I will admit that I do during moose season, and at times have had to use the revolver to finish a moose that had been shot, but still alive and bedded down or just not able to get up. I wanted to start a poll on this subject, but could not figure how to do it.

By the way, I hunt in the interior of Alaska, usually around the Elliott or Steese highways. Most of the hunters I know and see during moose season carry sidearms.

Anyway, I appreciate your views or comments.

Nope. If I can't kill it with the rifle I'm carrying, the pistol aint gonna be able to do it.

On the few occasions when Ive had to finish off a critter, a shot behind the ear with the rifle wastes no meat, and that cartridge is a tiny fraction of the weight of a sidearm to carry up the hill....

I mostly have one on my person, and a couple in the pickup..
Handguns are invaluable if you have to pack game, and I prefer to finish wounded game with a sixgun..

Perhaps I was not very clear on this thread. I should have asked if you carry a sidearm as backup. For example, in a life and death situation while hunting and not being able to use your rifle at the moment.

I never carried one (I guess I should say never, but I can count on 1 hand how many times I did).

I've been on two Alaska bear hunts, which makes me an internet expert on the subject. On the first hunt I carried a rifle and a S&W M-629 .44 revolver...once. The revolver got heavy after a few miles of hiking and always seemed to be in the way. The second day I decided to leave it in camp. The rifle would be able to do any job that needed doing while I carried it.

The handgun was nice to have next to my sleeping bag in the tent, in case shaggy neighbors came to call in the middle of the night.

I took the .44 on the second hunt but it stayed in the tent most of the time also.

However, after my tags were filled, the rifle stayed in the tent and I carried the .44 while exploring and goofing around. It was much handier than a rifle for that purpose and was nice to be armed in bear country.

Here in Michigan I always carry a handgun while rifle hunting, but it is the Glock 19 that I always carry with my CPL. I don't consider it a hunting gun, although it certainly could be used in some hunting circumstances.

Dude I have hunted in bunches of places including Alaska and Africa, and hunted dangerous game...my rifle was always the first line of defense with no thought given to a sidearm. If I was unable to use my rifle in such a situation...I'll just perish I guess. That situation has obviously never cropped up and frankly I never expected that it would...







Though I did finish pissed off wounded leopard once by sticking a rusty-azzed Taurus .38 special in his ear......

The gun was borrowed from somebody else and the quarters were too tight even to get me and my sawed off shotgun in there...


" If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with!"

Nope.

Always left in camp in the tent meant for if boo boo decided to come into camp.. Which never happened even with a meat pole full of hanging meat.

We had some bear problems at the campsite back on the early '90s. Ever since we have left a radio tuned to one of the local talk-show stations, and haven't had bears raiding the campsite, but no idea if the radios have done the job or not. Maybe the snores of my hunting friends nearby keep the bears away

Anyway, we have had fresh moose meat hanging from trees at night, right in the middle of the campsite, and so far no more bear problems.
----------

Most hunters in the areas I hunt carry sidearms of various calibers. But then we don't pack meat out since we have ATV's and meat trailers. We usually hunt the ridge where there are wide open areas and cat. trails, while other hunters go down toward the water through thickets of black spruce and birch.

Some of these areas in the interior are on fire at the moment, so who knows if we will be able to hunt there this year.

never have, I try and cut down on stuff I'm carrying and the resultant weight of stuff.


know lots of folks that do, and it gives me no heartburn if they do so.

I've always just felt better armed with a rifle than a pistol.


back at camp, once in a blue moon maybe a pistol is there, if a pard brings one.


but most times it's just my .45/70

tis what I use for packing out meat and it serves as a backup rifle in case Murphy does some gunsmithing while we're in the field.

Not from AK, but not a complete stranger to it either, listen to the good folks from there that give you advice. My bottom line is carry what you are comfortable with. If you are used to the feel, weight,& use of a side arm, then wear it. If not, it's one more thing you might have to think about when maybe you ought to have your rifle in hand.

Mostly not, but sometimes, yes. It all depends on what’s happening and where. When we’re traveling - via ATV- across miles of trackless tundra and might perhaps be spending a night or more in tents, then yes, often a handgun goes along. Generally it rides in a pack of some sort to be made available for wear, or handy anyway, for night-time pillow use or if/when working on something that might fall inside an alder wallow.

