes built that way more than fifty years ago.

  6 - Stocks

  A few thoughts about Alaskan hunting rifle stocks should be inserted.

  If you really like a wooden stock, use one. Expect to beat the hell out of the finish, plan to recheck your zero with some regularity (particularly after rain), and make sure your front sling swivel is backed up by a plate on the inside of the barrel channel—or better yet have the swivel mounted on a barrel band. Swivels have been known to pull out of wood at inconvenient times.

  A further point on sling swivels. I succumbed to the handiness of quick-detachable swivels forty years ago. However, I no longer advise selecting them. Quick-detachables have a record of failure—no matter who manufactures them. The USMC adopted QD swivels on their latest sniper rifle, the M40A3, and combat snipers in Iraq suffered breakage and regret the change from solid swivels.

  Conversely, I have never heard of a solid military-style fixed swivel letting go. Finally, I would ask, what good are QD swivels? How long, after all, does it take to remove a conventional sling and how often do we remove one? Keep It Simple should apply to sling swivels. Make them solid and indestructible.

  There is no need for an Alaskan hunting rifle to be pretty. I know hunters who use fiberglass stocks and paint their barrels and most of their receivers with Rust-Oleum®. The famed Alaskan Bear guide and widely published author Phil Shoemaker has recommended painting rifles for decades. The best sniper rifles in the world are first Parkerized then painted with an almost indestructible finish called "Manowar®." That finish has been Iraq and Alaska-proven. It is tough.

  The picture above is an example of a thumbhole stock. I built the rifle in .264 Winchester for use on goats and sheep. Two mistakes! The cartridge is nothing special and thumbhole stocks do not belong in big game hunting. They are slow and awkward to use, and they offer nothing a normal stock does not

  By any practical measure, the composite stock users and the metal painters have it right. Rifles take hammerings in Alaskan hunting. They get tossed in trucks, in cross-country vehicles, in cockpits and in boats—and that is just in getting to the hunting. On the mountains and in the bush the rifles are regularly soaked, scratched from rocks and limbs, frozen, clanked together, hung on trees, and more times than we would like to admit, dropped.

  Have a handsome rifle if you wish, but remember shine reflects, and animals notice those glints and flashes.

  Do make sure that your stock fits. Use the rifle enough to make certain that it feels good. Be positive that the butt-plate will not slip on your shoulder. It is better—far better—to have a stock a hint short than to have one even a hair too long. Remember, you will not often hunt Alaska in your T-shirt.

  I was brought up on the teachings of Jack O'Connor, and I have always liked his stock recommendations for hunting rifles. Jack liked handsome checkering and thin neat-feeling stock grips. He hated Monti Carlo cheek-pieces and things like Snobbles (gunsmith Clyde Baker's spelling) or plastic tips on forearms. I'm with him, but I do not claim all of those preferences are the most wise. Thin wrists on stocks are prone to breakage. Fine checkering does not grip as efficiently as rougher. A fine custom stock will probably have 24 lines per inch checkering. That is really too fine for best gripping under tough field conditions. I like twenty lines per inch checkering and have some rifles with eighteen lines. The "checkering" stamped into plastic stocks (like McMillan's) works just fine.

  My recommendation would be to choose a stock that had the classic pre-64 model 70 Winchester shape in whatever material you prefer. Plan on it becoming scarred. Consider those wounds badges of honor. Enjoy the gun; do not worry about its looks.

  Here is a Model 95 Marlin in .45/70.

  This is a powerful combination, but with a cartridge hand loaded to about 1800 fps, the .45/70 becomes a genuine bear dropper. On John Taylor's KO tables the cartridge's impact is raised from a hard-hitting 34.3 to a smashing 47.6. Note the low power and low mounted scope, a good set up for a brush hunter on Kodiak Island or on the Kenai Peninsula.

