Why you _really_ want to carry a gun in the woods...

[Tacoma]

Often carry a concealed snubbie 357 in the woods/isolated haunts, myself. ( 2 rounds of shot then 3 158 gr jsp loads) . Mainly for insurance against dogs, snakes, yotes and such but there have been two times I've had to let the grip show to let two legged varmints know it wasn't going to be a fair fight if they didn't keep moving.

I know a 357 is light for bear , but have often wondered if a couple rounds of snake shot to the face/eyes would be enough to get it to leave you alone ( or at least buy you time to move on.)

 

[torpid]

Yikes!

If a bear ripped my face off like that, I think I'd eschew "realism" attempting prosthetics altogether. I'd go the other way and wear a really cool custom-designed mask.

.

 

[TallPine]

Well, since I live "in the woods" I just carry from the time I get up in the morning until I go to bed at night - simpler that way.

 

[Cosmoline]

Wow...

One thing I've wondered, If you're gonna carry a full size rifle around in the woods, why not carry a M1 Garand?

Reloading aside (and for the most part there aren't any times to reload in this situation) you get 10 rounds of 30-06.

Sounds pretty good to me.

Well 8 anyway. Ten for the SAFN.

Judge Folta, the famous bear hunter from from SE AK, did in fact carry a Garand for bear hunting and protection after WWII. He was a big fan of semiautos for hunting. I remember reading vintage reprinted reports over the years from circa 1950 gun rags predicting we'd all be using semis by 1965, but it never happened. They're too heavy and too expensive for most. The Garand isn't too fond of high-pressure hunting rounds either.

 

[Cosmoline]

Bridger--was that a boar or sow? My gut reaction looking at the photo (which is excellent BTW--kudos to you) is "sow" because of those muleish ears and somewhat large head relative to the body. But maybe boars over there aren't as big.

 

[Bridger]

Bridger--was that a boar or sow? My gut reaction looking at the photo (which is excellent BTW--kudos to you) is "sow" because of those muleish ears and somewhat large head relative to the body. But maybe boars over there aren't as big.

Hell if I know! I just saw BEAR! I only saw them when driving around and almost never in the wild until this year. I saw one earlier when I was fishing in front of my home, yelled at that one too. I can't really tell them apart, but black bears out here don't seem to get anywhere near as the bears I saw when I visited Alaska.

I was sitting on a log waiting for squirrels when I heard some movement to my rear, I thought it was a squirrel so I turned around to get ready to shoot. Stared it down long enough to get a couple pics and a video and then yelled at it to go away.

It's amazing how quiet something so big can be.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I like to keep it simple: if I'm beyond the front door, I'm armed.

 

[torpid]

There was an extensive show about this fellow on TV a while back. He's Russian, from Siberia I believe. He's had that face for quite some time.

Ahem... he has no face.

He's "face shopping" (shudder) in the clip.

He is one tough person.

.

 

[bogie]

If you want to hunt with a garand, and you live in a <5 round state, I think that you can order "short" enblocs... Or you could probably make one with a little epoxy and some empties...

 

[MNgoldenbear]

Because semi-auto rifles carrying over 5 rounds are banned from hunting use in most states.

And 30-06 vs. squirrel is overkill.

Wouldn't it be better to buy a 'small shotgun' say 20 ga. and drop a few slugs in your pocket?

(With a pump shotgun you can snap-load a slug in a hurry if your magazine isn't topped off... say you gun can hold 4-5 shells, load 3 of your birdshot/squirrel shot loads , chamber one. If you see a threat like a bear, load a slug into the magazine, shuck the action you now have a slug at the ready, top off the mag with 2 more slugs) ignore the live round of birdshot/squirrel shot you just ejected, it's junk.

Well, yes, the 5 shot limit is common. And yes, .30-06 is overkill, but if you went with tracers, they'd be both dressed and cooked by the time you went to pick them up. Odd thing was, when I was in CA (a highly regulated state, to say the least) they had the 3-round restriction on shotguns (whether hunting birds or not), but you could have as many rounds in a rifle as you wanted. One thing that was pointed out to me by a warden in CA: the way the codes read there, things that you can hunt with shot, you can't hunt with slugs, and vice versa. So there, carrying both types of shotgun ammo can get you in trouble.

bogie - Yes, you can get Garand clips in 8-round, 5-round, 2-round, and 1-round (SLED) configurations. The 1 and 2 rounders are basically for competition -- slowfire and the first clip of rapid fire, respectively. It's not that tricky to single load or to get two rounds into an 8-round clip in the magazine, but it looks cool to have every litle toy at the line.

 

[Stand_Watie]

...and even cows.

Watched my neighbor's pretty tame cow bumping heads with her two year old colt recently, in her percieved defense of her young calf. This encounter could well have been fatal if it had been a 150 lb human meeting up with this cow rather than a 600 lb colt.

The noise of a single gunshot could have ended this sort of thing, with no injury to either party if it occurred between a human and a cow with calf in the wild.

A word to the wise who may come into contact with cows in the future - treat them with the respect you'd treat any independantly moving one ton machine that might start at any time. By and large they are friendly milk producing machines - and as pleasant and slow to wroth temperament as they have, as pleasant as they are to to watch and be around, a single misplaced foot, with no malice aforethought, could potentially cripple you for life.

 

[Fletchette]

I have seen a mountian lion several times on my property. I think it is female as males tend to cover large areas, females tend to stay near their dens. I always carry when I go outside. It is amazing how many yuppy-types are completly naive about living in the mountains.

 

[Cosmoline]

A word to the wise who may come into contact with cows in the future - treat them with the respect you'd treat any independantly moving one ton machine that might start at any time. By and large they are friendly milk producing machines - and as pleasant and slow to wroth temperament as they have, as pleasant as they are to to watch and be around, a single misplaced foot, with no malice aforethought, could potentially cripple you for life.

