What would be in your kit?

[Karl Helweg]

After listening to you blokes, reckon I will stay in sunny Western Australia and be happy hunting really dangerous Skippys and rabbits with my Lancaster !!! I do believe hunting in Alaska is something else and would be an amazing experience with the right outfitter. Reckon a spare lock, ramrod, ball puller and spare horn of powder would be a good thing. And my Dragoon in case I run into a raging Koala, near as dangerous as a Kodiak so I am told
Most interesting discussion

Cheers

Heelerau :grin:

 

[Heelerau]

Hence why I never go bush without my trusty 3rd Mod Dragoon !!

 

[roundball]

What a gross thing to post !

 

[MattC]

Damn Koalas. I'm going to New Zealand......

 

[Karl Helweg]

Since I cannot seem to edit the post:

 

[Karl Helweg]

Just reading all this makes me all the more longing to go on a coastal big grizzly hunt in Alaska. Staying young :wink: and winning the lotto will have to happen before I get to fulfill that dream.

Just in case you want to see who all is guiding big game in Alaska: http://commerce.alaska.gov/occ/apps/GuiUseReg.cfm Coastal brown bears generally come from GMUs 1-9. Licensed guides are required for brown/grizzly bears, sheep and goats or for all non-US citizens. Although guides are great for other species you can also use "licensed transporters" to help save money if you have the skills and resources to equip yourself.
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/

 

[BrownBear]

Licensed guides are required for brown/grizzly bears, sheep and goats or for all non-US citizens.

As well as for non-Alaska residents.

 

[Karl Helweg]

I did not phrase that as clearly as I intended. I rushed too much.

All non-Alaskans require licensed guides to hunt brown/grizzly bears, Dall sheep, and mountain goats. Second degree kinship relatives who are Alaska residents can also act as guides.

All non-US residents require licensed guides to hunt any big game animal.

 

[longcruise]

Lots of good ideas here. Keep em commin!

I do have a spare lock and plan to use a brass rod. It will be threaded on both ends and will also make a handle that will thread on in case it gets stuck or a ball needs pulling. Also for cleaning.

Like the idea of a brass powder container.

Would be nice to go "traditional" but, then, what is traditional for AK????

No horses!! :shake:

Will not be guided or outfitted. We will use licensed transporter to put us into the headwaters for a float hunt. Our transporter is a loooong time guide and outfitter in AK and has advised us very well as far as equippment goes, but he is not an ML guy.

I shoulda clarified that the kit inquired about is strictly the support equipment for the ml aspect of the hunt.

 

[BrownBear]

Would be nice to go "traditional" but, then, what is traditional for AK????

The US bought the place around the civil war, and it was all Russian with Russian/European arms before then. Folks from other countries were actively "discouraged" from visiting. From all I have been able to learn, "typical" would be on the order of 69 caliber smoothbore flintlock with cappers coming on late in the period. References are made here and there to "small bore" rifled, but from what I can tell 69 was pretty small for the Russians. It's a bit vague caliber-wise, and rifling appears to have been pretty rare.

Here is the most comprehensive list of Russian arms I've seen. It appears that new models were very slow to reach Alaska, being a frontier area a whole long ways and a few oceans away from Moscow.

 

[Karl Helweg]

Would be nice to go "traditional" but, then, what is traditional for AK????

The US bought the place around the civil war, and it was all Russian with Russian/European arms before then. Folks from other countries were actively "discouraged" from visiting. From all I have been able to learn, "typical" would be on the order of 69 caliber smoothbore flintlock with cappers coming on late in the period. References are made here and there to "small bore" rifled, but from what I can tell 69 was pretty small for the Russians. It's a bit vague caliber-wise, and rifling appears to have been pretty rare.

Here is the most comprehensive list of Russian arms I've seen. It appears that new models were very slow to reach Alaska, being a frontier area a whole long ways and a few oceans away from Moscow.

I understand that the British gave many thousands of mostly model 2 Brown Besses to the Russians around the Napoleonic Wars. I would be surprised if some did not make it to Alaska through the Russian-American Company. http://www.napoleon-series.org/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?md=read;id=139750
The Hudson Bay Company also had a foothold in Alaska. http://www.akhistorycourse.org/articles/article.php?artID=57

 

[BrownBear]

I'd be interested in finding reference to Bess's in use, but haven't found any sign of it in the museums I checked.

The Russian Tula 1808 69 caliber take on the French Charleville 1777 was likely the most "modern" that could have come across with Baronof and Shelikof, but the 1769 (also a Tula 69 cal) was the more likely according to the folks I've spent time with.

 

[Karl Helweg]

The problem with documentation is that virtually no Russian flinters survive and records are sparse after that little revolution thing. http://www.napolun.com/mirror/napoleonistyka.atspace.com/Russian_infantry.htm This article states that the Russians received about 60,000 British muskets but I have found estimates from 40K to 140K and mostly early model 2 Besses. They were as common in Russia as SKSs are here today so they were as likely to have made it to Alaska as any other flinter. Czar Paul I http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_I_of_Russia apparently kicked thousands of officers out of the (Potemkin's) army and although many needed kicked out some ex-officers would have been good hires for the Russian-American Company complete with the gear that they knew best. As far as I can find there was no official Russian Army presence in Alaska, just navy.
I have managed to gather some odd books on c. 1800 Russian military with the passing thought of doing a little of the 18th century reenacting/LH that I miss from back east. I have found that I am far from the first person to look into this especially in Sitka but the early Russian-American Company is frustratingly hard to document here. At least we might be able to round up some armoured Tlingit to "kill" us if we get going. :wink: