Carrying a Rifle or Pistol in the Wilds

Surviving isn't just about developing outdoor skills. Part of "surviving", is surviving all the nut jobs that are out there!

Criminals that just want your money, your car, or your property are one thing, but there are plenty of psychopaths out there that totally defy all logic. A rifle carried out of hunting season, seems like more weapon than one would reasonalby require....and that raises flags for me. I own more "black rifles" than probably any dozen of the rest of you, but toting one around the woods is just silly.

We had a guy around here that folks called the "mountain man". He had gone wild and was appearently living off the land. I never ran into him, but anybody who did never forgot the experience!!!
 
I dont carry a Rifle, but I do carry a XD 45 acp. I'm looking for something smaller and more concelable though. The places that i go i dont need to rife unless im planning on hunting. Sierras Ebbetts Pass is the place i always go back to and in off season your not aloud to carry a gun, But i carry a firearm just because the bears out there can be a pain. The last time we were out there a big black bear ripped open our storage tent and shreded through the ice chest to get its paws on some sealed meat. My partner had him in gun site while i through a log at him to get him from taking everything we had.
 
A very real possibility, particularly in some national forests is running into an illegal pot farming operation! Around here, the farms are booby trapped and frequently guarded by AK toting illegal aliens. (This is another reason I am suspicious of anybody walking around the woods with a rifle.)

Got to say that when I am car or ATV camping, I do keep a combat shotgun close at hand, but I'm not so stupid as to walk down a trail with it and draw unwanted attention to myself!

Backpacking it a different matter. There, weight is a premium, so ultra light S&W Scandium/Titanium is the order of the day.
 
Pot farming is a problem in Eastern KY and WV in the National Forests. Back when I lived in that area, people would warn me about tromping around in the woods alone. There were also the usual stills and so forth, but I always took a comment about stills to be one of those things folks say to people who they know didn't grow up there. Now you can run into a clandestine meth operation although the ones in the woods where there is no electricity tend to be rather small. The more typical sitution is dumping of potentially hazardous wastes from operational labs. The waste is one of the ways that police investigate a suspect location and it is often neighbors who notice unusal stuff going on.

Carrying a firearm is not a bad idea. I believe discretion is usually warranted and handguns seem to be the more appropriate choice. The handgun gives you the option to conceal it where as a rifle or shotgun usually can not be concealed from a practical point of view.

This is not a "black rifle" thread with the usual poltical issues. I have always believed you need to be smart about your choices in terms of which gun is right for the job, that's all.
 
My point is why draw unwanted attention to yourself from Rangers and LEO's, because you are marching around with a rifle out of season looking all the world like a poacher, when you can be quietly and adequately armed with a handgun????

You are just asking to be the subject of a fellony stop! Why invite trouble???
 
This is a hot button issue and a 2A thing. Not the topic of this thread. Carry what you want to, but the military rifles are often much heavier than their sporting counter parts. Carrying any rifle tends to invite scrutiny in the woods unless it's during hunting season, or in some of the more remote wilderness areas where there might be a higher probablity of a grizzly bear encounter.

Possum, no one said that you don't have a legal right to carry a military styled rifle and carry whatever works for you. ("It's legal and I want to.") You will get second and third looks in the woods if you carry one and many people will automatically be suspicious of you simply because of the rifle. Not everyone is comfortable around those rifles; or for many of the Sierra Club types, they are not comfortable around any firearm. They're bear bait as far as I'm concerned. Again, do what makes sense for you. It still is a pretty free country.
 
Sapper76 said:
Not to mention the Wolves are non native and were raised by people so they have NO fear of people. Friggin hate those mountain lions, getting the feeling something is watching you , get stalked for a few miles and then they are either gone (95% of the time) or pouncing on you....
That round should be fine, remember shot placement is your best friend when shooting large game.
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Thank you!
I live in Caldwell, BTW. :D
 
Ah, for the good old days. I remember guys talking about their WWII souvenirs and how much fun it is to shoot up abandoned cars with a grease gun or chase tin cans with a sten gun. Now everybody is just so uptight. If what you can get cheap ammo for is your semiauto AK47, why that is what's natural to plink with. An AR-15 is a very handy plinker and doesn't weigh all that much. Now when a guy is lugging a Barrett .50 it does make you wonder.
 
reconranger said:
I see somebody with a rifle out on the trail, and it isn't hunting season and it doesn't look like a "hunting" rifle, and I am right away going to consider this person some kind of "weirdo"! My hand will be in my fanny pack right away.....
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You're in Southern Kalifornia........

What's in your fanny pack that'll matter ?

:D

.
 
That is a good point David E. Most of us really aren't expecting trouble from two-legged creatures out in the woods.
 
SoCal is a good example of what happens when weapons are outlawed...only the outlaws will have them. to have one is to break the law thereby becoming the very thing you we're defending yourself from. To there credit "They" have "Approved" 1,320 different models of handguns for sale in the state of California. how nice of "Them"
here is the link to those models, http://certguns.doj.ca.gov/safeguns_resp.asp notice it is updated or able to updated daily,... the point being here one day, gone the next. Please vote for Hillary's 3rd term. or better yet Mr Obama, who rhymes with Osama, lets see how long that list lasts...
 
I moved from Caldwell about five years ago. I used to hunt two points in the Owyhees but spent much more time in those mountains motorcycling to Silver City! I always carried a handgun on my motorcycle - usually a Beretta 96. The sight of my sidearm kept two guys in a pickup from assaulting the three of us while biking around the foothills near Murphy. I've also seen lots of mountain lion tracks on War Eagle Mountain while hunting deer. Good reason to pack something.
 
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