In many ways, carrying a handgun is kind of like using something other than a 30-06. It really isn’t necessary, it may be less than ideal, but it brings a pleasure of some sort. There are certainly plenty of other things I don’t bring that make less sense to have along than a handgun. (Bipods, hubble scopes, turrets/knobs, cell phones, Samurai Bowie knives, .....rangefinders.. ... etc.) But everyone has to be the judge of their own needs and wants. Obviously one guy’s useless, in-the-way stuff can be another man’s ideal pack of tricks.

Always. Usually it's my Glock 20, or a Ruger Blackhawk in .45. Colt.

I almost always do, but for a different reason.

I'm usually straddling a nag and wish to not be left unarmed if I were to part company unceremoniously with said nag, as my rifle is in a saddle scabbard.

That said, I just don't get bucked off.





(now watch)

That's a pretty good reason.

That.

Have packed one and wished I'd left it at home, and have left it at home and wished I packed it.

Absolutely not.

Yes.

Don't you put your 6 gun on like your pants each morning???
CCW holders from what I hear should always carry..

Yes I always do. My Hillpeople gear chest pack is the most useful item I have purchased in the last 5 years. I always wear a backpack when away from the car in the backcountry. I can remove the pack w/out being separated from my Glock.


mike r

Well said man!

It depends.

If I'm going to be going back to home base at night, most times not.

If I'm camping, you bet. It crawls into the sleeping bag with me and we usually don't camp in one place two nights in a row.

I carry a rifle usually, only. Wife carries a 329PD or maybe a 10mm Glock this year.

I carry both if I'm by myself, just in case. But thats pretty rare.

I do strap on a pistol when cleaning game though, as I'm kind of out of pocket and such, and would at least like to feel better rather than trying to get back to the rifle and all.

All in all, I've generally thought, it better to pay attention than to carry extra guns. Buy you never know what might happen.

A pistol of some sort is in the tent all the time when in camp, as the rifle is there, but a bit not so handy in a tent.

I never have carried a sidearm hunting in Alaska.

I have a CPL so I carry a Kimber 45 ACP while hunting in MI for a couple of reasons.

JD338

there are areas that I've hunted here that I would not go again without a handgun along also, especially in bow season. Meth heads are some of the worst in teh bushes.....

Not like I can't handle em with the rifle, but with the bow... hmm...well one likley

Love the one you're with? What a novel idea. I like it, well, unless im hunting with a pal. But, i know what you mean. Many suffer through life without realiziing that valuable concept. Dead on, Ingwe.

Haven't in the past, don't expect to in the future.

It depends.

I've carried a K-22 when I was in grouse country, other than that I rely on my rifle!

The only time I pack my pistol is either when I'm bow hunting, hiking, ATVing, or fishing.

I hunt with ,bow or long gun or pistol, only one at a time.... the pistol is in the boat on the wheeler or in the truck tho ...cause she's like a good dog and wants to go with me

Only time I have a handgun, is when I have my pack-frame on. Oh yeah, don't forget the bear spray.

I usually am carrying a handgun when not hunting but I hunt on foot and don't need any extra weight and see no need for a hangun when carrying a rifle. If you can't kill it with a rifle than it's doubtful you can kill it with a handgun.

Phil,
What do you think about hanging moose meat in camp?

Not Phil, but the advise from a lot of people is not to do it. However, my hunting friends and I have done it a few times without any bear problems. Also, we have done such only if returning to the campsite late at night to sleep for a few hours before we ride the trail out to the trucks that are parked around 8 miles away.

We never leave a moose we have shot in the evening out there; just work on it and take all the edible meat and antlers away from the kill site. Since our campsite is the closest place to take a break, that's where we take the meat to. But if we kill a moose earlier in the day, we take the meat to the trucks, and have one of us take it home and hang it.

Absolutely YES -Always carry a side arm.

When I put down moose and caribou, spine shots, they still wiggle. I put a finishing shot in the neck with the rifle.

The side arm is essentially superfluous in most cases except bears.

None the less I AlWAYS carry because I like it. Doesn't matter if it is superfluous, innocuous, trivial, un-needed, foolish ad infinite.

