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About the Weapons plans thread
I noticed on this thread that a lot of you carry a heavy handgun while hunting. I found myself wondering why, since you've already got a primary more powerful rifle.
Any insight on this? I've never done this back in the day when I was hunting, I had enough junk to carry up a tree...gun, pack, sandwich, thermos, portable TV, Ipad, Port-a-Potty, miracle ear, mineature stereo, hammock. Don't need the extra four pounds of a loaded handgun.
Any insight on this? I've never done this back in the day when I was hunting, I had enough junk to carry up a tree...gun, pack, sandwich, thermos, portable TV, Ipad, Port-a-Potty, miracle ear, mineature stereo, hammock. Don't need the extra four pounds of a loaded handgun.
Concealed carry is for protection, open carry is for attention.
Replies
If you're in an area where there is potentially dangerous game, such as lots of hogs, a .357 or 44 mag gives you a little comfort factor. It's backup protection In case your rifle craps out or jams and you are being attacked by hogs or worse. Yeah it's rare it happens, but if it does, that hand gun is worth its wait in gold.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
This.
NRA Life Member
Mike
N454casull
There is a dead snake somewhere that's proof of this.
This.
I just laughed my butt off. Well, I rolled my eyes first. Then laughed.
By the time you're attacked, have a failure to fire, realize this, drop your weapon and draw your pistol, you'll be et. Unless you're attacked by a sloth.
JAY
This year however, I am conflicted. First off, I WANT to kill something with my self-cast .44 loads. Second, at least once per season, I've had sudden, short-range sightings while walking along in crappy dawn/dusk light conditions where the scope has proven a little problematic - to say nothing of deploying the rifle off the sling in the first place.
I'm 25% for the last four years of hard hunting - desperation has me contemplating funny things.:silly:
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee
I just got back from huckleberry picking, and I was carrying the 629. I guess I'm just in the habit of carrying a large sidearm while in the woods. The old "rather have it and not need it..."
The only exception I can think of is while in the tree stand on my own property.
Adam J. McCleod
You can draw, aim, and accurately fire a handgun that's holstered quicker than you can shoulder and accurately fire a rifle that's already in your hands?
Granted, I have a lot to learn. A whole lot, obviously.
Mike
N454casull
Yes, but what you failed to mention is that the snake died via JerryBobCo's pocket knife, not my pistol fire.
And, I didn't run away from that particular snake. Just some others.
Mike
N454casull
OTOH....naw.........I prolly couldn't. Me and handgus have this mutual respectful dislike of each other. The only way I can accurately shoot a pistol is with my rifle. It's a character flaw.
Mike
N454casull
Sometimes later in the season when the woods aren't a pumpkin patch, I will get a chance to stalk on trails through some really thick stuff. I will carry a .357/9x23/44mag/10mm on my hip and leave the rifle in the truck.
I'm a rifleman. And not much of one at that. My "sport" pistols (non carry pistols) include my .22 Buckmark and Colt Targetsmaster, I don't have holsters for or I might carry them. And my Model 39 doesn't have a holster; when I carry it, I stick it in my pants. My .44 Mag M 29 is like carrying a railroad track around. I bought a cheap shoulder holster for it. It's too heavy for me to carry it AND a rifle. Which lead to the OP.
Not much of a hunter, I guess. Getting old must have something to do with that. The only thing I want to shoot now are coyotes. Deer hunting property where I live is drying up, sub divisons are flourishing, and deer lurk in the populated where they somehow know they can't be shot. They're almost like lawn ornaments.
In my younger days, I often asked the same question. But that was before feral hogs proliferated in the areas I hunted. I have walked up among a herd(?) of them on a couple of occasions and it unnerved me. Yes, yes, I know - there are those among us who go after them with their pocket knives and scoff at those who don't, but I'm not 30 years old, any more, so I don't. My personal experience tells me that they will run away from me every time, if they know where I'm at. But it also tells me that they don't rely on eyesight and hearing as much as they do smelling. They are easy to walk up on if the wind is right and the ground cover is wet enough not to crinkle when you walk. If you get close to them before they know you're there, they will panic and run any or all directions, because without there primary sense to tell them where you are, they don't know what else to do. I have had them run generally towards me, and others I know have had them run by very close, and hook at them as they go by. Also, I don't know what a big sow with piggies would do, if it caught you on the ground from a fall - something that is quite possible, if you are as excited as the hogs.
Beyond that, I have had a few occasions when I believe I could have shot one, had I had an easily accessible handgun of sufficient power and accuracy. This gave me a reasonable excuse to go buy a 10mm Glock (never mind that I already owned two .357 magnums :tooth:). Since I squirrel hunt with a scoped bolt-action .22 and walk to my deer blind in the dark with a scoped rifle that is completely wrong for snap-shooting in the dark, I sling it across my back and keep both hands free to operate the Glock, which I carry across the chest in a home-made holster rig. I use one of those cap bill lights that is adequate for a 10 yard shot, so I feel empowered to take on a hog (or maybe even a cat) that gets inside that 10 yard radius.
The odds are that I'll never use a pistol in this way, but I love the 10mm and shoot it pretty well, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when I'm alone in the river bottoms, at night.
I had my opportunity last year with a fat doe at 15 yards. Of course my .357 was in the pickup and I had my SR22 on my belt. I wasnt carrying my .357 because it was cold and I dont have a shoulder holster to keep my pistol were it is easier to get to, outside my bibs or at least in the top. So I shot her with my .243.
Dad 5-31-13
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
Just my humble opinion, of course.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Might I suggest.............
:tooth:
You could suggest it, sure....
But for the cost of accessorizing that thing I could buy me a new 45-70...
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
But, can you attach a light to it?
:-)
This is the only answer that doesn't address the question. Lots of stuff you CAN carry, but don't. You could, for example, carry a fishing rod or a rubber ducky. Choice without reason is merely a reflex.
The OP could be interpreted 2 ways, a request for info or someone looking down their nose at those that carry a handgun while hunting.
Also seems to presume all hunters only hunt with a rifle.
Then listed some strange things to take hunting.
Any way I gave my reason as it applies to me, sorry you were offended.
I, however, used to carry a canvas tarp so I could wrap up in it and take a nap on my ground stand; one day I woke up with a deer making a scrape
about 7 yds away. I shot it with a shotgun while laying flat on my back in the tarp, had I not been on Base I might well have had a handgun.
As to fishing rods, when I lived in Wis a person would get ticketed for fishing and hunting ducks.
:beer: