Legit need for a gun as protection in the woods?

[on_the_edge]

I'm interested to hear who here has ever had to use a firearm for self-protection while in the woods, either camping, hiking, or just enjoying the great outdoors. If this is you, please share your story. I don't want to hear about "well, I had it with me and I was glad that I did just in case I needed it" types of stories, but just stories where it saved your proverbial bacon.

Of course, everyone knows it may make you feel more comfortable to have a gun with you just in case, but are we too paranoid when it comes to such things? I know there are a lot of dangers in the world, from homicidal maniacs to rabid chipmunks, but how often do we come across something like that in the woods? Is the need for a gun about as likely as winning the lottery?

 

[SpookyPistolero]

The ones who have seen that particular elephant usually don't talk about it. And certainly not on a public internet forum.

And I know more than a few folks who have never had to put their spare tire to use. But they don't seem compelled to remove it from their trunk because of that.

 

[Gaurdian_A1]

Ive been charged by bears 3 times in the woods this year, 2 out of 3 times i had my 12 gauge with me and deterred the bear..the thierd time i got charged i was in thick thick bush and all i had was my Junglas. i wish i had packed my shotgun that day as i broke my foot in the exchange. i Got away but i vowed to never not have fire power when out in the bush ever again.

 

[Scottman]

It isn't about how often we come across something like that, but when we do we're either going to make it out or be dead. And that is survival.

 

[scout_77]

All I will say is my 1911 scared of some people looking to take what was not there's. My gun never left it's holster, his didn't point at me, but it sent him and his friends down the road.

 

[reconranger]

I returned from a long ATV ride to a popular off-road staging area, in the middle of a snow storm (yes....believe it or not, we do have LIONS, BEARS, AND SNOW in the mountains of So. Calif!). A group of "Mexican skinheads" were beginning to break into the parked vehicles. There was a car full of them, so I would estimate there were at least 5 or 6 of them.

I roared into the parking area and really surprised them! Two were standing in the back of the pickup parked across from my Suburban, taking a whack at the window, which they luckily had not managed to break yet. I stopped my ATV, and stuck my hand in my fanny pack. They got the message!!!

They scatered like cockroaches when you turn on the light. I took cover behind my vehicle, as they dove into their "lowrider" and beat it out of there. I got their license #, but I had no cell service to call it in. (I did call in their license later when I got down the road and finally got cell service.)

Luckily, I called their bluff. Five or six of them and one of me (I was riding solo)...things could have ended badly under other circumstances!

 

[Don Rearic]

We were camping when I was a kid, it was not a wilderness area, just a hard to access area in a rural area back in the 70s.

A bunch of young people, don't know their age, arrived around midnight, they were partying and having a grand old time. Then they were intoxicated after a while and started humming beer bottles and hitting my Dad's truck and the camper. No cell phones back then and a regular police cruiser would have never made it back there, anyway.

I heard the slide go back on the 1911 and my Dad opened the camper door and let the ground hold one about six feet out from the camper's folding step. He might have let two go quick, it was over 32 years ago and my memory is fading. But I do remember they hauled ass and all you could hear was car doors slamming, engines starting and people getting the hell out of there.

He didn't shoot at them, he didn't have to.

I have always wondered what would have happened that night had he not given them that warning that he did. Might have been nothing, maybe a busted windshield, might have turned into some type of 1970s B-Horror Flick that Peter Fonda would have jumped at the chance to star in, I don't know. But I am glad that I was raised the way I was.

My Dad took me out the next morning and we talked about it. He handed me a S&W Model 15 and he told me to put six rounds in a rust spot in a burn barrel about 15 feet away. I did, then he showed me how to empty it and load it and we stood there for a while and I think I shot 18-24 rounds. He looked down at me and he said, "If anything ever happens again like last night and someone gets me, you pick up whatever I have and you do what you have to do."

Too bad my memory is fading, I'd like to be able to remember exactly what he said, but that is damned sure what he meant.

We had another incident, years later, deer hunting. Guys were going around and "claiming" other people's deer! My Dad gave me something. "Don't tell Harry, don't tell Rick or Dave, don't tell anyone. If someone gets your rifle away from you, you know what to do."

You had to know him.

Dangerous world. Best not to second guess the timeless practicality of going armed whenever you can do so.

