Traveling With Firearms

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Carburators fail, do you carry an extra one of these around? There are limits to that analogy. I have hiked all over the Western States and have never felt Ike I needed a gun. I have waited to get picked up at the Richmond Amtrak station after dark and wished for an invisibility cloak or some such.
 
Old Monkey said:
Carburators fail, do you carry an extra one of these around?
Click to expand...

Actually... I do. Since my main saw is my 346... I do have a spare carb for it in the toolbox. :D

Not many carbureted vehicles around these days. ;)
 
Well I'm not exactly Mr. Mechanic. Bad analogy then but you get my drift. Being prepared is good but it should be balanced by what the most likely risk is. How common are house break ins with the owners home? It seems like the scenario that is brought up the most when it comes to folks who advocate guns for protection. I wonder what the most likely occurrence of gun use is other than hunting and recreational shooting. Shop owners?
 
Even if it may not be considered necessary by looking at statistics, if carrying gives you peace of mind, it seems to me to fall within the territory of the right to have self protection. Certainly it could be considered beyond reason, like a person with a dangerous weapon due to having an extreme fear of mice.
 
I didn't run. I did log off and go about my life in the real world about an hour after I posted it and there'd been no reply :).

I stand by my point...there is virtually no reason to take a gun into the back country to protect yourself from wild animals, aside from Jay's thoughtful approach about it making one feel safer...illogical as that feeling is.

Stephen raises a valid point about living in close proximity to predators that have become aclimated to people...but that is not the argument I make...people here talk about fearing attack out in the boonies, and I think it's silly. It reflects a lack of knowlege about the animals and their behavior.

Butch shows us a dramatization of one of the extremely rare instances of attack, but it occurred in the urban/forest interface, not the wilderness environment some of you seem to fear...and further, I welcome anyone to argue that if that depiction is even marginally accurate, having a firearm in a holster on his hip would not have helped that poor fellow one iota.

'Nuff said. I don't expect to change a single mind, nor was that my intent. I was just laughing out loud at how foolish it seems to me, and so noted it as such.

:lol:
 
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I'm laughing right along with you, Burnham.
The same people who are afraid of being eaten by wild animals, happily go for car rides.
Statistically that is a gazillion times more likely to get you killed.

So is eating fast food, smoking, and lots of other stuff that doesn't seem to scare anybody.

Actually given the choice between a slow death from emphysema in a nursing home as repayment for all those cigarettes and getting killed by a Grizzly, I know which I would go for.
 
Packing a gun in the outback does mean one thing, Burnham; I need to pack in less food. ;)
 
Not in my experience, Erik. The trade-off in weight of food not carried is more than offset by the weight of a firearm (or fishing gear, for that matter) and additional needed equipment and fuel for preparing and cooking game. Not to mention the real possibility of coming up empty on the hunt and going hungry :).
 
I got charged by a momma black bear while backpacking. We were just about to hang our food between two trees when she came into our campsite with two cubs sitting in a tree up the hill from her. I stood up tall, arms out at my sides to look even bigger and yelled at her to go away. She turned, took twos steps going away and then remembered that she was a bear. How many steps she took in my direction, I am not aware as I was busy running the other way.

If, for my recreation, I had to shoot a bear and leave two cubs motherless, that would be pretty lame on my part.
 
Burnham said:
Not in my experience, Erik. The trade-off in weight of food not carried is more than offset by the weight of a firearm
Click to expand...

Really? I don't think a pistol and a few extra mags comes up to much weight. But I haven't come up empty yet on the hunt, either. Preparing? All you need is aknife; which you should have anyways. Dunno about fuel, never brought any; kinda defeats the whole idea, I figure. Plenty of wood in the woods. :)
 
I've done alot of backcountry touring up here, not for a number of years now but when I was younger(did I just type that? lol). It depends what you're doing or your goal is. I ski-toured atleast 3 or 4 multi-day trips a winter and usually a couple of overnighters in the summer too, bagging peaks and skiing couloirs used to be my thing. No fires, no guns. A small campstove, bivy, and basics were all that where ever carried, day trips even wayyyy less. If the point is to get somewhere every ounce can count. I call sitting around a campfire, camping not backpacking.
 
Wow... you ARE getting old, Sqwuish. :lol:

Greg... I didn't grow up in the cities of Massachusetts, ya know. ;)
 
So I was imagining Erik going out West and backpacking with Burnham....

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FcsXC2xFis4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I've had friends saved by it. I am not aware of any friends who have been saved by guns. Have you? I've seen three folks saved by hardhats.
 
I love that Jeremiah Johnson clip, Darin.

But how does one find a Grizz in the midst of winter, let alone outrun it on level ground.
 
So true, Stig, but what a great clip from the best mountain man movie ever.
 
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