Wayne in BC
New member
In the spring of 1966 i was working for "Great Canadian Oilsands" (owned by Sunoco) in Ft McMurray Alberta.
We lived in a camp of some 2500 men 20 miles from the then small town of Ft McMurray and had little entertainment unless you liked to gamble or drink
My buddy and i both liked to fish and the fishing was spectacular in that remote area on the Athabasca river. We took full advantage and had a ball! Now the caterers and cooks at that camp were all Portugese and we soon found out that they were fanatics about fish so we dropped off a mess of Walleye one day at the kitchen. Cripes! You would have thought we had given them a sack of gold instead of fish the way they carried on! We promised to keep the fresh fish coming and for that we could do no wrong and got the absolute best meals of anyone in that camp!
The kitchen was normally off limits for us but we were welcome anytime and i started to get fat for the first time in my young life, went from 165 to 225 in several months
Earlier that spring my buddy and i had been sent down to Marcus Hook PA to Sunoco's big refinery on a training course for 4 weeks. That was an interesting trip, very little work, full wages plus a nice expense account, rental car, and we partied! One day my buddy dragged me into a pawn shop and pointed to an old Webley .38 pistol saying ........i always wanted a pistol and i'm gonna buy that one cause its only 30 bucks! I, having some experience with handguns said......first of all that is a wimpy old pistol (we called them Wobbly Webleys) and .38 special is way under powered. Secondly, they are illegal in Canada unless you have a permit! He promptly ignored my advice and bought it anyway, then smuggled it home in his luggage
Then one day when we were in the kitchen gobbling pastries and generally BSing, the cooks were complaining about the Bears being too aggressive down at the dump about a mile from the camp. They were not waiting for the cooks helpers to throw the leftover food out of the truck, causing them to sit terrified in the truck while the bears helped themselves My buddy immediately announced that he had just the thing for Bears and would go shoot some of them! I said nothing then as the cooks smiled and slapped him on the back........
When we got out of there i whirled on him and said, you bonehead! You can't shoot Bears with a .38 wimpy! Can too he said! That guy had no clue about firearms and especially handguns, he had just watched too much TV and believed the BS. He was determined to do it though and i said, i have an extra rifle, a 30/30 and you can use it, i will come along and use my 30/06. Nope gonna shoot some bears with my new pistol!
The season was open for bears and after a few were shot the rest would stay away from people i thought, only problem was, how to keep my buddy....and ME from getting chewed on with him just making them mad with that wimpy .38?
That late afternoon we headed down the road to the dump in a company truck with one of the cooks helpers and several more following in more trucks to see the great feat their "saviors" would accomplish. Arriving there to an audience of some 20 or so assorted scungy Black bears waiting for handouts and my buddy happily bails out of the truck with his "big" pistol, i jump out behind with the rifle, all the while scared spitless about what might be coming. Right away he picks a Bear that was about 60 feet away and raises the Pistol while i continue to rag on him about how this is a mistake. Kerpow! He lets one go and dust kicks up a couple feet under the Bear! That Bear and a few others kinda jump and then go back to scrounging while he takes aim again! Me i'm pleading with him to listen to reason, trying to explain that even if that Pistol was enough gun for a Bear he would have to not only hit it but in the right place.......no luck with reason and Kerpow! This time i see dust fly from the Bear"s butt and it jumps with a big WHOOOFF! My idiot buddy yells.....i gottum i gottum! I raise the rifle and as the Bear who is probably just well bruised looks our way and whuffs angrily i put a 180 gr Winchester in his skull. Down goes the Bear and my buddy starts yelling that i should let him do his own Bear killing
continued..........
The commotion had spooked the other nearby Bears even though i doubt they had ever been shot at before and several had run off into the bush. One was lumbering toward the trucks now though and a couple of the cooks helpers started jabbering in broken english about him being a bad bear and pointing fingers while saying bang bang or sumpthin close.
My idiot bud who still had not figured it out said, this ones mine! You let me do it! I backed off and was tempted to let the damn Bear trash him but just replaced the round i had used and waited feeling real scared, i had shot several black bears but not this way!
That typically ignorant, big and spoiled "dump Bear", kept coming for the truck purposefully and as the audience retreated behind the trucks the fool is standing with that big but little pistol one handed at arms length. Mr dumbass Bear never even slowed down, plodding towards us, i was getting antsy when it got to be about 30 feet away, had my rifle down but safety off and knuckles a tad white i imagine as i clenched the grip.
Kerpow! That hollow and unimpressive sound that says wimpy pistol, Mr bear instantly sets back on his azz and starts biting at his front leg while bawling, then looks at us and starts coming but not real fast while popping his jaws! One more Kerpow! Don't know where that bullet went but it had no effect and as i acquired a sight picture, buddy says shoot as he turns for the truck. Lucky for me that my first shot caught the booger just far enough into the meat of the shoulder, although it was intended different and rolled the bear over!
My second shot from maybe 10 ft away was only pointed as my scope was even more useless at that distance and went somewhere in the middle but dropped him again. Third was into the head of the critter who was stunned and just thrashing some. More luck than good management and i needed a change of underwear at least but kept up a tough guy attitude while shaking inside.
The upside was that my bud had got a good scare and nobody had made it into the obit column or a courtroom. The bear problem never really went away but was better for a while as we got the most aggressive one and the cookhouse did not push the issue further after witnessing a near miss, they may have been foreigners but they weren't stupid.
There was a memo came down from the admin office to the effect that NO EMPLOYEE or contractor was to be shooting or hunting on company property and nothing more said. I agreed
Real late coming memo to self......party with this guy but no hunting or shooting! Even better when a week later he claimed that his pistol got stolen
We lived in a camp of some 2500 men 20 miles from the then small town of Ft McMurray and had little entertainment unless you liked to gamble or drink
My buddy and i both liked to fish and the fishing was spectacular in that remote area on the Athabasca river. We took full advantage and had a ball! Now the caterers and cooks at that camp were all Portugese and we soon found out that they were fanatics about fish so we dropped off a mess of Walleye one day at the kitchen. Cripes! You would have thought we had given them a sack of gold instead of fish the way they carried on! We promised to keep the fresh fish coming and for that we could do no wrong and got the absolute best meals of anyone in that camp!
The kitchen was normally off limits for us but we were welcome anytime and i started to get fat for the first time in my young life, went from 165 to 225 in several months
Earlier that spring my buddy and i had been sent down to Marcus Hook PA to Sunoco's big refinery on a training course for 4 weeks. That was an interesting trip, very little work, full wages plus a nice expense account, rental car, and we partied! One day my buddy dragged me into a pawn shop and pointed to an old Webley .38 pistol saying ........i always wanted a pistol and i'm gonna buy that one cause its only 30 bucks! I, having some experience with handguns said......first of all that is a wimpy old pistol (we called them Wobbly Webleys) and .38 special is way under powered. Secondly, they are illegal in Canada unless you have a permit! He promptly ignored my advice and bought it anyway, then smuggled it home in his luggage
Then one day when we were in the kitchen gobbling pastries and generally BSing, the cooks were complaining about the Bears being too aggressive down at the dump about a mile from the camp. They were not waiting for the cooks helpers to throw the leftover food out of the truck, causing them to sit terrified in the truck while the bears helped themselves
My buddy immediately announced that he had just the thing for Bears and would go shoot some of them! I said nothing then as the cooks smiled and slapped him on the back........When we got out of there i whirled on him and said, you bonehead! You can't shoot Bears with a .38 wimpy! Can too he said! That guy had no clue about firearms and especially handguns, he had just watched too much TV and believed the BS. He was determined to do it though and i said, i have an extra rifle, a 30/30 and you can use it, i will come along and use my 30/06. Nope gonna shoot some bears with my new pistol!
The season was open for bears and after a few were shot the rest would stay away from people i thought, only problem was, how to keep my buddy....and ME from getting chewed on with him just making them mad with that wimpy .38?
That late afternoon we headed down the road to the dump in a company truck with one of the cooks helpers and several more following in more trucks to see the great feat their "saviors" would accomplish. Arriving there to an audience of some 20 or so assorted scungy Black bears waiting for handouts and my buddy happily bails out of the truck with his "big" pistol, i jump out behind with the rifle, all the while scared spitless about what might be coming. Right away he picks a Bear that was about 60 feet away and raises the Pistol while i continue to rag on him about how this is a mistake. Kerpow! He lets one go and dust kicks up a couple feet under the Bear! That Bear and a few others kinda jump and then go back to scrounging while he takes aim again! Me i'm pleading with him to listen to reason, trying to explain that even if that Pistol was enough gun for a Bear he would have to not only hit it but in the right place.......no luck with reason and Kerpow! This time i see dust fly from the Bear"s butt and it jumps with a big WHOOOFF! My idiot buddy yells.....i gottum i gottum! I raise the rifle and as the Bear who is probably just well bruised looks our way and whuffs angrily i put a 180 gr Winchester in his skull. Down goes the Bear and my buddy starts yelling that i should let him do his own Bear killing
continued..........
The commotion had spooked the other nearby Bears even though i doubt they had ever been shot at before and several had run off into the bush. One was lumbering toward the trucks now though and a couple of the cooks helpers started jabbering in broken english about him being a bad bear and pointing fingers while saying bang bang or sumpthin close.
My idiot bud who still had not figured it out said, this ones mine! You let me do it! I backed off and was tempted to let the damn Bear trash him but just replaced the round i had used and waited feeling real scared, i had shot several black bears but not this way!
That typically ignorant, big and spoiled "dump Bear", kept coming for the truck purposefully and as the audience retreated behind the trucks the fool is standing with that big but little pistol one handed at arms length. Mr dumbass Bear never even slowed down, plodding towards us, i was getting antsy when it got to be about 30 feet away, had my rifle down but safety off and knuckles a tad white i imagine as i clenched the grip.
Kerpow! That hollow and unimpressive sound that says wimpy pistol, Mr bear instantly sets back on his azz and starts biting at his front leg while bawling, then looks at us and starts coming but not real fast while popping his jaws! One more Kerpow! Don't know where that bullet went but it had no effect and as i acquired a sight picture, buddy says shoot as he turns for the truck. Lucky for me that my first shot caught the booger just far enough into the meat of the shoulder, although it was intended different and rolled the bear over!
My second shot from maybe 10 ft away was only pointed as my scope was even more useless at that distance and went somewhere in the middle but dropped him again. Third was into the head of the critter who was stunned and just thrashing some. More luck than good management and i needed a change of underwear at least but kept up a tough guy attitude while shaking inside.
The upside was that my bud had got a good scare and nobody had made it into the obit column or a courtroom. The bear problem never really went away but was better for a while as we got the most aggressive one and the cookhouse did not push the issue further after witnessing a near miss, they may have been foreigners but they weren't stupid.
There was a memo came down from the admin office to the effect that NO EMPLOYEE or contractor was to be shooting or hunting on company property and nothing more said. I agreed
Real late coming memo to self......party with this guy but no hunting or shooting! Even better when a week later he claimed that his pistol got stolen 
