Carrying a self-defense gun while hunting

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm assuming that if you thought there was even a slight probability of a dangerous run in with these folks, that you would simply avoid the area.

With that assumption stated, I have to view the question as a variation of "would you bring a pistol to a semi-auto rifle fight?"

My answer to that would be "no."

If I realistically expected to get in a gun fight while hunting public ground, I'd go fishing instead. Not kidding.

From a theoretical standpoint, if pressed to pick a weapon that would both allow me to hunt deer, AND allow me to fight long enough to break contact if I ran into these poachers...I'd simply hunt with a semi auto AR style gun chambered in .308. And since fire superiority matters...I'd bring 10 extra mags, which would hopefully be enough to let me keep some heads down while I beat a very, very hasty retreat. If I had three really good friends who like to hunt I'd bing them with me and we'd be a fire team. And if I had 11 friends, they'd all come and we could hunt as a squad.

Long before I did that though...I'd hook up my boat. I don't need gunfights in my hunting life. :D
 
I've been told my numerous people to carry while hunting. You never know when a trespasser would rather attack you than risk you calling the game warden on him. Or in public land maybe mistake you for the guy who put a tree stand too close to his, stole his game cam, whatever, and have a violent reaction to the sight of you.
 
The Alaskan said:
When a man with a pistol meets a man with a rifle, the man with a pistol is a dead man.
Click to expand...


You're assuming the attacker is also a hunter and carrying a rifle. This is not the scenario many of us carry against. It's the punk with a Kel-tec waitin' for you at your truck for the keys and your wallet, knowing all you have is a bow. Or watched you unload your shotgun and put it in the trunk, while parked close by, and then approaches you under the guise they need help. Then there's the scenario where they take your rifle and then drop their guard thinking you are unarmed. How about walking back to your house while bow hunting your own land and finding someone else there uninvited. It's not other hunters in the field I'm concerned about(even most of the ones on public land), but criminals that stalk parking lots, the roads to and back and just about everywhere else.
 
i always carry my G19 with 2 full mags. When i deer hunt, i always carry my Century AK WASR + Eotech 551 + 2 -30 round mags . Even with the AK, i still carry the G19. People asked why..... Because in case I need it to defend myself. Never know what may go down deep in the woods. I almost always hunt alone too that's why.
 
I always carry when hunting but I'll pick an appropriate sidearm for the game being hunted.

I don't worry too much about bad guys in the woods but coyotes are a problem here.
 
I have carried a handgun or some type whether rifle or bow hunting. After acquiring a Sig 226 a couple of years ago, I added a Streamlight TLR-2 and that set up has become not only the "nightstand gun" but also in a fanny pack as my "designated hunting rig". This past September, the farmer on our lease confirmed a mountain lion, so it is not unusual for me to walk in the dark with the bow in left hand and the Sig in the right hand.
 
Good lord where do you people live? You feel you need a handgun to defend yourself while hunting? While holding a 30-06?
 
Last edited:
Its not about dropping your 30-06 and pulling a handgun to defend yourself from a bear or moose attack. Public land here is much smaller tracks and you are guaranteed to see other people on access roads and trails. The average state forest here is 2-3 square miles, the largest is maybe 10 square miles.
Southeastern Ohio has the most public land in the state and from what I can tell it also has the highest concentration of meth users and meth labs. Ross County department of public health actually passes out pamphlets on how to recognize a meth lab and or meth users and has an anonymous hot line for turning them in.

Personally I find a scoped bolt action pretty useless in an engagement at 10 feet compared to a .45, and there are circumstances where you don't have your rifle in your hand. Deer gun season most of us are hunting with a slug gun that is limited to holding 3 rounds, I'd prefer to have more ammo if a tweaker shows up with a 9mm when I'm loading my truck up to leave.

Gangs of poachers with automatic weapons seems like a stretch, and is a whole different ball game than what most of us deal with, but you really are taking some risks when you head into the woods here. I'd love to have such big tracts of land available you can go out for 3 days and not see another human but that's not the case for most of us.
 
Ever since I got my first handgun circa 1965; a Ruger Blackhawk .357 Magnum. Over the years, my gun of choice has changed mostly because I bought more of them.

Currently for all "back woods" forays, my choice is a Glock 20 with 200 grain XTP at about 1,100 fps. I'm a big guy and a little extra weight isn't a drop in the bucket.
 
I agree with Jim in Anchorage. I would trust my 30-06 to handle any hunting situation. I have a friend who carries a pistol, he always sits with his back against the wall in a restaurant and facing the door, and the outside of his house at night is lighted up like a cruise ship. I make jokes with my wife about him because he is far too concerned about security. Rather than carrying a pistol I would rather have something useful like an extra flashlight.
 
sage5907 said:
I agree with Jim in Anchorage. I would trust my 30-06 to handle any hunting situation. I have a friend who carries a pistol, he always sits with his back against the wall in a restaurant and facing the door, and the outside of his house at night is lighted up like a cruise ship. I make jokes with my wife about him because he is far too concerned about security. Rather than carrying a pistol I would rather have something useful like an extra flashlight.
Click to expand...

Myself...I'm not afraid of the dark. One LED flashlight is enough. Largest piece of area I hunt has roads no farther than two miles away in any direction. Between a compass and a cell phone, getting lost would be harder than loosing that extra flashlight outta my backpack. I'm more concerned with defending myself against legitimate threats and not the Boogie-man. Some of us hunt with weapons other than a 30-06 rifle, thus we are in the woods without one. I hunt deer with revolvers. Very seldom, if ever, do you see me with a rifle during deer season. It's either a bow or a handgun.

