Handguns and dangerous animals
- Thread starter BlueTrain
- Start date
When it comes to dangerous North American animals, the most dangerous, of course, is the Homo Sapien or man. But of the four legged variety, most will give you some kind of warning unless they are actively hunting you.
Active hunters may include the Cougar, wolf or bear. Generally none of these will hunt humans unless hunger, injury or territorial impules are at play. But your job is to be aware of noises around you.
Some animals will be much more aggressive when protecting their young. Pigs, Deer, Elk, and even smaller critters like raccoons and fox can be suddenly aggressive in this case.
One of the biggest problems is feral dogs. They naturally form packs (like their ancestors - wolves) and can quickly surround their prey. Identifying the lead or "Alpha" male and taking him out can frighten off the others.
Rule #1 is don't bother the wildlife.
Never chase after an animal or try to get close to it. You can provoke a startling swift defensive strike before they flee. Those sharp hooves on deer are no joke and antlers can kill you just as dead as a .45 ACP.
Rule #2 is, if you see animals with their young, stay away! If you must take a picture, use a zoom lens. A riled up momma pig is nothing to laugh at. It's worse when her male in-laws join in to roust the intruder.
It's amazing how many people can't seem to remember these simple rules when in the outdoors. Too many city dwellers raised on Disney tales.
I've been lucky with my outdoor adventures. I had a cougar curious about what I was doing on his road, changing motorcycle gloves. I spotted him just as I was donning the gloves, talked in even, flat tones to him and glanced at him about every 1-2 seconds. At 30ft away, he could have had me, but I think he was curious or waiting for me to leave.
While motorcycle camping near Yellowstone once, I got up just before dawn for nature's call. I'd just finished (fortunately) when I spotted a slow movement downwind in the gray light. My snubby Model 19 was in my hand back to the campsite. By the time I went 25 feet to camp I'd spotted three moving critters and my blood went cold when I realized they were wolves. When I reached my bike and put the key in it, the count was five and they were circling.
The solution was to turn on the radio and find someone talking. That confused them enough to allow me to walk to the tents of other riders and quietly alert them. Gratefully I could hear slides being racked in a few tents. Once a 2nd person appeared, the wolves seemed much more interested in quietly leaving.
If you know there are dangerous critters in your woods or the area you are hiking, take prudent precautions. That means keeping your food sealed; using quick-releases on packs so you can drop them in a hurry; carry a large knife as a last ditch weapon and be armed with a sufficient caliber weapon.
Active hunters may include the Cougar, wolf or bear. Generally none of these will hunt humans unless hunger, injury or territorial impules are at play. But your job is to be aware of noises around you.
Some animals will be much more aggressive when protecting their young. Pigs, Deer, Elk, and even smaller critters like raccoons and fox can be suddenly aggressive in this case.
One of the biggest problems is feral dogs. They naturally form packs (like their ancestors - wolves) and can quickly surround their prey. Identifying the lead or "Alpha" male and taking him out can frighten off the others.
Rule #1 is don't bother the wildlife.
Never chase after an animal or try to get close to it. You can provoke a startling swift defensive strike before they flee. Those sharp hooves on deer are no joke and antlers can kill you just as dead as a .45 ACP.
Rule #2 is, if you see animals with their young, stay away! If you must take a picture, use a zoom lens. A riled up momma pig is nothing to laugh at. It's worse when her male in-laws join in to roust the intruder.
It's amazing how many people can't seem to remember these simple rules when in the outdoors. Too many city dwellers raised on Disney tales.
I've been lucky with my outdoor adventures. I had a cougar curious about what I was doing on his road, changing motorcycle gloves. I spotted him just as I was donning the gloves, talked in even, flat tones to him and glanced at him about every 1-2 seconds. At 30ft away, he could have had me, but I think he was curious or waiting for me to leave.
While motorcycle camping near Yellowstone once, I got up just before dawn for nature's call. I'd just finished (fortunately) when I spotted a slow movement downwind in the gray light. My snubby Model 19 was in my hand back to the campsite. By the time I went 25 feet to camp I'd spotted three moving critters and my blood went cold when I realized they were wolves. When I reached my bike and put the key in it, the count was five and they were circling.
