Any saved by a gun story during backpacking or hiking trip?

[drew.tadiarca]

Has anyone here on calguns ever have the experience of being saved by a gun during a camping, hiking, or backpacking trip? Whether you were saved from aggressive wild animals or just crazy people out in the middle of no where.

[oddjob]

Somewhat related article in a hunting magazine said your odds are better using one of those large pepper spray things than a gun on charging animals.

[Doheny]

Does the spray work on a mountain lion?

[oddjob]

Good question....I'm gonna guess yes.......but its only a guess. A local fella used one in the bathroom of a rest stop on a two legged kind and it worked like a champ! It was one of those big things of pepper spray too.

[odysseus]

It was a long time ago, but I read quite the tale online (not sure which site) of an all out gunfight between a logger working by himself and two tweakers attacking him deep in the woods. Maybe someone else knows of it. Riveting stuff there, and went to the very serious need of having any firearm to protect oneself.

[CalNRA]

a few years ago a couple of friends and I were hiking in the Oregon/Washington border BLM land and plinking where safe as we went.

A couple of jeeps came out of no where and looked like they were meth cookers from they way they drove and looked. Lots of yelling and words were directed at us.

They suddenly became very friendly when they realized each of us had a shotgun in our hand and a pistol on our waist.

Pleasant fellas.

[M47_Dragon]

On a camping trip in the middle of nowhere... I was about 12 years old, had my two best friends with me and we were with my dad and his salty dog buddies.

Out of the brush comes this big Native American fellow. And I mean BIG. Had to be 6'6" well over 300 lbs. Anyway, he comes up and starts making small talk with my dad and his buddies. We were all kinda just standing around talking. The Indian seemed okay, but I was 12, what did I know? I do remember him asking my uncle for a smoke. My uncle (6'3" 280 lbs) gave him one. Something he said at this point made my dad, my uncle and their buddies nervous. I don't remember what it was, but the tone of the conversation changed. The guy asked my uncle for another smoke and my uncle said no. The guy then pulled out his own pack and lit one.

My dad excused himself and I saw him go over to his truck. At this point, the Indian and my uncle are starting to exchange some heated words. I remember thinking my uncle was about to kick some butt. My dad comes walking back to the group with the butt of his revolver sticking out of his waistband. The Indian guy sees the gun and becomes cordial in a hurry. He quickly said goodbye, thanks for the smoke, and headed back the way he came.

My friends, who are still friends with me to this day, still talk about that incident. They thought my dad was a serious badass.

[Californio]

Yes, When I was a kid we had 12 head of horses on a picketline in the backcountry camping. A mountain lion showed up on a rock above them and was making aggressive moves so he got shot with a 20ga instead of risking injury to one of the horses.

[Sillyguy]

On a camping trip in the middle of nowhere... I was about 12 years old, had my two best friends with me and we were with my dad and his salty dog buddies.

Out of the brush comes this big Native American fellow. And I mean BIG. Had to be 6'6" well over 300 lbs. Anyway, he comes up and starts making small talk with my dad and his buddies. We were all kinda just standing around talking. The Indian seemed okay, but I was 12, what did I know? I do remember him asking my uncle for a smoke. My uncle (6'3" 280 lbs) gave him one. Something he said at this point made my dad, my uncle and their buddies nervous. I don't remember what it was, but the tone of the conversation changed. The guy asked my uncle for another smoke and my uncle said no. The guy then pulled out his own pack and lit one.

My dad excused himself and I saw him go over to his truck. At this point, the Indian and my uncle are starting to exchange some heated words. I remember thinking my uncle was about to kick some butt. My dad comes walking back to the group with the butt of his revolver sticking out of his waistband. The Indian guy sees the gun and becomes cordial in a hurry. He quickly said goodbye, thanks for the smoke, and headed back the way he came.

My friends, who are still friends with me to this day, still talk about that incident. They thought my dad was a serious badass.

did you ever ask your dad what he was saying to them?

[Barabas]

The day before deer season three years ago, my campmates and I ended up in a Mexican standoff with some tweakers who wouldn't leave us alone. A bear running through our camp and a group of pursuing bear hunters (who we happened to be friendly with) broke the tension and they finally left.

I still can't figure out what they were trying to prove, there were seven of us and two of them.

[drew.tadiarca]

bump

[k1dude]

This isn't a "saved by" story, but more of a "sure wish I had" story.

We were rafting down a class 4 river in the middle of nowhere in Alaska when we pulled up on a sandbar to camp for the night. There were 3 rafts in our group. Our raft pulled in furthest upstream. The other two rafts beached around the bend from us about 30 yards downstream.

We surveyed the bar making sure it would work for the night. We were about 20 yards upstream from our raft when I looked up and saw a bear in full gallop heading downstream along the bank toward us. He was probably about 300 yards away when I saw him. He was VERY clearly interested in us in a bad way.

The problem was all of our weapons were secured away in dry bags in the raft for the day on the river. I started to back up wondering if I had enough time to fumble with my dry bag and extract my buried firearm before the beast was upon me. I quickly came to the conclusion I didn't have enough time at the rate he was closing ground.

So the 4 of us began to wave our arms and shout. The bear kept coming at us full steam. Fortunately, the rest of the group heard the shouting and came running aroung the bend to see what the commotion was. It was only at that point did the bear stop running. He saw this big crowd of people coming around the corner. Everyone started yelling and waving.

The bear was about 50 yards away when he stopped and he rose up on his hind legs checking us all out. I guess he figured he was outnumbered now. You could pretty much see him thinking the situation over before he dropped to all fours and slowly wandered back upstream occasionally glancing back at us.

Needless to say, I slept poorly that night with my firearm right by my side. The rest of the trip I made sure my firearm was packed to where I could access it quickly.

[JeePerz]

http://www.dirttimeforum.com/index.php?topic=902.0

This Gentleman was lucky ... but the story does prove a point i've been trying to make.

If you expect to be saved by a firearm make sure it punches BIG holes!

[drew.tadiarca]

these are some good stories.

[ChrisTKHarris]

I like these stories, keep em coming!