Welcome to the forum AK10mm! Life is full of compromise but the AR-15 offer a lot of good attributes. The 6.5 Grendel has been used effectively on caribou, mountain goats, white/black tail deer, black bear and wolves plus smaller critters. A 6.5 Grendel loaded with twenty five rounds of deep penetrating monolithic bullets like Barnes would still beat some handgun cartridges against large bears in an emergency.
There are a few forum members from Alaska.
There are a few forum members from Alaska.