Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Sidearm for Elk Hunting

Ah Hell, you'll be in Elmer Keith country, why not carry one and your's is most appropriate. Maruading bears, runaway broncs, finishing off a big bull, or just "look cool" in a picture, if your willing to pack it have fun!!! Jared

I've hunted Idaho's rough stuff for over 40 years. There's NO WAY that I'm packing an extra gun up and down these mountains. If my rifle can't handle it, it doesn't need doing.

Dick

I don't have experience but I'm wondering if a shoulder holster would chafe too much. My mind's eye sees arms holding reins steady for hours while the body bounces up & down.

I am not taking a stance on this one. I have done both, and will be the first one to admit that one probably doesn;t need a sidearm in 99.9% of the cases. A rifle is far more potent, and if you fall hard enough to break it, I'd pray I am alive myself and move on. Still, I took a sidearm with me on more than one occasion. Why? Perhaps for the same reason we own way more rifles than we can use, or want another one still. Because it makes you feel good on that particular day. Becasue you gave your rifle to your kid to fill his tag, and don't want to be just a tourist in the woods. Or, because you are packing out meat in three trips and toting a rifle is too much, but a pistol makes your night time trip feel better. So, if you feel like it, take it. It is clearly not necessary (would you have cancelled a hunt if you didn't own one? No...), but if you like the idea, why not?
-P

I prefer to carry a sidearm either crossdraw or in a shoulder holster. I'ld rather do the up close finish shot with a handgun than have bullet shrappnel flying around from a pass thru with a highpowered rifle round, finding a rock underneath. Also there's less chance of splitting a good set of horns with a handgun round than a rifle round.
Plus if its legal there in Idaho carrying a few shotcapsuls for the 44 will make for some good eating if you happen into a batch of blue grouse. While full house cast bullets do an admirable job on grouse, you'll get more meat if you don't dead center the head when using shot, than when your aim is off just a tad with the regular bullet.

When riding, and NOT carrying a rifle, I do pack a side arm, for all the reasons mentioned. Particularly about maybe having to put a mule down if it breaks a leg or something.
In CO. it is illegal for your guide to finish off your animal.

1st rule of hunting with horses or mules. When you get off, take your rifle out of the scabbard, unless you have another rider along to either hold your mount ot go catch it.

Equines have a nasty habit of wanting to lay down and roll when they get sweaty. When you get off, even to take a whiz, they thinks it's time to roll. Crack goes your stock.

can't say I ever have walked up to an animal and had to finish it off . I think that mt goat I shot was the first and only animal with 2 holes in it and that was to keep it from jumping off a 90 ft cliff. Patience is key wait for the right shot and you'll only have to make 1.

I've done a "Tony Soprano" for a friend,but I didn't feel a sidearm was needed over the rifled slug gun I was hunting with.

At our place in south Texas, we all carry pistols. For rattle worms in warm weather and wetbacks yearround. Of course here in Texas, all adults are required to own at least one "sixgun". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

The wetbacks may or may not be a danger but none of us wants to find out. One of the guys leaned his shotgun against the front bumper and walked to the back to get his decoys. When he turned with the decoys, there were five wetbacks standing in the ditch closer to his shotgun than he was. He put his hand on the grip of his 357 and turned so they could see it. The "leader" (not carrying water) looked at the shotgun, Roy and his hand. Then they all faded into the mesquite. Could have been nothing, could have been bad. One result is that Roy put a sling on his shotgun and will not walk away from it again.

I'm in JDS44's camp.

Speaking of having a wreck, when I lived in Calif., I got to know, and hunted with a man who was a wrangler/cowboy/farrier/muleskinner, etc., up in California's high Sierra. (He'd also worked cattle ranches in northwestern Nevada, and southeast Oregon.) He always carried a Ruger Security Six, 4" barrel, in .357 Mag., in a shoulder holster.

He told me that several years before, he'd been wrangling a string of mules out of Red's Meadow Pack Station in the Sierra, when there was a very bad wreck caused by some hornets trailside. After he finally got the mules and his horse straightened out, one of the mules had shattered a leg.

He had, over a period time, stopped carrying his Ruger, leaving it in camp. He had to kill the mule with his pocketknife. He told me, "I don't ever want to have to kill a mule or horse again, with a pocket knife."

So, thereafter, he said he never again was on a horse without that Ruger .357.

You want to pack it on your side on horseback, in and out of camp? Do so. You don't want to pack it while hunting? Leave it in camp with the cook.

Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
(Where have we heard that before?? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> )

JMHO. L.W.

