Five minutes is plenty of time to get a gun if anywhere near the house. And the pickup is a wonderful second choice.
But for alternatives to the alternative, for many, many years, there were times when I was too far from the house to make it into the gun room. During those times I usually had a pair of bale hooks in my hands or a Pony featherweight no 0 irrigating shovel.
The irrigating shovel was always kept very sharp for cutting sod or stubborn roots. It would have been a formidable weapon of self defense against anything but a gun. It could be used as a cudgel for less than lethal blows. Or used as the entrenching tool previously discussed, only with almost three feet of extra reach.
As a kid I heard that a few Idaho residents had been murdered with a shovel. Most often over water disputes.
