What's your woods bumming gun

not2sharp said:
Professional Big Game hunter W. D. M .Bell, was a turn of the century (1900) advocate of proper shot placement and used a .22 Savage High Power (similar to a 223) to take down 23 African Forest Buffalo.
I Hunted with an old Mainer here in Ct. that shot a lot of deer with an old .22 Savage H.P. . Deadly accurate. Both the rifle and the old Mainer.--KV


He was also known to have taken over 1,000 African Elephants for their Ivory, and liked to use relatively light guns.

You can read about him here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._D._M._Bell

Peter Chapstick also reported an incident in one of his books (perhaps Death in The Long Grass?)where a bird hunter had inadvertently killed several African Elephants with a single .22LR round. The bird hunter had taken a shot at a bird in a tree and had hit an elephant on a hill in the background. The elephant dropped suddenly, either from shock, or from a lucky arterial hit, and fell down the hill, knocking other elephants down along the way and leaving several more dead elephants.

n2s
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I have one of those which I used to carry often in the woods. The little Ruger SR22 pistol works pretty well too as long as you don't have to hunt for food. A 4" Colt Diamondback was my go to 22 for the woods for years until they got so expensive. So, out came the Smith's.
 
Always carry a Glock 17 when camping, sometimes an AR. For a woods walk I usually have a Ruger MKll 22lr. A coyote is the biggest thing around here and they don’t bother anyone.
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I live in the woods, today I was mowing a field and had an SR22 on my side. If I'm just bumming around usually I'll have a 10/22 or a Ruger American carbine in 17 hmr and some sidearm. If there are coyote's around and I have the room I'll pack a scoped Rem R15, got a load dialed that'll punch a dime size hole at 200 yds. Usually it's just bunnies and voles, they're fun to shoot at from the seat of the tractor with the SR.

I don't really consider hunting bumming around but during deer season if I'm outside not actively hunting but don't want to miss an opportunity I'll pack a Springfield custom long slide 1911 in 10mm w/a Leupold Delta pro dot or if my hands aren't full I have a little AR in 7.62x39 I'll pack or throw in the truck. Elk season there's no messing around, that's full game on!

It's legal to pack pretty much whatever a person wants as long as it's not fully auto where I live. I shoot pretty regularly, reload, have a range out to 300 yds on my property and my back yard is full of short range pistol and rifle targets. I shoot out my bedroom door if I just want to pop off some rounds in the back yard. My friends (who don't have property) sight in they're guns at my place or come over just to waste ammo. Shooting is a great past time, relaxing and helps me focus, the whole family enjoys it. Big game hunting is those few months a year when I get to put what I practice into freezer filling, completely different sport. Small game and varmint hunting happens year round. Cats and coyotes love to munch on penned up livestock if possible. Coons are a terrible menace to the chickens, guns sit near doors at my place and my kids have been shooting since they were 4.
 
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Usually, an LCP in a Mika pocket holster. If I'm van camping, I usually carry a Glock 17 or FNP 45 in the rig.
 
Mikel_24 said:
Good to know! I have shot a few .22 guns at the range but never hunted with one. Do you guys have all year round open season for some critters so you haul your hunting guns in case you come across something that is worth it?

Mikel
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Where I live, no restrictions on killing 'feral hogs'. You can shoot them from helicopters and cars, with machineguns or suppressors, or in my case at night with a thermal scope.

The 22lr is good for killing poisonous snakes and aggressive dogs, though I prefer a shotgun or an AR-15.

With a concealed carry permit, you can openly carry a pistol in stores, on the street, in your car, etc. Where I used to live (different state), 'open carry' was legal for everyone not a criminal. It was almost comical to see someone from California freak out in line at Walmart to check out when someone in line had a 1911 'cocked and locked' in front of me! :)
 
I kinda envoy you guys who can carry a rifle when just bumming around in the woods. It would be great wonder around with my 30/30 Marlin 336, Remington 572, or even my AR pistol. It’s just not very practical around here with all the foot traffic on the local trails. It’s a pretty far drive out of the suburbs to get somewhere remote enough that it’s practical to take a long gun with you.

Most general hiking is with a Ruger LCP. Small and light, so it doesn’t interfere with any pack I’m wearing, while also letting me easily climb up a lot of the rocks and boulders we have in my part of the state. And .380 Hydra-shocks will take care of any two legged predators I might run into. Hiking or camping a bit further out, where there’s a better chance of running into coyotes or black bears, I’ll switch to either my FNS-40 or 1911 for a little extra piece of mind.
 
Ruger Mk3 most of the time but once in awhile S&W 638 with FBI loads. Out on the prairie I don't have much worry about anything more than snakes around camp or camp robbers. In the mountains 2 legged predators can be an issue from thieves to dopers to just plain honery assholes and need a bit more, hence the Smitty. Used to carry my 1911 but I like the lightness of the 638 at elevation in my old age.
 
Depends on what I'm doing.
Every day Concealed Carry in Idaho is a Kimber Ultra TLE II compact 1911 in .45 ACP. I forget what SD cartridges its fed are called.
My Idaho Open Carry is a Traditions "Trapper" percussion ML pistol in .50 caliber. (50 grains FFg under a patched .490 round ball)
When in the Idaho hunting grounds, a (pre-fire) Thompson Center (factory) .54 caliber Hawken, if I don't have my bow or crossbow.
(The T/C load varies depending on what is in season and I have a tag for.)
 
My usual, default carry handgun is a 3” or 4” Ruger GP100, or a 4” Speed Six, whether urban, suburban, or rural. Rural can included densely wooded family lend, one county to the north of our home county, and I like to add a long gun, when we go there. Normally, that long gun would be a Benelli M2, with the 18.5” Tactical barrel, the same one that served as my duty shotgun, during the final two years of my policin’ career. The Benelli replaced my 870P, as my pumping arm was not aging so well, and the Benelli’s bold-pattern sights were simply better for my middle-aged eyes.
 
If I'm around here--a MkIII 22/45 Target usually-----on my trips out west in the summer, a G20SF or 4in stainless GP100-----never know about them bears or squatches:D
 
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