I'm curious as to how many of us carry a side arm in addition to your hunting rifle. My dad tought me how to hunt when I was young and one of the things he told me was to NEVER go a'field without a side arm. he was from kentuky, but i was born in central california and thats where i learned to hunt. there were alot of rattle snakes around.

I carry a .357 with a 6" barrel, its enough to reach out and "touch" something. I've used it once and took two doe. i was walking back to my jeep after a long cold windy day and hadnt seen a thing. Before i started my hike back i unloaded my rifle thiking the day was usless. about 75 yards from my vehicle I saw a heard of deer as i was walking up over a hill. i dropped to my knees, drew my .357 and dropped two doe. so here is the question

do you carry a side arm?
what kind/caliber?
your reason?
have you ever been in a situation to use it?

to make it interesting, do you carry a pistol when your not a'field, aside from law enforcement officers and leagly of course<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>? if you do, do you carry it always, like a wallet? or do you carry it on occasion? i read a post where a guy had stated that he alway has a pistol in his truck. i would be parinoid that it would get stolen!

I do carry one and do it often and I do have a CWP, however, I can not carry it afield if I'm deer or turkey hunting. I can use a .22 to hunt small game during the deer/turkey seasons and any cal. on private land during the rest of the time. We can use any legal long gun to hunt deer on private land .243(6MM) and above but not short arms(?) This is one I could never figure out and can' get a good explaination for.

Misplaced Buckeye

Hunting in Montana I use to carry a 357 herters 6&quot; single action, the gun is really very heavy for takeing out hikeing through the mountains and really never had a need to use it, its more of a confidence builder than anything, but if you have a bear flying in on top of you, you ain;t going to have a chance to react to it, its not Hollywood, its real and it happens fast.

its against the hunting laws in ohio to carry a side arm. guys be careful when and if you answer this one...never know when &quot;big brother&quot; may be watching. LOL

I do carry a side arm in the field whenever legal. Here, you can only hunt with it if it's got a 4&quot; or longer barrel and is centerfire. But I dont carry to hunt with, more for a &quot;just in case/ya never know&quot; type of thing. It's a Glock 19, and thus far has never left my leg in the field. Hope it never has to.

One Shot, One Kill
Hunting is the one sport where, if you are playing right, the other team doesn't even know you're playing.

I don't carry one because I don't see any reason to if you're carrying a rifle already. However, I have no problem whatsoever with someone who chooses to carry one. I just don't personally see where it does me any good while hunting. I never unload my rifle until I get back to the truck so my rifle would have been loaded when the aboved mentioned deer came into view. Really it boils down to I don't want to tote the extra weight.

Unfortunately it is illegal to carry or hunt with a handgun here in Canada...thanks to our Liberal A-Hole politicians....hell the way it's going it will soon be illegal to hunt with any firearms..if it were legal, i'd be carring my S&W Model 586 .44Mag....Brampton Mike

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....hell the way it's going it will soon be illegal to hunt with any firearms..
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We can only hope... Eh it will eventually, its only a matter of time. The profits for hunting have gone way down and eventually there wont be any need of it. The ogranization PETA with over 700,000 members has done alot to further the abolishment of cruelty to animals so it's only a matter of time.

Some of the people I hunt with do ,but I have never felt the need for a sidearm . I have seen some pretty heavily armed people out hunting and have often wondered just what they are expecting to meet .
I didn't realize you could hunt deer with a 357mag in Ca let alone shoot two does at once .I guess I should have looked at the game book a little more .

Most of the time. I carry either a Colt Python, 6&quot;, in .357 Magnum, or a S&W Model 60 .38 Special, with a 3&quot; barrel. Yes, they have left the holster in the past, generally as &quot;signalling devices,&quot; to start drives, before we all got radios.

One of the guys in my camp carries a .45 Auto while deer hunting (it's a full-time carry weapon), and another carries a .22 LR semiauto at times while deer hunting. All three of us have carry permits for New York.