Ever Used Your Sidearm While Hunting?

[InkedElkSlayer]

I shot a rough grouse in the neck with my CZ Cadet 22 last fall when my youngest and I were coming back from a long, cold, November mulie hunt.

 

[Decker9]

My only legal side arm here in Canada is my pack dog. She indeed saved my arse more then once with grizzly bears, but one particular would have ended bad if it weren’t for her being by my side one morning.

4:30 am, crouched beside my tent making a coffee before heading up the ridge in search of stones, my good dog laying beside me…. My rifle still in the tent. My dad was sleeping still in his tent, about 5 paces away.

A lone grizzly, I’d say 3-4 years old, came loping through an opening in the trees about 30 yards behind me. My back to the bear, and the bear running with the wind, I don’t think he/she even knew we were there. I never heard a thing until

In a hell’ova uproar my dog took charge from her laying position, directly behind me. Just as I turned around and stood, the grizzly took his last lope (running but not charging) and was in mid air doing a 180 as fast as he came in, with my dog on its tail, not 20 yards off my back.

If it weren’t for my dog beside me, the bear was in direct path between my tent and my dads, witch would have put him within a paw swipe away.

The nice thing about this side arm, she’s like a horse, she’ll warn me of anything close by usually before I notice it. I truly feel naked going to the hills without a good dog.

 

[BuckWild41]

My only legal side arm here in Canada is my pack dog. She indeed saved my arse more then once with grizzly bears, but one particular would have ended bad if it weren’t for her being by my side one morning.

4:30 am, crouched beside my tent making a coffee before heading up the ridge in search of stones, my good dog laying beside me…. My rifle still in the tent. My dad was sleeping still in his tent, about 5 paces away.

A lone grizzly, I’d say 3-4 years old, came loping through an opening in the trees about 30 yards behind me. My back to the bear, and the bear running with the wind, I don’t think he/she even knew we were there. I never heard a thing until

In a hell’ova uproar my dog took charge from her laying position, directly behind me. Just as I turned around and stood, the grizzly took his last lope (running but not charging) and was in mid air doing a 180 as fast as he came in, with my dog on its tail, not 20 yards off my back.

If it weren’t for my dog beside me, the bear was in direct path between my tent and my dads, witch would have put him within a paw swipe away.

The nice thing about this side arm, she’s like a horse, she’ll warn me of anything close by usually before I notice it. I truly feel naked going to the hills without a good dog.

Great story, what breed of dog is she?

 

[StuckoYota99]

My cousin made a shot on a mule deer at 100yds. After he ran out of rifle rounds...

 

[Spoony]

Had to kill a suffering cow on a pig hunt one time. My .380 LCP did the job. Sad deal, I didnt enjoy that one.

 

[Decker9]

Great story, what breed of dog is she?

She’s a bit of a mix, I was told Shepard, husky and lab. Unfortunately, after last season, she’s retired from sheep hunting. She joined me for the past 7 of them though .

 

[ilikefunkymusic]

Harvested my first bear last September in camp. I was reading in my tent, and heard my duffel bag sliding across the ground...
10mm g40
Bear had tags in its ears, and a collar.
Relocated animal due to human encounters...

 

[Sioux33]

My only legal side arm here in Canada is my pack dog. She indeed saved my arse more then once with grizzly bears, but one particular would have ended bad if it weren’t for her being by my side one morning.

4:30 am, crouched beside my tent making a coffee before heading up the ridge in search of stones, my good dog laying beside me…. My rifle still in the tent. My dad was sleeping still in his tent, about 5 paces away.

A lone grizzly, I’d say 3-4 years old, came loping through an opening in the trees about 30 yards behind me. My back to the bear, and the bear running with the wind, I don’t think he/she even knew we were there. I never heard a thing until

In a hell’ova uproar my dog took charge from her laying position, directly behind me. Just as I turned around and stood, the grizzly took his last lope (running but not charging) and was in mid air doing a 180 as fast as he came in, with my dog on its tail, not 20 yards off my back.

If it weren’t for my dog beside me, the bear was in direct path between my tent and my dads, witch would have put him within a paw swipe away.

The nice thing about this side arm, she’s like a horse, she’ll warn me of anything close by usually before I notice it. I truly feel naked going to the hills without a good dog.

She’s a bit of a mix, I was told Shepard, husky and lab. Unfortunately, after last season, she’s retired from sheep hunting. She joined me for the past 7 of them though .

That's pretty cool!

Did you do any training with her to get her to not bark or spook game?

 

[Decker9]

That's pretty cool!

Did you do any training with her to get her to not bark or spook game?

You bet, lots. We spent the first couple years stalking a lot of Black bears (they’re everywhere up here), I found that to be some of the best training to get her experience with animals. Really, the training never stops, we take every opportunity for a stalk what we can.

