Around Here
Regular Member
My arguments elsewhere about whether or not it's a good idea to OC in the middle of Seattle aside, I have questions about OC in the countryside. This is genuinely something I am considering. I am spending more time these days in the deep back country, where rattlesnakes and cougars are not theoretical issues. Now, you rarely have to do anything other than get out of a rattler's way, and shooting at one could wind up being somewhere between inadvisable and idiotic (hit your own foot, miss and hit a rock). But a cougar, well, it's either shoot the fella or fight him off manually, and I'd rather use Door #1.
My issue is this: I'm paranoid about carrying a loaded weapon in a holster while hiking. You know, bump it against a rock, or the truck, or my swinging arm, or fall over, and it goes off. And there I am, 75 miles from even the nearest town and even farther from a town with a hospital, and in the very best of circumstances feeling really stupid.
My idea is to carry the holstered gun separately from the clip. In the case of wild critters, well, if a cougar jumps out of a tree or off a ledge and goes straight onto your neck (very rare type of attack, by the way), it ain't gonna matter whether you're carrying a gun that's loaded or one that takes a couple of seconds to load. Just about every cougar attack I've ever heard about comes with enough warning to put a clip into a pistol. So: Do holsters come in varieties that hold a weapon and a separate clip? Are these common?
Secondly, what's a good handgun that'll bring down a 180-pound cat, with limited recoil and good accuracy once I've been to the range? With the proviso that money doesn't completely burn a hole in my pocket, I am very willing to pay top dollar if there's good reason. This is not a weapon I expect to use more than a few times, if ever, other than to practice, but it's got to work perfectly the first time. And yes, if I do this I'd get trained and do plenty of practice. So "first time" means first time on the trail.
Thanks, folks.
My issue is this: I'm paranoid about carrying a loaded weapon in a holster while hiking. You know, bump it against a rock, or the truck, or my swinging arm, or fall over, and it goes off. And there I am, 75 miles from even the nearest town and even farther from a town with a hospital, and in the very best of circumstances feeling really stupid.
My idea is to carry the holstered gun separately from the clip. In the case of wild critters, well, if a cougar jumps out of a tree or off a ledge and goes straight onto your neck (very rare type of attack, by the way), it ain't gonna matter whether you're carrying a gun that's loaded or one that takes a couple of seconds to load. Just about every cougar attack I've ever heard about comes with enough warning to put a clip into a pistol. So: Do holsters come in varieties that hold a weapon and a separate clip? Are these common?
Secondly, what's a good handgun that'll bring down a 180-pound cat, with limited recoil and good accuracy once I've been to the range? With the proviso that money doesn't completely burn a hole in my pocket, I am very willing to pay top dollar if there's good reason. This is not a weapon I expect to use more than a few times, if ever, other than to practice, but it's got to work perfectly the first time. And yes, if I do this I'd get trained and do plenty of practice. So "first time" means first time on the trail.
Thanks, folks.
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