Rebirth: Happened to me carry stories

[SalchaketJoe]

Months ago I started this thread and it seemed very popular so I thought I would bring it back. My intent is for all to read, post, learn. The last one got locked after a lot of good stories due to off topic posts and bickering. So here again is my story, and this time lets try to keep this one alive.

About five years ago I was visiting friends with the now ex. Warm climate state that may not allow concealed carry. Anyway, at the time I carried a Beretta Tomacat 32 auto, inside the front waistband in a small clip type holster. Set up worked well in the hot climate with light clothing. One night the ex and I decided to walk to the corner store that was about half a mile down the road. The friends lived in a subdivision near a fairly well travelled road and the store was on that road.

We made it OK, then as we walked out of the store, a pickup with a bunch of late teenish males pulled into the parking lot and jumped out. We crossed an intersection and were walking down the sidewalk on the side of that main road when I looked back and noticed that the teens did not go into the store but rather two were trailing us about 40 yards back and the other two had crossed the road and were opposite us, walking fast to pass us. When they got about 50 yards ahead, they crossed and we were in between the two pairs. The ones in front slowing down while the two behind picked up the pace.

Without a word I handed my big gulp to the ex, half discretely pulled the .32 out and chambered a round (I was younger then, now there is one in the chamber), keeping the pistol low and in front of me. One of the fellows in front happenend to see this and the two groups quickly dispersed.

Dont know what was about to go down that night, but I am glad I didnt find
out.

 

[Losov]

I think the slide racking sends a message even if you've already got one in the chamber. It seems to have in this case.

 

[inthelineofire]

According to the OP, the perps saw the firearm and decided to turn around. It says nothing about them hearing him "rack the slide."

I know I'm not going to be "racking" any slide when I already have one round chambered. I just effectively pissed away a round I very well may need later on.

 

[Losov]

And I said nothing about them hearing the slide being racked; he said he chambered a round and was observed. In any case, he made his possession of a weapon known to them which seems to have been all that was needed. That's better than having to fire.

 

[Warhawk83]

If the first thread got locked because of bickering.....
Might want to keep that to a minimum.
Just saying...

 

[JellyJar]

I think the OP did the right thing under the circumstances. What bothers me is the police had somehow got involved he might have been charged and convicted of a crime like brandishing or something because so many people don't understand the realities of violent crime.

 

[Mad Chemist]

I really enjoy these types of threads. Often enough, they have some very useful information and a minimum of clutter.

Usually, these threads will get locked after random posters start nitpicking the fine points of a story. The nitpicking evolves into a pi$$ing match, the level of discourse drops to unacceptably low levels, and the thread is locked as a result.

Remember, these stories are past tense unless their authors are advocating something stupid or unsafe there is no reason to armchair quarterback the decisions that they made at the time. Whatever they happened to do they succeeded. Whether they sailed through by pure tactical genius, or muddled through by pure luck, there are still useful items that we can all glean from these experiences.

So PLEASE, keep the nitpicking to a minimum and keep the arguments to PMs. I would like to see this one last a while.

Thanks.
JH

 

[rainbowbob]

Clearly, the OP is not looking for a post-mortem discussion of HIS incident. This thread might remain open if it is used to post YOUR stories and thoughtfully discuss strategies and tactics.

 

[inthelineofire]

Just saying it puts you at an obvious disadvantage to "rack the slide" if you have one round already chambered.

Kudos to the OP for a job well done. All he needs now is a 1911

 

[SalchaketJoe]

Have a 1911 now. To clarify, when I chambered the round, it was not to brandish or scare them off, I was preparing for what was, I believe, seconds away from going down. I was in "go"mode. I was then and am now happy for the actual outcome.

 

[inthelineofire]

As you should be. Congrats on a job VERY well done. A crisis averted is always the best way.

We now return to your regular programming...

