How many carry while deer hunting?

[NYlakesider]

Well obviously when out hunting with only a handgun I qualify the subject of carrying.

When out in the North Woods with a rifle, a model 60 in a Bianchi upside down holster was under my left arm. That rig was small and comfortable. Even with your hunting jacket open and just hanging off your shoulders gun was well hidden!

Reason for the little gun was we had a few incidents of serious problems by two legged animals. (deer and/or gun taken) None of that had happened in the area I went hunting but why take chances.

 

[JJEH]

I was wondering how many of you carry when hunting - where legal of course - and what calibre, gun and holster do you use.
What type of game do you usually shoot?

I always carry, either a 9mm or .45ACP.

 

[Absalom]

Always. And mostly out of concern for two-legged threats, so I just carried whatever my primary self-defense handgun was at the time.

Oregon Fish&Wildlife regulations used to prohibit bowhunters from carrying any firearms while hunting. But several years back the Oregon legislature passed a preemption law that took away the department's authority to regulate possession of firearms. Even before that, none of the bowhunters among my friends would think of venturing into the woods armed with only some sharp sticks.

 

[S&W ucla]

Almost always! Usually have rifle and handgun with me. Taken many deer with handgun over the years. This nice buck last year with 44spl Toted a S&W M69 44mag most of last year. Fine for a <50yd shot from stand or to finish off a wounded deer.

 

[Farmer17]

I've carried all sorts of handguns when hunting with a long gun, usually in a fanny pack holster to protect the gun if I have to crawl on my belly under a barb wire fence. I was carrying a Browning Buckmark with Bushnell Red dot quite a bit but the fanny pack fell apart after many years of service and I haven't bought a new one yet. Lately I have been carrying my Bersa .22 DA pistol in a Bianchi Cyclone fabric holster.

 

[Jebus35745]

My 640 in .357 is with me 24-7 and that includes deer hunting. Larry

 

[Steely85]

I don't, no reason to with a rifle in hand.

 

[loknload]

Always carried my Ruger .357 Blackhawk in a western style leg holster. Always carried that just as a back up to my rifle.

 

[twodog max]

Almost always. If the opportunity comes about to use the handgun I will take it. I split between a 686 and a Model 69.

 

[model70hunter]

I do when the occasion warrants. I have carried a 629 in CO, NM and
Utah Elk hunting, never needed it.

I have carried a 29, Python and 686 in MO deer hunting but quit years ago to travel lighter as Arjay says above.

There is one place on National Forestry in MO I will carry. A family that would make the Deliverance backwoodsmen look lame lives close by.

One year they stole my wife's deer she shot and when I got over to her they had her surrounded. She was somewhere between super nervous and panic. I opened my coat so they could see the 629. I played bad cop right up front. They left. Before deer season next year all the brothers were arrested for cooking Meth and given felonies. I've hunted there but not when my wife is with me. Some guys have camped there for 40 years, we got to know them, the year they spooked my wife they set up cheap tents prior to the season, some were kids play tents right where the good fellas camped. Did not use them just trying to run them off, didn't work.

It is a great spot, I have 2 large Whitetail bucks mounted, I took them within in a few hundred yards of each other 20 years apart. Yep I'll be packing my 629 or 686 if I hunt there this year.

No traveling lite in outlaw country.

 

[joe44va]

Always whenever hunting anything. Used to be an one of several 4" 357s. Since the M69 came out, now it's that.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

I always carry my model 63 2" in a clam shell shoulder holster, I've had several wolves run right toward my ground stand not knowing I was there.
The 63 snub is a great little noise maker for warning shots.

me no fire warning shots......me fire hit em shots.....

 

[30-30remchester]

I have carried ever since the late 1980's when I was attacked by two rouge Doberman pinchers while muzzleloading for deer. I came up on them just after they killed a doe. They didn't want me around, both came running towards me snarling and at 10 steps I shot one, only shot I had, turned the rifle around to use as a club and backed quickly to a very large oak tree to have at my back. As the smoke cleared the other one had fled the scene! I shakily reloaded and walked backwards toward granddad's position. He of course thought I had a deer. After he was treed while bow hunting later that year we both started packing, me a 22 and he carried his S&W 36 snub. You weren't allowed to in Ohio at the time but We didn't think the law enforcement could protect us, thus we protected ourselves.

