Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Life below zero

And consider the fact the only "successful" piercing of the pipeline by rifle fire was a local...

And lots of unsuccessful dings and dents over the years. I wonder if that idiot is still in the Graybar Hotel? His brother was on a bender and broke into one of the mountaintop radio sites a few years after his siblings genius move. He got a ride in a Trooper helicopter. Nice family.

Jeff

Curious too, made me look... he is in jail, but it is related to multiple felony assaults in a DV situation in 2016. So he served less than 15 for shooting the pipeline with a HUGE but petty rap sheet prior. Dirt bag.

I had him in one of the mods I supervised when I worked in corrections. He wasn't too popular with anyone, inmates or officers. Even the native inmates didn't like him.

I suppose just being an idiot vandal is not very prestigious...

You would have to be a real scum if the NB wont take you in.......

Thieves, vandals, and just general dirt bags trying to get high is a good size of a prisons population. Take the drugs away and you have some decent humans around, and of course, there's the terminally stupid everywhere....

Being a woman beater, a child molester a kid killer or a cop can be a slow, hungry sentence for the perp.......'' Taxed' as they call it, starved, extorted, picked on and bullied, sometimes turned into ''Missiles'' sent to do a dirty deed in trade a square meal.....

These kind of guys being starved and beaten down is the norm, and one of the few entertainments the psycotic's have in there.

Chip, enjoy the show & your laid back, tell it how it is approach. The way you interact with your kids is just the way it should be, Every school kid should be required to watch this show.

Dick

Thanx, Idaho. Its basically doing what we do, slowed down.

We are quite average, and have our share of problems, some personal, some village wide LOL!!! Nothing really bad though, and taking it easy getting them grown up, is easier than ramrodding kids into the barrel and firing them out into the world.
They hit 18 years old running.

Basically I try to instill a sense of what were doing to the camera guy, while showing it to my kids, and those who watch the raw footage and edit it. Whats nice is having ''professionals'' as the ladies call themselves and we've gone from teaching the kids, to just working comfortably alongside them.
Along with that, having respect for others and working every day gives kids good self respect, and being ''In the Action'' theres no need for lies..

Chip, my wife and I really enjoy your show, too. We were talking the other night admiring how your family interacts and they way you treat your family. Not a better measure of a man than that.

Curious as to what you did before you got into your current lifestyle. Did you have another job, profession, etc?

Caribou,
I have followed, read about your adventures on P B for a long time, loved the photos and writing of your adventures and way of life. what happened to P B it sends me to milsurpshooter.net and will not load did P B go belly up?
Have not seen the show but am looking forward to checking it out. My wishes for success.
charlee

If you seen it, I hope you like it.

I had quite a few blogs and places to post before Nat Geo came along, though if you did follow any of that madness, you will certainly understand what you see on the show, at least in my familys segments.
I lost touch with all but maybe 3 places I posted and blogged, and I haven't gotten back with most.

Previously, as a teen, I was a Ranch/Farm hand, of seasonal and sudden work in northwest Montana,in the Flathead Valley. Ive delt with many a cow, picked a ton of mushrooms, plucked and chucked a mountains worth of rocks, stacked enough hay bales to make the first little piggy a TajMahal of his own and shaped more enough Christmas Trees to not ever be on Santa's bad list, ever....etc. But there was always time to hook or shoot something, the rivers, forests and mountains were free.....
When I came to Alaska I got a job making lures to sell in Kenai, then a better paying one checking out small engines at the Exxon Valdez spill, , then went to visit my mom and brother in Kotzebue and landed a job loading and unloading aircraft, for 25$ an hour and didnt see a need to return to Montana.... saved some $$ even.
I quit Mark Air, Took some schooling in mechanics,EMT and Diesel tec, and found a job in a gold mine pumping water and maintenance on Cats of all numbers playing in waist deep mud...... but winter work was with Reindeer herders and what ever was happening, so I fell into the local habit of spot jobs, temps seasonal jobs with trapping, hunting and such in between.
Then I hooked up wit the wife and though we lived in a village, we certainly didnt stay there much, and thats just continued. Going camping was a childhood passion, and I never saw a reason to stop... Homeschooling had laptops arrive to our camps and I started saving photos, etc, and getting all the kodachromes on the electronic gizmos.
We made customary and traditional clothing and crafts for museum displays, % for Arts, and personal collectors and got premium prices for the furs we caught, tanned and sew'd, and it made gas $ for the next adventure. Even then, the $ was good.
The blogging , pictures and posts were from my life long hobbies of photography and writing short storys, and telling a unique view of what was happening around me and my family.
Life Below Zero came along as we made arts and crafts for sale and out doors tours/birding and needed to advertise, so along came the day we ''opened for business'' but instead of customers, it was Hollywood on the phone.....

