Have you ever wished you had "more gun"

I was hunting alone one time in the Catskill Mts., in before light, back against a tree, and very close to me something was huffing and puffing and making lots of noise. I believe it was a black bear.

Too dark to see anything, but could sure hear it. For a moment felt like the hunted rather than the hunter. I was carrying a .308, but just then wouldn't have minded something a tiny bit heavier, like say a Browning M2 MG. lol

Maybe. I just have wished I had aimed better. But I have wished for a shotgun with buckshot in thick brush with hogs around.

IMO a rifle, no matter the caliber, can be a disadvantage when hunting hogs in my area.

Not yet....
Ive wished I had more ammo, but that was mostly cause i had more stuff to shoot at.

I've done virtually all of my big game hunting with 1st a 30-06 and more recently a 308. Killed deer, black bear and have hunted elk unsuccessfully. The older I get the more I realize I've probably carried more gun than I needed.

Once I finished building my 50 BMG, I have wanted to build something similar to one of these.

http://www.anzioironworks.com/MAG-FED-20MM-RIFLE.htm

Hunting, no.

In Afghanistan there were many times I wished I had more gun.

I cannot remember ever wishing for more gun, but I can remember a couple of times being glad I had decided to use enough gun. Those experiences make me always wonder why one keeps seeing those threads about "Is .xxx enough for (insert game here)?" If you have any questions about whether or not a cartridge is adequate, YOU really don't think it's enough gun, so you should move up some.

Aletheia said:

I cannot remember ever wishing for more gun, but I can remember a couple of times being glad I had decided to use enough gun. Those experiences make me always wonder why one keeps seeing those threads about "Is .xxx enough for (insert game here)?" If you have any questions about whether or not a cartridge is adequate, YOU really don't think it's enough gun, so you should move up some.

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I could brag that I killed and tagged every deer that I shot with a .357 revolver, and it IS true. The rest of the story (as paul harvey would say), is that the blood trails were long and the death was slow to come.
I transitioned to a .45colt revolver for deer.

My experiences with. 357 vs flesh also prompted a decade of .45acp ccw. I have recently started carrying my .357s again just because I like revolvers.
...a bit of a Sunday morning ramble.

Only once, for a split second. While moose hunting, walking through some very thick alders, one got up about 10 yards in front of me. The alders were so thick I had shouldered my .300 WIn. Mag. and had the .44 Redhawk in my hand. When that moose got up, .44 Mag. seemed rather small. Fortunately, it went away from me, not at me. With 300 gr. XTP's going 1300 fps, it probably would have done the job, but it sure didn't feel like it at the moment.

Years ago when getting something was the most important goal of the hunt. Anymore, I tend to go the lesser is more route and the hunt itself and the quality and challenge it presents, means more than something dead in the back of the Jeep.

I come from a culture of always wishing we had something bigger. First it was farming, then the military, then in road construction, then in forestry, and most recently and oddest of all, landscaping.

I am well aware of when you buy something, you figure out what your needs are and then figure out what will cover your needs and then throw all that out the window and buy the biggest and most capable item you can afford.

I worked on a golf course for a time. One of those high end private clubs. We had a Cat 416 backhoe which was way bigger than you would ever think you would need for golf maintenance. That is maintenance not construction. We maxed that machine out in one way or another at least once per week and wished we had something bigger. We once rented a 165hp Komatsu front end loader for some work and had that thing see-sawing within minutes.

When it comes to equipment, nothing is ever big enough. I am well aware of using equipment within its limitations but there are certain jobs that require certain equipment and you have to make do with what you have.

Life is hard enough without handicapping yourself with bare minimums.

On to firearms, the answer is no, I have never felt undergunned because I was never so shortsighted to put myself in that position. As an example, I was once deer hunting in northeastern Washington state. I was making my way up an incline power line easement and heard a snuff and a huff to the side of me just in the woods. I thought it must be a deer but as I looked over it was a grizzly bear. The Marlin 1895 45-70 all of the sudden didn’t seem like too much for deer.

I had borrowed that rifle. The guy I borrowed it from had a 30-06 and 270 as well but I told him I don’t like tracking and I was hunting in woods so max range didn’t matter. I had also read a book by Terry Wieland that had advocated using the rifle for the largest and most dangerous animal in the area you were hunting in. I admit, that is probably a bit of fast and loose advice but it nonetheless stuck in the mind of the impressionable 20 something I was at the time. I knew grizzlies were around so I opted for the biggest gun he had.

To this day, if am hunting in an area where there is a chance of running into something that can hurt me, I take the necessary precautions. I wear snake boots the same as I use a gun way bigger than needed for deer and hogs. Hogs aren’t invincible but they run in groups and can get ornery. Oh yeah, and they have sharp tusks. Big guns have never been a problem for me just as I’m sure smaller ones have not been a problem for many others.

There’s no replacement for shot placement. I just like to do it with bigger, heavier, and wider bullets.