The solution was to turn on the radio and find someone talking. That confused them enough to allow me to walk to the tents of other riders and quietly alert them. Gratefully I could hear slides being racked in a few tents. Once a 2nd person appeared, the wolves seemed much more interested in quietly leaving. If you know there are dangerous critters in your woods or the area you are hiking, take prudent precautions. That means keeping your food sealed; using quick-releases on packs so you can drop them in a hurry; carry a large knife as a last ditch weapon and be armed with a sufficient caliber weapon.
You stand a great chance of going to jail if you shoot a bear in Northern Virginia.
Most bears are nocturnal animals here and not prone to buddying up with humans.
The worst thing you could do is turn around and run.
You need to simply slowly assert your space (while slowly trying to leave that area,if possible)and keep that animal in your sights at all times.
The law actually expects you to give way to that wild animal before you try to shoot it.
Now if it is rabies or advances on you in a menacing fashion,you are bound to defend yourself.
But just because you see a bear or mountain lion does not mean it is going to attack you.
Like others have already said,especially with bears,when cubs are present it is wise for you to NOT be present.
You see cute cuddily cubs anywhere on a trail or mountain side,you should not advance anywhere nearer them and try to silently backtrack away from their location.
The surprising thing about bear attacks with cubs present is that often the bear actually uses the threats fixation on those cubs to flank the threat from the side and to attack FROM THE SIDE.
That is a brilliant strategy of attack from a wild animal.
So don't ever think that just because you don't see momma bear there-she's off somewhere picking berries for her cute little babies.
She might be walking silently through those thick woods ( simply amazing how quietly they can do this) around your side trying to see if you walk into her -no go- zone.
Most bears are nocturnal animals here and not prone to buddying up with humans.
The worst thing you could do is turn around and run.
You need to simply slowly assert your space (while slowly trying to leave that area,if possible)and keep that animal in your sights at all times.
The law actually expects you to give way to that wild animal before you try to shoot it.
Now if it is rabies or advances on you in a menacing fashion,you are bound to defend yourself.
But just because you see a bear or mountain lion does not mean it is going to attack you.
Like others have already said,especially with bears,when cubs are present it is wise for you to NOT be present.
You see cute cuddily cubs anywhere on a trail or mountain side,you should not advance anywhere nearer them and try to silently backtrack away from their location.
The surprising thing about bear attacks with cubs present is that often the bear actually uses the threats fixation on those cubs to flank the threat from the side and to attack FROM THE SIDE.
That is a brilliant strategy of attack from a wild animal.
So don't ever think that just because you don't see momma bear there-she's off somewhere picking berries for her cute little babies.
She might be walking silently through those thick woods ( simply amazing how quietly they can do this) around your side trying to see if you walk into her -no go- zone.
In my part of rural Texas, I see coyote all the time, and our yard is literally crowded with whitetail all day long. My only close call, tho, came with three dogs, two 40-pound mutts and the leader, a German Shepherd which had to weigh 75-100 pounds. I was walking my beagle in a wooded area when he suddenly tensed, staring down the road ... I finally saw the dogs racing towards us about 200 yards away, the shepherd in the lead barking wildly ... I wasn't armed that day, except for a pocket knife. I flipped it open and began backing up, with Shiner growling and moving with me. I told myself, this is gonna hurt ... I started yelling and flapping my arms and the dogs suddenly stopped about 50 feet from us, turned and went into the woods. I saw them again a few days later, in a neighbor's yard. They were pets on the loose ... I never walk without a gun anymore, and I have to say that I'm far more concerned about dogs running loose than I am of any wild creatures in my neighborhood ... that said, if you're concerned about bears, I'd carry something big ... and don't make 'em mad ...
Concerning black bears, the times I have seen them (in Shenandoah), there have been cubs. Not little ones, but cubs nevertheless. I also note that the cubs exhibited a degree of curiousity, too, and can stop and stand up for a look see, then drop down and run along. Mind you, all this can take place in less than a minute, so these encounters are fleeting, if anything. My son recently happened to see a bear up in a tree when he was there, though I don't recall any of the details.