Quite a story. Thanks for sharing.

I can certainly relate. I did my share of temp jobs early on, anything I could get to put groceries on the table and set back some money. i probably learned more from those experiences in my early years than during any time since. One is really only as deep as his experiences. It eventually shows.

I do hope you keep up with your writing. It has the quick, fresh immediacy of a good watercolor and shows your world, your impressions and your thoughts in a way that, good as they are, Nat Geo cannot. We need folks like you to stay part of the culture. Happy Trails.

All I know is that it's pretty hard to fake what a properly raised kid acts like, and the Hailstone kids seem to be better grounded than most any kid you'll find in the lower 48 and that weirdo island chain...

Chip/Caribou, I've conversed with you a couple times on the Alaska outdoor forum. Glad you're here but I still visit that forum at times. That's where I heard the bad news. I know you heard about Jake Jefferson's wife. He guided me twice in your great state. Keep up the good work on LBZ as me and the wife enjoy it, even Sue at times. I do enjoy your "handle" on Alaska forum better though. I know you are not from Mars, but didn't know about Montana!!!

Mark

Chip, I (and I would assume quite a few others as well) would like to step into your world for a little while, knowing full well that I could not manage to pull it off full time. I am curious if you have thoughts along those lines - wishing to experience a different lifestyle for a bit before returning to your normal life, and if so, what that might involve.

Ive often thought about the ''way it could have been'', and Soldier, Pornstar or Pirate come to mind, but I ended up a Hunter, and thats sorta cool on its own.

Well, maybe Im also a student of local History, wherever I may be, and have been since I was a kid. Around here I have an intense interest in those who awaited Sir John Franklin and his ships Terror and Erbus. They were supposed to meet the British Navy's Herald and Plover here in Kotzebue Sound and were some of the first Europeans to overwinter in the area. They contributed alot to whats been recorded officially (Navel and Whaling ships logs) and personal accounts and diary's about folks here, and what they lived like and did, as well as cartography and naming prominent places.
I did grow up down south, mostly in Northwest Montana, and saw enough of the country as a youth to not really wonder much what was all down that way after I got here.

As well, I just never had a plan, except that I couldnt tie myself down with debt, having watched friends and family get stuck in such mess, forced to work and scrape........so 'Cash and Carry'' took my down its own road, and even today, Im sorta spartan in owning ''objects'', Im out for Adventure.....

I took a trip last Sept to Hollywood and Orange County to see how the show is made and to visit my cousin Stacy..., the crowds, the filth, the dense smog the bad smell, the beggars, and miles after miles of homeless tents sorta told me I have it pretty well.

Hello Caribou, it's great to see you posting here. My wife and I have been watching your show for years. I just saw the latest episode. That was a nice shot you made on the caribou with the M-1A. About what was the distance? I have not seen that rifle on the show before. Is it new?

BTW Happy Thanksgiving.

That rifle was my wifes, actually. Its an M1A Springfield Nat Match, and she got it a few years back, brand spanking new, at a heck of a discount. It sat at her sisters untill it came home with all her other guns when my Felony was set aside.

Ive sort have taken to it, and the only problem I have is leading moving targets with the precision I enjoy with the Finn M-39.
One other problem was on another hunt, I had extra 10 rd mags sent to me, bought in Anch and well used, one ended up having a cracked feed lip, that allowed one side to hold shells in, but not the other, and it did a mag dump straight up out of the rifle while I actually in the middle of a shoot....a quick mag change and all was well.

-35 and it chugs through any and all ammo. Tula Steel,various Brass, copper washed Chinese, etc etc, just to be sure it loads and shoots.........and besides the cracked mag, Ive had not one jam or failure to fire. I rode it all over the place and let my kids try it out..........No failures to speak of.

Its 11 lbs, and while I dont mind carring it all the do da day, my wife says ''Uhggggg, Chip, will you carry this please...?'' so possession is 9/10ths the law, right????

Other than that, Ive been just banging away with PMC 7.62x51 'bronze' loaded to NATO spec. and had gongs 8'' set about 100 paces apart, and wood thrown in the river that kept moving and getting further away, 20-40 rounds a day was normal this summer.
Reloading will start after I hit the 1,000 round mark, and Im 1/2 way there....just broken in and sighted, I also have a Primary Arms 8X scope with integral rangefinder. I shoot that combo too well out to 800 yards, but the open sights need to be mastered perfectly before I go all scopy on it.

This is my favorite picture of the year so far.



Fact is , though, I still hunt with my M-39, and the M1Ais a secondary, back up rifle.

That was very interesting. Thanks for the reply.