campfires and guns

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gspn

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The nights are beginning to cool off a little and while I had planned on going camping on the TN river, the family schedule prevented that from happening.

So tonight I simply went out back and had a fire in the chiminia. Even though I was in my own backyard I felt the urge to bring a sidearm. Not out of any need...but simply because it "feels" right to have a gun with a campfire.

Am I alone here?
 
Nope, you're not alone. Here is my campfire on an elk scouting trip in central Idaho a couple of years ago. Although you can't see it, there is a S&W 57 .41 Mag. in a shoulder holster under my green jacket. Always comforting to have a little insurance along.

BillatBWC08.jpg

L.W.
 
LeanWolf...that is a great picture. I can only imagine the story that goes along with it!
 
Thanks GSPN and Colt Python Elite. As for my Ford F250, it is a 1975 V8 360 4x4 that I bought new in 1975. It is only used for my outdoor activities and sometimes to pick up some bags of fertilizer for my wife's garden. ;) There are only 96,000 actual miles on it and it runs like a champ.

GSPN, my partner and I were camped there for three nights and spent the days scouting different drainages, my partner in one and I in another. This is an area that drains Black Warrior Creek. During that entire time I saw one other person and he was a game warden who was waaaay back up in the mountains where I was walking. A very nice man, too. We talked at length, mainly about the two wolf packs up there. He told me a couple of canyons to check out as he'd seen elk in them.

Nights were spent by the campfire after chowing down on good food and a cold beer. Mornings were bacon, eggs, and hot coffee. I love being out in the mountains whether I kill an elk or deer or not.

L.W.
 
We have one that was bought new, also...1977 F150 Ranger XLT 460 2WD....whopping 47k on the clock...On topic, it sometimes hauls a gun.
 
Nope, your not along, at all. I just built a fire in my fire pit in the backyard last night. My 9mm was there as always. Carrying it is as natural as carrying my wallet.


Lonewolf, love that old ford.
 
You can be fallin' down drunk in Florida and be legal with a shoulder rig........you can legally even defend youself while in that condition..........for what it's worth.
 
I'm not bum rapping anyone, so don't take anything personal.

But Leanwolf ain't shooting, he's camping, and just happens to be smart enough to be able to protect himself should the situation arise.

Yes they go together, I have a little tow behind rv and when at the camp always keep a firearm within arms reach a shotgun on the rack inside the door, if not on me.

Just my 2 C.
 
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I have a firepit in my back yard. I, too, feel something is missing if I'm not carrying when I'm back there, let alone out in the woods (I do a lot of day-hiking.)

So, yeah, I have one with me.
 
I've thought a lot about this one over the years. There is a part of me that longs to share my love of firearms, especially the single action army, around a campfire with friends and kids and loved ones. And yet I don't... because handling and passing around and talking about firearms doesn't quite seem to work in the low light of the campfire. I want to tell stories and talk about the guns and show them to others, both shooters and non-shooters alike. It would seem the campfire is a splendid place to do that.

But its not. People can't see really well in the flickering light. Some might be drinking. I don't want anybody who doesn't already know how to handle a SAA without screwing up the timing to handle my guns or drop them in the dirt. Of course you have to unload the firearm and then watch it like a hawk while somebody else handles it.

This is where the the campfire and the guns get really cross-ways with each other. You want to share it with people, and the legend and lore of the campfire would seem the most lovely and ideal place for that. But there's just too many variables and too much liability combined with poor lighting to allow for a safe and well supervised communion.

Tell all the stories around the campfire you want, but my advice is to keep your gun in its holster. Probably best to show it and demonstrate it at the firing line on the range in broad daylight.
 
Perhaps I would not advertise the 41 mag and the beer in hand.
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Ahhh, the WCTU shows up to pee on everyone's parade again. :rolleyes:

He's enjoying a beer while sitting around a campfire, not doing kegstands and stumbling around blind drunk.