Michael Bane
New member
Hey BillCA! I got one of those things just like your picture, except in the "correct" .44 Magnum caliber! LOL!
We're going to have an episode of THE BEST DEFENSE on being safe in the backcountry, based on my out-of-print book TRAIL SAFE (which will be back in print in a couple of months).
I live up in the high country of rural Colorado, with bears, lions, coyotes and I swear wolves (I saw one on my property last winter, and I've spent enough time in Alaska to know what a wolf looks like...the fish and games guys say maybe...one of the Yellowstone pack was hit by a car on I-70 in Colorado a couple of years back). Basically, I agree with Bill-of-the-nice-gun-pix...be aware, leave them alone — especially babies...the one thing I've done that scared me to death was when we rounded a turn on a trail in ALaska snowshoeing and ran smack into two baby moose and Mommy a long way away but coming on strong...we ran and she decided we weren't a threat...thankfully — know the signs of a rabid/sick animal (an issue here) and — this from the show — in the worst case be willing to fire a warning shot. Not crazy about people, but I like animals!
Bears are mostly annoying...the one who peed on my front porch last year particularly so...but lions, especially the "urbanized lions" here in Boulder County, are dangerous. They haven't ever been hunted, have no fear of people and routinely enter yards and corrals to hunt the citified deer (and dogs, cats, small horses, etc.). Last summer a lion cut a swath through my area before a neighbor shot him off his dog. We know lion sign, pay attention to the small prey (IMHO, lotsa prey and small predators like foxes = no lions) in the area, and think twice before hiking or biking through areas that would let a lion get above you, especially during dawn and dusk prime hunting times.
Michael B
We're going to have an episode of THE BEST DEFENSE on being safe in the backcountry, based on my out-of-print book TRAIL SAFE (which will be back in print in a couple of months).
I live up in the high country of rural Colorado, with bears, lions, coyotes and I swear wolves (I saw one on my property last winter, and I've spent enough time in Alaska to know what a wolf looks like...the fish and games guys say maybe...one of the Yellowstone pack was hit by a car on I-70 in Colorado a couple of years back). Basically, I agree with Bill-of-the-nice-gun-pix...be aware, leave them alone — especially babies...the one thing I've done that scared me to death was when we rounded a turn on a trail in ALaska snowshoeing and ran smack into two baby moose and Mommy a long way away but coming on strong...we ran and she decided we weren't a threat...thankfully — know the signs of a rabid/sick animal (an issue here) and — this from the show — in the worst case be willing to fire a warning shot. Not crazy about people, but I like animals!
Bears are mostly annoying...the one who peed on my front porch last year particularly so...but lions, especially the "urbanized lions" here in Boulder County, are dangerous. They haven't ever been hunted, have no fear of people and routinely enter yards and corrals to hunt the citified deer (and dogs, cats, small horses, etc.). Last summer a lion cut a swath through my area before a neighbor shot him off his dog. We know lion sign, pay attention to the small prey (IMHO, lotsa prey and small predators like foxes = no lions) in the area, and think twice before hiking or biking through areas that would let a lion get above you, especially during dawn and dusk prime hunting times.
Michael B
chemgirlie
New member
I agree with Dustin. The killer rabbit is definitely the worst thing one could encounter in the wild.
In the Spring of 1990 I was camping at Lake Apache in Az. with my dog, just the two of us. in the middle of the night the dog (a Rotty pup only about 50lb. at the time) started growling and I heard noises outside the tent. When I went outside there were about a half dozen 'yotes milling around my campsite, one was on the tailgate of my Bronco feeding out of the trashbag that I had hooked on the spare tire carrier. I yelled and waved my arms at them, this did not seem to bother them in the least and they seemed to want to get to the dog. I went to my tent and retrieved my short barreled Mossberg 500 and put a load of 00 buck into the one near my campfire. WOW,the rear half was still there but the front half took off like it had been shot out of a cannon! That did it, the rest did their best impression of a Greyhound and lit out.