It sounds like a joke to folks who don't know better, or who have never been around the more aggressive breeds of cattle, but they can be really really mean. There are even semi-feral cows that have been allowed to do their own thing for too long. I remember some down in Louisiana we gave a wide berth to as kids, the bulls in particular were as mean as a moose in season. Trying to get food and water to those crazed, half-starved cattle in the low parishes right now is work that requires a rifle I suspect.

 

[Mad Chemist]

The city gun and the backwoods gun are the same, a .44spl. In town I carry Speer "flying ashtrays", in the woods I carry hard-cast semiwadcutters. I have some snake shot, but rattlers are uncommon in most of western Oregon.

 

[lawson]

I always carry a 4" Ruger GP100 .357 when out in the woods or desert. here in arizona, the biggest concern are rattlesnakes. I don't usually bother with snakeshot, as the commercial stuff just doesn't seem to do the trick on the rattlers out here, at least not with one shot.

 

[entropy]

We don't have any bears in Illinois, cept maybe a really lost Wisconsin bruin who might happen to blunder into the very northern areas of the state and they don't stay long.

Don't be so sure, Onmilo! We are being overrun by the darn things, despite bear permits and harvests up. And it seems they are heading south. In the area I'm in, (about ten miles in from the MN border just East of the Twin Cities) they were rare until about five years ago. I have seen them here every year since then, and more of them, and they have been going further south, down to the IA and IL borders. The young boars are constantly kicked further south as territories are set up. More of them showing up in city trash cans and yards.

Armoredman, I KNOW you are loaded for bear!

 

[TimboKhan]

Oh...my...lord. If that ever happens to me, just kill me.

+1 on that sentiment.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Bridger... that bear just needed a hug!














Kidding... that was my Tim Treadwell joke of the day.

I've only run into bears a handful of times... once while doing trail repairs at Philmont Scout Ranch --knocked a kid down who suggested we go pet the baby bear that crossed the trial 100 feet from us, momma followed the cub a few seconds later and she was a pretty good sized bear. Bigger than you'd want to wrestle with armed only with a shovel and a boy scout knife.

The second time I came across steaming bear poop I was hunting and armed with a high powered rifle already, it didn't bother me much. (Red Feather Lakes)

The third time I was bird hunting with a couple of dogs, ran into steaming fresh bear poop in 4 foot high ferns armed only with a shotgun full of #6 and a .22 pistol. That was a scary walk out of the woods. That convinced me not to go into the woods without a 'serious' pistol.

A few weeks later dad was camping in the same area (Rampart Range) and called to the 'dog' running towards him to realize that that wasn't his dog... it was bigger and darker. Two bowhunters he talked to while looking for the dog had seen a sow with a cub earlier that day. Dad found the missing dog, hiding under the truck at the trailhead. Apparently she's no bear dog. Dad decided to follow my example and start carry a 'serious' pistol when he went into the woods.

 

[Mot45acp]

I carry in the woods in southeast Texas if its not deer season. Nothing worse then stumbling accross a hunter and ruining his hunt. We have a creek that we hang out and camp on weekends. Crossing the trail of a sow whos shoulder was even with my waist with between 10 and 15 piglets(depending on who you ask) will cause a sudden and enexpected change in your underbriches. Did i mention tallow trees ar impossible to climb. we looked like those lizards that run on water trying to getaccross the creek

 

[gbran]

Was out hunting with with a friend when a weirdo in a Jeep stalked us. Turned into a real cat'n mouse game until we found a good defensive position. We ended up about 75 yards apart behind rocks and trees for cover. He drew down on us several times, but didn't fire. We split up and was able to outflank him and then he got into his Jeep and left. We followed him to keep him in sight. Called the cops, but nothing came of it. Couldn't get his license tag. Looked like he had an unscoped bolt action rifle. We had a 444 Marlin and a Savage '06 bolt action as well as handguns. Coulda shot him when he made his run to his jeep, but we didn't. I suspect he'd have shot us if he had the chance.

 

[TimboKhan]

Here is a funny little bear story that doesn't end in someone getting thier face eaten. So, a couple of years ago, a cub wandered all the way into the middle of Fort Collins and ended up smack dab in the middle of the CSU campus. Fort Collins is a largish town (somewhere around 350,000-400,000 people) and Colorado State University sits more or less smack dab in the middle of town. While close to the woods, this cub would have (and obviously did) had to cross several major roads, in addition to navigating through a what is a fairly dense residential area. Anyway, the little cub got scared at some point (rumor has it a girl was walking her dog, and the dog scared it) and decided to crawl up a tree. The DOW was called, and in between the call and them getting there, a group of hippies formed in protest of the DOW officer shooting the bear with a tranq dart. When the DOW officer made it clear that he was going to shoot the bear, the hippies, through an endless stream of tears, made a last ditch effort to erect what amounted to a bear catcher. The DOW officer shot the bear, the bear fell, and, because hippies are generally pretty damn stupid, the bear fell directly to the ground, completely missing the hippy bear-catcher device. Anyway, given that the bear fell all of about 7 feet, he was OK and was relocated without further incident. This event cemented in my mind that even though I will probably never get to shoot hippies, and even though a hippy will likely never get to shoot me (or, for that matter, eat my face), I still like bears a whole lot more than hippies. By the way Dr. Rob, I see Bears every day in Colorado, but I go to UNC, so there you go!

 

[Dan Morris]

My whole family does year round camping trips to the area where we hunt.
ALL carry .357's during these trips. Granted there is bear avoidance info....but, I'm not gonna take the chance of finding mama n cub that haven't read the book! Kid n dad have had several encounters....so far every thing has been ok...but, just in case!
Dam