I now pack a 357 mag SP 101 3 inch.

Sounds like a grand adventure, I am jealous. Where I hunt deer and elk it is extremely rugged and my rifle is heavy so I seldom carry when hunting them. I do not see any need for a handgun for protection when I am packing a 30-06. When I hunt less rugged areas as I get older, or times when only going for an hour or two I carry varying handguns to test bullet expansion on recently down animals. Mostly a model Smith 36, but occasionally a Ruger LCP. The little 36 went on many small adventures. The only time I used a handgun as a necessity was a time I wounded a black bear and had to crawl into its den to ferret it out. Sounds more harrowing than it was. I just couldn't get my rifle and me into the small space so I used a Ruger Security Six 357. By the time I got into the den the bear was near expired. I stuck my arm with the revolver out ahead of me and when it touched fur I ventilated it 5 times with 158 grain hard cast Keith SWC. Sounds way more exciting than it actually was. I know now that if I had just waited another minute I would not have needed to go in while it was alive. I also only had to get half of me in the hole as it was not that deep. This year I hope to try various expanding bullets from my 36 in my deer, elk and antelope.

After posting the above I remembered 2 other times I used my handgun during a rifle hunt. Both times I was using a Colt 1911. The first was a javalina hunt I decided to try to take with a muzzle loader. Well it started raining hard. Every time I got the sneak on a herd the gun was waterlogged and wouldn't fire. At the drop of the hammer the herd exploded in all directions. After 3 times of spooking them, I used my 1911 to fill the freezer. The other time I had shot a bull elk in heavy oak brush. When I got near to where I thought he was down, I left my 338 and went in thinking at the most he would need a finishing shot. He did and I did. Thinking him now down for the count I tried to roll him over to start the process. He was not done for yet and ended up knocking me down and as he and I were trying to get to our feet, it was a very steep hill with copious amounts of mud, we both ended up rolling down the hill for a short distance. I was finally able to regain my feet, un-holster and end the fun. In both cases I would not have needed a handgun had I had a rifle that worked. None of the 3 instances were life threatening or even very exciting.

 

[curly84]

Carrying handgun while hunting



Deer and bear hunting in northwest Pa. I carry a Taurus 3×3 Judge with 225grain Winchester silver jacket HP along with my Remington 722 model 300 savage.

Sent from my SM-S820L using Tapatalk

 

[therewolf]

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[model70hunter]

Carrying handgun while hunting



Deer and bear hunting in northwest Pa. I carry a Taurus 3×3 Judge with 225grain Winchester silver jacket HP along with my Remington 722 model 300 savage.

Sent from my SM-S820L using Tapatalk

What's a Remington 722 300 Savage?

Pretty neat old piece.

 

[curly84]

Remington rifles


Remington made models 721 722 723 in assorted calibers some had checking on the wood some where smooth all depends on the model. They where made in the 1950s

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[Mike SC Hunter]

I carry a 357 loaded with ratshot for snakes.

I guess nobody else runs across Rattlers, Copperheads,

or Moccasins, while hunting. Must be nice...

Walking into my deer stand last week in shorts & tennis shoes......I walked up on a canebrake.......Took his head of with my 2 1/2" 66.....10 rattles.....

 

[Absalom]

I don't, no reason to with a rifle in hand.

I don't know in what surroundings you hunt, but in the "jungles" on the sometime vertical hillsides of the coast range where I spent most of my hunting life, when you have an animal down, and the danger that someone else might want to help themselves to it (has happened multiple times to friends) is greatest, you usually spend the better part of a day, more if you got an elk, to get the thing to your truck, with neither hands nor shoulders free for a long gun .

 

[Valmet]

If haven't hunted deer in over 10 years but when I used to I carried a Glock 21 in a Fobus holster.