I always carry my 1911 while hunting for many reasons, two legged predators as well as four. Growing up, we had many instances of people being robbed in the field, therefore I wanted to have a surprise, just in case! Second I keep it for the occasional instance that I might be mauled by yotes while dressing a deer...you may think I am crazy, but a study that my hunting club conducted by putting field cameras over gut piles showed that on most occasions predators made it to gut piles within 20 mins...I'm not taking chances of trying to get to my rifle if I'm surrounded by dogs.
There was also a story a few years back out of Dothan, AL where a hunter was attacked by a bear while he was getting down from the stand. He had lowered his rifle to the ground to make a safe descend and low and behold a bear comes and begins to climb the tree after him. He obviously can not retrieve his rifle as quick as the bear can climb the tree. He drew a pistol from his person (if my memory serves me correctly it was a .22lr) and emptied it into the bear. The pistol was not enough to put the deer down, but it did knock it off the tree and allowed him a chance to retrieve his rifle and finish the bear off. Sad part of the story was they tried to charge him for killing the bear...
LIBERALS!!!
In my state it is illegal to carry during bow season...but I take my chances, I'd rather be tried by 12 than carried by six!
It is legal however to kill a deer with a pistol so long as it is larger than .22 cal and has a 4" barrel, thus the reason I carry my 1911. I have not had the chance yet that I felt like taking a deer with my 1911, but do want to do that one day...stupid does are generally the only ones that get that close and I'm generally waiting for big bucky to come into my cross hairs.
I know that this is a long post, but the story is worth telling as it relates to deer and hand guns...
Three years ago I was in the stand on a particularly blustery day. Tennessee has a split rifle season (stupid in my opinion, but that is another topic all together) and it was the last day of the first season and I had yet to put any meat in the freezer. I had decided that I was killing something more than time for my efforts in the first season so when three does walked out with less than 10 mins of legal shooting time, I had no choice to attempt a 320 yrd shot with a 15-20 mph cross wind. My shot dropped her, but as I got out of the stand I realized that my shot was about 8" to her rear and had broken her spine, not hit the neck and finished her (I don't like wasting meat on deer not going on the wall, head or neck shots!).
As I approached her I realized I was going to have to finish her with another shot...I elected to do it with my 1911 loaded with Hydro Shocks...I took steady aim and put one in her head...she took it like a lazy jab and tried to get up! In shock, I gave her another...she gave a loud bellow and laid out.
I got my truck and proceeded to load her up. When I grabbed her legs and picked her up for the heave to the truck she bellowed again, scaring the bejesus out of me! I shook it off as the last bit of air in her lungs, grabbed again and tossed her in the truck.
When I got to the check in station at the club I thought to myself, "self you haven't put a tag on that doe and someone is liable to throw a fit if you don't have her tagged." I opened the tail gate to tag her and she jumped up and was trying to get away>>>
!!! I'm thinking to myself...this doe has just taken a .308 (which although it hit high in the back and broke her back striking no vitals is still a wallop of a shot to take), not one, but TWO 45ACP Hydro Shocks to the HEAD and she is still trying to escape...I've never seen a deer with such a will to live...but there is more!
Parental Advisory: Animal rights wacko's please refrain from reading and if your children are reading, you may want to stop them at this point of the story!
I pulled her out of the truck and realized I was going to have to do something I HATE doing...cut her throat. I grabbed my K-Bar and grabbed her by the ears (starring into her cranium wondering how in the world she is still alive) and attempted to cut her throat. I will admit, I couldn't do it! I've never been able to do that! So I tuck my tail and head into the club house and ask one of my peers to come do it for me...yeah, that's manly! So, one of the guys come out to finish her off! He makes a beautiful cut and she is bleeding and gurgling like you wouldn't believe. I drag her off to a corner and help another hunter get his buck unloaded and scored for the club.
About 10 minutes go by so I figure she must be expired by this time and I can go get her to check her in. I shine my mag light over to check on her...SHE'S STILL TRYING TO GET AWAY!!! I'll save you the details, but we the next scene ended much like the end of Mel Gibson's movie Braveheart.
I tell you that story to conclude with the fact that there are some vampire/undead deer in the woods, if you are going to use your pistol to "finish" an animal, put in the vitals...although the story gets a lot of laughs and attention, it wasn't that fun to live out...and you'll never live it down around the camp fire!