  A Few Stock Thoughts

  The Kimber is an excellent hunting rifle, and the composite stock's lines are graceful enough to use as a good example. The grip is small, but it could be smaller. To review Jack O'Connor's ideal stock description in his classic 1950 The Rifle Book, Jack wrote:

  "The average hand is best fitted with a pistol grip of about 4 3/4 inches around … . The (rifle's) pitch down should be somewhere between 3 and 4 1/2 inches, depending, of course, on the length of the barrel … . The comb should be made as high as withdrawal of the bolt will permit. I believe also that the rifle to be used with scope sights only should be "straighter" with less difference in drop between comb and heel. I like only 1/2 of an inch difference … . The cheek piece should be flat. It should be thick, projecting at the bottom of the stock about 1/2 to 5/8 of an inch … . The fore end should be more or less pear-shaped in cross section, but even a perfectly round fore end is not bad. A fore end shaped like this that is about 1 3/8 inches in diameter is also surprisingly adequate. Possibly a fore end of that type 1 1/2 inches in diameter is a little better … ."

  We can add that stock length for an average hunter should be about 13 1/4 inches. Remember that we often wear heavy clothing in Alaska and a too long stock is terrible. Too short can be used very well.

  The rifle we are showing comes close to those standards.

  If you have a wood stock, you can modify to suit your tastes, but composite stocks are more difficult and most hunters will have to accept what a company offers. Notice that within the photographs included in this volume that almost everyone used and still uses wooden stocks. Nothing like walnut to soothe the heart and feel good in the hands.

  I now double-coat my wooden stocks with epoxy. (I use WEST System® epoxy that I learned to like during my boat building days.) A stock properly epoxy-coated will not absorb a drop of moisture and will not move around on you—period. Of course, the finish looks different than a fine hand-rubbed oil finish, but there can be no argument about which finish is best. Epoxy wins hands down.

  7 - The Best Rifle

  Before leaving this part of the book it is right to commit myself to exactly what weapon I would choose for a single-gun Alaskan hunt for all large game. Despite what most write, I do not find the requirement particularly treacherous or difficult.

  Choose any good quality bolt-action rifle with a decently heavy 22-inch barrel.

  Buy your rifle chambered for the 338 Winchester Magnum.

  The only points to emphasize at this stage of discussion are, if your stock rifle's barrel is longer, and many are in magnum cartridges, cut it back to 22 inches. Eliminate the iron sights. Fasten on a top quality (I recommend 1-1/2X to 6X) variable power scope as tightly and as low as you can mount it and, if you are recoil conscious, have a muzzle brake let into the barrel.

  Here are three excellent Alaskan big game cartridges:

  On the left: The awesome (for American game) .458 Winchester Magnum. The .458 is our premier dangerous game cartridge. For a bear in the bush, it could be the best KO at the muzzle using a 500-grain bullet is a thunderous 60.8.

  Center: The 300 Weatherby Magnum. With a 180-grain bullet at 3240 the KO is 25.7. Use a 220-grain bullet at 2845 and you have a KO of 27.5 at the muzzle.

  To the right: The .338 Winchester Magnum. Using a 225- grain bullet at a muzzle velocity of 2940 fps, the KO value is 31.8, or go to a 250-gr
ain bullet and up the KO to 33.8.

  Of course there is no end to cartridges offered by hungry manufacturing companies and hopeful experimenters, many of which are alleged to do wonders but, if you used only these old standbys, your successful hunting in the Great State will be assured.

  8 - Kenai Rifles,

  the .450 Alaskan &

  A bit about Garrett Ammunition

  In the 1950's Harold Johnson produced his Kenai Rifles down on the Kenai Peninsula, not far from Cooper Landing. Johnson modified Winchester model 1886 and model 71 lever action rifles into his own specialty, the .450 Alaskan. Bill Fuller was Johnson's gunsmith, and until his death in 1988, Fuller would still make you a .450 Alaskan—if you provided the rifle. This photograph of Johnson was taken in 1950s.