The next morning I went to the Ranger station to explain the gunfire and the Ranger told me that a few days earlier an older man walking his two Irish Setters had been attacked and savaged in the early evening. The dogs, not the man. They appairently were getting very aggresive and territorial towards dogs in that area.
I live in nowhere Pa. now and the Coyotes here are thick as fleas and coming right to my house at night. I have seen two Bears on my property but they were at a distance and turned to leave when they scented me and my dogs.
Now I carry either a .357, 40 Smith, or .45 1911 when hiking with the dogs on my farm. Any one of these would do fine for Coyote protection or against the feral dogs that are becoming more and more prevelant. If I thought there was going to be problem with a Bear, I would carry my Blackhawk loaded with a Cast Perfromance 335gr. over about 22 gr of H110 for about 1150fps.
I will defer to a bear on my property to the best of my ability because I do not want to have to shoot one unless I have to and you can get in a lot of trouble if you cannot prove that it was a clear and present danger and you had no possibility of retreat. But 'Yotes and ferel dogs are another thing altogether. I will happily blast every one I can get a sight picture on.
JMHO and .02 cents
The next morning I went to the Ranger station to explain the gunfire and the Ranger told me that a few days earlier an older man walking his two Irish Setters had been attacked and savaged in the early evening. The dogs, not the man. They appairently were getting very aggresive and territorial towards dogs in that area.
I live in nowhere Pa. now and the Coyotes here are thick as fleas and coming right to my house at night. I have seen two Bears on my property but they were at a distance and turned to leave when they scented me and my dogs.
Now I carry either a .357, 40 Smith, or .45 1911 when hiking with the dogs on my farm. Any one of these would do fine for Coyote protection or against the feral dogs that are becoming more and more prevelant. If I thought there was going to be problem with a Bear, I would carry my Blackhawk loaded with a Cast Perfromance 335gr. over about 22 gr of H110 for about 1150fps.
I will defer to a bear on my property to the best of my ability because I do not want to have to shoot one unless I have to and you can get in a lot of trouble if you cannot prove that it was a clear and present danger and you had no possibility of retreat. But 'Yotes and ferel dogs are another thing altogether. I will happily blast every one I can get a sight picture on.
JMHO and .02 cents
My county is the pit bull capital of the U.S. Being in real-estate, I walk a lot a land in the county too.
Once I was on a tract of land I was getting ready to list and off in the distance I hear dogs. In no time I'm surrounded by 4 or 5 pit bulls from the adjoining neighbor. That was the last time I went unarmed.
Now I carry a Glock 36 in .45 or a XD in the same.
Once I was on a tract of land I was getting ready to list and off in the distance I hear dogs. In no time I'm surrounded by 4 or 5 pit bulls from the adjoining neighbor. That was the last time I went unarmed.
Now I carry a Glock 36 in .45 or a XD in the same.
ammo.crafter
New member
yell
The only time I've had to make that decision was many years ago boar hunting. It was like slow a motion scene in a movie.
I distictly remember looking around to see if I had an escape route or a tree to shimmy up. When that failed, I emptied my .41mag into the largest part of body mass while holding a combat stance.
The only time I've had to make that decision was many years ago boar hunting. It was like slow a motion scene in a movie.
I distictly remember looking around to see if I had an escape route or a tree to shimmy up. When that failed, I emptied my .41mag into the largest part of body mass while holding a combat stance.
If you are using a handgun to defend yourself against a charging bear, chances are, it will maul you anyway...even though it has been fatally shot. Especially a grizzly. We have so many bears in my area its next to impossible to go in the bush and not run into one. I use a shotgun with magnum oo buckshot loads when i go fly fishing. Head shots are the only thing gauranteed to drop one instantly.
Actually, this hits very close to home. Three weeks ago or so a pre teen was attacked in our neighborhood by a pit bull, bitten three times but able to get away and not seriously hurt (physically). I have much younger kids so of course I am concerned.
We have learned this is the second person bitten by the dog and the owner is fighting in court to bring it home!