I pretty much always bring enough gun - and enough ammo. You never need more ammo when you bring a lot, but you seemingly always do when you don’t.

Not personally, but I was watching a hunting show where they were using 10mm on hogs and I wished they had chosen more gun.

Yes, but it was while checking traps and carrying a .22 handgun. Had a few times where a coyote stood there out of practical range and stared at me. My state does not allow (may now, haven't trapped for several years) a centerfire rifle in posession while tending traps under many circumstances.

Yes. I have been deer hunting with a shotgun and watched deer out of range, that would have been well in range of a .30-06.
That's it though. It was when I was young. We didn't have much money. We had a couple of shotguns and that was it. Dad always killed a deer or two every year with that old Stevens 12-gauge pump though.
Thankfully, I am not limited like that anymore.

The only time I wished I had more gun was turkey hunting once and I called in a 125-150 # timber wolf, my 12 gauge with 3" #5s seemed a little weak

I was sitting in my woods during deer gun season, had my 50cal muzzle loader when a pack of about ten dogs came blowing thru.

luckily they neither saw or winded me so no harm no foul but the next summer I bought a 4566 to tote as my CC woods gun.

alfsauve said:

Not personally, but I was watching a hunting show where they were using 10mm on hogs and I wished they had chosen more gun.

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Were they wishing they could shoot further? Or did the 10mm with the ammo they were using not pack enough punch to take the hogs down?

There has been many times that I wished I had MORE GUNS! But, alas, my checking account and accountant, said no.

Have a blessed day,

Leon

Growing up we always had rumors of mountain lion in the area, but never any real evidence to support it. One day I arrowed a doe and while following blood tail I came across a young buck about 15 ft up in a tree. He didn’t climb the tree, and there were no ropes around. I called that doe lost and walked out revolver in hand. It was a 357, but I certainly wouldn’t have minded having bigger. We walked back in to it next day and the landowner took pictures, set up a trail cam and got some pictures. Last I had heard he still wouldn’t share the pictures for fear of being swamped with poachers looking for a new critter to kill. Walking back in I carried a 30-30 and he had a shotgun with buck. There have been other reports nearby now and plenty evidence to show a small population but to my knowledge there is still no pictures that have been made public.

I can think of plenty of times, when I wish I had brought more accuracy...

Hog huntin Harry said:

Have y'all ever been in a situation where you wish you brought/had "more gun" ?

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In 2003 I went to Canada for moose. Since it was probably going to be a once in a lifetime event for me due to costs, I went with the flintlock. Might as well make a memory instead of getting home and saying, "I wish I had taken the flinter instead of the .308 with the heavy bullet, hand loads."

So there I was in an area covered with moose tracks, but the weather was warm, so..., it was likely a cow or two, and most likely night time movement as the guide told me and the rest of the hunting party that moose don't get into a rutting frame of mind until the weather cools off, and it was unseasonably warm. So I found a nice rock outcrop where I could sit inside some brush, just a few feet above the ground in a natural blind, and thus I could look out over the top of the ground cover and see pretty well across an open area. IF a moose crossed the area, I'd have a good sight picture, and with a .54 caliber at under 100 yards, could take a bull moose if he was nice enough to present the right spot. The small evergreens sprouting up here and there made excellent range markers too, so that I'd not look at the moose (much bigger than a whitetail) and think he was much closer than he actually was.

As I sat I noticed after several hours, around sunset, something was to the North of me, and the sun would be in whatever it was eyes. I could see brush moving around, but not the animal.

Out stepped a large black bear. Wow, how cool is that? I thought, A bear not in a zoo or wandering around the neighborhood having strayed from the national park. And it was very cool, until the bear began to saunter in my general direction and a pair of cubs following her as she moved.

A sow bear and two cubs was cool, but coming my direction was not cool at all. I have huge respect for shebears with cubs, and I'd read that they often assume that humans close to the cubs are a threat, and react in an unneighborly manner. It was rather swampy near by as well, so my route "out" of where I was sitting was the path she was taking toward me, at the time.

The the little voice inside my head then said, "Dude, you have only one shot, and if she gets too close you may have to shoot her, and if the shot doesn't stop her, you're bear food, and if it does, you've killed the cubs too..., and you're the visitor, not them." So "pucker factor" was starting to increase in a big way, I didn't want to shoot any bears, and a "warning shot" was pretty much my only shot if she and the cubs didn't scamper off, and then I thought, "Gee I wish I had the .308 with the heavy hand loads instead of a single shot flintlock, right now."

At fifty yards I decided it would be best if she saw me from a "distance" rather than hope she would wander past me as she came close and maybe caught my scent. So I stood up and waved, and yelled, "Good evening!". She stopped, took a hard look at me, turned and collected the cubs and thankfully made a hasty departure at a rapid pace into the brush. WHEW...

So YES there has been a time when I wished I had a different gun, if not "more" gun...

LD