To Bear or not to Bear

This is something that I should have added a week ago but since the blog never existed a week ago, I will have to add this today. So we had our first Bear Safety Training, which was conducted by Joe Nava at his house on NRA lane. The instructional training was mainly the "dos and don’ts" when traveling in Bear country, which typically would be either the Grizzly or Black in Alaska and the Polar Bear on the ice. According to Joe, Grizzlies and Black are not typically predatory and as long as you do not surprise them, things don’t usually turn sour. An attack usually happens only if the bear perceives an encroachment of its territory. And surprisingly, one of the facts that were stressed out was to stay your ground if charged by a Grizzly. Many a times Grizzlies just try to scare you off but if you attempt to run, predatory instincts kick in leading to an attack. So remember, if confronted by a Grizzly stay where you are and do not try to run (btw, I would like to reiterate that neither this blog nor I can be held responsible if you do not take the necessary precautions when in bear country).

The lecture session was followed by a session of understanding and handling of firearms, mainly the 12 gauge Remington pump-action shot gun. The only thing I could think off for all the geeks out there is that the Remington was around the weight of a 14.1 inch DELL laptop. The cartridge is around 1.5 inches and has a single slug made of soft lead. Thus unlike a typical rifle, the soft lead mushrooms upon contact thereby retaining the force of the shot within the object.The first thing that we did was to get a set of ear mufflers (sound of firing can be pretty loud, especially in an enclosed firing range) and goggles (to stop the splinters that might fly out after the shot is fired) before entering the firing range. We luckily had the entire range to ourselves, a group of 8 members who would be packing up our Arctic Gear in a week’s time. Most of them had prior experience in Polar expeditions except me, of course.It started off with dry runs where we had to hold the shot gun, adjust our posture and take fake shots at a poster of a big grizzly bear with the heart and lung marked out. For the actual firing, Joe moved the target all the way to very end of the firing range (about 50 feet away). We were asked to load 3 cartridges and once we were ready, he started moving the target forward towards us. The requirement was to fire 3 shots by the time the target was within 10 feet away. The first shot, that I took, was like a tuning machine struck and held inside my brain, with a massive recoil. With each shot being fired, my body posture (should be bent forward) was out, the gun pointed somewhere along the direction of the target and that stupid sound kept echoing in my brain. This was despite having used an ear muffler!!! I don’t think I want to know how it would be without it.

So finally after three shots, we were given back the poster as a souvenir and to top it all off, I also got a certificate stating that I had been instructed in using fire arms :-) For a guy who has never ever fired a gun before, I shot 2 bears (check out the carcass!!!) that were approaching me from a distance of 50 feet, and I didn’t flinch… :-)