Hunting of all types of game animals including birds, protection from dangerous predators up to brown bear and weight/volume of ammunition are all factors in this consideration.
Anonymous
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Well, I have never hunted Alaska and I doubt you have either. Based upon my limited knowledge of the place I think I'd take a Smith & Wesson Model 617 .22 long rifle revolver, and a Winchester Model 70 .338 Win. Mag. Fishing equipment is a good idea too. Or, for a rifle, I might take a Wild West Guns .50 Alaskan.
But mainly I'd get advice from someone who has been there and done that.
thinkingblade
Well, I don't live in Alaska and I've never hunted there, but my Dad did when he was in the military. After a discussion with him (because I actually thought this was an interesting question) I would probably get into a versatile hunting rifle caliber - maybe a 300 Win Mag, maybe even a 338 Win Mag to cover whatever sort of stuff I might have to deal with in a solid dangerous game configuration bolt gun. Then I would probably go with a .22LR revolver, with a longer barrel and good sights. I figure that's what I'm going to use for small game. Birds? Well down here in Washington you can shoot grouse on the side of the road with a .22. If I'm subsistence living I'm not waiting to flush the birds, I'll shoot them on the ground if I can.
I'd certainly like to figure a shotgun in there somewhere, but I'm not willing to limit all of my shots to 75 - 100 yards and in.
Incidentally, I too would be curious what BC has to say on this.
Thinkingblade
august
If you want a good answer, talk to "Bear Crap" who frequents this site. He frequents it much less these days, and we're all a little worse off for it. Excellent contributor who really knows his... pardon the pun... crap.
I'd choose a 12 gauge pump shotgun and a S&W 460XVR.
My reasoning? If I'm hunting to supplement my rations on a "trek," I'm not necessarily going to want to kill a moose for food. Rabbit, ptarmigan, other small game yes... Big, huge animals like moose or even caribou? Nah. Too much effort and too much waste.
A 12 gauge shotgun is so incredibly versatile that it can go from being a defensive gun that will take down a brown bear one minute to an excellent small game gun the next. All it takes is a change of shell.
As for the S&W 460XVR, it will fire .460 S&W Magnum, .454 Casull, and .45 Colt. That means it has the potential to be used against anything from big bear to smaller animals and still be very effective. I certainly wouldn't want to hunt rabbit with .45 Colt, but being able to hunt something a bit larger might be a good alternative. After all, I heard recently that beaver, when prepared properly, tastes fantastic. I don't plan on trying it, but if it was a matter of life and death...
Anyway, the handgun would probably stay loaded with .460 S&W Magnum cartridges when I was using the shotgun for hunting small game so that I could defend myself from bigger threats if necessary.
Big Horn Basin
Haven't been to AK but we have grizzlies in Wyoming so. I'm not a fan of handguns of any caliber for bears and we are talking about survival here so I will have to go with a .22LR handgun of some variety, almost certainly a revolver.
As to a long gun, I'm going with a .338 Win mag. Its pretty good bear medicine but still has fair ballistics out to 400 yards and I can carry a lot more .22 LR instead of shotgun shells
Bigham
When you've got a rifle, then that's the go to for defense from big animals (I'd say 30-06, but insert your preferred full rifle cartridge gun here) so no need to go big on the pistol. I'd probably want a good accurate .22 pistol for small hunting and for being able to carry lots of ammo without too much weight.