Anyone solve this?

[Where's Bruce?]

You're archery hunting in territories requiring you carry bear spray, sidearm and knife on your waist but if you drop your pack for the final stalk, ya lose these. I've given up on most holster options and am wondering if anybody has found a way to drop their pack and still carry their sidearm and spray. I prefer a cross draw holster, drop down leg and shoulder don't work and a chest style interferes with by binos. Gotta be a solution right? Anyone?

 

[squeekieslayer]

I have a regular hip-holster and bear spray holster on my belt, as long as I don't put a waste belt pocket on the side with my revolver it rides just fine. Maybe I have my pack belt too high on my hips or something? Works for me

Joe

 

[luke moffat]

You're archery hunting in territories requiring you carry bear spray, sidearm and knife on your waist but if you drop your pack for the final stalk, ya lose these. I've given up on most holster options and am wondering if anybody has found a way to drop their pack and still carry their sidearm and spray. I prefer a cross draw holster, drop down leg and shoulder don't work and a chest style interferes with by binos. Gotta be a solution right? Anyone?

What areas require you to carry these items at all time....the litigation of some places to hunt is unreal?? What if the ranger/trooper or whatever catches ya with just a side arm and no spray or just spray and no sidearm.....seems extremely redundant for any area to require you to carry both. And why are they making you carry your knife on your hip at all and not in your pack...don't really need to have a quick draw knife IMO.

 

[2rocky]

Bruce, I know where you are coming from in wanting to be prepared. Like Luke I think the pistol and bearspray is redundant, and may result in a delay in deployment as you mentally wrestle with which to grab when you come around the corner and Mr Griz stands up 15 yards away.

Personally I have forgone the pistol, in favor of the bear spray when bowhunting. ( I spent 5 days in a grizzly area this fall). I've put my bear spray on my Sternum strap of my pack with the intention of putting it on my belt if I dropped my pack to stalk. When I have the Badlands Bino Case, It goes on the lower strap on the right side. I have pics if you are interested.

I only carry the Bearspray in Grizzly areas.

The belt knife slides to infront of my hip when wearing a pack with waist belt, as does the ammo pouch (old habits die hard) when I have a waist belt pack on.

I have other friends who pack a skeletonized Buck skinner in the sideleg (pencil) pocket of their Carhartt work pants.

 

[jmez]

I would drop my pack and not worry about it. If I got a ticket for that so be it.

 

[123 4/8 P&Y]

Get a tiny canister of pepper spray like what women carry in their purse. Throw it in your cargo pocket just to be legal all the time.

Edit: Do you have to carry spray AND a gun? Or just one?

 

[bowuntr]

I've never heard of such a thing... Ed F

 

[luke moffat]

I've never heard of such a thing... Ed F

Me either....can't believe they are enforcing what you carry and making folks carry so much stuff with them....never ceases to amaze me....I'd be frustrated hunting there too if I was required to carry all that.

 

[Yellowknife]

My coworkers and I carry sidearms while working in the field during the summer. We are also taking our packs on and off all day, so having the gun on the hip belt isn't really an option. The best solution we have found so far is a harness sold by Diamond D Custom Leather designed for the "Guides Choice" holster. Although we don't use the holsters, he sells the harness in the shop for about $30 and it rides in about the perfect position IMO. Low and off center enough not to interfere with binos, but high enough to avoid the hip belt.

http://www.diamonddcustomleather.com/Chest_Holsters.php

It can be rigged to fit a number of different holsters. Currently I'm using it with a homemade leather platform with a SERPA holster bolted too it, but I've also used it with a modified nylon chest holster. The Guides Choice holster is pretty top notch too.

For a knife, it's either a flat knife that is comfortable under the hip belt, or a folder in the pocket. Don't carry bear spray and gun at the same time.

Yk

 

[littlebuf]

Me either....can't believe they are enforcing what you carry and making folks carry so much stuff with them....never ceases to amaze me....I'd be frustrated hunting there too if I was required to carry all that.

Who is "They" and where is the area of this topic? Quite frankly you can't "require" me to carry anything. I'm a free man and you can go to hell, would be my response. Guess I'd probably still get the ticket though huh

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Thanks Yellowknife, that's perfect! I knew there had to be something out there. As for the other questions, when you're in places like Kodiak Island, you don't wanna rely on any one defense. A can may fail or not stop a bear or you might use it up and have a second encounter. I carry an Airlite .44 all day and never notice it. Spray is ALWAYS the first line of defense but carrying a revolver provides peace of mind for anything I might encounter...including some crazy bipeds. Some of us simply prefer being strapped, especially when packing out meat or traveling thru places where the cartels are growing weed.

 

[littlebuf]

Your post made it seem like you were being required by some sort of state agencies to carry these items in a particular manor. Not a self imposed requirement.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

Your post made it seem like you were being required by some sort of state agencies to carry these items in a particular manor. Not a self imposed requirement.

I realize that now...my bad. Sorry.

 

[2rocky]

I've never heard of such a thing... Ed F

Ed in all your years of bowhunting Kodiak, and interior Alaska, What was your choice of bear insurance?

 

[bowuntr]

I used to go without a firearm at all.... to carrying a 454 revolver in a thigh holster. Having kids kind of changes your perspective on things... I've been carrying a sidearm for 28 years so it is not a big deal. With the thigh holster it's out of the way and always with me. It also does not interfere with my pack system. I'm not real sure about the effectiveness of bear spray on and animal that is intent on the attack.... that's just my opinion as working as a dog handler. Pepper spray just pisses the dogs off and they fight harder. Carrying a knife for protection? Maybe to cut your own throat... I did read a story about a guy who saved his own life in a fight with a brown bear... but that was just a story... Ed F

 

[MattB]

The few times my friends and I have hunted Kodiak, we relied on big bore revolvers in hip holsters attached to the pack hip belts. Carrying a bow, a pistol, bear spray and a self defense knife seems beyond redundant to me.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

I used to go without a firearm at all.... to carrying a 454 revolver in a thigh holster. Having kids kind of changes your perspective on things... I've been carrying a sidearm for 28 years so it is not a big deal. With the thigh holster it's out of the way and always with me. It also does not interfere with my pack system. I'm not real sure about the effectiveness of bear spray on and animal that is intent on the attack.... that's just my opinion as working as a dog handler. Pepper spray just pisses the dogs off and they fight harder. Carrying a knife for protection? Maybe to cut your own throat... I did read a story about a guy who saved his own life in a fight with a brown bear... but that was just a story... Ed F

Kids, they're a game changer. No more motorcycle touring for dad. The knife is just something I always wear for utilitarian use like creating natural ground blinds, cordage apps, all sorts of stuff. Not a self defense weapon and hopefully it'll never be. While I may be viewed as silly by some, my personal choice is often overkill. I mentally place myself in the worst case scenario then think, what would I want on me and how would I access it. Should I find myself facing a great big brown bear who thinks I'm related to Tim Treadwell, I want more than arrows and wind influenced spray (Kodiak gets serious winds) but hey, to each his own. I think I found my holster and the best part is, I found it in time to place on the Christmas list! Thanks again Yellowknife!

 

[O'Really]

I own two Diamond D chest rigs, which get used both for work and hunting. I also just picked up a Diamond D IWB holster for my everyday carry around the more "wild" places in Alaska.

Excellent choice Bruce!

ps. what is bear spray?

 

[Where's Bruce?]

I own two Diamond D chest rigs, which get used both for work and hunting. I also just picked up a Diamond D IWB holster for my everyday carry around the more "wild" places in Alaska.

Excellent choice Bruce!

ps. what is bear spray?

Tabasco for grizzlies!

[video=youtube;5_wzV0k77hQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_wzV0k77hQ[/video]

 

[bowuntr]

Worst case scenario... bring a grenade.... Ed F