Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Need for firepower in the field.

The only guy I knew personally, stopped to help an illegal that he thought was ill. The guy he stopped to help shot and killed him. Shot his dog, too, and the dog had to be put down. The guy who was killed was a friend of mine. That's why most of us around here carry out in the country.

I'm sorry for the loss of someone that was trying to be a good person. That one incident has hurt so many more people that could really use some help and now no one will reach out to help.

Have not and don't plan to read all 5 pages of this thread and no offense intended toward the OP, but this gets my vote as one of the most ridiculous threads of the year!

That based not on the need to carry a backup, but on swapping out a drilling for an AR platform to have "more firepower in the field" in Washington State. Now I know it's possible to run into illegals in the hills (pot farms), but.......

the addendum to that story if i remember right was his widow was hit in a vehicle accident by an illegal and ended up in the hospital for quite a while some months after her husband was killed.

or i could mention that retired vetenarian that had a mexican army chopper land in front of his house. They were "lost".

I do remember talking to the father of that park ranger killed down by luekville/sonoita due to an overflow of the narco wars from mexico.
or i could remember talking to a certain FBI agent a few years ago telling me of watching mexican army humvees escorting drug shipments 15miles this side of the border.
or i could mention a friend of mine hunting deer down near lowell observatory. They had to leave a guy in camp at all times because of the illegals wandering through their camp.
Unnerving at night when you are trying to sleep.

Just ask yourself,
"What would Chuck Norris do in this situation?"

I applied for and received my CCP due to a deputy game warden telling me that I should absolutely be carrying a pistol on the public game lands that I hunted. I was hunting during deer archery most of the time and I would be leaving the woods with no one in sight. He explained that they had found a number illegal plants growing in the woods and fields and that the guys doing it were not amateurs. He also asked me to park in the parking lots of the game lands since he explained that they had found a number of people who were in cars parked along the side of the road dead from being shot.

Unfortunately, in PA you hear a lot of stories on the news about people being found on PA game lands dead and it's usually never due to natural causes.

You are not exactly unarmed carrying a drilling and a handgun..
I think I would hunt with a group of friends or find a new spot to hunt.
whelennut

The old line about how Luck favors the prepared seems to apply here.

While I do stop to help situations, I never stop without the 45 tucked in the holster.

You ever hunt SGL 249?

Back in the 80's, I was chasing groundhogs with my Marlin Mountie and as I was getting ready to leave, some hobo approached me and was very interested in my rifle and how much it was worth. He got a little to close for comfort, so while I had unloaded the magazine, I left a round in the chamber until I was in the car with the doors locked. I'm convinced he was going to make a grab for it. These days, I would also be packing a handgun, as my WV permit is also good in PA.

Most hunters will never run into bad guy's while hunting, But were I live everyone carries, and not just when hunting, we are over run by illegals and the cartel dope smugglers, we don't leave the house unless we are armed. rio7

No, but the one I am talking about SGL 243 is right up the road.

1. I feel safer in the woods than in town.

2. If I have a rifle or shotgun in my hands, I don't need a pistol.

In other words, no. Unless you're hunting sheep in the mountains between Iran and Afghanistan like the old days of the Shah.

Than obviously you've never visited south or far west TX.

I'll be sure to check with you for a heads up before I do. You live there, I don't. I'll bet the general principle applies however - I'll feel safer in the boonies than in El Paso. Don't you?

I live in the methamphetamine capitol of the US. California friends tell me one of the slang names for meth is "417", the area code they call to order. 417 is my area code. Maybe I just don't know enough to be afraid. I mind my own business and very few people ever mess with me, even when I'm not visibly armed. Being ugly isn't all bad.

I have carried pistols on bird hunts, and know others who do it routinely. So far, in 50+ years of banging around, the deadliest thing shot was an assortment of copperheads and rattlers. the shotguns would have done it better.

Everyone thinks they live in a meth capital. Doesn't look like 417 is even the worst part of Mizzurah. Missouri does rank pretty high on most lists, but seems like eastern Missouri has it worse

While not 'afraid' in the woods, I do feel more comfortable being armed. The remoteness combined with the unpredictable nature of people should not be underestimated. To an opportunistic criminal, a guy alone in the woods may seem like easy pickings.

Bingo.

Many public hunting areas are frequented by other folks for various reasons, not all of which are "wholesome". Suffice to say that it is prudent to take steps to protect yourself and your family when afield as allowed by law and sometimes, perhaps, beyond that. In this area, WV and VA, we are allowed to carry concealed in parks and WMAs if licensed, except for administrative areas that are essentially police or ranger stations. I always carry and also, when hiking, carry a stout wooden staff that is somewhere between a cudgel and a quarterstaff. Those wispy little ski poles hikers tend to carry these days aren't heavy enough for whacking purposes, although some may qualify as "pointed sticks" by Monty Python.

Virginia has taken the sensible step of requiring people to have a permit to access public hunting and fishing properties. Although designed, I'm sure, to raise revenue, it also would tend to discourage ne'er-do-wells from casually roaming around in some remote spots where they might feel free to do bad stuff.

I know I can't predict the future so I always carry a handgun. When hunting/hiking here in the west I carry whatever rifle I feel is most appropriate.

If I lived near the southern border more firepower may seem appropriate.

mike r

I would think a drilling would intimidate most people, if not you could be in a real bad situation no matter what you carry.