Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska .22 Hornet on seal

skeeter
I have never seen a native hunter using a rangefinder... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
art

My experience with both Athabascan and Eskimoes has led me to believe in general they prefer and use much lighter calibers than Non natives. That's a generalization so there will be exceptions to fit the rule, so any of my Native friends totin the medium and big bores please don't take offense.

Another generalization I will make is that as a race as a whole their hand to eye coordination seems to be above average. My guess is because it's been a relatively short time generation wise that they pretty made most everything by hand, i.e. carving, sewing, snowshoes, kayaks etc. etc. good hand to eye coord lends itself well to good marksmanship, whether shooting pool or shooting a basketball or a rifle. Lot's of Native kids I know that can drill the 3 pointers.

So it's not surprising to me that the small bores are popular for seal hunting, as for it being irresponsible, I don't see it anymore so than some of the campfire that do the 600-700 yard shots on game. For me and my equipment and skillset that would be irresponsible, for others it's within their limitations. Perhaps the same applies in this scenario. my.02 1ak

Now that's interesting Dave. Show my ignorance here and ask what is a snowgo? I want to learn what I can, who knows, we might have a seal outbreak on boggy creek this year. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

BCR

I don't know Aedes. I've hit small snapping turtles (9x7?) in the shell with an open sighted .22 RF and hit them in their little heads and necks at 30-35 yards. This was shooting from the bank, though.

I spent 9 years in Nunavut and can tell you that the 22 Hornet is a top choice for seals. The preferred shot on seals on the ice is head or neck and the Hornet kills them dead. So will a rabbit punch to the head. The bones of seals are soft and someone suggesting the bullet would bounce of the skull knows nothing of seal physiology.

When shooting seals in the water you want something that kills them but doesn't open them up to fill with water and sink. My 6.5 Rem mag would do this and I lost more seals from too much gun than too little. Even a 22 magnum will do the job under 100 yards.

As for caribou they too are a special case. They lay down when wounded generally and even a small caliber bullet well directed will do the job. My wife used a 223 with complete success.

As for accuracy my CZ 527 would do .8" groups with 5 Win Factory rounds and even my wobbly CZ built M6 Scout will shoot into 2"

Sometimes the locals know a thing or two about hunting as they harvest more game in a year than the average Southern Hunter does in 20.

I once served with an AK native who said that HE used the .22 Hornet for seal. I was a bit surprised but he allowed as to how effective it was. Made much of having to get to keep the seal from sinking and being unrecoverable.

Snowgo, snow machine, snow mobile. They all equate to Alaskan toys and payments. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Dave, you forgot sled <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

From what I've been able to tell, only chechackos call them snowmobiles, ie guranteed way to be pegged as coming from outside.

458Lott

There have been other names that I have called my snowgo. But they are not appropriate for youngsters. Like when the throttle cable pulls out and the machine takes off full throttle. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />

Boggy you got good answers but you need a little more info, it's how we get to our remote cabin in the winter. Riding the trails is a bit boring after you get used to riding a snowmachine. But getting out in deep powder in sloughs and ponds and open fields can be a lot of fun.

Haven't gone in 4 years now, but mountain riding is CRAZY fun but dangerous at times. If I can find an old video of one I will post about it, send me your addy by pm and I will send it to you, it has to be seen to be believed. Lost a good friend (regular at our poker table) several years ago at Cantwell, the foothills of Denali, he just went sailing off a cliff! We usually lose a few people each year to mountain riding, most often avalanches. The best way I can describe mountain riding is like being in charge of your own roller coaster, but you have to make it up as you go along. Getting stuck is not one of the fun parts of riding.

Ok, thanks, I know what you are talking about now. I have seen pictures of them but never personally seen one in action or ridden one of course.

I'd guess they were like a ATV as dangerous as you want to make them.

BCR

BCR,

Sleds can be more dangerous as they generally go much faster than ATV's and snow covers up any rocks, stumps, etc that can toss you off. Also it can be difficult to see dips and bumps in a vast expanse of white. That is what makes drainage ditches in fields so dangerous. Barbed wire fences have been known to decapitate as well. Some of these sleds can go in excess of 80 MPH. Fun on a frozen lake (until there are some heaves in the ice in front of you...)