 

[jw2n]

During the summer of 1983, my wife and I were shooting on the San Pedro River located approx 10 miles from Tombstone, AZ. The area is extremely remote. I was teaching my wife to shoot as she had very little experience. We had set up an old 5 gallon can in the bottom of a washout, and were shooting from the opposing embankment. A van pulled in 100 yards to our right and three or four guys got out. They began shooting skeet and continued with their partying. During a lull in our firing, I noticed spurts of sand jumping around our target. The idiots in the van were shooting down the wash at our can as some form of harrassing us. I took out an FN 50.63 and asked my wife to hand me magazines as I needed them. I emptied 7 20 rd mags as quickly as I could pull the trigger, shredding the 5 gal can. The boneheads packed up their van and left immediately.

 

[HJK]

I sometimes go on extended canoe trips in northern Canada and kayaking trips in the high Arctic. This is serious bear country and walrus country, respectively.
Polar bears ( and some Grizzlies) are not afraid of people and it is not unusual to come across very nasty walrus. You are insane if you don't have a gun. Some people take a shotgun and load one barrel with a banger to scare and the second to kill. Two friends were sleeping in a tent on Ellesmere Island when a polar bear stuck its head into their tent and one killed it with a handgun shooting it point blank in the face ( which I didn't know was possible until they did it). In Canada you generally cannot take guns into National Parks.

I really wouldn't want everyone carrying guns out there because 1) most people aren't trained well enough to be trusted and 2) that would tend to encourage bad practices rather than habits that could avoid problems in the first place. But in some places you really need a gun for your safety and the safety of the people you are guiding. Most people who frequent those places know what they're doing or have guides that do) but personally I think I might be more afraid of an inexperienced fool with a gun than a rogue bear or walrus.

 

[Cpl Punishment]

Well, a few times I got charged by hogs. If you've never seen an enraged boar hog, you might not understand how dangerous they can be.

Another time, a good friend and I were camping, and we were sleeping in an old Army shelter half tent when we hear some kind of ruckus outside. Simultaneously, we both ran the bolts of our rifles -- didn't need to say a word to each other. Things went dead silent, and we heard some rustling as whatever/whoever it was scampered off.

Twice I came across people in the woods that didn't "fit". They tried giving me the third degree. Once I just told the guy that we'd probably get along much better if neither of us stuck our noses in the other's business. They ageed, and just mentioned that they were going this way, and I'd probably find what I'm looking for that way.

The other it came down to pointing my rifle at the spokesperson of four guys and outlining that no matter if I didn't get all of them, nothing that happened, short of them all backing down would happen fast enough to keep me from sending him to the next world. I told the others that I probably wasn't fast enough to get them all, but what they had to consider is who wanted to volunteer to be the ones that I did get. They backed down.

The only times it came to blood with people is when I didn't have a gun.

 

[HJK]

From some of the stories posted here it seems that bears aren't really the most dangerous animals out there. It's dumb humans.

 

[Mannlicher]

on the edge, this is another topic that has been really thrashed around enough. There has got to be 4 recent threads on the same topic. All wind up rancorous.

If a fellow wants to pack a hand gun, and it is legal for him to do so in the area he wants to do it in, why would you, your opinion, or any the thoughts of anyone else impact his decision?

Why would his decision influence your decision to carry or not?

 

[dipbait]

There was a time when I didnt have one and did need one.

 

[HJK]

on the edge, this is another topic that has been really thrashed around enough. There has got to be 4 recent threads on the same topic. All wind up rancorous.

If a fellow wants to pack a hand gun, and it is legal for him to do so in the area he wants to do it in, why would you, your opinion, or any the thoughts of anyone else impact his decision?

Why would his decision influence your decision to carry or not?

That's not entirely fair. He asked a legitimate question and wanted the advice of experienced members, like you.
If there are other threads on this ( which I didn't know) then you do have a good point and might refer him there.

 

[Don Rearic]

I really wouldn't want everyone carrying guns out there because 1) most people aren't trained well enough to be trusted and 2) that would tend to encourage bad practices rather than habits that could avoid problems in the first place. But in some places you really need a gun for your safety and the safety of the people you are guiding. Most people who frequent those places know what they're doing or have guides that do) but personally I think I might be more afraid of an inexperienced fool with a gun than a rogue bear or walrus.

I have been incredibly close to black bears. Shot dogs out in the woods that were wild, encouraged to do so by local DNR Officers. But taken across this large country, the bear and cougar attacks are relatively rare when you consider the amount of people. Dog attacks are a bit more likely, both wild and people who think they should enjoy Carte Blanche in the woods with their dog(s).

But the sheer number of human beings who are either criminal, crazy or both, that you can encounter ANYWHERE, regardless of high hopes and optimism, is the most frightening aspect of it all.

