I personally think his choice of a 9mm handgun as a weapon to protect fishing clients from bears with is a bit on the light side. I also doubt he is promoting the 9mm as a bear round. A brown bear was killed with a 9mm pistol about 40 miles from my house on a popular salmon stream years ago. But, I think it took them more then one shot.
I enjoy the few articles of his I have read. One in particular was his articles on triggers and clients that had problems with "enclosed triggers" on bear and moose hunts. Not many "gun writer's" would of came out with strong views like that in print. He also had a couple of articles on rifles that I liked, one was the very nice Todd Ramirez 30-06 he has with the custom receiver sight. One classy rifle and stuffing it with 220 grain Nosler Partitions made it even better. A serious big game, big bear rifle and load, especially in his hands.
Alaska has had many world famous brown bear guides and with todays limited seasons and bag limits, it would be hard for any current brown bear guide to compete with the numbers and size of kills racked up years ago by "old time" guides. Pinnell and Talifson and Hal Waugh were well known bear guides on Kodiak and there were others before them that pioneered brown bear guiding on Kodiak. Those early brown bear guides had very few restrictions on their hunting and many were a law onto them selves.
I doubt there are very many currently living brown bear guides that understand brown bears better then Phil and he has definitely built himself an enviable legacy and is passing it onto his children. Good for him !
What magazines does he write for now days?
Last edited by 1Akshooter; 07/29/19.
