Normally I don't think there is much of a threat from wild animals while you're in the fields and woods but a TV news item started me thinking again. Some fellow was attacked by a mountain lion somewhere out west. He looked like the loser in a rough boxing match. Maybe such things are not so rare after all.
I live in Virginia but I don't think there are any lions around and probably no wolves. There are bears to be sure but I've never seen any dogs in the woods anywhere. But there is always a first time. In any case, large animals really aren't so common anyway. Just ask any deer hunter and that's why its called hunting.
The point of my posting is not caliber or revolver versus automatic but I am limiting my thinking to handguns only. No rifles and no handrifles that have a bipod and a sling. You get the idea. But the problem lies along other lines. What happens if you see a dangerous wild animal? What do you do?
If the wild animal is a lion, you probably won't see it at all until it on top of you, judging from all reports, if which case the issue is resolved (meaning it is time to do something). But what do you do if you see something, anything, dangerous 60 or 80 yards down the trail? Assuming you are actually armed, which is the whole point here, I suppose the thing to do would be to make ready for the possibility of shooting something. At this point it is worth mentioning that if you have a gun, it has to be carried in a conventional fashion, that is, not carried inside your pack but in a holster where you can reach it. So then the question becomes, when do you start shooting? Here again, we assume that shooting will not land you in more trouble than not shooting, legally speaking.
There have been several threads here about selecting a handgun for such a use but next to no useful information about precisely how your handgun would be most usefully employed in the event of a dangerous beast suddenly appearing. Again I assume that actually carrying the handgun is not part of the problem. Thinking back over all the articles I have read in gun magazines (there have been none on the subject anywhere else), precious little has been mentioned about my particular question. Elmer Keith probably would have had the best advice on the subject but even he barely mentioned it. The one instance I recall him mentioning involved a mountain goat or sheep that he encountered on some narrow mountain trail. He drew his gun but managed to talk the animal into leaving the scene. That requires a lot of cooperation on the part of the animal, however.
Another article related advice from some long dead African hunter on the subject. Presumably the subject was of more interest 75 years ago. Anyhow, I gather the original author was of the opinion that it would be a literal face to face encounter that you would have to deal with and even went so far to suggest that your handgun would be most effective if the muzzle were touching the animal!
Is it time to update that suggestion? Or should one expect an encounter with a dangerous animal to end up like that?
Along the same lines, the original .38 ACP and later the .38 Super were advertised as back up handguns for big game hunters. There was never any mention of how you should carry the pistol.
I live in Virginia but I don't think there are any lions around and probably no wolves. There are bears to be sure but I've never seen any dogs in the woods anywhere. But there is always a first time. In any case, large animals really aren't so common anyway. Just ask any deer hunter and that's why its called hunting.
The point of my posting is not caliber or revolver versus automatic but I am limiting my thinking to handguns only. No rifles and no handrifles that have a bipod and a sling. You get the idea. But the problem lies along other lines. What happens if you see a dangerous wild animal? What do you do?
If the wild animal is a lion, you probably won't see it at all until it on top of you, judging from all reports, if which case the issue is resolved (meaning it is time to do something). But what do you do if you see something, anything, dangerous 60 or 80 yards down the trail? Assuming you are actually armed, which is the whole point here, I suppose the thing to do would be to make ready for the possibility of shooting something. At this point it is worth mentioning that if you have a gun, it has to be carried in a conventional fashion, that is, not carried inside your pack but in a holster where you can reach it. So then the question becomes, when do you start shooting? Here again, we assume that shooting will not land you in more trouble than not shooting, legally speaking.
There have been several threads here about selecting a handgun for such a use but next to no useful information about precisely how your handgun would be most usefully employed in the event of a dangerous beast suddenly appearing. Again I assume that actually carrying the handgun is not part of the problem. Thinking back over all the articles I have read in gun magazines (there have been none on the subject anywhere else), precious little has been mentioned about my particular question. Elmer Keith probably would have had the best advice on the subject but even he barely mentioned it. The one instance I recall him mentioning involved a mountain goat or sheep that he encountered on some narrow mountain trail. He drew his gun but managed to talk the animal into leaving the scene. That requires a lot of cooperation on the part of the animal, however.
Another article related advice from some long dead African hunter on the subject. Presumably the subject was of more interest 75 years ago. Anyhow, I gather the original author was of the opinion that it would be a literal face to face encounter that you would have to deal with and even went so far to suggest that your handgun would be most effective if the muzzle were touching the animal!
Is it time to update that suggestion? Or should one expect an encounter with a dangerous animal to end up like that?
Along the same lines, the original .38 ACP and later the .38 Super were advertised as back up handguns for big game hunters. There was never any mention of how you should carry the pistol.
