What and how do you carry your sidearm in the highcountry?

10mm, gunfighter chest holster. I can have my binos on top of it and I have quick and easy access to both.
 
If I am hunting with a rifle, I do not carry another firearm. Unless there are lots of grouse around, then I carry a suppressed 22 pistol to shoot grouse and not chase away elk.
For decades I carried a 44 in a shoulder holster while archery hunting elk and bear. Never once did I need it or feel the desire to use it. I was in bear country most of the time. I started not carrying it several years ago, a 44 Super Blackhawk weighs nearly 3 pounds loaded. No thanks, I'll save my energy for things more important.
 
Imo, my rifle is what I'd rather go to battle with so to speak. Colorado doesn't have a lot of concerns with respect to animals that bite back during an elk hunt for instance. Smith & Wesson 329 PD in the pack comes out at the kill site, and has been used with Speer 225 gr half jacket handloads as a finishing load. 329 PD if needed is light/powerful medicine. 225 gr half jacket expanded perfectly on a broadside finishing shot and was recovered on the opposite hide during skinning of the elk. A LOT less drama than a full power rifle load from close range on the animal that needs dispatching.
 
Kenai chest holster gunfighters under my bino harness. Sig legion 9mm, 357 686 plus or 10 mill Glock 20
This x 100.
It rides nice and tight. Always on your person from the time you leave the house, whether pack or bino harness is on or off, it’s always on you.
And with my AGC Bino, their rain cover will go right over the top and keep it completely dry in bad weather. Can’t get any better, IMO.

G20 in Kenai Chest Holster
 
G29 in a Safariland ALS paddle holster. Only carry it if not already carrying rifle or shotgun

Paddle goes over padded hip belt on the pack, pop it off and thread my belt through when I drop the pack.
 
. . . I do feel more comfortable knowing a cracked-out sheep herder won't get the best of me! . . .
In the early '70s when I lived in Steamboat Spgs, CO, I was frends with the local State Forester. Archery hunting wasn't as popular then as it is now. One week, during archery season, he had been flying and saw a big herd of elk. Come that Saturday morning, we went into the basin that he had seen all of those elk, but there weren't any elk, and the ground had been completely trampled.

Between the time my friend had spotted the elk from the air and when we got there, a Basque sheep herder had moved 1000 domestic sheep into that basin.

We were both in full camo and had put camo face paint on. It was probably the first time that sheep herder had seen anyone in full camo, and he sure gve us some curious funny looks.
 
I carry a ruger 45lc on a conventional waist belt with my spare ammo and knives. This last year I added suspenders. By the time you get in your 70s, you will find your butt dissolves and you need more support.
 
IDK about the sheepherders but some of their great pyrenes can be pretty aggressive! I carry a G42 or G23. Behind the chest harness in a chest holster, drop leg holster or conceal the g42 in a hip pocket with trigger guard holster.
 
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