So, if I consider my fellow man to be untrustworthy in the woods with a gun because they might do something stupid with it, I wouldn't even be in the woods in the first place because I am more likely to be killed by the plethora of idiots in vehicles on the way to the woods. Just another threat assessment, I am more likely to be killed on the way to the woods than by an irresponsible gun owner in the woods.

I don't know how people drive in Canada. The last time I was in Canada, I was about 11 years old. But I can tell you for a fact that you are many, many times more likely to be seriously injured or killed in a car accident because of a moron down here than ANY negligent firearms discharge or one on purpose due to criminality or mental illness.

 

[HJK]

I have been incredibly close to black bears. Shot dogs out in the woods that were wild, encouraged to do so by local DNR Officers. But taken across this large country, the bear and cougar attacks are relatively rare when you consider the amount of people. Dog attacks are a bit more likely, both wild and people who think they should enjoy Carte Blanche in the woods with their dog(s).

But the sheer number of human beings who are either criminal, crazy or both, that you can encounter ANYWHERE, regardless of high hopes and optimism, is the most frightening aspect of it all.

So, if I consider my fellow man to be untrustworthy in the woods with a gun because they might do something stupid with it, I wouldn't even be in the woods in the first place because I am more likely to be killed by the plethora of idiots in vehicles on the way to the woods. Just another threat assessment, I am more likely to be killed on the way to the woods than by an irresponsible gun owner in the woods.

I don't know how people drive in Canada. The last time I was in Canada, I was about 11 years old. But I can tell you for a fact that you are many, many times more likely to be seriously injured or killed in a car accident because of a moron down here than ANY negligent firearms discharge or one on purpose due to criminality or mental illness.

You are absolutely right. But that doesn't help much when you stare into those blood red eyes of a rogue walrus.
Black bears can be very dangerous in Canada because they tend to be where dumb humans leave them food, accidently or on purpose, and they lose their fear. But if people are too dumb to handle their food and garbage correctly, I wouldn't trust them with much else. Most of them shouldn't have cars either

 

[Don Rearic]

You are absolutely right. But that doesn't help much when you stare into those blood red eyes of a rogue walrus.

The walruses (is that even proper plurality? ) we have down here can have the bloodshot eyes and get really nasty. They generally inhabit Wal-Mart and have their ginormous gut sticking out of some slogan-laden T-shirt, complete with stretch marks from the many litters of wallaroos they have pumped out in an effort to get more money from everyone around them.

Black bears can be very dangerous in Canada because they tend to be where dumb humans leave them food, accidently or on purpose, and they lose their fear. But if people are too dumb to handle their food and garbage correctly, I wouldn't trust them with much else. Most of them shouldn't have cars either

We have black bears like that as well. Thanks to turd-salesmen like Uncle Walt Disney, we have a population of morons.

Most of them should not have cars, but they do.

Thanks to our Second Amendment, we have the Right to own certain things and do certain things with them. For this Right, we must put up with some criminals, mental patients and careless people obtaining and misusing arms. Just like kitchen knives, baseball bats and ball peen hammers...vehicles fall into the same category really. If you want liberty, it sometimes comes with a hefty price tag...you have to put up with liberty for all...not just who you overwhelmingly approve of.

 

[riddleofsteel]

Several that are relatively politically correct .........

1. Dragging out a deer during a bow hunt when a skinny black bear began trailing me. Long story short discharging the revolver I was not supposed to be packing proved invaluable in discouraging the bear that came close enough to hear him grinding his teeth.

2. Camping with two female friends we were visited unexpectedly by two guys that said they were looking to "bum a beer or two." I told them we had no beer and they spent several uneasy minutes talking about the remoteness of the area, lack of law enforcement, ect. ect. When they left I told the girls to get in the tent and I moved to the bushes with my Glock. Sure enough they came back, in the dark, whispering between themselves. Thank God all I had to do was rack my slide in the darkness and they moved off quickly. I spent the rest of a sleepless night on alert.

 

[Cpl Punishment]

From some of the stories posted here it seems that bears aren't really the most dangerous animals out there. It's dumb humans.

Really depends on where you are.

In places like Alaska where you have bears and such that are used to being at the top of the food chain and a sparse population of humans, I'd worry more about the big animals.

In the lower 48, IMO your problem will be with people more often than animals.

 

[GingivitisKahn]

"Legit need for a gun as protection in the woods?"

No offense intended but I don't care for the way that is phrased. It implies that having a gun might some times be illegitimate - and that's bull crap.

Anyway, I've hunted for years and have used guns (now bows) extensively in the woods - never had to use one to fend of man or beast though. I've had (black) bears very close by before but never felt the need to defend myself from one.