 

[saddlebum]

i was on a cell tower site at 2am in the boondocks of se oklahoma. i had left the farm gate open as there were no livestock in this pasture, i saw truck lights come through the gate and head for the cell site. i walked toward the compound gate thinking it was probably the land owner seeing what i was doing.

the pickup pulled up behind my work truck and four very large very intoxicated men got out. i asked can i help you and one replied we're just gonna take what ever you have ,it was then i realized i had taken my pistol off and layed it in the floorboard to be more comfortable on the long drive.

i had a flash light in my hand that has a laser pointer on it so i flip on the laser and put it in the middle of the closest guys chest and said bad idea fella's stopping them in thier tracks while i made my way to the door of my truck opened it grabbed my pistol and stepped back to the front of my truck for cover.they went back to thier truck and high tailed out of there. after they were gone it hit me i got week and threw up a couple times.now i never take my gun off til i go to bed.

 

[Armored farmer]

I'll briefly post my reason for getting a ccp.
During a family vacation to the southwest, my family (including teenage son's girlfriend) was heading north out of N.M. back into Colo. As we were leaving the remnants of a pretty fair sized town the girlfriend needed to use a restroom. We passed one or two convenience stores due to their clientelle hanging around outside (Sat nite drunks). What appeared to be the last chance in town didn't look too bad, and we decided it would do. Not needing gas, I pulled alongside a chain link fence at the edge of the parking lot while son and g.f. went to the restroom. The kids had barely gotten inside when about a dozen teens and early twentyish drunk/high delinquent looking punks came through a slash in the fence and nearly surrounded our car. There were two of them in front of our car yelling in spanish and showing what I thought to be gang signs (I'm a country boy...never seen that before or since). My car was still running, the two in front were looking at me, so I put my hand on the gear selector and had a stare-down with gang-sign-flasher guy. I think he got the idea that the first thing that I would do would be to flatten him. They soon wandered off after spouting some more Spanish at me. I drove up close to the convenience store door, got the kids, and got out of town.

I had brought my .357 on the trip, but had left it at the cabin near Durango.
I should be getting my ccp soon, and won't be unarmed next time. However, everything turned out ok....so no regrets on my part

 

[Zundfolge]

kbbailey, for future reference you can CCW in your car without a permit in Colorado (dunnow about New Mexico though).


A couple of years ago my wife called me to let me know her car had overheated. She was following some friends so she just left her car in a McDonald's parking lot (the one at Garden of the Gods and I-25 for those of you that know the CoSp area) and rode with them to their destination and called me from there. It was just after dark.

So I drove up to the McDonalds and started looking over the car.

This particular McDonalds also serves as a sort of make shift Greyhound bus station and there were a couple of "disadvantaged urban youth types" sitting outside the McDonalds waiting on a bus. They saw me looking at my wife's car and they started heading my way. One of them split off and went wide and was moving a little faster so he could get around to my other side before his buddy got to me.

I grabbed my holster through my shirt and "adjusted" it while making eye contact with the closest urchin, he clearly realized what was under my shirt and his eyes got big and he turned about face and quickly walked back to his duffel bag by the bus waiting bench. His buddy stopped where he was and looked back at his friend with a confused look in his face, then made eye contact with me ... I smiled and he turned and walked back to his buddy with that kind of dejected "what happened?" posture
When he got back to his buddy and his buddy apparently told him what happened and they grabbed their bags and went into the McDonalds to continue waiting on their bus.


So I guess the "Strategy and Tactics" lessons learned here are.
1) Always be armed.
2) Nothing beats good situational awareness.
3) Always remain calm.

 

[cpallenjr]

Here's mine...... (sorry it's long)

This incident occured in 1985. I used to be a field service engineer in Arizona and always carried a revolver in my car. Back in those days there was no such thing as a concelaed weapons permit so it generally lived in my trunk with my tools. I was at my (now ex-) wife's christmas party in Tucson, and a friend of one of the employees was drunk and very out of control and the host asked them both to leave.