He's got his sidearm holstered, not waving it around trying to shoot a beer can of his partner's head.

The teetotal nannying is mighty tiresome. Intoxication and shooting are a bad combination -- as is intoxication and pretty much anything else requiring care. Having a drink while armed is not necessarily some grave crime against humanity.

Having said that, yup a campfire sure does feel right with your favorite shootin' iron nearby!
 
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I'd kind of like to see him do a good keg stand!


Kidding-thats hilarious Sam-"shootin beer cans off his partners head"!
 
LOL

Since I EDC at ALL times [ cept in shower,then its in bathroom ] I don't see the point of a 'campfire' as a beer or gun time :).

But yes to carrying a different gun when in the woods [ and at a campfire ].

Its generally a wheel gun for LARGE critters,as compared to a G-23 in all other AO.
 
Most of the time when I am hiking or camping, I have a DA revolver. I was sitting out by the campfire once when we were near Enchanted Rock, and I really wished I had, not just a revolver, but my Colt SAA or, at the very least, my Ruger vaquero.
 
My back yard is visited by coyotes quite frequently. I am armed while around the camp fire out back, mowing the lawn, checking the propane....
 
Just returned from Estes Park, Colorado. Fortunately I left before the floods started, so I missed all of that, thank God.

I thought nothing about sitting around the campfire with a 1911 on my belt, and given the way black bears are getting adventurous in Colorado, I wished I had bigger gun.

And yes, I kicked back a cold one or two! There is a very good micro-brewery in Estes Park, I sure hope they escape the flooding.
 
we are not amused said:
Just returned from Estes Park, Colorado. Fortunately I left before the floods started, so I missed all of that, thank God.

I thought nothing about sitting around the campfire with a 1911 on my belt, and given the way black bears are getting adventurous in Colorado, I wished I had bigger gun.

And yes, I kicked back a cold one or two! There is a very good micro-brewery in Estes Park, I sure hope they escape the flooding.
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Reminds me of a friends story of being stationed in ND while in the USAF.

Camping at a USFS campground ,crawled out of the tent to relieve himself in the middle of the night, his camp was along a stream and it was very foggy, that being done he was thirsty and decide to get the water jug out of the cooler, it was on the concrete picnic table.

He opened the cooler sat on the table bench and turning up the water jug to take a drink noticed another person setting at the opposite end of the table which spooked him to the point that he dropped the jug, and that in turn frightened the BLACK BEAR that had just moments before had be raiding the cooler, a fact later found out from the scattering of the rest of the contents of the cooler that were all about the area of the table.

Afterwards he always carried his side arm on himself at all times.
 
Most of the time we go camping, Saturday afternoon is shooting time. There are normally around 20 of us, and roughly half of the group shoots. Evening/early night some might scout for hogs, unsuccessfully thus far. The property owners have told us to kill any hogs or coyotes on sight, if it is possible and safe to do so.

After that the guns are generally put away, as far as I know, as there is a fair amount of tipplin' going on by some. Not falling down college style, but more than a couple. As to who may or may not still be armed, I couldn't say. Concealed is concealed.

We are all adults, we all know not to handle firearms unnecessarily in camp. Show and tell is on the range, or occasionally Early Friday as people are showing up, before the festivities begin. Anyone who felt like they should would be quickly admonished and banished from future trips. We are big on our mellow not getting harshed. I always have something at least in the tent (HIGHLY doubtful I am the only one), and on one occasion kept my CC piece on for the night. A coyote howled very close to the campsite, and it just made me feel a little better. Particularly when wandering off into darkness to um, divest myself of excess fluids. Happy to report it stayed in the holster and nothing untowards occurred. Of course the drinking portion of my weekend is usually Friday night, Saturday night is kept well within reason, if at all. Wifey and I are usually on breakfast duty early Sunday morning.

BTW, the tent gun of late is a single action in .45 Colt. I concur with some of the above, SA revolvers in the woods just seems right.
 
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