As for your friend, sitting with your back to the wall and seeing any threat before it may escalate is not a joke. Neither is keeping the outside of you house lit up at night if there is concern of a legitimate threat. Both are common and many times suggested methods of self protection. Both are part of being aware of what's going on around you and being prepared, something very important when it comes to SD/HD. Come the time when burglars or folks bent on invading a home are in the neighborhood, your friends house is probably the last one they will consider. Kinda the whole point.

Everyone has their own perception of how to protect themselves. It's a very personnel thing, as it should be. Different areas of the country, and different parts of town, mean different types of threats. Folks make jokes about Preppers and the amount of food/water and ammo they stash........just in case. Come a catastrophic natural disaster, who is the one laughing?
 
Besides meth manufacturers in mobile trailers, pot growers and that breed of criminal that haunts the woods and rural areas because any response from the police is greatly increased there are also disputes between hunters. Arguments over tree stands, trespassing, who killed what deer and the like to worry about.

Anyone remember this one?

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/11/22_kelleherb_huntershooting/

http://crime.about.com/od/news/a/vang041122.htm

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/11/24_williamsb_hmongshootingrea/

That's not exactly usual, most hunters and legal gun owners are pretty level headed. Conflict between hunters does happen occasionally though. There are also bears, stray dogs dumped in rural areas, feral hogs and whatnot which can also be an issue.

So I carry a pistol and two spare mags when hunting, just like usual.
 
buck460xvr, I don't use a flashlight very often, even in the dark. But if you are ever in a situation where it is so dark you can't see anything and your one small flashlight won't work you'll wish you had a spare. A small maglite flashlight could be the difference between sitting in the Jeep waiting for enough daylight to walk than getting to your shooting spot before daylight. I love to walk in the dark without a flashlight and my defense against wayward skunks and feral hogs is my shooting stick. I don't have any problem with Preppers especially the part about keeping extra food for an emergency.
 
buck460XVR said:
You're assuming the attacker is also a hunter and carrying a rifle. This is not the scenario many of us carry against. It's the punk with a Kel-tec waitin' for you at your truck for the keys and your wallet, knowing all you have is a bow. Or watched you unload your shotgun and put it in the trunk, while parked close by, and then approaches you under the guise they need help. Then there's the scenario where they take your rifle and then drop their guard thinking you are unarmed. How about walking back to your house while bow hunting your own land and finding someone else there uninvited. It's not other hunters in the field I'm concerned about(even most of the ones on public land), but criminals that stalk parking lots, the roads to and back and just about everywhere else.
Click to expand...


This guy gets it.

I carry hunting for the same reason I always carry to the range plus a few other wildlife related reasons.

I spent all weekend in the blind. My CT45 stayed closer to me than my m77 did for the duration of the trip. Even on private land.
 
I hunt with a semi auto .30-06 with 5 rounds in the gun and 2 spare mags. Haven't dropped a mag yet but the second spare is in case of that. I also carry my .357 S&W in case I get a close in shot I'd like to take a deer with it. If I were you I would find a new place to hunt. I would definitely feel under gunned and out numbered and it isn't worth it. Sounds like hunting there you almost have to expect a gunfight.
 
It varies as far as what I actually do. But normally no handgun while hunting unless it is used for hunting. Carry one for walks in the woods.

The scenario of being robbed at your vehicle is a real one to consider as opposed to being robbed as you wander through the woods. Easier to just wait for you at your vehicle and they have the advantage of surprise and concealment. They see your long gun and take it from you, but the handgun is there for the SD purpose. I think it's really sad that you need to be concerned about your safety from people when you hit the woods.
 
22-rimfire said:
. I think it's really sad that you need to be concerned about your safety from people when you hit the woods.
Click to expand...


It is, but it's no different than going to the store, the movie theater or a MacD's. Around here, if bad folks are going to dump a body, they usually do it on one of the large chunks of wooded swampland which is open to the public for hunting. Either hunters or road workers are the ones that find the corpses. The state DNR warns hunters every year about stumbling onto portable Meth labs or pot grows in the woods. Since I'm not a character in "The Hunger Games", I don't always feel completely safe in the woods with just a bow.:uhoh:

Others tho, are free to feel differently if they so desire.
 
I hunt my own land and I CC, usually a .45acp. My motivation came one day when I was sitting in my deer stand with a muzzle loader and a pack of about a dozen dogs came frolicking through the woods:)
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately we see reports of people being robbed and murdered at the shooting range periodically.

You have all the same ingredients to tempt the same kind of crime from a perpetrator when hunting too.
 
I've always carried down here in Southern Arizona, and that includes back before it was legal to do so while hunting, it would be foolish not to.

I don't know anything about dangerous poachers, but we are up to our ears in Mexican cartel down here. Usually if it's just an illegal alien operation, they'll just go on about their business. But when you see them carrying bundles of marijuana, you'll almost always see a couple AK47's. Every single year, actually, every single time I go out into the public lands down here, I run into them. Most times they avoid making contact with us, but if the opportunity presents, they will rob you, steal your vehicle, and put a bullet between your eye's.

GS
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
  • Locked
Carrying a handgun while deer hunting?
Replies
22
Views
5K
smokemaker
S
Lennyjoe
  • Locked
Hunting in Ohio and CCW
Replies
9
Views
2K
elkhunter
E
3
  • Locked
Bow Hunting !
Replies
8
Views
717
FLAvalanche
F
JEB
  • Locked
hip flask while hunting
2 3 4
Replies
89
Views
5K
Tacbandit
T
A
  • Locked
Self defense vs predatory animals?
2
Replies
41
Views
2K
moooose102
M
Back
Top