The fiancee claims she saw a white animal about the woods on the edge of our yard the other day. Catch is she only saw a blur of the animal as it was running by she claims it was dog height, and moving faster. I'm thinking it's probably nothing either a stray dog or wolf (I would think a wolf would be with a pack)possibly a fox or lynx. Anyways I intend to look through the woods and see if I can find anything that can point one way or the other as to what animal it is or if it is a potential threat to our 2 year old.

There is an abandoned kwansitt (sp?) hut on the landlords property near the forest line that could be home to an animal family. We do have black bears that roam the property on occasion, which brings me to my question of is .308 powerful enough to stop a black bear in case I do run into one? The ammunition I currently have for it is 150 gr FMJs. The rifle is a PTR 91 in case it matters. My other question is since we hardly ever see any black bears near the area (maybe 2-3 times a year around summer) is it even worth the trouble of grabbing my .308? Because I'd rather use my AR-15 which I am more familiar with and practiced at shooting accurately not to mention the lighter recoil. i think I would much rather shoot into the ground to try to scare a bear away than actually shoot it (something a friend of mine agrees with). As well as having a "battle belt" style carrying rig for in which I can carry 3 spare magazines. For what its worth I don't expect to find anything (I think my fiancees imagination is getting the better of her however my SIL said something similar) and the house we rent is not in the middle of a forest but rather on the edge of one and we have a good clear area with a dirt driveway that loops about the house.

The area I live in is a few miles outside of Eagle River across the highway from the Birchwood Range. (I can share more details about where I live through PM if it helps with responses.)

Could be a coyote they are more likely to be alone. As for the .308 it is plenty for black bear even would do brown if the range was not too far and a good bonded bullet used. I have killed black bear with a .223
Pat

Wow what was your bullet choice, distance, and barrel length?

My money would be on stray dog, coyote or wolf

Plenty of Lynx around...

Lynxes?  Lynxee?

Agree, I think part of me wants to see something interesting though.
I did a walk through the hut and walked a bit through the woods to the edge of the property to see if I could see anything but I didn't see a thing.

16 inch barrel and 75 grain tap. It was out of necessity on the job rather than by choice.
Pat

I  have seen a  wolf once in awhile in Anchorage while out on my Mountain bike, near Campbell creek.

But it takes off too quick for me to pull out my phone and take a pic.

We definitely surprised each other