Carry a Large Bore Side Arm While in the Bush
BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 10 months ago
It has become a mantra here at TCJ. You know what can happen in the bush without a side arm. The bush has bears, Coyotes, dogs, snakes, feral hogs, big cats and potentially two-legged predators. This report is simply disheartening when it could have been prevented.
A Georgia man sustained serious injuries to his legs, arms, and hands after a pack of loose dogs attacked him while he was relocating a deer stand. The 61-year-old hunter ended up with 298 puncture wounds and a severed ligament in his hand after an attack that lasted upwards of 15 minutes. Once he escaped, the man managed to flag down a passing driver who helped transport him to a nearby hospital.
He was attacked by three dogs. The story continues.
Scott tried screaming for help, but no one was around to come to his aid. Because he’d left his cell phone on his ATV more than 150 yards away from the scene of the attack, he was unable to phone authorities while the dogs were mauling him. Eventually, he managed to fight them off by wheeling around a large stick in circular motion. As he spun with the stick, Scott made his way toward another ladder stand that he knew of on an adjoining piece of property.
[ … ]
He stayed in the stand for about 30 minutes, waiting for the dogs to leave the area. When it seemed like the coast was clear, he climbed down. But the dogs heard him moving through the dry leaves and quickly returned. He scrambled back into the stand and waited out the dogs for another half hour. Then he made a run for a nearby highway.
[ … ]
According to the Athens Banner-Herald, all three dogs were euthanized after the mandatory quarantine, and the woman who owned them received a citation for being in possession of dangerous animals.
While the attack was both physically and mentally traumatizing, Scott said he won’t let it keep him out of the woods for good. “I’m going to start carrying a side arm again, and I already bought a collapsible steel baton and a canister of bear spray,” he said. “When I do go back, it’ll have to be with my son, at least for the first few times.”
The pictures at the link are remarkable. Go to the link to see what three dogs can do in a big hurry to the human body.
In the mean time, he should have been reading TCJ. He got slack and paid a huge price for it. Never, never go into the bush without a large bore pistol.
On February 14, 2023 at 4:28 am, Ratus said:
Screw large bore, I’ll take a 9mm with 20rd+magazines.
Moar pew is always better than fewer, especially when talking about pistol cartridges.
On February 14, 2023 at 8:08 am, jrg said:
Great advice (staying armed in the outdoors where possible). My Dad told my Brother and I that handguns are loaded as soon as the blacktop is gone (private property). South Texas has hazards, now particularly illegal alien foot traffic. Most are good and honest, seeking a better Life than what their own country has to offer, but none of them are carrying signs who they are and the Bad Apples are closer than you think. They aren’t traveling in small groups unless they were left behind or abandoned by their coyote. A large group is more common, more than 10 but less than 20 (too much sign of passage left).
Rifles and shotguns are fine, but they can get left behind – handguns are worn and that alone gives them a major edge.
On February 14, 2023 at 1:24 pm, The Great Leap Zimbabwe said:
Nothing less than a 9mm with extra magazines.
Keep at least three extended mags at all times during the Fundamental Transformation into West South Africa.
Modern weapons aren’t cumbersome at all and the really well designed ones you forgot that they are even there with the right holster.
On February 14, 2023 at 2:10 pm, Bradley A Graham said:
….and in the city and in your castle. There are no time-out’s and no safe spaces.
“When it’s least expected, your elected”…….
On February 14, 2023 at 3:54 pm, SamlAdams said:
A few decades ago had to help a friend get rid of a pack of dogs that took up residence on his grandads property—where we hunted at the time. It was mostly farmland that had gone wild in the 1930s. But had a couple of working dairy farms abutting it and the dogs had been running the dairy cows next door. Under state law the dogs were his family’s problem (apparently). After we shot them all, looked to be strays and “dumps” that went “Call of the Wild” in short order. It was sad, but necessary. But those lizard brain instincts don’t go away.
On February 14, 2023 at 4:33 pm, TheAlaskan said:
Up here, I mostly carry ‘big bore forty-four.’ For obvious reasons. Our big doggies can be vicious. And that’s just the moose….
On February 14, 2023 at 8:37 pm, xtphreak said:
Followed the linky in the dog attack article here:
https://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2008/01/grizzly-attack-caught-camera/
Game Warden had to shoot (and kill) 500# Grizzly that was trying to eat him.
Weapon?
.357 Magnum, looks to be a S&W from the pictures.
I like the idea of a 10mm, but now I’m glad I didn’t wander any further into more exotic calibers with the price of ammo today.