 

[Trogon]

I had to put down a deer onetime with a pistol. Was a very small doe that was abandoned and just barely alive. It was slowly starving and getting eaten alive by flies. One shot ended its suffering. Not fun.

 

[highcountrymuley]

Just to miss a grouse about 5 times before giving up. Got one with my walking stick later

 

[Stubborn_bowhunter]

Last year I had to shoot into the ground while yelling at a black bear sow with a cub.

Was waiting for a bull to walk by. Heard something making a bunch of noise walking down. Got ready to draw my bow. Then saw a cub walking a log five yards away.
"Oh shit " is really all that went through my mind.
I backed up and pulled my pistol from my pack on the ground. Then tried to get some distance from the sow when she came around behind the cub.
I knew she'd smell me the moment she past because the cub flew up a tree when it got a whiff.
So I ended up saying something the moment she looked at me. The sow turned fully towards me immediately. Probably 15 yards.

Really didn't want to shoot her and just wanted us to go our separate ways. When she put her ears back I shot one into the ground then put the sights back on her.

I kept shoutin "take your baby and just go." After the warning shot her ears went back up she looked at her cub in the tree behind her then backed off.
I got some shitty footage of her and the cub after they crossed the canyon a ways then I backed out of the area.

Have had a few encounters with sows with cubs. One bluff charged years ago and then this one are the only two that were a little nerve-wracking.

I probably would've gotten scratched up in this scenario if I didn't have something to deter her.

 

[Alpine James]

Stopped carrying a pistol a couple years ago to save weight, hopefully I won’t regret it.

 

[CobraChicken]

10mm to finish off a wouldn't doe just struck by another driver. Then the finishing of an elk I shot and found.

Other than that, while fishing during duck season, always gotta have that judge on ya loaded with .410 shot. Little cast and blast

 

[elkenstein]

I've pulled mine for a bear in my solo backcountry camp in the middle of the night and for a sow and cub that were getting a little too close during archery season. I wasn't going for a sow with a cub, just prepared in case she made a visual before she scented me. The cub was inside 15yds before they jetted.

The only time I have actually discharged it is while bird hunting with my dog. We stumbled upon some coyotes on a gut pile and they were not happy to see my pup. They were less happy to see my 10mm.

 

[Mike Islander]

Hunting? Once on an aggressive pack of feral dogs, about 9 of them.

Off road dirtbike riding? Once to hold a guy until the sheriff arrived. He was chasing a young girl through the woods. She was terrified.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I usually make sure whatever I shot gets terminated with my pistol before I dive into it. Learned that lesson when I was 19.

Once when I didn't have it, I had a horse step into a crack between rocks and fall over. The choice was to cut his throat or break the rock with a rock hammer. I chose the latter. Carried a handgun ever since. It's a tool.

 

[buffybr]

For many years I've carried either a Ruger SBH .44 mag or a 1911 .45 acp while hunting or hiking here in Montana.

I killed a black bear one year with my 1911, but I was actually hunting them.

Another year, 2 of my friends and I were hunting near West Yellowstone, MT. We were camped in a pop-up tent camper at the end of a Forest Service road. I had my 2 horses and we had the quarters of 2 bull elk and a bull moose hanging in the stock rack in the back of my truck.

Before going to bed one night, I went outside to check on my horses and a grizzly bear woofed and ckicked his teeth at me from the top of the road cutbank about 25 feet from me.

I had my Ruger on my hip, and I drew and fired one shot over his head. He didn't even blink, so I fired another into the trunk of a pine tree next to him. Again, he didn't even blink.

I then holstered my Ruger, picked up a golf ball size rock which I threw and hit him. He then ran off.

There was another camp in an old FS clear cut about 1/4 mile from our camp. The bear evidently went to that camp, as we heard 5 or 6 quick shots, like from a pistol. Then about 1/2 hour later we saw the headlights from that camp, as they pulled out.

The next day I saddled one of my horses and followed the bear's tracks. He did go to the other camp and his tracks leaving had an occasional drop of blood in the snow. I followed his tracks to the top of that clearcut where they then turned back toward our camp.

We pulled our camp the next day and went home. The bear had a radio collar and an ear tag. When we reported the incident to FWP, I learned that he was a problem bear that they had trapped near Cooke City (on the other side of Yellowstone NP), and they released him in the area that we were hunting.

I later found out that the Interagency Grizzly Recovery Team tracked that bear to where he denned for the winter, and they found his collar the next spring.

 

[CougarSlayer]

I use a .22 pistol to shoot grouse, does that count?

Slingshot to kill a grouse count?

 

[IDVortex]

I just go hunting, I never seem to see anything or have anything bother me. Might start going without a rifle, to save more weight.