View attachment 1121762
That was our "guard" dog, Ruger peeking around the corner. But this is what I carry (along with pepper spray and a .32 H&R revolver) on my exercise hikes down to Marsh Creek and back. It's a handle for some kind of digging tool, and I picked it up at Ace Hardware, then added the rubber end cap and leather boot lace (for a wrist strap) to it. I can't remember what I paid for everything - not a whole lot though.
There's nothing fancy about it, but it's effective. All I've ever had to do is "show" it (by tapping the end of it on the asphalt) to the large farm and ranch dogs that run a hundred yards down someone's driveway to yell at me for trespassing on "their" sections of a public road.
When I "show" my big stick to those dogs, they always just put the brakes on, then stand there and moan in frustration as I walk on by. I'd pepper spray a dog if it got close enough, and I'd shoot one as a last resort. Luckily, when the dogs see my big stick, I've never had to use either my pepper spray
or my .32 H&R.