SS

talking about sno-gos...any reviews on the Ski-Doo Renegade 600 H.O.? I'm looking to buy a 2005 model, carbeurated, for here in Togiak. I've heard those engines often seize, which makes me worried.

Skido. No nothing on that machine. I bought a Scandic 440 long track as I hunt, cut firewood, and explore on the machine. Only problem has been a broken throttle cable.

Referring back to the original post.....taking of waterfowl [cranes] with a rifle is a federal violation....just thought I'd throw that out!

And that is why a lot of folks even rely heavily on the 22LR for shooting seals in the water. It seems too much gun is more often a problem with potential sinkers than not enough. You have to remember, a seal needs to breathe, and a wounded seal will be back to the surface in a short time usually. The trick in seal hunting - I've been in many seal boats - is to be close enough to the seals (when they don't float- anytime except early spring) to be able to get a harpoon in them before they die and/or lose the air in their lungs.

True. It is.........and it is (violated). I suppose 'why' has a lot to do with stray bullets falling from the sky. I'll tell you this, I'd much rather have the falling slug be one of those puny 45 grain bullets than one of the "slugs" that kids sometimes make from a shotshell by cutting the plastic case beneath the shot cup. At least on the old lead shells, one could send the whole forward half of the shell out as a unit which, I'm told, worked pretty well on occasion to slay some really high fliers. I never figured that was real good for a gun pressure-wise. I do think it says something about the Rem 870, so popular among local folks, that I never heard of such a slug blowing one up. I do know I keep that little bit of slug making info filed just in case I ever need some bear slugs and don't have them.


For those who think that hitting accurately with a rifle at 100 yards from aboat is amazing, you obviously have never seen the methods used for hunting seals in the river (Yukon). There, they use spears which are launched by the aid of a "thrower" which gives extra leverage to one's arm. Those spears are 3-4' long and are launched up as much as they are horizontally. The suggestion of such a method being successful sounds ludicrous until you actually see it happen. It is truly amazing. After the first spear finds its mark, it usually isn't long before the animal is finished. It may not sound like the most humane method in the world but it seems to have a higher rate of recovery than a firearm method. The first such seal kill I saw by this method involved several adults and youth. Ironically, it was a 7 year-old boy making his first seal kill who managed to get the first spear in that animal. Seals are good food if a bit different in taste than other mammals. I would, however, challenge anyone to find better tasting liver in any animal- equal, maybe, but no better. There's also nothing quite like dry fish that have been put up in seal oil - and that's a positive comment!

Yes, there is sometimes waste and this is true in seal hunting if you consider a lost animal to be waste. That also sometmes happens in trophy hunting and some probably recall such a thing being mentioned in these pages to even an animal so large as a moose. Certainly, it is fair to say that Native people do not encourage or esteem the wasting of or those who waste game. Quite the contrary.

We do a fair bit of seal hunting here in Newfoundland on the other coast. we hunt mostly in the spring of the year following the ice floes. Seal is a food that most rural Newfoundlanders have a taste for. We also have a fairly large scale commercial hunt here for Harp and Hood seal pelts. The animal activists make their appearances here evry year ahead of the geese. the prices for the pelts has been good the past few years bringing much hard cash into an area where cash can be hard to find at times.
We are not allowed to send any seal product to the US

Seal skulls are very thin. Any 22 calibur can punch into the brain quite easily. I figure a seal skull is a might bit smaller then a wolf skull, femal or not.
Plenty of my people use 22 caliburs for hunting seals up here. Some use 243, 270s, 7mms, etc. The most popular is the 223.
A lot of them hunt caribou with 223s, too. Understand one thing, they are harvesting caribou, not sport hunting.
Most are taken with one shot. If it takes two quick shots to kill one, so be it. Meat is in the freezer (plenty of game are shot multiple times every where in the world). Harvesting caribou is about getting meat, plain and simple.
Personally, I've taken caribou with a 243 and 308. Haven't taken a seal yet. I don't have a 22 Hornet yet ;-)
~~~Suluuq

Down here in krazy kalifornia the natives own kasinos and fish salmon with pitchforks....