I sleep with my .38 S&W fully loaded in my night stand every night and have for decades.

I never pack a sidearm and rifle together.

It depends on what you mean by "in camp" as we hunt moose in one of the densest populations of brown bears in the world. If we don't remove the meat from the kill immediately it is claimed by bears. We have had as many as four separate bears watching as we butcher and it is not uncommon to have to chase down a bear to recapture a lost quarter.
But in our main camp we have a meat shed with screen wire covered my Marston Matting and surrounded by an electric fence where we like to hang the meat for at least a week. It makes the meat a lot more tender.

Do you happen to have any opinions on the use of bear drool as a meat tenderizer?

BTW, I hope you don’t mind me adding a pic which might be useful to folks who don’t know what Marston Matting is:



This perforated steel planking came into use in WW II to create quick runways on ground which would have otherwise been unsuitable for landing planes. I don’t know the specifics of the history as to how the stuff got the name “Marston” attached to it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with Maj. Marvin “Muktuk” Marston:

http://www.alaskool.org/projects/ak_military/men_of_tundra/men_of_tundra.htm

Each section of that Marston Matting weighs 96 lbs and bolted down with enough 4" lag bolts makes a pretty secure bear screen.
We have learned that when moose meat is at stake just an electric fence is not always enough. One fall we witnessed an old boar get zapped by the fence and he sat back and appeared to think it over a while and then stood up and completely smashed the entire fence to the ground with one blow !

you're name came up last night Phil, was with Dave Marsh, Big Game Big Country, he used to guide for John Petersen

Dave was under the impression you only used a .30-06 but another guy at the table cleared it up for him. Said he got to meet you once when with John doing some fishing or something.

they were passing through town headed to sheep country so we broke bread together.

No. What's the point?

I NEVER don't carry a sidearm.

I used to carry a small pistol for the two legged wolves I would run into once in a while. Had a few try to destroy my camp and take my rifle away from me.Had one buddy that a guy try to take his quad from him. Have not had much of a problem these days. But I still carry one for the 4 legged wolves now. The ammo is cheaper and lighter than rifle ammo. Besides the damn four legged wolves travel in packs.

Sounds like a good plan, but sometimes I carry a pistol for 4-legged wolves. Now, talking about 2-legged ones, over by the Elliott between Livingood and Fox, there are 2-legged wolves cutting off catalytic converters from trucks parked near the road. I was lucky, and so a couple of friends who were hunting out that way, but several of the trucks, including a personal one that belongs to a trooper, had their converters stolen.

I don't really know if the thieves cut them off, or just remove them. I am certain that the trooper will work hard at catching those wolves.

Ray,
Why are they stealing them?

The last few years I'm seeing more of what I would call scum out there and prudently carry especially if I know I'm likely to cross paths with other people.




The platinum coating on the ceramic.

Hold my beer and watch this...

DF

If I have pants on I have a pistol on. depending on place I go and what im doing I may have 2

I have owned a .475 linebauge 454 causall, 475 something or other, 50ae Desert Eagle, 44 grizzly, .445 Dan Wesson, 480 Ruger as back up guns for hunting. Unless I was fishing or just leaving camp for a nature call they all were camp guns just to heavy and bulky to pack. I have finally settled on a Glock 10mm. It is light enough I actually carry it, 16 rounds of which I can get off more than one controlled shot.Is it ideal no but it's the. Compromise I've chosen.

To the OP:

Not Alaska ... but ...

It depends much on the rifle I'm carrying. If I'm hunting with a single shot muzzleloader or a centerfire rifle smaller than .270 or 7mm-08, then yes, I carry a handgun, too. This is usually applicable to varmint hunting and use of small calibers for deer. By the time I grab an elk rifle (or in your case, moose), there's no real reason to pack a handgun, too. For "finishing" a critter, an extra rifle cartridge or two is a lot easier to carry than a handgun.

If I'm hunting from a car camp, I'll often bring a large caliber handgun for carry in camp so I have both hands free for gathering firewood or cooking without being entirely unarmed. Lock it in the rig while I'm hunting.

Tom

Also, when you shoot dinks, you don't need to be afraid of ruining the skull plate of a trophy to be mounted for the wall...

