The whole truth is, a lot of it is just personal preference. Some like doing it one way, some another & that's never going to change. It's like scopes or iron sights, some of our very best custom pistolsmith's don't even use adjustable sights, preferring to just regulate their gun to one load & live with it. Others want adjustable sights, others want a Dot sight for precision, others want a scope for magnification.

It's all about choices! Another thing, in many places it's illegal to hunt without a guide or PH, you just can't do it. I've been on one guided hunt & that was Africa, can you imagine an American walking the streets of Johannesburg with a gun! Probably wouldn't last very long.

Same way in Alaska, if you hunt Sheep, Grizzly or Brown Bears by law you must have a licensed guide or a first blood relative with you or you can't hunt one of them. Some of this is because of safety & maybe some of it is money, who knows.

How many lower 48 hunters would have a safe & successful hunt in Alaska without a guide hunting any of the above animals, not many. The lack of knowledge, equipment & the ability to get in & out would cost some of them their lives.

For Caribou, Black Bears, Moose, Wolves, etc you don't need a guide & they are more easily reached for the lower 48 hunter on a do it yourself hunt. My buddy Brent & I spent 17 days living out of our backpacks on the south fork of the Kuskokuim River & also the Hartman River hunting the above species & we got them. We also saw many Dall Sheep & a huge Grizzy but no tags so all we could do was look.

Hunting, either with a rifle or handgun is what you make it, alone, with a buddy or in a deer camp where you eat at the table with 10 other guys & sit in a heated blind everyday. Enjoy it for what it is, if you didn't like it you wouldn't be there, right? That's why they make chocolate & vanilla, so you have a choice.



Dick