A few minutes later, there was a heavy pounding at the door and a couple of the men answered it. It was the employee, who had been stabbed presumably by the other guy, actually a slashing type of injury down his face and across his neck. I was a corpsman in the AF and knew the guy need first aid quick and if we brought him inside we could all be at risk so I pushed him back outside and helped - pushed- dragged him to my car. I popped open the trunk and set him down on the edge and he passed out. Someone inside reported they had called 911. I got out my first aid kit and a package of 4x4 guaze pads to try and stop the bleeding.

The other guy was across the street ranting and raving and trying to get into a car. He was yanking the door handles, pounding windows and kicking at the car, saying 'Just wait untill I get into this m.... f..... car' over and over. One of the other men had come outside with me, the rest of the party was hanging back up on the porch.

Crazy man then manages to break out the vent window and opens the drivers door. I pulled my revolver (S&W 65, still have it) out of the rug and grabbed my 12V latern. He climbs in and reaches into the back seat and comes out with a baseball bat, and the first thing he did was to hammer the roof of the car. He spun around with the bat raised over his head at started towards us. I shined that big old light in his eyes and he recoiled back, and I told him that we had called the cops and he'd better go. I could faintly hear sirens and a helicopter, but for the most part it seemed like only me and him existed and everything was going in it seemed like slow motion. We repeated the approach-spotlight-retreat routine acouple of times. I don't remember it but I was told later that I was holding the revolver behind my back in my right hand. The first policeman arrived, casually got out of his car and kind of cluelessly looked around asked what was going on. Crazyman resumed his approach and I shined the light in his face again and he pounds the bat on the ground. The guy who had come out to the car with me and was at that moment holding pressure on the victim yells to the cop that crazy man stabbed someone and that I had a gun and was going to shoot crazyman if he came any closer (and ya know I may have said that myself, but not to the cop!)

About that moment a couple more cops roll up and a firetruck. Cop #1 pulls his pistol and kinda pans back and forth between us and says 'OK both of you put down your weapons and get down on the ground', do it NOW!'.

Crazyman turns to the cop and man I tell you he was menacing. I just held my light on him and about three cops approach him, the one with his gun drawn. Crazy man kept pounding at the ground and then another cop jumps him from behind and they manage to take him down. They hand cuffed him and when he pounded his head down onto the car hood they had him laid out on they ended up hog tying him. Would have made a great episode of cops let me tell you. I put my piece back into it's rug and into it's place under the parcel shelf and the paramedics got the victim who had regained conscienceness (more drunk and drugged then injured I guess).

By that time there must have been 10 Tucson Police and Pima County Sheriff cars, 5 or 6 firetrucks, and a couple of ambulances all on this little residential street. I just stood there kind of waiting to see if they were going to do anything with me. I saw the homeowner/party host pointing me out to a police sergeant who then walked down to me. He said ' you the guy with the gun?' and I said yes sir. He then said let me see it and i reached in and handed him the rug. He zipped it open and picked out the weapon, swung open the cylinder and dumped out the cartridges. Sniffed the barrel. Asked me for my ID and walked away, I guess to his car. All very non-challant. It was very surreal to me with all the flashing lights and people milling around. I was feeling really funny - detached as though I was outside of myself.

The Sergeant walked back over and handed me my driver's license and the rug with the revolver zipped inside. He asked if I was ready and willing to shoot the guy if he had crossed the street and I said yes. He said that he was glad that I didn't have to and turned and walked away.

A couple of weeks later I found that he had kept the cartridges.

 

[tunnug]

I used to be a cabinet/counter-top installer that traveled a lot around the neighboring towns besides my own town and since I worked alone I always had a gun in my truck, whenever I ended up working into the night I would put it on "just in case".

One afternoon my boss calls me and asked me to work late to finish a house, I said no problem and headed to the job site which was on the edge of town on a new development.

As I worked into the evening it got dark out with just the moonlight and the occasional car going past on the road about 75yrds away, the house was by itself on a new section with the new/occupied houses a ways away.

I would walk out to the truck for my tools as I needed them and on one of those times I got the feeling of being watched, so I stop and look around into the darkness, under a small tree close to the road I see 3 silhouettes and notice they are watching me, I could see they were smoking and could hear the low murmur of talk so I figured they're probably headed to the store down the road and stopped to see what I was doing so I went back to my work.

In the next 20 min or so I made a few more trips to the truck and noticed they were still doing the same thing as before, sitting there watching so I thought they may be planing something because they could see the back of my truck with about 5k worth of tools and machinery, I walked up to the cab, opened the door and making sure they could see me by the cab light I threaded the holster on my belt and put the gun in, walked back in the house and did more work, walked back out after about 10 minutes and noticed they were gone.

I'm certain they were trying to get up the nerve to do something but the sight of the gun was enough to change their minds, about 2 weeks later I read in the paper how some young man that was staying with relatives at that subdivision, along with some friends, had broken into an older couples home and killed one while robbing them, I still wonder if they were the same guys.

 

[GojuBrian]

When I was a kid my dad took me and my brother fishing. We went down to a local creek that had a high cliff on the other side from our bank. Some teenagers came up with .22 rifles and began shooting down into the water infront of us. My dad yelled at them and told them their bullets were richocheting off the surface. They ignored him a couple of times, the last time he told them they began rapid firing down into the water even closer and we could hear the bullets zinging by us. My dad pulls out a ruger .44 magnum and fires at the cliff several feet below them. Suddenly, they scatter and we didn't hear from them again. Yay dad!

 

[Warhawk83]

^ Referencing the story above, sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong era. Today it seems, society has deemed it necessary to neuter all law abiding males into infants only worthy of calling the police after having been assaulted and making sure the BG makes a safe getaway.

My father has told me several stories like that.In today's world I don't think it would work out quite so well for the dad.

 

[mbt2001]

He then said let me see it and i reached in and handed him the rug. He zipped it open and picked out the weapon, swung open the cylinder and dumped out the cartridges. Sniffed the barrel. Asked me for my ID and walked away, I guess to his car.

A couple of weeks later I found that he had kept the cartridges.

Never understood why some LEO's do this. There is no provision in the law for it in cases like this, but it happens constantly.

 

[heeler]

I recently received my concealed license and was quite happy I did.
Before that when traveling I just carried it anyway.
That as we know can get one in a heap of trouble in certain states.
What finally convinced me to carry was back in 1982 while in the remote mountains of central Arizona.
I was on a two week long motorcycle trip on was on the old highway 666 which has been renamed 191.
Wonder why??
Anyway I was at this National Forest camp ground miles from any where sitting on a concrete picnic table taking a rest.
In the distance I could hear a vehicle coming down the highway.
It was a classic American bomb in the way of an early 70's Buick Le Sabre.
It passed by the camp ground and there where three people in the front seat and all were looking my way.
I could hear it slowing down and then could tell by the sounds of crunching gravel they were turning around.
And so moments later they pulled in and literally drove withing 10 feet of the table I was sitting on.
They consisted of two guys and one dirty leg woman.
At first they were speaking somewhat to one another and then exited the vehicle.
I was really feeling very apprehensive and expecting the worse.
The passenger got out and the woman came up to me really quick and offered me a can of beer(It was only 10:30 in the morning)I said no thanks and then as this was going on both guys started coming my direction.
I locked eyes with the driver and put my right hand under my old Bates leather riding jacket that was laying next to me.
When I did this I moved my hand a certain way and believe it or not used my index finger as if it was a barrel.
That caught his attention right away.
Then the other guy saw what was going on and he to stopped.
The woman was talking to me really fast trying to pull my attention away and I just told her in as a commanding voice as I could to get the f... away from me.
Then they just tried small talk with me but my hard look kept going from one guy to the next.
They finally figured this was not the easy play it was originally thought it was going to be.
So they left and my nerves were completely shot at that point.
I simply just bluffed my way out of a very dangerous situation and vowed to never be put in that spot again.

