Cathy Geiger firing a shotgun during bear training.
One of the potential hazards in the Arctic is running into polar bears. To be prepared, I went to a four hour class covering bears and firearm instruction given by Joe Nava. I had met Joe 20 years ago and it was fun saying hi.
The primary rule around bears is give the bear space, and leave the area. Don't run away because that may trigger a predator-prey response in the bear. When working in bear country assign one person to be on watch. Make noise so the bear can hear you. You don't want to surprise a bear. If you do run into a bear, stand tall, talk loudly and slowly back away.
If the bear should happen to attack, one of the recommended counter measures is pepper spray. The bear repellant spray is for the bear not for you. One of the biologists up here said they dropped a man at a remote camp, and then took off. They circled the camp and saw the man in distress rolling around on the ground. The man had thought the bear spray was like mosquito spray and had sprayed him self.
The other recommended counter measure is a 12 gauge shotgun with a rifled slug. Gauge tells you the barrel width of the shotgun. If you take one pound of lead and divide it into 12 balls, one of the balls will fit down the barrel of the shotgun. Riffling is a groove that keeps the bullet flying straight. Shotguns have smooth barrels, so they put grooves on the lead slug to keep it flying straight.
After learning about bears the rest of the class covered firearms safety.
Always treat a gun as if it was loaded.
Always point the gun in a safe direction.
Always keep the gun unloaded until your ready to use it.
Keep your finger off the trigger and safety on until you are ready to shoot.
Cathy Geiger and Joe Nava at the shooting range.
We went over the proper handling, loading and unloading of the shotguns, and then went to an indoor shooting range to practice firing them. I had fired many different kinds of guns, but not shotguns. The shooting range was a safe place and the people all took it seriously and we had fun firing the shotguns at targets.
Cathy Geiger shows her target.