I had a Norwegian whaler buddy who had me get him brass, dies and 500 gr. Hornady solids for his .458 Win. Mag, but most of the Norwegians use 9.3x62's on the minke whales. Regulations require them to make a brain shot as the whale is brought alongside the vessel. Mostly unnecessary since the harpoons have a penthrite grenade on the tip that explodes inside the animal and it kills them pretty well. And the harpoon cannons I saw last time I was over there had laser sights and the harpooner could hit a floating bleach bottle at 40 yards. So these guys are pretty consistent in making killing shots.
Minkes are the smallest of the rorquals, about 25 feet long and maybe 6 tons. The skulls I saw were not very thick in the area covering the brain and I was told that penetration wasn't a problem.
The guys that are real bad asses are the Yup'iit of Chukotka, Siberia who were taking grey whales with SKS's in 7.62x39. The data I've seen on those hunts said it takes an average of 9 shots to kill one. And those guys are hunting out of skin boats powered by outboards. They started this after the USSR fell apart and the state owned catcher boat with a harpoon cannon stopped operating. They had a quota of about 130 a year from IWC so they just started hunting them as best they could. The greys are a very important food resource to them. They have gotten some help out of the Inupiat in Barrow over the last few years and have added grenade tipped hand thrown harpoons to their arsenal. There were some guys killed while hunting greys and they kinda needed to use better killing technology.
Posts: 1295 | Location: 3rd Planet from the Sun | Registered: 24 April 2003
Interesting stuff. It'd be a helluva experience to do that. I think I'd have to just go ahead and be the trigger man only, it's just something about fillet knives and whales that seems unappealing .
SKSs, outboards, and whales? Add alchohol to the mix and you've got a molotov cocktail and an accident waiting to happen.
For equipment I'd go with a husky rapala, a st. croix rod, and an abu garcia 6500.
Posts: 673 | Location: St. Paul MN | Registered: 21 April 2001
Sarge, That could be arranged in the case of the Yu'piit in Siberia or the Greenlandic Inuit. In fact I would love to see a tourist program for the Yu'piit especially because they are about as impoverished as impoverished can be. So a non hunting observer program for walrus, seals and cetaceans would be great.
But there are potential legal problems for U.S. citizens who would go and observe on an Icelandic, Norwegian or Japanese whaling vessel because of U.S. trade laws and policy at IWC.
This is appropriate for this forum because the Yu'piit are in need of larger rifles for taking walrus and dispatching cetaceans. I'd think a stainless Model 70 CRF in 9.3x62 would be about perfect. As long as the sights were also stainless as well as any scope mounting system.
Posts: 1295 | Location: 3rd Planet from the Sun | Registered: 24 April 2003
There was another gentleman on the forum here who used to shoot a lot of marine mammals. I thought it was whales but thinking back now it might have been walruses or something. I didn't pay much attention at the time but always meant to ask him more about it.
Karl.
Posts: 3533 | Location: various | Registered: 03 June 2000
Quote: But there are potential legal problems for U.S. citizens who would go and observe on an Icelandic, Norwegian or Japanese whaling vessel because of U.S. trade laws and policy at IWC.
Well, that figures! I don't know how the Hell Greenpeace got veto power over the US IWC contingent but as far as I am concerned, those loonies'd make damned interesting sushi.
Posts: 2690 | Location: Lakewood, CA. USA | Registered: 07 January 2001
I don't think stainless would be a good choice for an action, as the alloys are known to become brittle in extreme cold, and the native peoples of the Northern lands are known to hunt in extreme cold.
Quote: Sarge, That could be arranged in the case of the Yu'piit in Siberia or the Greenlandic Inuit. In fact I would love to see a tourist program for the Yu'piit especially because they are about as impoverished as impoverished can be. So a non hunting observer program for walrus, seals and cetaceans would be great.
But there are potential legal problems for U.S. citizens who would go and observe on an Icelandic, Norwegian or Japanese whaling vessel because of U.S. trade laws and policy at IWC.
This is appropriate for this forum because the Yu'piit are in need of larger rifles for taking walrus and dispatching cetaceans. I'd think a stainless Model 70 CRF in 9.3x62 would be about perfect. As long as the sights were also stainless as well as any scope mounting system.
Posts: 7213 | Location: Alaska | Registered: 27 February 2001
Skinner, your post and the link brought back some memories. Many years ago I befriended some Russian whalers off a whaling ship that had berthed in Sydney, and was invited out for what we could call a 'hunting trip'. I spent a couple of months at sea, chasing whales. These guys were probably no different from most farmers I know - they understood the limits of the 'resource', wouldn't take a cow with calf (or a calf) and had a great deal of respect for their prey. I wasn't regarded as a tourist, and had to do my share - whatever the conditions!! Spent a lot of time freezing my arse (ass) off, and having the bejeezus frightened out me at the pointy end of the ship, )and believe me, some of the swells were BIG!!!) being frozen by the conditions - close to Antarctica, but what an experience!! The pictures in the link were obviously taken in calm conditions!! One thing that amazed me was the accuracy the harpooner could show when shooting at a moving whale, off a moving ship, in high seas - the window of opportunity was so small, but they rarely missed! Thanks!
Posts: 1275 | Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | Registered: 02 May 2002