  To create a .450 Alaskan, Johnson re-barreled an 1886 or a model 71 in .458 caliber and chambered it with a reamer which was basically a .348 Winchester expanded at the neck to hold a .458 diameter bullet The .450 Alaskan, as made by Kenai Rifles, had a 20-inch barrel and, it is claimed, the rifles kicked like wild bulls. Add a muzzle brake, I say!

  The rifles are shown in different scales, but the actions are almost identical and strong enough to hold the powerful .450 Alaskan. The 45/70 and the 348 cartridges are rimmed cases, therefore, the extraction and ejection systems required almost no modifications.

  Initially, Johnson made his own bullets. He cut off a 30/06 case, and inserted a swaged, tight fitting lead slug into the remaining cartridge case. The bullet looked like a 1-1/4 inch fully loaded cartridge. Later, Frank Barnes made special bullets for the .450 Alaskan. Accurate ballistics for the .450 are difficult to obtain, but they went about like the following:

  In more recent times, efforts have been made to reintroduce the .450, but its time has passed. The model 1886 and 71 Winchesters are now collector's items, and the harder hitting .458 Winchester Magnum has appeared, but in its day, the .450 Alaskan was a powerhouse. Because of a lever action's fast follow-up shots, the Kenai rifle has probably never been surpassed as a bear in the brush weapon.

  This is Bill Fuller, now deceased, of Cooper Landing, Alaska. Bill performed Harold Johnson's gunsmithing, converting Model 71 and 1886 Winchesters to Johnson's superb .450 Alaskan.

  Bill is shown here with a black bear he had just taken using the rifle he is holding—an original Hawken, the weapon of choice for most of the old time mountain men. I received this photograph from Tom Keegan of Castle Rock, Washington too late for inclusion in this volume's first printing, but photos of Bill Fuller are too rare to pass up.

  This book concerns itself almost exclusively with bolt-action rifles because the bolt gun has proven itself to be the toughest, most readily cleanable, and usually the most accurate rifle out there. However, the almost forgotten lever action may also have its place. The remarkable .450 Alaskan was always in a lever gun. Guides loved it for its smashing power and fast follow up shots.

  In some quarters, humming and hawing over facing dangerous game with a lever action persists (meaning grizzly and brown bear in Alaska). You do not find lever guns in Africa where really dangerous animals abide. Lever rifles are American, but no one that I ever encountered complained about their lever rifles jamming or failing to perform m any situation in any weather.

  We might note that until the First World War and the sudden availability of cheap bolt rifles, the lever action dominated in Alaska, and the limited literature of those earlier times describes no examples of lever action failures. It is also noteworthy that most lever action rifles can be reloaded while the rifle is cocked with a round in the chamber. Bolt guns require opening the bolt, which might not feel comfortable if attempting to reload in a dangerous situation.

  The modern Marlin lever action rifles are vastly superior to old time rifles. (They can, for instance, mount a scope directly over the bore where it should be instead of offset to the left—where it should not be.) The Marlin .45/70 should be considered because there is new ammunition that is apparently knocking the socks off the standard cartridge beloved by buffalo hunters that has proven itself over more than a one hundred year period.

  The new ammunition for the .45/70 is centered on a Garrett hardcast bullet. The bullet is very heavy, almost flat-ended, nearly a cylinder, much like a wad cutter. The huge meplat imparts a tremendous blow that reportedly penetrates forever and flattens the biggest and toughest animals as if they were struck by lightning. At this time, Garrett bullets are sold only in Garrett cartridges, and I have not personally seen the dramatic results reported. If they are that good, as so many claim, a guide protecting his hunter should like them, and anyone digging a bear out of a thick stand should consider a lever gun in that caliber shooting that ammunition.

  9 - Shooting Ranges

  A few pages back I wrote that I never shoot animals at over three hundred yards. What follows could have been entered there in support of my opinion, but I wished the concept to sink in a little. Some supporting evidence of the practicality of the idea follows.

  In September 1953, The American Rifleman magazine published a survey of professional Alaskan Guides that included the details of the taking of 321 head of Alaskan big game. That game included all of the Alaskan "big five," which are brown or grizzly bear, moose, caribou, goats, and sheep. Those, of course, are the major animals discussed in this book.