I very often bring a handgun along when I hunt. That tool is not very often on me when I'm shooting at game, but it could be accessible during butchering and/or packing. "While hunting" can mean so many different things to different people and places.

Funny story... I typically carry a handgun when out in the woods but this is entirely dependent on time of year, what I am doing, and my load out/other gear.
I was salmon fishing at the mouth of a creek. I rested my 458 up against a tree 10 or so feet behind me. Well I was squatting rice paddy prone with my pole, back to my 458, and being drowned out by the noise of the creek. But I did not feel alone... It was all of less than 10 minutes and I looked back over my shoulder. Here was a black bear sitting, like a dog between me and my 458. I was deeply disappointed and was so scared I wasn't sure what to do. I did not have my 44 on me. I figured that because he was just sniffing away and sitting observing, that he was one of in town bears that frequents one of the creeks in town. These bears have learned to rush people for their fish and were somewhat accustomed to people. I was young and didn't know if I should just walk into the shallow stream and try to walk away or what. Well long story short, I walked in a big arch and grabbed my 458. By the time I reached it, the bear was still within 12 feet or so. At that point I leveled my front sight and started yelling. The bear just moved on.
I was so mad at myself. 6-10 feet is too close for me especially for how comfortable he seemingly was.

I always carry one. Mountain hunting or otherwise. The weight has yet to be noticed and it makes less of a mess if one has to finish off an animal. I have carried one for so long I feel naked without it.

The main reason I carry one is for defense. I may have to lay the rifle against a tree to do a small task or gut out an animal, while doing that the handgun is always with me and at hand should I need it. Not so with a rifle. Having met unsavory characters while out hunting or camping it is a comfort to have on hand. Now if I was on a guided hunt in Africa I probably wouldn't not knowing the laws and having a bunch of people around to do those tasks. I did carry my 44 Mag while caribou and moose hunting in Alaska. It was a comfort when stepping out in the wee hours to pee.

The second reason I carry is my wife insists on it.

Me too, but only one. My "reverse taper" physique makes it hard to keep my pants up with more weight than that. I did revert to my 4" L frame the other day when I went to check on my deerstands. The extra weight compared to my usual J frame was barely noticed due to the good quality holster.

You need a dedicated gun belt not looped through your pants or a chest rig.

Absolutely. A 4 5/8 inch Ruger Vaquero in 45 Colt

LOL, not even my wife puts her pistol on at night to step a few steps out of the tent to pee. Might regret that one day but we are not top of the food chain in some areas and that has to be accepted IMHO

Same conclusion my wife came to with the 10mm.

Even though we have a 329PD thats a joy to carry, its a bear, pardon the pun, on the 2nd and further shots with heavy ammo. Was reading up some more on Elmer though, maybe we needed to keep heavy hard bullets but back the power factor down some on the 44. But 16 rounds of 10mm ain't to sneeze at. And she blew some good sized holes in an abandoned target toyotas chrome bumper one evening practicing...

This is a bit off topic but also regarding pistols for back up carry, I went with a Glock 10mm as a compromise but I still think in worst case scenario a double action would be the most dependable pistol to carry. If say in Alaska you are jumped by a bear and on the ground could you cock a single action? Of course if jumped your pistol may have flown from your hand anyway.

the flying from hand is a consideration and one reason looking into some form of lanyard setup for Carolyn.

LOL yeah I don't do it very often down here, but sometimes do. When I was in Alaska we were in an area that held a lot of Grizzlies. For some reason the guy I was with insisted on camping next to thick willows where he saw several bears in the past. We never saw one, but you never know.

There was a bowhunter attacked this year by a griz. The only thing he had to harm the bear was shoving his hand down the bears throat. It worked surprisingly.

Carried one every day for the last 21 years, and it comes off the belt at bed time, to rest on the nightstand. See no reason to leave it at home just because I'm hunting. I did kill a doe with it once when a rifle schitt the bed on me. She hung out at 15 yards watching me fiddle with the rifle, so I pulled the Glock and shot her in the head. Problem solved.

The guide in AK had one with all the time during this past moose hunt. We saw sows with cubs and lone bear every day. After the kill we had bear nearby, also in our incoming boot prints and had one false charge. That was pretty exciting - no Go Pro though.
So the old Taurus lightweight 44 was with us everywhere and on top of the pack when we were at the kill site.