I like my .357’s, I like my 629 .44.Mag, I love my Blackhawk .45 Colt, but in the woods I’ll stick with a 1911 loaded with an extended McCormick PowerMag (10rds) full of Underwood 45 ACP +P 255 Grain Hard Cast Flat Nose polymer coated 925fps hole makers.
That’s 484 foot/lbs of energy.
And accurate.
Same specs as Buffalo Bore, a bit less expensive and coated slugs.
and I already have them, already reload for them, already shoot them well.
On February 14, 2023 at 10:41 pm, X said:
“When attacked by a dog, shove your pistol down his throat.”
-Col. Jeff Cooper
On February 14, 2023 at 10:45 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
Four-legged creatures can be dangerous even relatively close to civilization. While a college student studying the sciences in the 1980s, I met a chemistry graduate student & teaching assistant who ran the chemistry lab for a course. Great guy, really knew his stuff, too. All of the students liked him, not just me. He really helped us out in the class.
I remember this guy – whose name I have unfortunately forgotten (it was thirty-five years ago) – wanted to go to see Africa when done with his Ph.D. – to visit the game preserves and experience “wild Africa” and all of that. Even back then, it was dangerous for westerners in certain parts of the continent. Poachers, war lords, kidnappers, etc. I remember him talking about that, too.
This individual, let’s call him “Mike” for lack of his real name, ended up meeting an untimely end a heck of a lot closer than Africa. We went home on summer break and came back the next fall, and some of us again had courses in the chemistry dept. Mike wasn’t there, though. He’d gone out for a jog in the country one day that summer in a rural area away from town, and had been attacked by a pit-bull. He hemorrhaged to death from his wounds before he could reach help.
In those days, mobile phones had not yet become common and he was unarmed and hence had no means of defending himself save his bare hands and whatever he could use in the environment around him. The dog was put down, of course, and I imagine the owners were charged criminally, although I can’t recall that part of the story.
I don’t know if Mike owned a firearm, or if he did, whether he would have carried it routinely. Probably not, because in those days, CCW wasn’t legal in that state.
Pit bulls – like many predators – instinctively go for the throat of their intended prey. Would some sort of weapon have saved his life? I don’t know, but I do know that a handgun, edged weapon or impact weapon of some kind would have tilted the odds a bit more in his favor.
On February 15, 2023 at 5:53 am, Nosmo said:
One does not have to be in deep wilderness or remote rural areas to suffer an attack, 12 years ago my neighbor’s German Shepherd dug under the fence separating our yards and took a bite out of my thigh.
Until that moment I did not think I needed to be armed in my fenced back yard.
I was wrong.
Since then I do not open a door to the outside without a suitable firearm close at hand, a practice I very heartily recommend, and best conducted with a major caliber with which one has long trained and practiced to developed the necessary skill.
I will admit, however, that several years ago I decided to forego my usual 1911 for a 10MM because of quality and quantity: greater energy and more rounds immediately available.
On February 15, 2023 at 11:55 am, MTHead said:
I like my XD45. But my Ruger “Alaskan”, gets the nod for the woods. It’s good for all problems both four-legged, or two. Plus, I can run a few snake loads on top if necessary.
That, and in the west here almost no one looks twice at you for carrying a revolver.
On February 15, 2023 at 12:37 pm, Elon Muskox said:
Any feral animal — dogs, cats, swine, goldfish — can be devastating to wildlife as well as people and needs killing whenever you can. I’ll also kill every coyote I can, every chance I get, because that helps prevent them getting habituated to human environments. That’s why I always carry a centerfire rifle whenever I go scouting (or doing blind/tree stand maintenance).
On February 19, 2023 at 4:02 pm, PJ said:
I love revolvers; but it seems if dog packs are possible (true everywhere), you need a pistol with spare mags. And 10mm rather than 9mm is for when bears or cougars are possible (true everywhere).
On February 19, 2023 at 4:51 pm, PJ said:
Amusingly, old-fashioned .45ACP 230gr ball comes off pretty well in this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBkjdutVmFA
On February 19, 2023 at 5:05 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Not amusing at all.
I don’t carry PD .45ACP in the bush. Ball ammo. Ball ammo. Ball ammo. ALWAYS carry ball ammo in the bush.
If one doesn’t like what he gets out of .45ACP, then he can carry 450 SMC and change the spring in his 1911 to a 22# spring and get a Chip McCormick speed mag (10 rounds). That’s 230 grains moving at 1120 FPS. Ten of them.
I see no reason at all to jettison what I’ve got. There is nothing “old fashioned” about the .45ACP.