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Yesterday I spent at a one day "Defense Against Wild Animals" refresher course (after taking the basic 3-day course a year ago, there are annual refreshers). A group of US Geological Survey folks and I went down to Coyote Valley, near Morgan Hill, to a sport-shooting facility in an isolated small, steep valley. The five USGS students (3 women, 2 men) were all from the same volcanology department... they look for contacts between pyroclastic flow, ashfall and lava units, take specimens and radiologically date them to build eruption histories of various volcanoes, from Oregon to the Aleutians. In the latter area, brown bears are a problem.
This year, we spent more time talking about the use of pepper spray as a deterrent short of lethal force, as well as the other means of avoiding and defusing confrontations between bears and humans. Then after lunch we went down to the outdoor range and drilled. First with dry-fire (no ammunition), then demonstrating that we could load/unload and sling/unsling (for long guns) our firearm-of-choice, then progressing to live-fire and marksmanship practice. The final exam was a timed unsling-chamber-shoot exercise with a given number of rounds, done from varying distances. Last year I used a .45-70 lever-action rifle, this year a 12-gauge shotgun firing slugs (which matches what we use on Devon Island).
Despite having had only one practice session since last summer, my motor skills were pretty good... and my marksmanship has improved (probably from being more-relaxed this year). I scored 10/10 shots placed in the central target area (head/chest of a charging-bear target sheet), bettering my score of last year (8/10). After the tests were done, the students were allowed to try out secondary firearms (.44 revolvers, other rifles). It was actually fun...
Afterward, I came home, made dinner for Pat and the kids, and went to my last ice skating group class of the season (cheering several students through their Freestyle 1 test). I'm not ready to test there, because I can't yet manage two-footed spins. Then came home and managed to embroil myself in relationship conflict (on a couple of fronts) until I dozed off online around 12:30am.
At least I managed to avoid JL at work...
This year, we spent more time talking about the use of pepper spray as a deterrent short of lethal force, as well as the other means of avoiding and defusing confrontations between bears and humans. Then after lunch we went down to the outdoor range and drilled. First with dry-fire (no ammunition), then demonstrating that we could load/unload and sling/unsling (for long guns) our firearm-of-choice, then progressing to live-fire and marksmanship practice. The final exam was a timed unsling-chamber-shoot exercise with a given number of rounds, done from varying distances. Last year I used a .45-70 lever-action rifle, this year a 12-gauge shotgun firing slugs (which matches what we use on Devon Island).
Despite having had only one practice session since last summer, my motor skills were pretty good... and my marksmanship has improved (probably from being more-relaxed this year). I scored 10/10 shots placed in the central target area (head/chest of a charging-bear target sheet), bettering my score of last year (8/10). After the tests were done, the students were allowed to try out secondary firearms (.44 revolvers, other rifles). It was actually fun...
Afterward, I came home, made dinner for Pat and the kids, and went to my last ice skating group class of the season (cheering several students through their Freestyle 1 test). I'm not ready to test there, because I can't yet manage two-footed spins. Then came home and managed to embroil myself in relationship conflict (on a couple of fronts) until I dozed off online around 12:30am.
At least I managed to avoid JL at work...