In New Mexico I had two bouts with pushy bear. One at the elk kill site the morning after - stole a backstrap and covered the carcass with grass and sticks - yes I have photos. It was a brown phase blackie I had to scare off that morning.
Later that night one was in camp snooping around due to the fresh scent of elk.

Hunters in camp after me had a bear come in and steal their bull cape. But they were from TX and didn't know any better than to leave it hanging on a tree.

Suspenders work very well and my "German Wool Pants" from Cabelas have buttons for proper suspenders, not those crappy clip-ons. For other pants, I have a pair of Dickies braces that clip under the belt and don't damage the waistband. They occasionally slip off, though and the sliders slip after a while.

A Tanker holster for the L frame is on my long list of stuff to get someday when I stop buying so many guns. I would need a pretty large harness if I wanted it to go over my hunting coat. We can, with a CCW permit, carry concealed while hunting or fishing on State land and carry a legal hunting handgun openly with a Small Arms stamp on a hunting license. Like most places, the handgun has to either be concealed or clearly visible, not somewhere in the middle.

I once talked to a guy who had got attacked by a black bear on an early season "scouting" trip for elk in Colorado.

Although he had a rifle, he surprised the bear (turned out to be a sow later on) when coming around a bend and the bear was upon him so fast, he said he didn't even have time to even think about getting the rifle up for a shot (he was carrying it - port arms).

The bear chewed on him a bit, and he managed to break free and started climbing a tree. The bear came right up after him and grabbed him by his calf. Kicking the bear with his other foot, the bear lost her grip on the tree and fell, taking a big chunk of his calf with him.

He watched the bear move off, with a piece of his leg dangling from her jaws.

After a bit, he climbed down, recovered his rifle, and crawled back to his tent. It was starting to get dark and he didn't want to make a long crawl (about 3 miles) down the rocky trail in the dark.

He bandaged his calf, best he could and waited for the bear to return.

Sure enough, about 1 or 2 am, the bear tried to paw its way through the tent. The guy fired his rifle and the bear left.

At daybreak, the guy started crawling down the trail. This is a trail I have hunted that (Major Creek) in south-central Colorado, that follows a creek. It is muddy and rocky with dense brush on both sides.

About 9:30 am, he finally makes it far enough down the trail to a point where a woman having coffee on her porch (thankfully facing the mountains) see him, and has some ranch hands get him. He is taken to the hospital.

The (then) Co Division of Wildlife, is there within an couple of hours with hounds. They find the bears tracks just 200 feet up the trail the man had just crawled down. The bear was trailing him to finish him off!

They shot the bear and found the remains of the man's calf in her stomach.

The man moved away for almost 10 years and, when I met him, had just started hunting again in Colorado, where he grew up and had hunted for over 25 years.

He told me (and I was bear hunting at the time) that he will only go back into bear country under the following conditions:

1) always have a pistol strapped securely to your body. A rifle is almost useless if the bear surprises you at close range. You will not get a shot. Your best chance will be once the bear knocks you down, and provided your pistol doesn't go flying, you can grab the gun and kill the bear while it is chewing on you.

2)always hunt with another person.

Now this if from a guy who grew up in the Colorado mountains and hunted deer, elk, and bear his entire life. He hunted for decades by himself and was an accomplished outdoorsman, yet one encounter changed his views.


As for me, I always take a pistol along (currently a Taurus Tracker .44 Mag) if I am in bear country, and if I am seeing fresh bear scat, I take it with me when I'm hunting. I still like to hunt alone though.

BTW I used to have a SW 629 in .44 mag, but it was really too heavy, so I sold it. The Taurus Tracker is a real kicker, but is a joy to carry.


Good hunting!

BH

Lately I carry a Glock 20 10 MM with 220 Gr Buffalo Boar bullets. I figure one might not kill but I have 14 of his friends. Reliable and much easier to shoot with control than my model 29 S&W 44 mag with 300 gr cast loads. Boating or 4 wheeling I have it with me and in the tent.

I think the same way. If shot placement means anything, I'm better off with my glock 29 than a revolver.