Self defense on the trail

Thanks for the info, guys. Very interesting subject!

My horse has not been trained for me to fire a gun off of her. I can imagine her reaction.............

I carried a .38 for awhile while riding in the back country. One night, on the edge of the Cohutta wilderness area, near Dally gap on Tumbling Creek road, one of the biggest darn bears I've ever laid my eyes on crossed the road in front of me. That big fellow looked almost as big as a horse.

We see bears frequently when riding in the mountains. It's always a thrill to see them, but never have I seen one as large as this fellow was.

I realized I didn't have a big enough gun.

Now I ride with .44 mag on my belt.

Joe, I saw a mountain lion in the Shenandoah National Forest while hiking the AT many years ago, the only one I've ever seen in the wild. It was quite a thrill.

I saw a mountain lion (probably a stray Florida panther actually) in middle Georgia by the Flint River. They technically don't live here, but there was somebody convicted of shooting one near here recently. It was amazing to see him just standing there.

I didn't read the thread.

I could've sworn I posted to this when it was first brought up but I guess not?

Anywho.

I ride with a pistol. More because we live in the area with many, many animals. If someone suspicious was walking close to me, I would immediately start pushing my horse around and making it look like he was out of control, telling the person to back off because the horse kicks I've actually gotten people with that before. You get a horse who's responsive enough and you make them jump around some, it's quite convincing to someone who has no idea what the tail end of a horse looks like.

If that doesn't work, I'm going to pretend to get everything under control and nonchalantly take out my pistol and put a shot in it. If they don't get the hint at that point, it's their own damn fault.

I have zero problem shooting someone if they threaten me (And if they threaten my horse they're dead without question). I have, on many occasions, watched drug dealers walk down the road into town and sat on my porch with my rifle just staring at them, absolutely DARING them to try something. Sometimes image is enough to scare people off.

And ya know. My 200lb great danes I have started riding with would deter them, and if they didn't, well..... I pity the poor creeper. I don't know one single command that would take a massive boar hunting dog off it's prey until it was dead.

I would not attack you if you had a 200 pound dog even if I was a criminal. That is a big dog!

WOuld it be possible for the whole gun rights discussion to be another thread? There is more to "self defense on the trail" than guns, and all of the constitutional discussion is pretty much off topic. Just a suggestion. There may be others who are actually INTERESTED in the gun discussion and are missing it here.

You are correct, Franknbeans. I will edit out the discussion and move it to it's own thread.

EDIT, the discussion has now been moved to here Guns, laws, etc

Let's please remember to get back on the topic of this thread or go to the new one to continue the firearms and laws discussion.

Great info! Thank you for posting!

Thats why I always carry a Arkansas toothpick with we LOL. Great advice though! Thnx for posting.