Ranch13 _ "Plus if its legal there in Idaho carrying a few shotcapsuls for the 44 will make for some good eating if you happen into a batch of blue grouse. "
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Yep, it's legal, according to Id. F&G regs. I've killed Blue Grouse both with a .38 Special and .22LR, in revolvers.

L.W.

Most cowmen I know when and if they do pack a hundgun on a horse they just keep it in their saddle bag.

Leanwolf I used to carry 22 pistol instead of 44's and the like, back before Game and Fish decided that even if the critter was down and probably wasn't getting up , if you put the finisher in with a 22 , you were taking a big game animal with an illegal cartridge.
22's are much more grouse friendly <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

If I'm carrying a rilfe or shotgun I leave the revolver at home - don't need the extra weight. If I'm bow hunting, I carry my 357 mag in a pancake high ride holster for my bear tag.

NH Hunter.

I'm completely with Saddlesore on this one (both posts). Having a sidearm with you as you ride is one thing -- long story, but had a pair of horses take off with my rifle (and $1000+ camera <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />) in Alaska many years ago. By myself trying to track down the pair with friggin' grizzly tracks everywhere and NO means of protection, not even a knife -- I finally caught them and all was ok, but it wasn't exactly fun.

Wearing a 4lb revolver on your hip when you have a far more effective rifle in your hand? SCREAMS greenhorn (not our buddy Greenhorn, btw <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />). Toughest part about coming across a pistol toting deer/elk hunter in the woods is waiting to laugh when you're not yacking with him.

In all honesty, i did it once with dilusions of grandeur, on my first Idaho muley hunt (Hell's Canyon <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />). What a friggin' idiot. 3200' of STEEP chit to get up to the "hunting" area. Glad I can laugh at myself too <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />!

I agree with NH Hunter.... I only pack when hunting with a bow. I have a .380 Auto....Small little Semi.

IMHO, if you are going to carry horseback, day in and day out, shoulder holster is the way to go. This does not necessarily apply to the desert SW.

I'm a "handgun guy." I shoot IPSC and IDPA whenever I can and generally have a handgun close by at all times. I carry one scouting, fishing and bird hunting. But when it comes to elk hunting, there is no way. Every ounce counts and you will curse every extra ounce.

Twer it me I'd be for carrying a latte machine or a pizza machine b4 I tried to be Cowboy Bob and carry a sidearm on a rifle hunt.

Bow hunt maybe but then again I personally believe 99% of people are better off with pepper spray for protection.

Also I would do some serious thoughts about big time checking this dude out. If I had an outiftter tell me to bring a sidearm I personally would go another direction.

I'd be for betting he has issues.

Just my way of thinking

Mark D

Some of you seem to be missing some salient points that dutch made:

A) "I usually carr[y] a sidearm when hunting here in the east"
B) "In talking [to the outfitter] about setting up the hunt I mentioned I usually carried a sidearm ... He was just giving me the ok if I wanted to."

So don't accuse the outfitter of asking his client to bring a handgun.
So don't keep calling dutch, by association, a doofus - "Wearing a ... revolver on your hip when you have a ... rifle in your hand...SCREAMS greenhorn".


I'm thinking too many of these responses are from folks who don't do handgun hunting and so think carrying a major caliber sidearm odd. I myself am odd, but not because I like my pistols <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />.
I shot my first blacktail with a .357 Blackhawk about 30 years ago and have killed a dozen or so head of big game [color:"red"](edited to add: with a handgun) [/color] since, including a 4-pt blacktail this past Fall with my 7-08 slung. My area presents many 250-300 yard shots, so a scoped rifle is the way to go, but in this case I saw the buck as I was walking to where I intended to sit to watch a hillside over 200 yards away - he was a target of (handgun) opportunity. Years ago I shot a hog at 300 yards with my .257 and then whipped around and nailed another, with my .44, as he ran by behind me. On another occasion, I was sitting against a tree, dually armed, and had a buck feed out of the trees and head towards me. As he got closer I wavered between choosing between rifle and revolver. The deer finally noticed me raising first one and then the other, swapped ends, and skedaddled. That decided me- I slammed the Bob to my shoulder and gave him a hot one raking through his chest. That experience, among others, has taught me that if I really want to do it with a handgun, I'd better leave the rifle at home. But I still carry both quite often, hoping for the greater challenge of shooting with the sidearm.

dutch686, if you want to carry one - dandy; and I won't call you a greenhorn because of it.
Someday I'll tell you about how comforting it was to be carrying a .45 the time I got lost, spent the night under an overhanging rock in the rain, and then wandered my way out the next day with a fogged rifle scope.

Now, can we get back to answering, "Would [the best way to carry] it be a shoulder holster, cross draw, OWB strong side carry?" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />