Hand guns in the bush

[craigwade2005]

I generally carry almost anytime. I'm not too concerned with anything out in the Maine woods but it never hurts. The amount of Rabid animals seems to be on the rise and I'm usually out with at least one of my dogs so protecting them in important as well. Although they are hunting dogs and vaccinated I don't need the headache.
As for what to carry, whatever you are comfortable with. Try a lot for comfort and fit, go to some ranges and rent different types of handguns until you find one you like. After that shoot and shoot often to stay proficient.
Good luck this season from a fellow Mainer!

[TonyMo]

You guys should carry in the bush....because, as a Canadian, I can't!
NEVER give an inch on your 2nd amendment.

Hey I just realized this is my first post!!!

[Galena]

You guys should carry in the bush....because, as a Canadian, I can't!
NEVER give an inch on your 2nd amendment.

Hey I just realized this is my first post!!!

TonyMo, be glad we live in a country where firearms and the danger they present is taken a little more seriously.

[bmbmkr]

It took a while, but Im finally chiming in on this post, grab a cup a coffee and get ready to read! lol

I carry an old but meticulously maintained Browning Buckmark .22 on my hip in the summer 7 1/2" barrel,target sights, I'm good to 50 yds with it. I carry my Springfield 1911A1, .45 ACP in the fall, winter and spring on a chest rig that I made. Good to 60 yds with it. I have a .224 Valkyrie AR in the truck, sighted in at 200yds good to 400 and wouldn't hesitate to shoot further, (550 yds is about the longest shot on our farm) and a .223 AR in a scabbard on the tractor- sighted to 200yds, loaded with 45gr V-Max, so 300 is pushin it if the wind is blowing sideways. A Savage 6.5x47 target rifle is my porch gun, sighted in at 200 and good to 600 with it, wind or no wind. It weighs 13lbs loaded so it's a pain to tote around the pastures. There are several .22 and .22 Magnum rifles and a few shotguns in and around the buildings/vehicles on the farm. We own 54 acres, half creek bottom and rolling pasture, half timber, on the hillside. Dad's farm is a couple hundred yds up the creek from ours on our side of the creek, but 1 1/2 miles around the state road. He has 240 acres. 80 acres of pasture on the ridge, 50 acres of creek bottom and rolling pasture, the rest is steep timber in between. Our neighbor owns a 20 acre strip of timber in between our two farms, from the creek bank all the way to the ridge.

We raise sheep, goats, chickens and cattle. Our main threat is protecting the livestock from predators, and us fro rabies, but we carry every day we leave the farm also.

We've killed several coyotes, racoons and possums that were a little too close to the house for our chickens comfort. My wife got her first coyote this summer, 170 yds with her .243. We also have bobcats and a few bears. Saw a fox track while in the Maple Woods last year, but haven't seen many of them since the coyotes moved in 20+ yrs ago. Last week a neighbor supposedly saw a mountain lion. Seems far fetched, but we had a photo documented mountain lion a few years back, tore up a neighbors guard donkey while it was actively guarding their goats and horses. Several people had it on their trail cams. Bobcats are currently protected in Ohio, but I've had a few in my crosshairs, they were a wandering the empty pastures at night. My dog doesn't seem to smell the bobcats as soon as he does coyotes. Both times I've seen em they've been 100 yds of the house. He chased them off after I hit em with the spotlight and sic'd him on them. They have plenty of game on the other side of the creek which is several thousand acres of timber with no houses for a good ways. The coyotes thrive there too but come across every now and then.

We made it 3 1/2 years before one killed anything. We just lost a goat to a coyote a month ago. He snuck in under our English Shepherd during a pre dawn rain shower. He was tied out along a fence row. We usually put the sheep and goats in the barn at night and let em out in the morning. We have 40 or 50 free range chickens, they roost in the chicken house and the barn, and will go 150 yds in either direction foraging in the pastures. They stayed close to the sheep this year, running under them when a hawk would fly over, and picking up grasshoppers and crickets the sheep kick up as they graze It's like our own nature show around here. My wife had a large coyote come in on her in the pasture last year (within 50 yds). She had set her rifle in shed and it came in between her and it. She yelled at it and even advanced on it and it stood it's ground, she raised her hands over her head and backed up while yelling at it, she came through 4 strands of electric fence and backed up almost 200 yds back to the house and I shot at it with the 6.5x47 but missed (shot through a couple tree tops). We found scat and a well worn trail around that pasture. The cattle were used to it, weren't even lookin at it when it came up close to them and my wife in broad daylight. The pasture that he ran into is 300 yards from the house and the far end is on the back side of a knoll. Just about the only clearing we can see from the house. After I shot we never saw that one again. He was huge, bigger than my 80lb dog, granted it was early March and cold and his coat was in prime. We found out a couple days later that a neighbors "wolf dog hybrid" was loose, but I still think it was a different animal, it was a totally different color and by the sign he left, he'd been there a while.

2 legged critters are rare in the area, but there have been several manhunts for murderers and druggies that went through the woods near our place in the last few years. Our house is secluded, we have a private bridge across a major creek, 1/4 mile either direction to the nearest neighbors on the state road, and the ridge behind us is all owned by neighbors who live on that hill, and the holler on the other side, accessible from a county road a mile south of us. I think I'm one of the most secure homesteads in the country people wise, but we have a host of critters.

The year we moved up here from NC, 2016, my parents had built a new house on the other farm and moved out a few weeks before we were able to move. This place sat empty for a couple a weeks other than Mom & Dad driving down here to keep a presence. It's a small community and was obvious that they were moving. Sure enough as soon as we get settled in, several scam artists drove across the bridge up the 200 yd long driveway to sell me extra roofing paint, or extra paving material left over from a job they were on, try to sell me leftover meat from a restaurant that they had in a freezer in their van. All with out of state plates, none in contractor marked vehicles. This is a local scam used by thieves to case your place and come back and clean you out. I'm fortunate to be retired and here 99% of the time. Every single one of those guys met me halfway down the driveway with a pistol on my belt,and a couple times with a rifle slung on my shoulder. After 2 months no more whatsoever. Word gets out.

Carrying is cheap insurance especially since my wife and daughter are often on their end of the farm and I'm on the other or up at Dad's farm helping him. My wife wears her 9mm and has a rifle close. She's a crack shot and ICE under pressure. My daughter just started 4H this year and we are fortunate to have a Shooting club, she's shooting .22 Rifle.

[TonyL]

I've never carried in our woods unless I was hunting. We have coyotes, bobcats, skunks, possums, raccoons, and the occasional mountain lion. In five decades on this property, not once have I felt threatened by an animal. Seen plenty though. I have friends that carry religiously, citing better to have and not need than to need and not have. I get that, but I'm FAR more likely to be struck by lightning in our woods than attacked by an animal or another person.... and you don't see me attaching a stick of rebar to my hat and leading it to ground with some copper wire. It's just not a worry. I think some carry first, then think up a reason second. That's fine, it's your right. But as I tell my friends, just own it..." I carry because I like how it looks/ feels". Just be honest.