  Of the 321 animals taken, only eight (8) were shot at ranges over 300 yards. Or to put it another way, if you shot 100 animals, which is a lifetime of hunting, only three 3 of them would be taken over 300 yards. These figures clearly demonstrate the rarity of long range shooting.

  The survey further notes that 283 of the 321 animals were taken under two hundred (200) yards. This figure indicates that some 90% of our Alaskan shooting will probably be less than 200 yards.

  Furthermore, 126 head, or 40% of the animals were taken at under one hundred (100) yards. Wow! That is pretty close in.

  Breaking the longer range shooting down by game animal we find that of 42 sheep included in the survey only three (3) were taken beyond 300 yards. Thirty of the remaining sheep, or 70% of them, were shot at less than 200 yards.

  Shifting to goats, we find that of 45 goats taken, only two (2) were shot beyond 300 yards, and 34 goats, or 66%, were at less than 200 yards.

  Surely, these statistics, which demonstrate that 97% of Alaskan hunting is done at less than 300 yards, should put to rest a hunter's concern over the need to shoot at extreme ranges.

  Despite the above data, or any that will ever be published, big game hunters insist that they have to be ready to shoot at astoundingly long ranges, and most have a story or more explaining how some shot on something had to be taken at ranges so distant a Marine sniper would hesitate.

  I doubt that a month goes by that I am not challenged by telephone or e-mail—often quite vehemently—by hunters propounding the need for and their expertise in dropping, in their tracks, animals so distant I am embarrassed to hear the yardages.

  Those hunters and their almost certain attempts to kill at impractical ranges are major reasons for suggesting a big cartridge and a powerful scope for Alaska. If we could be certain that hunters would limit their ranges to the shooting I have recommended they could use less powerful rifles and lower magnification telescopic sights. That would be more satisfactory all around, but it is not about to happen.

  So, what about those large cannon-like rifles that are alleged to drop elephants by their mere presence? There are so many calibers and cartridges available that one hardly knows where to begin, but it might be best to deal with a few of the old standbys—proven over decades and realize that the newer offerings are just as good—and in some cases a bit better—but that all of the largest cartridges are more than we will ever need—unless we are doing things that we should not be doing in our hunting.

  We can use the popular .308 Winchester as a standard and measure a few larger cartridges in comparison, but I must add a disclaimer. Every ballistic table seems to differ from all othe
rs. Chronographs differ and recording systems are different. Therefore, in one place, using a certain ballistic table, the results shown herein for a specific cartridge may not be the same as the figures shown in another table—also herein. (Incidentally, the ballistic tables I am using at the moment list more than seventy .308 Winchester (7.62 NATO) loadings, each of which has a different energy and KO figure.)

  I could even up all the figures (make them uniform), but it may be informative to notice how they vary with the publication the author is using at the moment. Rifles are not identical and may record different results, but most ballistic tables these days are calculations based on computer models. They rarely match, so use the figures included here or offered elsewhere for guidance, and do not consider them handed down from Mount Sinai.

  So, what can we deduce from the above data?

  My first reminder would be that to enjoy shooting these powerful rifles demands weapons in the eleven-pound class. Hunters unhappy with carrying what many consider to be the excess weight of seven or eight- pound rifles should take note. These guns are heavy. When shooting game, recoil and sound make little difference because minds are focused on the hunt, but zeroing and practicing with a big rifle can be unpleasant and involuntary flinches that are carried into the game fields can develop.

  Even with muzzle brakes, big cartridges have heavy recoil and the muzzle blast when using a muzzle brake can be uncomfortable. Never allow a companion to be beside or just behind you when you touch off a big Bertha using a muzzle brake. Ears can be permanently damaged. Don't be fooled. Big guns kick, whether you feel it or simply hear it Never, by the way, fire a big rifle with a muzzle brake inside a building. The blast is enormous and can cause permanent hearing loss.