Texas has had the licensing since 1996 but for one reason or another I just never would get mine.
Strangely I found this website while researching gun safes and after a short period of time reading about so many of you carrying I got off my butt and got my license.
Never again guys.
Thanks.

 

[DNS]

I had an experience several years ago with two "road rage" twenty something meth type males exiting their "ride" and me with nowhere to go in traffic at a red light. One going behind and another around front, meanwhile pulling something from under his shirt. Just displaying over the dash made whatever was gonna happen end. Societies finest got back into their fart can, drove over the sidewalk and around the corner.

My "then" truck gun was a pawn shop hundred dollar single action .22 revolver.


Mike

 

[rainbowbob]

fart can

That's funny!

 

[Lastmohecken]

This happened to me about 15 yrs ago. I was on vacation with my family, and after a long day on the road, we stopped for the night in Mongomery, AL. I was tired and didn't know the city, and I believe I ended up stopping in a bad part of town. The first sign I should have picked up on, was the motel was pretty cheap, for a night's stay.

We pulled around back, it was dark and I took my Lightweight Commander out of the console and stuck it in my wastband. It was in condition 3, and a spare mag in the back pocket on the other side. With kids, etc, I elected to keep my gun in condition 3.

We got out and started taking suitcases out of the back, when a middleaged black man pulled out of a parking spot and drove over by us and beconed to me, to come over to his car, which was about 30 feet.

I was instantly in condition red, and started looking around to make sure no one else was trying to sneak up on me from behind, and the lighting was poor. I couldn't see his hands and he kept trying to get me over to his car. I had my old K5 Baser all opened up in the rear, and really had no place to go, the wife and kids got on the other side of our vehicle. I had a long tailed shirt over my gun, but somehow he must have guessed or was testing me, and said "don't shoot me man".

I asked him what he wanted, and he started mumbling in a low voice, about that time my wife screamed at him, "get the hell out of here!". This spooked me, and I instantly went for my gun, and he shot the gas to his old car, but I did not complete my draw, however, he knew by now that I was definately armed, but he stopped again, and held up a gold chain, like he was wanting to sell it to me, I told him no thanks and have a good day, and he left, while waching me very closely.

I think he wanted more then to sell me a gold chain, and was hoping to maybe get me in arms reach, or get the drop on me from the security of his car and a fast get away. I didn't completely draw my weapon, because I was not sure of my legal right to have the gun on me, and saw that it was not nessary, at least not yet, but he got the message, and knew I was willing to shoot him in a heartbeat, if I needed to.

 

[LeonCarr]

About 6 years ago I was on my way from Beaumont, Texas to Houston, Texas to spend the weekend with my girlfriend at the time. I stopped in Baytown, Texas, roughly halfway in between, to fill up with gas because it was the cheapest place. As I paid at the pump and started to pump gas, a thuglife gangsta looking individual gets out of a beat up 1980s Lincoln Continental and offers to sell me a 35mm camera. The 35mm camera was your basic no name POS made in china type camera, so I said no thank you sir. He continued his sales pitch, and said, "You are gonna buy this camera". I then took the gas nozzle out of the fill neck and said, "You are gonna back away right now, or I am going to cover you with gasoline and set you on fire". I then used my left hand to take my Zippo lighter out of my left pocket. He ran off, jumped into the POS Lincoln, and drove off. I have a buddy with Baytown PD, and I gave him the LP from the Lincoln and a description of the camera salesman. Maybe it wasn't the textbook way to deal with the situation, but it worked. As Clint Smith from Thunder Ranch said, "If you look like food, you will be eaten."

To keep my post gun related, my right front pocket contained a Glock 26 loaded with 127grain Winchester Ranger +P+, and I had a Remington 870P loaded with 000 buckshot behind the seat. I never travel light going to Houston.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[rainbowbob]

The 35mm camera was your basic no name POS made in china type camera, so I said no thank you sir.

So if it was a good camera you might of bought it? Not to pick nits - but refusing to even LOOK at car trunk merchandise will probably result in fewer confrontations with "gangstas".