Is carrying a side arm necessary?

[follow maggie]

I've prevented myself from getting rolled up & robbed in the woods twice because I had a gun

[stevemiller]

 :yeah

[hogslayer]

Where i shot my elk this year i had a close encounter with a very testy coyote.  I was walking down to the water hole to fill up my bags, and looked over and this coyote was looking right at me.  I thought he would run off right away, but he had his nose in the air and was moving towards me.  I started backing up and made my way back to camp to retrieve my bow.  I get my release on and turn around and he is standing less than 20ft from me looking at an elk head and 4 game bags.  I nocked an arrow and picked up a rock.  Then i told him, you got one chance to leave or your dead.  He left.  Looking back i wish i would of just shot the thing.  I was being a cheap ass and didn't want to waste an arrow on him.  I have just been thinking if i really need to carry a gun in the back country for archery season.  After hearing Radsav talk about those close encounters with bears, it makes me think in a situation like that i would really wish i had a gun.  I still think that you would have a way higher chance needing to use it for people than animals. 

[LeviD1]

My wife got to find out that bear spray has a reverse effect on whacked out drug addicts.  Just seemed to make him more mad and determined.  Sounds like the "...failure-miss-wound and angry more severe attacks are possible" narrative can be used for gun or bear spray.  Although if you really have to save your life what the heck is wrong with death.  Better his than yours!

There are multiple instances of (usually drug crazed) humans being shot more than 20 times and surviving.

On bears, spray is statistically more likely to stop a charge than a firearm.

Sounds to me like those guys should have carried a bigger gun.. 

[RadSav]

After hearing Radsav talk about those close encounters with bears, it makes me think in a situation like that i would really wish i had a gun.  I still think that you would have a way higher chance needing to use it for people than animals.

In Canada we put ourselves in those situations.  Exciting and maybe saves a cub or two.  Great chance to kill a bear if any of them had been boars I wanted to waste a tag on.

The three close bear encounters where I shot the bear two of those were when guiding and forcing the issue in hopes of recovering a clients bear after they made poor shots.  Third was my own bear that I shot poorly and I forced the issue because I was afraid I'd lose him in the oncoming rain.

So really I have never found myself in a self defense situation that I had not put myself into intentionally.  Every one of those could have been avoided if I chose to play it safe.  Even the wife's situation could have been avoided if she had been willing to ignore a bad family situation.  Sure things happen and a person should be prepared for those, but I rarely ever worry about those much when in the wild. 

On the other hand I trust very few two legged encounters.  Ask D-Rock if he'd rather be in the woods without a gun or on a Max train in Portland

[Bean Counter]

Couple years ago I was walking up a mountain in southern Arizona for the summer archery deer hunt. I had it in case I ran into drug smugglers. Boy was I surprised when the face I saw on that steep climb was a mountain lion at about 10 yards 

[turkeyfeather]

Couple years ago I was walking up a mountain in southern Arizona for the summer archery deer hunt. I had it in case I ran into drug smugglers. Boy was I surprised when the face I saw on that steep climb was a mountain lion at about 10 yards 

That'll make ya mess your shorts won't it.

[Stump]

I also carry a first aid kit and have never used it.

[SGTDuffman]

It's not necessary, but after the last time I came across a bear without one, I started carrying mine. I felt naked with nothing but a bow. It'd kill him, but not fast enough to keep him from tearing me up. Really bear spray would be a much better alternative for deterring wildlife, but 2 legged vermin require a less subtle approach. There was a bow hunter mauled by a black bear in the same area I was in last year, and I was glad I had mine. Like they say, it's better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

[Smoke]

always carry one... never needed it for defense/survival, but ya never know... that being said, when gun hunting and ya walk up on yer game and find it's not quite dead yet, a kill shot with the handgun is a lot easier then using yer rifle...  btw... when hunting in snake country, first two rounds in the revolver are snake shot (have used those back east in the swamps)... if I need the regular bullets, just click the cylinder twice and ready to go

[turkeyfeather]

always carry one... never needed it for defense/survival, but ya never know... that being said, when gun hunting and ya walk up on yer game and find it's not quite dead yet, a kill shot with the handgun is a lot easier then using yer rifle...  btw... when hunting in snake country, first two rounds in the revolver are snake shot (have used those back east in the swamps)... if I need the regular bullets, just click the cylinder twice and ready to go

Isn't that illegal? 

[rasbo]

always carry one... never needed it for defense/survival, but ya never know... that being said, when gun hunting and ya walk up on yer game and find it's not quite dead yet, a kill shot with the handgun is a lot easier then using yer rifle...  btw... when hunting in snake country, first two rounds in the revolver are snake shot (have used those back east in the swamps)... if I need the regular bullets, just click the cylinder twice and ready to go

Isn't that illegal? 

if its a legal caliber and modern I would think its ok,bowhunting negative,not sure about muzzy,perhaps a blkpowder pistol

[Bean Counter]

Couple years ago I was walking up a mountain in southern Arizona for the summer archery deer hunt. I had it in case I ran into drug smugglers. Boy was I surprised when the face I saw on that steep climb was a mountain lion at about 10 yards 

That'll make ya mess your shorts won't it.

Honestly I just sort of stood there frozen. The surprise kind of kept me in limbo--trigger happy as I normally fancy myself. I didn't see a mountain lion--I saw a face looking right at me. Its like when you walk up to someone and you're studying the pattern between their eyes and mouth to see if your recognize them. He was out of sight before I realized I shoulda been poppin' caps. Its one of those steep, nasty mountains that I had to go to my 'happy place' to climb up, which certainly didn't help my state of awareness.

He ran up to the top of the hill. I looked down and realized I was standing near his lunch--a buried deer that he either killed there or drug up hill and buried with grass. I do (and say) some brash things, but decided to head down the mountain after a few minutes of glassing.

Yeah I know... puss 

[Nice Racks]

Never had to use it, but it was nice knowing I had it after two occasions.  One time I stood up after checking my camera, and saw a cougar about 50 yards behind me running away.  My feeling was it heard me and was coming in to check it out.  The other time I am glad I had one was just walking through the woods scouting and "something" made some type of "chopping" sound only around 30 yards away, the went crashing away. Could have been bigfoot, but was probably a bear. What ever it was; any gunslinger would have been impressed with my draw speed that day. That scared the crap out of me.

[HunterStrait]

Me and my dad were walking up a well used hiking trail in the toucannon, and a cougar jumped up less than 30 feet away. Good god he/she ran the other way and not our direction. So yes, it is necessary since I've ran into way too many cougars in a 4 year period, in one area.